Mr. Malibu sees CA Wildlife Sealion Rescue

• This is an example of bond money gone wild.  State bond funds have been used even though there is nothing about the plan that improves water quality for swimmers.
  
  
• Damage and further destruction of the famous Malibu Wave may likely result from implementation of the State Parks plan, harming the heart of Malibu, hurting the Malibu economy, and impairing surfers' ability to enjoy their favorite sport.  Because no hydrology studies were done, the plan approved by the California Coastal Commission does not take the waves into consideration and results will be experimental, at best.
  
  
• There are no clear budgets available for the public to understand how public bond moneys are being used. Somewhere between $7 million and $30 million has been allocated for this project.The animals at the lagoon are currently thriving.
  
  
• State funds could be recaptured by the state and put it to much better use in the Department of Education.  If a proposal is slashed the funds can go back to the general fund.  Budgetary moneys were cut from programs to help blind children.  Any of the programs that were cut could make better use of the funding.  With the state's budget in dire shape, this is an extravagance that we can ill afford.
  
  
• The permitting of this plan violates several sections of the California Resources Code, as well as the California Constitution, which requires that maximum public access to the sea be maintained.
  
  
• Please take back the money and put it to much better use in the Department of Education.  If a proposal is slashed the funds can go back to the general fund.  Budgetary moneys were cut from programs to help blind children.  Any of the programs that were cut could make better use of the funding.
  
  
• The project will put nearby homes in danger by creating a peninsula of beach homes that could well be in harm's way with the next 50-year storm.  With weather patterns changing, this could come sooner, rather than later because it already has been 25 year since the last such storm.  Moreover, aspects of the plan call for nearby houses to be cordoned off from the park by an unwanted wall with no escape routes from fire or tsunamis.  Maintenance issues also come into play.  Graffiti already is a problem in the State Park, and enclosing homes with a wall, instead of a border of plants, creates new surfaces for gang writing. 
  
  
• The three wooden walkway bridges - destined for removal - should remain in place.   Public access pathways presently in place should remain.   Picnic tables should be located at the beach and at the parking lot rather than next to areas used by wildlife.

  
  
• Since 1983 Malibu Lagoon's marsh has been healing itself, and last year more bird species than ever before were present, including some new sightings of nesting and rare species.
  
  
• The endangered Tidewater Goby is thriving in this ecosystem. This small fish, which is an important part of the food chain, needs shallow, still water. The plan would deepen the marsh channel to increase circulation - the opposite of what this imperiled species needs.
  
  
• Malibu Lagoon has been designated an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area in the Malibu Local Coastal Program.   If excavation work is to be conducted at the lagoon, it should be done quietly, by hand, and with respect for wildlife. Heavy construction equipment is not appropriate for this project.
  
  
• Bulldozers should be ruled out of any project to improve the environment at Malibu Lagoon.

  
  
• Instead of funding such a drastic program, any restoration and/or improvement program is minimal enought that it can rely on volunteers, community groups, environmental and nature groups, and school groups have been proven effective in removing non native plants and replacing them with those that grow naturally in the area. 
  
  
• This plan should be rejected as is, or tabled until a suitable alternative plan can be proposed and approved by voters. 
  
  
• The Save Malibu Lagoon alternative plan be considered.   The wildlife friendly alternative does not utilize bulldozers or man-made structures or materials.
  
  
• Bulldozers should be ruled out of any project to improve the environment at Malibu Lagoon.

  
  
• Instead of funding such a drastic program, rely on volunteers, community groups, environmental and nature groups, and school groups have been proven effective in removing non native plants and replacing them with those that grow naturally in the area.

David Horowitz the world famous TV personality who fights for the viewers sent a response to Mr. Malibu.

Prem Rawat was invited by Gianni Pitella, First Vice President of the European Union, to share his vision of peace at a special event called "Words of Peace for Europe," held at the EU Parliament House in Brussels. Mr. Rawat spoke to a diverse audience of diplomats, local leaders, and other honored guests from many countries.

Mr. Rawat's remarks offered a clear and challenging perspective. "If we have the power to make such a mess out of this earth, then certainly we have enough power to bring peace to this earth, too," he said. "The question remains whether or not it is something that we want to do, because peace begins with every one of you. It is individual human beings who need peace; it is individual human beings in whom the desire resides; and it is on the individual human being's stage that peace needs to dance."

Mr. Malibu, Andy Lion, Zuma Jay, and others address key issues related to the State of California's reckless plan to destroy Malibu wetlands this summer with a fleet of bulldozers and 1,000 dump trucks.

 

Letter from Michael Moore

Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange (A statement from Michael Moore)

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

Friends,

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:

**Sen. Joe Lieberman says WikiLeaks "has violated the Espionage Act."

**The New Yorker's George Packer calls Assange "super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal."

**Sarah Palin claims he's "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" whom we should pursue "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."

**Democrat Bob Beckel (Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign manager) said about Assange on Fox: "A dead man can't leak stuff ... there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch."

**Republican Mary Matalin says "he's a psychopath, a sociopath ... He's a terrorist."

**Rep. Peter A. King calls WikiLeaks a "terrorist organization."

And indeed they are! They exist to terrorize the liars and warmongers who have brought ruin to our nation and to others. Perhaps the next war won't be so easy because the tables have been turned -- and now it's Big Brother who's being watched ... by us!

WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks ("they've released little that's new!") or have painted them as simple anarchists ("WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!"). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There's no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don't want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept ... as secrets.

I ask you to imagine how much different our world would be if WikiLeaks had existed 10 years ago. Take a look at this photo. That's Mr. Bush about to be handed a "secret" document on August 6th, 2001. Its heading read: "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." And on those pages it said the FBI had discovered "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings." Mr. Bush decided to ignore it and went fishing for the next four weeks.

But if that document had been leaked, how would you or I have reacted? What would Congress or the FAA have done? Was there not a greater chance that someone, somewhere would have done something if all of us knew about bin Laden's impending attack using hijacked planes?

But back then only a few people had access to that document. Because the secret was kept, a flight school instructor in San Diego who noticed that two Saudi students took no interest in takeoffs or landings, did nothing. Had he read about the bin Laden threat in the paper, might he have called the FBI? (Please read this essay by former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, Time's 2002 co-Person of the Year, about her belief that had WikiLeaks been around in 2001, 9/11 might have been prevented.)

Or what if the public in 2003 had been able to read "secret" memos from Dick Cheney as he pressured the CIA to give him the "facts" he wanted in order to build his false case for war? If a WikiLeaks had revealed at that time that there were, in fact, no weapons of mass destruction, do you think that the war would have been launched -- or rather, wouldn't there have been calls for Cheney's arrest?

Openness, transparency -- these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt. What if within days of August 4th, 1964 -- after the Pentagon had made up the lie that our ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin -- there had been a WikiLeaks to tell the American people that the whole thing was made up? I guess 58,000 of our soldiers (and 2 million Vietnamese) might be alive today.

Instead, secrets killed them.

For those of you who think it's wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he's being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please -- never, ever believe the "official story." And regardless of Assange's guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money -- and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.

Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that's the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you're up to. You simply can't be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.

And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.

I stand today in absentia with Julian Assange in London and I ask the judge to grant him his release. I am willing to guarantee his return to court with the bail money I have wired to said court. I will not allow this injustice to continue unchallenged.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

it's the time of truth, it's the truth of time.  get the word out.
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhTfOL9_HBE&feature=related
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRF3gYxz1XQ&feature=related
part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6TRb40Km6A&feature=related
part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8imkYy_hJ4E