<div>Dear
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Green </font>Friends,<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
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<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
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<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>I can’t believe the way my life works. Cathy Deppe and I only moved to Los Angeles from San Jose a few years
ago. Now comes the kind of fight that ought to be issue #1 for California Greens and it’s happening in an inner-city,
nearly all-black community walking distance from my house.<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
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<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>What was that business about why in the world a Black Man would join the Green Party?
The Powers That Be are here <i>sending a message</i> that for all the talk about "change! change! change!"
from the one corporate party with two names, <i>ain't nothing gonna change</i> and it will be business as usual on January 20<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">th.</font></div>
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Alex Walker <br>
Los Angeles Greens
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<a href="http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2008/09/baldwin-hills-oil-drill-baby-drill.html">
<h2><strong>Baldwin Hills Oil: 'Drill, Baby, Drill' -- Through the Heart of Obama Country </str ong></h2></a>
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by Alex Walker
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<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>"Drill, baby, drill!" - was a popular cheer at the 2008 Republican National
Convention. It's a parody of "Burn, baby, burn," the infamous cry
during the 1965 Watts rebellion in Los Angeles. Ironically, it was former
Maryland Lt. Gov. <strong>Michael Steele</strong>, one of the Republican Party's very few
prominent black politicians, leading the cheer for the riot of the privileged:</div>
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So, do you want to put your country first? Then let's reduce our dependency on
foreign sources of oil and promote oil and gas production at home. In other
words: Drill, baby, drill! And drill now!
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<strong>Baldwin Hills</strong>, View Park, Windsor Hills, and Ladera Heights in Los Angeles, are
some of the most prominent middle-class African-American neighborhoods in the
United States. Blacks are more than 70% of Baldwin Hills' population. After
Blacks began moving there in the 1960s, it was nicknamed the "Golden
Ghetto" and the "Black Beverly Hills." It has been home to
celebrities like Ray Charles, Nancy Wilson, Tina Turner and the late Los
Angeles Mayor, Tom Bradley. Black Entertainment Television (BET) used the
setting for the "Baldwin Hills" television show.
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<div><strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>The Fight Over the Baldwin Hills Oil Field< br>
Visit Web Site at: <a href="http://www.baldwinhillsoil.org">www.baldwinhillsoil.org</a> <br>
Watch Video at: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bSWaMlOxXQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bSWaMlOxXQ</a>
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The two-square-mile Baldwin Hills Oil Field is the last large-scale undeveloped
open space in South and West Los Angeles. The Oil Field has operated since
1924. Over time, it naturally becomes harder to extract oil for old wells until
at some point they become unprofitable. In recent years the field had almost
played out. As the oil companies have left, a large area has been designated
the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. For years, the old field and the
surrounding nice residential neighborhoods coexisted. But this is the era when
everything you ever thought you could rely on from American business - job
security, health care, pensions, or even honest accounting - is old fashioned.
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Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP)</font></b> based in (where else?) Houston,
Texas wants to drill up to <strong>1,000 new wells</strong> over the next 20 years. Next week
there<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">'ll </font>be what<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">'s </font>expected to be a contentious public hearing
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<strong>
Los Angeles County Planning
Com
mission<br>
Wednesday, September 10, 2008<br>
Hall of Administration, <br>
Room 381B<br>
500 West Temple Street<br>
Los Angeles, CA 90012
</strong>
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<div>. . . </div>
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Corporate America is <i>sending a message</i> that for all the talk about "change! change! change!"
from the one corporate party with two names, <i>ain't nothing gonna change</i> and it will be business as usual
on January 20th. </div>
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<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>. . . </div>
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In 2001, California was
plunged into an unprecedented energy crisis: rolling blackouts, soaring power
bills, a panicked state government. Turned out the Golden State was being
systematically ripped-off. Documents and audiotapes proved Houston-based Enron
Corporation asked power companies to take plants offline - in order to make
more money. In one taped phone call, an Enron employee celebrated the fact that
a massive forest fire had shut down a transmission line:
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<strong>ENRON EMPLOYEE 1:</strong> Yeah.<br>
<strong>ENRON EMPLOYEE 2:</strong> Now, the magical word of the day is "Burn, baby,
burn."<br>
<strong>ENRON EMPLOYEE 1:</strong> What's happening?<br>
<strong>ENRON EMPLOYEE 2:</strong> There's a fire under the core li
ne. This will delay us from
45 to 2,100.<br>
<strong>ENRON EMPLOYEE 1:</strong> Really. Burn, baby, burn!
</blockquote>
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When Michael Steele cried "Drill, Baby, Drill!" to the GOP faithful,
maybe he wasn't thinking about Watts in 1965. Maybe he was thinking about
Enron's battle cry in 2001.
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Less than a decade later, thanks to the terrifying spike in oil prices, the
energy greedheads and carbon pushers are trying to stampede Californians into
accepting offshore oil drilling and new drilling in old wells even though all
the experts agree this will have no impact on the global marketplace for oil.
As I write this, the "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd is pushing hard for
offshore drilling in Santa Barbara, Long Beach, Monterey Bay, and even off
Point Reyes (see <a href="http://www.environmentcalifornia.org">www.environmentcalifornia.org</a>).
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And always, always, they try to divide us and rule us by playing off class,
religious, and "racial" differences.
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(Read More At: <a href="http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2008/09/baldwin-hills-oil-drill-baby-drill.html">
cagreening.blogspot.com</a>
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Check Out These Articles:
<br>
<br>
<strong>
<a href="http://www.wavenewspapers.com/link.asp?smenu=71&twindow=Default&sdetail=9967&mad=No&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=">
Expanded Drilling May Imperil Park Master Plan
</a> by Arin Mikailian, Los Angeles WAVE, September 4, 2008.
<br>
</strong></div>
<div><strong><a href="http://www.ourweekly.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=92&twindow=&mad=No&sdetail=6762&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1172&hn=ourweekly&he=.com"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
</font></a></strong></div>
<div><strong><a href="http://www.ourweekly.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=92&twindow=&mad=No&sdetail=6762&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1172&hn=ourweekly&he=.com"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>
Backyard Bonanza or Environmental Time Bomb?</a> by Gregg Reese, Our Weekly, July 3 - 6, 2008.
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<div><strong><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-outthere4-2008jul04,0,3409052.story"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
</font></a></strong></div>
<div><strong><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-outthere4-2008jul04,0,3409052.story"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>
Oil Field's Neighbors Ar
en't Gushing Over Expansion Plan
</a> by Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times, July 4, 2008.
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