Rogue Columnist

Water and Phoenix's rebirth

Theodore Roosevelt Dam and spillway, 1915.

 

On the mountain tops we stand
All the world at our command
We have opened up the soil
With our teardrops
And our toil
--Gordon Lightfoot (Canadian Railroad Trilogy)

That people can move to the Salt River Valley turn on a reliable tap or jump in a shimmering swimming pool, never even wondering where the water originates, is testimony to the mighty acts and sacrifices of previous generations. 

Today's transplants would never know it, but they live in one of the world's great fertile river valleys. But unlike the Nile and Euphrates, the Salt is dangerously unpredictable. It floods. It dries up to nearly nothing. In the end, it destroyed the most advanced hydraulic civilization in the pre-Columbian Americas, which we call the Hohokam.

It very nearly did the same to the Americans who found the valley after the Civil War, having sat there empty for centuries as if providentially awaiting them. Even some of the Hohokam canals were intact, needing only to be cleaned out by the newcomers. But the river had its own harsh logic. The territorial "lifestyle," as related by my grandmother, was unbelievably primitive, even at the end of the 19th century — always dependent on the river's tricks. Phoenix might never have risen from the ashes.

Tortured justifications

By Emil Pulsifer
Guest Blogger

Recently there has been an aggressive media campaign to justify torture as a tool of official U.S. government policy: Attempts have been made not only by Dick Cheney and others implicated in past practices, but also by a variety of media allies who seem determined to soften up public perception in support of future imperatives. Most notably is the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer, who recently ran the second of two columns (to date) defending torture.

 

Krauthammer, like other advocates of torture as a tool of official government policy, begs the question: He assumes, in the premises of his arguments, that which he wants to prove: First, that subjects in custody know the location of a ticking bomb or a hostage; Second, that the authorities somehow know that the subjects in custody possess this knowledge (without themselves possessing this knowledge); Third, that standard law-enforcement interrogation techniques have not only failed to produce the information sought, but will continue to do so; and that torture, instead of eliciting a false confession (stopping the torture by telling interrogators what they want to hear), will produce the information which the subject is "known to possess".

The obvious question here is, how do interrogators know what knowledge the subject possesses without themselves possessing that knowledge?

Secession -- A good idea this time

The Republic is beset by many distractions: Dick Cheney running madly in the midair of potential war crimes prosecution, a la Wile E Coyote; cowardly Democratic Senators bowing to tales of Osama's boys living on welfare in Oklahoma City, watching for those "green shoots" that mean we can go back to business as usual.

I don't put the Texas secession dustup in that category. We should take it seriously. We should even look on it favorably.

Note that President Obama doesn't seem to dwell on Lincoln any longer -- the Lincoln who said that if he failed, he would be the last president of the United States. Obama's judicious mind has persuaded him that the crisis that seemed to engulf the nation last fall was overstated. He has been enveloped in the protective visions of his moneymen, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and, behind them, Bob Rubin. The Obama administration will be Clinton 2.0, without Bill's missteps and with the magnificent oratory -- as was done yesterday in the glow of the Constitution -- that makes one proud to be an American.

Phoenix 101: Power primer

Phoenix has no history. Why are things so screwed up here? It's just like every other place...

Such are some of the statements, whether inane and inaccurate or plaintive, that I often hear from Rogue readers, or just folks down in "the Valley" when I sneak back for a journalist-guerrilla raid. So, a new occasional feature, Phoenix 101, to try to fill in the gaps for a place where even natives my age have never even ridden a city bus, much less know a rich, corrupt and even inspiring history. Let's start with power.

From the era of the Hohokam, power in the Salt River Valley flowed from water. Whoever controlled the water -- and how it was used -- sat upon the commanding heights of the society. Even today, the divide between Phoenix and the East Valley is partly an echo of the old war between the north and south side of the Salt River over who would get the precious, and fickle, riches of its stream. Even today, the Salt River Project remains, very quietly, the kingdom and the power and the glory.

Arizona unemployment: Grim reality

Here's a reality based report that won't be discussed by the local viziers of boosterism in Phoenix, much less the editorial pages of the Arizona Republic. The job losses from the recession that began in 2007 are much worse in Arizona than the 10 previous major recessions since the end of World War II.

The Minneapolis Fed crunched data nationally and for 50 states to come up with this fascinating interactive presentation. Although Arizona's unemployment appears to be relatively low compared to some states -- for reasons I've previously explored -- this comprehensive report puts all the wishful thinking and ideological twisty games to bed. No other downturn comes even close. The "legendary" 1991 recession? Beanbag compared with this labor market bloodbath. The truly nasty 1973 recession? Not even close.

Losing altitude in America

Two pilots and two crews. Two aircraft in mortal danger. Fate is not always the hunter.

As almost everyone knows, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger was the pilot of US Airways flight 1549, which last January suffered a bird strike just after leaving LaGuardia Airport that rendered both engines inoperable. Sullenberger performed the remarkable water landing on the Hudson, in the heart of New York, saving all 150 passengers.

Less remembered is a commuter flight from New York City that crashed near its destination of Buffalo the next month, killing 49 aboard and one on the ground. And herein lies yet another tragic, disturbing story about two Americas.

The Yankee Castro; cancer in Gilbert

It's hard to believe in the Arizona of Peyton Thomas, Joe Arpaio and "sweeps" -- interesting how those trailed off after the sheriff was re-elected -- but once upon a time the state elected a Hispanic governor. Raul Castro won office in 1974, a milestone not only for Arizona but for the child of immigrants who grew up in hardscrabble Nogales. His new autobiography, Adversity is My Angel, was written with Dr. Jack August Jr., who has established himself as the dean of modern Arizona historiography.

It was a different state, a small town in many ways. Castro was the first Democrat my mother voted for -- as an old Arizonan, she trusted "Judge Castro"... "even though he's from Pinal County." (That he was Hispanic didn't matter). He also benefited from the early-1970s exhaustion with longtime Gov. Jack Williams and sectarian tensions in the state GOP that led to the bloodbath between John Conlan and Sam Steiger. Castro never had an executive temperment, and left the governor's office to become an ambassador. But Arizona has rarely had transformative governors -- the Progressive-era constitution vested most power in the Legislature and the uncovered-by-the-media Corporation Commission. Castro's is a life worth study, reflection and celebration.

Two roads to the future?

With the exception of LBJ, Democratic presidents since 1960 have fared badly in their legislative agendas, even when Congress was controlled by their party. President Obama, for all his gifts, may be on track to fare little better. Health care. Cap-and-trade. Financial reform. Big-time tax evasion. Even for this cool-handed moderate, it's a tough sell.

Meanwhile, the media and the salesmen on Wall Street are in a constant search for "green shoots" -- signs this historic recession is over. Nobody is thinking through what these shoots will turn into, exactly what the road ahead looks like. But for many, including policymakers, we find a desperate assumption that the economy will pick right up where it left off in 2006.

Two schools of thought are at work here. One says the fundamentals are sound, as President Hoover put it, and the future will look much like the recent past. The other, found more among the outliers, argues we have hit a historic pivot point -- but will we realize it and save ourselves?

How Detroit committed suicide

In the garage of my condo tower, someone parks a 1965 Buick Electra 225 convertible. It is sleek and big and powerful. This was Detroit, and in many ways America, at the zenith of its power.

Buick, like all GM divisions, still enjoyed great autonomy, including having its own design bureau. This car is a work of art. It is the successor to the legendary Roadmaster, and in those days Buick fans were fiercely loyal (my mother being one). GM cars were tiered so people could move up to a new GM brand as they became more affluent, as millions did in the 1950s and 1960s -- Chevy to Pontiac to Oldsmobile and even Cadillac. Ah, but the Buick was special: glamorous, racy, classy and exclusive. Built union.

I think of all this, of course, as Chrysler is pushed into bankruptcy and General Motors may well face the same fate. What went wrong, and what does it say about America's future?

Housekeeping

I have an August 1st book deadline and too many obligations. So I am cutting back on Rogue posts, but still hoping you'll stop by. Generally I will now make new posts on Tuesdays and Fridays (hey, Kunstler only posts once a week, and I am half as good).

There's still much to read, including the Rogue archives, which are categorized; the Front Page, which contains some of the most compelling journalism out there, and the City Desk, a report on urban issues. Arizona's Continuing Crisis and Kookocracy Watch will also be updated as reality erupts.

I'm mindful of the thousands who visit the site regularly. So please don't go away.

Jan and the floating diaphragm

Non 'Zonies will have to endure one more Phoenix-centric post before I end my visit. The Republic did a piece this morning on the first 100 days of Gov. Jan Brewer, the Republican secretary of state who replaced Janet Naploitano when she blew town to become secretary of Homeland Security. To say it's a puff piece would be too severe; it merely reflects the inexperience and lack of deep sources on the staff now, as well as fear and lack of curiosity, skepticism and leadership by the meeting-addled editors.

My sources give me this portrait of Brewer: A conservative Republican, but not an extremist ideologue; hard-working and well-meaning; not a mental giant; not very organized and served by a staff that pales in comparison to Saint Janet's "West Wing" stars; may not run for the office. She can be arrestingly tone deaf, for example, leaving the governor's arts awards dinner after delivering an early speech -- the first time that has happened in memory, including chief executives of both parties. This benign annual do has plenty of Republican arts trustees, so it's not as if she were fleeing the socialists (excuse me, SOCIALISTS!!). As for her advocacy of a tax hike -- more courageous, and realistic, than Saint Janet -- but a roadblock to my hopes that the Kookocracy gets to rule, and then be rejected as their policies run the state even more into the ground