I want to join many others in a tribute to Zane Meckler, who passed away May 5. I was the beneficiary of Zane’s last political campaign – he was my campaign manager for my November election to the Santa Monica-Malibu Board of Education. I consider Zane a genius of grassroots precinct politics.

In my election, I placed first among all the candidates in all 19 Malibu precincts and first among all of the candidates in 50 of the 66 precincts in Santa Monica – the Santa Monica vote total unheard of for a Malibu candidate. Those numbers were a direct result of the leadership of one man: Zane Meckler.

As strident as he was in challenging his campaign workers to make their deadlines and call every voter (and he was strident!), all who worked with him also appreciated a gentle and caring side of this man who had a very big heart. We will miss you, Zane, but we will never forget the many positive contributions that you made to this community.

Mike Jordan

Santa Monica-Malibu Board of Education

The Guv says if we’re to survive the summer of being powerless we must conserve energy. This will help him out of his political morass while he fast-tracks (that’s Guvspeak for environmental bypass) construction of new power plants, the resurrection of old decrepit ones and the building of more oil refineries.

Meanwhile, the Vice President says conservation doesn’t cut it. We need to drill, drill, and drill our way to energy independence. And the President says he doesn’t give a rodent’s rear about global warming, so we’re not going to curb our carbon dioxide emissions no matter what the rest of the world thinks.

But what they’re all really talking about is how to beat the price, short- and long-term, and nary a word about saving the planet.

Lost in the debate over who is to blame for the soaring price of gasoline, natural gas, electricity and every commodity that owes its being to any kind of fossil fuel, is the fact that there’s a finite supply of the stuff.

A scientist I know well says people forget the earth is a closed system. Every lump of coal, every barrel of oil and every drop of water that ever was or ever will be are already here. It all just changes form. The scientist says conservation is not a quick fix; it’s a way of life. She not only recycles everything, she buys recycled everything. She uses canvas shopping bags, cloth napkins, doesn’t buy products made with rainforest wood, doesn’t buy food that’s shipped long distances. She writes phone messages and grocery lists on tiny scraps of paper, filters the tap water instead of buying designer water in bottles. She inspires me. She gives me her Real Goods catalog.

So now I own a dozen earth-friendly energy savers: a solar powered gizmo that emits obnoxious noises underground driving voracious gophers from the garden (beats using exhaust fumes from the old ranch pickup to gas them); an indoor sonic pest repeller (no more exterminator spraying toxic chemicals); a 60-gallon rain barrel made of recycled plastic; a manual weed whacker; a rotating compost bin; a medieval bug catcher (made of recycled bottle glass); a solar mosquito repeller; a skinny watering wand that recoils itself and wastes not a drop; a solar oven (basically a foil-lined box with a sloping glass top); shade cloth for the south-facing patio and flexible screens for the patio doors.

It takes about a week to figure out how to work all this stuff, but I’m saving money on the power bills, I think, and polluting a bunch less.

Actually, the rain barrel is back ordered, but it’s not likely to rain any time soon.

So I put up the screen and open my door to catch the evening breeze. It works, even though there’s a tiny gap at the weighted hemline, and the temperature is dropping four degrees every 20 minutes or so. No more air conditioner for me, no siree.

I’m sitting on my couch reading and feeling very smug when I detect a quick little motion out the corner of my eye. Ohmagawd, it’s a tiny field mouse dashing behind the library cabinet. It must be the damn screen. I’ve never had mice in here–in the garage maybe, but not in here.

I go to the garage and wake the gray cat. The orange one is a better hunter but he’s nowhere in sight. I shut the door. Mouse may have friends out there, and it’s cool enough already. I position Cat facing the library. Cat gets up and cases the room, sniffing here and there. I reposition Cat who assumes sphinx-like posture staring into space. Mouse darts out and back several times. Cat stares but doesn’t move. Soon Mouse makes a beeline for the other corner where the radiant heaters sit just off the floor. This becomes the rodent raceway, back and forth, behind the file boxes, over the desk, in and out the computer cables. I reposition Cat, who reassumes sphinx posture, purring. Mouse makes a pass, just inches from Cat’s whiskers. Cat’s tail twitches. I move the file boxes, pick up the computer cables, and retrieve a broom and the shop vac from the garage. Good hunter kitty is still not around. Somewhere, I have some glue boards, but where?

Cat has taken the high ground, statue-like with front paws outstretched, on the arm of the couch. Cat’s tail is not twitching. Cat’s eyes are closed. Mouse is back behind library, poking head out every few minutes. I move shop vac into position, turn on motor. Cat blinks.

Mouse doesn’t react to the noise. Maybe the sonic pest control thing has damaged its hearing. Mouse darts out, I thrust vac wand forward, Mouse darts back. The mouse-and-vac dance continues for the better part of an hour. Cat observes. I’m exhausted. Mouse miscalculates–a desperate plunge meets its mark. Mouse disappears. With the power still on, I push the shop vac outside, way outside, then pull the plug. I evict Cat, collapse on the bed and reflect. I probably used as much power to run the vacuum as the air conditioner. Oh, well, tomorrow the glue boards and re-fit the screen. Hey, I’m saving the planet.

Watchdog of the coast

As members of the California Coastal Commission we want to express our views regarding the recent Superior Court decision declaring the Commission unconstitutional because its appointment structure violates the separation of powers provision of the state constitution. For many years, Commission opponents have made this very same argument in other cases and every court has rejected it and upheld the Commission appointment process — until now. We are confident this decision will be overturned on appeal.

For nearly 30 years, the Coastal Commission has been operating under an appointment process that was carefully and specifically designed with a number of checks and balances built into it. This structure was modeled after the highly successful San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) created in 1965 (the Governor only appoints 9 of BCDC’s 27 voting members). The fact there are 3 appointing authorities with equal power to appoint an equal number of voting commissioners has been essential to the protection of California’s coast and safeguarding the integrity of the Coastal Act. To assert there is a violation of separation of powers because the Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly appoint 8 of 12 voting members (the Governor also appoints 3 of 4 non-voting members), implies the legislative appointing authorities do not have independent perspectives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, each has appointed commissioners of significantly different philosophies and experience. In addition to the balance between 3 appointing authorities, 6 of the voting members must be locally elected officials selected from a list submitted by local governments from specific geographic regions along the coast. Each voting commissioner selects their own alternate to serve in their stead when the full commissioner cannot attend.

When voters established the Coastal Commission in 1972, they wanted an independent body reflecting the social diversity of the state and not dominated by a particular philosophy about the conservation and development of the coast. It is precisely the appointment structure that has preserved the Commission’s independence and diversity. To concentrate appointing authority in one elected official is to remove the vital checks and balances built into the existing appointment process that has served the public so well for nearly 3 decades.

The protection of California’s coast is too important to be under the control of one official who may not have the best interest of the coast at heart. It is vital that California preserve a strong, independent and balanced Coastal Commission by retaining a proven, fair and effective appointment process.

In the current climate of federal hostility to environmental protection, California needs a strong Coastal Commission — now more than ever. For example, offshore oil drilling is again a real possibility. The Commission is the only state agency in California empowered to regulate oil drilling in federal waters. The Coastal Commission must be strengthened not weakened. We ask all Californians to join us in defending the Commission’s composition to preserve the integrity of the Coastal Act. The protection of California’s precious coast for the benefit of current and future generations is at stake.

Signed by the following members of the California Coastal Commission:

Sara Wan, Chair; Dave Potter, Vice-Chair; David Allgood, Chris Desser, Shirley Detloff, Cecilia Estolano, Gregg Hart, Pat Kruer, George Luna, Patricia McCoy, Pedro Nava, Trent Orr, Mike Reilly, Deborah Ruddock, Amanda Susskind, Dan Weinstein, John Woolley

After reading the heartfelt story of the most beautiful, bouncy puppy who somehow got out of the fenced yard and was killed by a speeding car which didn’t even stop – the most disturbing part is why this puppy, like so many, have this happen. People like the Carmichael family find reasons how accidentally gates get opened by workers, wind and many other reasons possible. The point made that speeding cars have been driving down Fernhill on the Point is all the more reason to secure and prevent this from happening and be responsible when owning animals. People are not aware that cars swerve and run into objects to avoid injuring an animal and can cause serious injury to themselves and others in vehicles.

The Coleman Family

I drove by the local Union 76 Station and the price was up to $2.15.9 per gallon for the cheapest unleaded gas. Our editor Laura Tate is just back from a short vacation on the East Coast, and the price of gas back there was significantly cheaper, even in New York City–$1.85 per gallon.

California is an oil producing state, has a local domestic supply and local refineries, as anyone driving through Torrance can tell you. So the question is, Why are we paying so much for gasoline?

I guess you could ask the same question about natural gas, and perhaps heating oil and just about every petroleum product.

The answer is, I believe, inescapable. We are being ripped off.

I suspect our rather clumsy deregulation of the power industry and our failures to build new power plants or use nuclear energy probably set us up to be victimized. However, it doesn’t change the inevitable reality that we’re being had. And we’re not doing much about it. The question I ask myself is, Why not?

Now if we’re looking to the federal government for help, we can just forget it. It’s not that the government is in bed with the energy cartel, they are the energy cartel. Dick Cheney is their guy and he’s calling the shots–and the industry runs FERC, the federal regulatory operation.

Again, I ask the question: Why isn’t anybody doing anything?

Now I must make a confession. As a litigator, I was always of the opinion that the best way to get anyone’s attention was to hit the person over the head with a 2-by-4. Then you apologize for being so crass, and when they get up, you hit them again. By the third time you generally have their attention and it’s time to begin talking.

I believe the same rules would apply in the energy situation. It’s interesting to observe the differences in the way the prosecution and law enforcement crowd handle major crime, like sales of small amounts of marijuana, as opposed to minor crime, like the ripping off of the entire State of California, the bilking of billions of dollars and the physical endangering of an entire population dependent on power to run their lung machines, their kidney machines and various other devices that keep a legion of our population alive and functioning.

So go with me on a little fantasy trip while we deal with the energy cartel the same way we deal with the drug cartel. They’ve got a number of tools to go after a drug cartel and I don’t see that energy would be any different.

First of all, there is the law. There’s the RICO Act–many of you who watch the “Sopranos” know what that’s all about–and then there are conspiracy statutes and a legion of other old-fashioned criminal statutes that work very effectively. So there’s plenty of law.

Additionally, the next time there is a power blackout and some little old lady dies, that’s called murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and aiding and abetting murder, and, at the very least, some sort of negligent homicide.

Next you start the wiretaps. You find some compliant judge and get a warrant to tap the energy cartel’s business phones, home phones, kids’ phones, and for good measure you throw in faxes and e-mails.

Next, you gotta have a snitch, because no good criminal case goes without one. There are plenty of snitches available. All you have to do is listen to the taps and you’ll soon pick up the unhappy players who can be turned. Easier yet, you wait until there is a layoff, or someone gets passed over for promotion, or a little sexual harassment and you’ll find a legion of people ready to spill the beans for immunity, a reward, or whatever. You set up a reward system and give the snitches a piece of what you recover and, if need be, the witness protection program.

Then you go to the grand juries and you get indictments all over the place. You keep them running from Yreka to Bakersfield to Los Angeles to San Diego. Then you serve search warrants at their homes, along with arrest warrants, at the airport as they get off their planes, at the country club and at their wive’s women’s groups. By the way, you also make sure to arrest the wife, the children and, if need be, the family dog. It’s amazing how many people will cop out to protect their family dog.

And soon, it all just goes away. The prices start coming down. The free market becomes free again.

I often wondered why some ambitious attorney general or local district attorney doesn’t just step up and bite the bullet.

I suspect that some of you might be thinking that what I’m visualizing is tyranny. You might well be right. But not having enough power to live, or fuel to heat your home or being held captive by a bunch of Texas power manipulators is also tyranny. So which tyranny would you prefer?