Below are 3 of the 15 questions asked of politicians running for office by the Freedom Institute of Eirie County in Ohio. it's for their voter guide so the local Tea Party can recommend and endorse candidates.
Candidates were asked if they agree or disagree.
3. Marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman, any other type of Union is not marriage.
4. Children should not be placed into foster homes where the parents are homosexual, bisexual, or transgender.
10. I oppose the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy of the military and believe that all same sex partners should be banned from combat duty in the military because of the propensity to transmit blood-borne diseases in the theatre of battle.
The group also says let God deal with climate change.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Another Tale Of Two Tea Parties, This Time It's Local
Charles Douglas in association with The Sentinel did some fine work documenting two Humboldt County Tea Party events.
There are 4 parts to the video. They should come up as options after playing the first one.
While I want to feel a part of this American revolution, I can't quite get on board with most of these people after a few minutes of talking to them. I went to both events and I came away with the idea that they were angry and not that well informed. Don't get me wrong, on some issues, they are leading the way.
The idea that we need to take this country back. I agree with that. The difference lies in what we both want the country taken back from. I want us to take it back from the international corporations and banksters
They want corporations to have free trade but want to take the country back from all the people that are not like them. They are against government spending and think the private sector has the answers to all of our problems. If companies make a bad product, consumers will just choose to not use that product.
This doesn't work when 2 egg ranches sell under 14 different names and over a billion eggs are making Americans sick. This also doesn't work when BP spoils the coasts of several states and the gas stations that bear their name don't belong to them. How do we make good decisions when the corporations we buy from are not what they seem? They don't want government regulations but in these two cases, more regulation would seem to be just what was needed.
I don't want the full brunt of the U.S. government telling me how many chickens I can have and that they all need to all be fitted with micro chips. I think that regulation should be based on the amount of harm that may incur if things were to go wrong. A company that owns 100 oil wells on land is not as likely to do as much damage as an off shore drilling company with the same amount of rigs. Someone with 25 or 100 chickens isn't as likely to to sicken thousands of people under 14 different names. They are more likely know their customers by name and wouldn't take chances with peoples lives that are their neighbors.
In my opinion, a smaller government, just for the sake of less spending would hand the country off to the international bankers, corporations and coalitions like the WTO and the Federal Reserve.
I am for some sort of democratic socialism. As a young man argued with the Tea Party in one of the videos, you can either have some social spending or you can hire more police. How do you want to spend your money?
There are 4 parts to the video. They should come up as options after playing the first one.
While I want to feel a part of this American revolution, I can't quite get on board with most of these people after a few minutes of talking to them. I went to both events and I came away with the idea that they were angry and not that well informed. Don't get me wrong, on some issues, they are leading the way.
The idea that we need to take this country back. I agree with that. The difference lies in what we both want the country taken back from. I want us to take it back from the international corporations and banksters
They want corporations to have free trade but want to take the country back from all the people that are not like them. They are against government spending and think the private sector has the answers to all of our problems. If companies make a bad product, consumers will just choose to not use that product.
This doesn't work when 2 egg ranches sell under 14 different names and over a billion eggs are making Americans sick. This also doesn't work when BP spoils the coasts of several states and the gas stations that bear their name don't belong to them. How do we make good decisions when the corporations we buy from are not what they seem? They don't want government regulations but in these two cases, more regulation would seem to be just what was needed.
In my opinion, a smaller government, just for the sake of less spending would hand the country off to the international bankers, corporations and coalitions like the WTO and the Federal Reserve.
I am for some sort of democratic socialism. As a young man argued with the Tea Party in one of the videos, you can either have some social spending or you can hire more police. How do you want to spend your money?
Friday, August 27, 2010
North Coast Stand Down Fund Raiser For Veterans Monday At Cher-ae Heights Casino
If you don't already have your tickets, forget it. I just found out that ticket sales were only in advance. Oh well...Here's the real link to more info.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The Real Story Behind Both Tea Parties
Thom Hartmann can be heard in Humboldt County on Am 1480 live from 9 am to Noon.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Ca. Assembly To Vote On SB 810 Single Payer Health Care
SB 810 TO BE VOTED UPON BY AUGUST 31 * PLEASE CALL 2 OR MORE ASSEMBLY MEMBERS TODAY
From http://www.singlepayernow.net/
Please call the Speaker of the Assembly John Perez and at least two other Assembly Members to urge a yes vote on SB 810, the California Universal Healthcare Act.
SB 810 would deliver comprehensive healthcare to everyone and it would save Californians tens of billions of dollars. It will do what the national health plan does not - cover everyone and contain health care costs. It will set the standard for the rest of the nation.
On Thursday, August 12, the Assembly Appropriations Committee sent SB 810 to Assembly for a vote. The vote will take place sometime before August 31.
The single payer movement has been an inspiration to the nation by passing SB 810 twice before in our legislature. We want to continue inspiring the nation by passing single payer healthcare a 3rd time.
Speaker John Perez can be reached at 916-319-2046. He is the first Speaker of the Assembly in 6 years to not be a co-author of SB 810. He needs to receive thousands of calls.
Our Assembly Member Wes Chesbro ( 707.445-7014 or 916.319.2001 ) is a co-author, so please call and thank him for co-sponsoring. It is important that legislators know we appreciate their efforts.
Assembly Co-author Votes below. We have 34 co-authors and need 41 votes.
The following Democratic members are not co-authors (we must get 7 of these votes) Please call at least 2 (Choose at random):
Arambula No (916) 319-2031 Previous Yes
Buchanan (916) 319-2051 Unknown/Swing
Caballero (916) 319-2028 Previous Yes
Calderon (916) 319-2058 Previous Yes
Carter (916) 319-2062 Previous Yes
Conway (916) 319-2034 NO
Furutani (916) 319-2055 Previous Yes
Galgiani (916) 319-2017 Previous abstain
Gatto (916) 319-2043 Unknown
Hall (916) 319-2052 SWING/Previous Yes
Hernandez (916) 319-2057 Previous Yes
Huber (916) 319-2010 SWING/Previous Yes
Knight (916) 319-2036 NO
Perez J. (916) 319-2046 Unknown
Perez M. (916) 319-2080 Unknown
Portantino (916) 319-2044 Previous Yes
Saldaña (916) 319-2076 Previous Yes
Torres (916) 319-2061
From http://www.singlepayernow.net/
Please call the Speaker of the Assembly John Perez and at least two other Assembly Members to urge a yes vote on SB 810, the California Universal Healthcare Act.
SB 810 would deliver comprehensive healthcare to everyone and it would save Californians tens of billions of dollars. It will do what the national health plan does not - cover everyone and contain health care costs. It will set the standard for the rest of the nation.
On Thursday, August 12, the Assembly Appropriations Committee sent SB 810 to Assembly for a vote. The vote will take place sometime before August 31.
The single payer movement has been an inspiration to the nation by passing SB 810 twice before in our legislature. We want to continue inspiring the nation by passing single payer healthcare a 3rd time.
Speaker John Perez can be reached at 916-319-2046. He is the first Speaker of the Assembly in 6 years to not be a co-author of SB 810. He needs to receive thousands of calls.
Our Assembly Member Wes Chesbro ( 707.445-7014 or 916.319.2001 ) is a co-author, so please call and thank him for co-sponsoring. It is important that legislators know we appreciate their efforts.
Assembly Co-author Votes below. We have 34 co-authors and need 41 votes.
The following Democratic members are not co-authors (we must get 7 of these votes) Please call at least 2 (Choose at random):
Arambula No (916) 319-2031 Previous Yes
Buchanan (916) 319-2051 Unknown/Swing
Caballero (916) 319-2028 Previous Yes
Calderon (916) 319-2058 Previous Yes
Carter (916) 319-2062 Previous Yes
Conway (916) 319-2034 NO
Furutani (916) 319-2055 Previous Yes
Galgiani (916) 319-2017 Previous abstain
Gatto (916) 319-2043 Unknown
Hall (916) 319-2052 SWING/Previous Yes
Hernandez (916) 319-2057 Previous Yes
Huber (916) 319-2010 SWING/Previous Yes
Knight (916) 319-2036 NO
Perez J. (916) 319-2046 Unknown
Perez M. (916) 319-2080 Unknown
Portantino (916) 319-2044 Previous Yes
Saldaña (916) 319-2076 Previous Yes
Torres (916) 319-2061
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Baby Great White Shark Washes Up On Samoa Beach Ca.
My friend Dave Berman called me at about 8:25 pm Saturday night. He was on Samoa Beach and a baby Great White Shark had washed up onto the beach. He and a friend tried to help the little guy off the beach but they couldn't budge it. He called me and asked if I knew of anyone that could help. I thought of Patrick Higgins and Humboldt Baykeeper. I called Pete Nichols and Higgins and left messages. It is after all, Saturday night.
Dave called back and said that he had called Mike Jones of the Eureka City Council. He suggested 911 or the Samoa fire Department.
Dave Berman said that it was now getting dark and the tide was coming in. A wave had just washed the shark down the beach about 50 yards and he was sending his friend back to the car for a flashlight.
We decided not to call 911 or the Fire Department since he couldn't see the shark anymore.
I had offered to go onto the air from my home to get help but without sunlight and no 4x4's on the beach to asses the situation, we decided to hope that the tides had washed it back out to sea.
What we want to know is, who do you call in a situation like this? Suggestions are welcome.
Dave said when he gets home he will post some pictures he took on his blog, if they turn out.
Manifest Positivity.
See Dave's Pictures
Dave called back and said that he had called Mike Jones of the Eureka City Council. He suggested 911 or the Samoa fire Department.
Dave Berman said that it was now getting dark and the tide was coming in. A wave had just washed the shark down the beach about 50 yards and he was sending his friend back to the car for a flashlight.
We decided not to call 911 or the Fire Department since he couldn't see the shark anymore.
I had offered to go onto the air from my home to get help but without sunlight and no 4x4's on the beach to asses the situation, we decided to hope that the tides had washed it back out to sea.
What we want to know is, who do you call in a situation like this? Suggestions are welcome.
Dave said when he gets home he will post some pictures he took on his blog, if they turn out.
Manifest Positivity.
See Dave's Pictures
Thursday, August 19, 2010
MLPA Friendly Department of Fish and Game Appointee Out.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010 @ 2:12:00 PM - Written by -- Patrick McGreevy Los Angeles Times
When you think of powerful Sacramento interests, you don't normally think of the recreational fishing lobby. But the fishing industry played a key role in the political demise of a Fish and Game commissioner who tangled with the industry over the issue of marine reserves off the coast of Southern California.
Fish and Game Commissioner Don Benninghoven supported a proposal to nearly triple, to 387 square miles, the amount of coastal waters between Santa Barbara and Mexico that are under protection from recreational fishing, saying it would help depleted fish populations rebound and thrive. The proposal is being fought by several groups including the Southern California Marine Assn., a trade organization for recreational fishing boat operators that argued it goes too far and would create an economic hardship.
Benninghoven, a Santa Barbara resident, was appointed a year ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after serving on a task force that recommended the controversial expansion of marine reserves. With the commission divided on the proposal and Benninghoven representing a potential deciding vote for passage, the fishing groups opposed his confirmation in the Senate Rules Committee. The senate panel is not scheduled to act by the one-year anniversary of his appointment Wednesday, meaning Benninghoven will be forced to leave the commission Wednesday. "If he was instrumental in recommending [the expansion of protected waters], what was the chance he was going to vote for any other proposal on the table," said Bob Brown, a spokesman for the association. "They needed to put some other, more neutral person on the commission." The association supports a less ambitious expansion of marine reserves, he said.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) chairs the Rules Committee and declined to schedule a confirmation vote in part because the Senate is reluctant to act on long-term appointments that would serve beyond when Schwarzenegger leaves office at the end of this year, said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Steinberg. But the opposition to Benninghoven also appears to have played a role. "He’s not without controversy," Trost said.
Benninghoven said he hopes the political opposition to his confirmation does not jeopardize expansion of marine reserves. "I was disappointed, but I’m just hopeful the governor will appoint someone else soon who shares a commitment to the Marine Life Protection Act," he said.
Schwarzenegger does plan to make another appointment before he leaves office, according to spokesman Aaron McLear.
-- Patrick McGreevy
Los Angeles Times
Today, local paper Times-Standard had a story about Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, that made a request for a 6 month stay in finalizing the Marine Life Protection Act as it would exist here on the north coast.
When you think of powerful Sacramento interests, you don't normally think of the recreational fishing lobby. But the fishing industry played a key role in the political demise of a Fish and Game commissioner who tangled with the industry over the issue of marine reserves off the coast of Southern California.
Fish and Game Commissioner Don Benninghoven supported a proposal to nearly triple, to 387 square miles, the amount of coastal waters between Santa Barbara and Mexico that are under protection from recreational fishing, saying it would help depleted fish populations rebound and thrive. The proposal is being fought by several groups including the Southern California Marine Assn., a trade organization for recreational fishing boat operators that argued it goes too far and would create an economic hardship.
Benninghoven, a Santa Barbara resident, was appointed a year ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after serving on a task force that recommended the controversial expansion of marine reserves. With the commission divided on the proposal and Benninghoven representing a potential deciding vote for passage, the fishing groups opposed his confirmation in the Senate Rules Committee. The senate panel is not scheduled to act by the one-year anniversary of his appointment Wednesday, meaning Benninghoven will be forced to leave the commission Wednesday. "If he was instrumental in recommending [the expansion of protected waters], what was the chance he was going to vote for any other proposal on the table," said Bob Brown, a spokesman for the association. "They needed to put some other, more neutral person on the commission." The association supports a less ambitious expansion of marine reserves, he said.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) chairs the Rules Committee and declined to schedule a confirmation vote in part because the Senate is reluctant to act on long-term appointments that would serve beyond when Schwarzenegger leaves office at the end of this year, said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Steinberg. But the opposition to Benninghoven also appears to have played a role. "He’s not without controversy," Trost said.
Benninghoven said he hopes the political opposition to his confirmation does not jeopardize expansion of marine reserves. "I was disappointed, but I’m just hopeful the governor will appoint someone else soon who shares a commitment to the Marine Life Protection Act," he said.
Schwarzenegger does plan to make another appointment before he leaves office, according to spokesman Aaron McLear.
-- Patrick McGreevy
Los Angeles Times
Today, local paper Times-Standard had a story about Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, that made a request for a 6 month stay in finalizing the Marine Life Protection Act as it would exist here on the north coast.
An Open Letter To Dr. Laura
"I want my 1st Amendment rights back, which I can't have on radio without the threat of attack on my advertisers and stations," Schlessinger said.
In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.
The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, written by a US man, and posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination!
End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?
7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle- room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really
necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters as above, so I'm confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Your adoring fan.
James M. Kauffman,
Ed.D. Professor
Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education
University of Virginia
PS (It would be a damn shame if we couldn't own a Canadian!)
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a man last night for attempted murder
From the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office
Date: August 19, 2010 From: Brenda Godsey, PIO
(707) 268-3645
Subject: Attempted Murder Arrest Case: 201005525
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a man last night for attempted murder after he stabbed and cut another man. Just before 7:00 last night, deputies received a report of an assault with a deadly weapon on New Village Road in Weitchpec. When they arrived, deputies found a man lying on the ground while a few people sat on the ground around him. Deputies learned that the victim, John Harrison Chenault Jr., 25 of Weitchpec, had received serious knife injuries during a fight with Louis Dale Mitchell, 51. Witnesses told deputies that the fight between Chenault Jr. and Mitchell escalated until Mitchell stabbed Chenault, Jr. After the stabbing, the witnesses, (including the suspect Mitchell), all attempted to hold down the victim until medical and police personnel could arrive. After collecting the statements from the involved parties, Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Mitchell for attempted murder. He was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked for one count of attempted murder. His bail was set at $500,000 and he is expected to be arraigned Friday.
The victim, Chenault Jr. was transported to an out-of-the-area hospital for treatment. He is in stable condition.
Gary Philp
Sheriff
Date: August 19, 2010 From: Brenda Godsey, PIO
(707) 268-3645
Subject: Attempted Murder Arrest Case: 201005525
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a man last night for attempted murder after he stabbed and cut another man. Just before 7:00 last night, deputies received a report of an assault with a deadly weapon on New Village Road in Weitchpec. When they arrived, deputies found a man lying on the ground while a few people sat on the ground around him. Deputies learned that the victim, John Harrison Chenault Jr., 25 of Weitchpec, had received serious knife injuries during a fight with Louis Dale Mitchell, 51. Witnesses told deputies that the fight between Chenault Jr. and Mitchell escalated until Mitchell stabbed Chenault, Jr. After the stabbing, the witnesses, (including the suspect Mitchell), all attempted to hold down the victim until medical and police personnel could arrive. After collecting the statements from the involved parties, Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Mitchell for attempted murder. He was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked for one count of attempted murder. His bail was set at $500,000 and he is expected to be arraigned Friday.
The victim, Chenault Jr. was transported to an out-of-the-area hospital for treatment. He is in stable condition.
Gary Philp
Sheriff
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Oxycontin Bandit Strikes Again In Eureka
A young adult male described as in his early 20’s, held up Redwood Pharmacy in Henderson Center before 3pm this afternoon. The suspect brandished a gun and pointed it at two of the female workers and demanded Oxcycontin, a powerful narcotic made from opium. He did not demand money or anything else according to an employee at the pharmacy.
Police are on the scene gathering evidence.
A witness said the suspect was skinny, a bit under 6 feet tall, had blond curly hair and was wearing a grey hoodie and black skater shoes.
The description matches that of a suspect wanted in a recent string of drug store robberies where Oxycontin was also taken.
No one was injured.
Police are on the scene gathering evidence.
A witness said the suspect was skinny, a bit under 6 feet tall, had blond curly hair and was wearing a grey hoodie and black skater shoes.
The description matches that of a suspect wanted in a recent string of drug store robberies where Oxycontin was also taken.
No one was injured.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Dr Laura Quits Radio Show
CNN announced at about 8:15 tonight that Dr. Laura would be ending her radio program due to her racist rant last week. She used the N-word but the real one, 11 times in a rant to a caller.Appearing on CNN's Larry King she announced that she would leave radio at the end of her contract which expires at the end of the year.
More
Mad River Community Hospital to offer Free Mammograms for Un and Underinsured
Mad River Community Hospital is pleased to be able to offer the women of Humboldt County screening and diagnostic mammograms as well as ultrasound breast studies through this funding. Chief Operating Officer, Steve Engle, said “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to partner with a national organization that cares so much about early detection. It gives us the chance to provide services to a patient population that has been much underserved in the past.”
The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Frisco Texas, has given a $75,000 grant to Mad River Community Hospital to fund mammograms for patients who are uninsured or underinsured. Janelle Hail, CEO of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, a breast cancer survivor herself, wants women to have the opportunity to participate in breast cancer early detection programs even if they don’t have insurance.
When a women calls Theresa Gonzalezs, Patient Benefits Coordinator, at
825-4932 she will quickly be screened for program qualifications and then given an appointment for her mammogram. Mad River Community Hospital has worked hard to make the program as simple as possible for our patients. The Humboldt Community Breast Health Project is also working with Mad River Community Hospital to help women gain access to the program and to assist them with care issues if something is discovered during the exam. This helps to ensure women are given assistance during a difficult and emotional time.
The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Frisco Texas, has given a $75,000 grant to Mad River Community Hospital to fund mammograms for patients who are uninsured or underinsured. Janelle Hail, CEO of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, a breast cancer survivor herself, wants women to have the opportunity to participate in breast cancer early detection programs even if they don’t have insurance.
When a women calls Theresa Gonzalezs, Patient Benefits Coordinator, at
825-4932 she will quickly be screened for program qualifications and then given an appointment for her mammogram. Mad River Community Hospital has worked hard to make the program as simple as possible for our patients. The Humboldt Community Breast Health Project is also working with Mad River Community Hospital to help women gain access to the program and to assist them with care issues if something is discovered during the exam. This helps to ensure women are given assistance during a difficult and emotional time.
The Myth of the Free Market
This is a must read for anyone that thinks so called free trade and free markets are really free.
Published on Monday, August 16, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
The Myth of the Free Market
by Craig Barnes
Millions of Americans are today unemployed because the free market is not working for them. Millions of Americans have lost their homes because the free market did not work for them or for the banks. Before the health care bill passed last January millions could not get health care because the free market worked for them when they were healthy but often did not work at all when they needed care.
The free market sent jobs to China and Mexico, India and Taiwan. The free market encouraged subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations that were collages of numbers that the market itself did not understand. The free market encouraged insurance companies to compete for ways not to pay for health care rather than to encourage ways to provide health care.
During the years of the Bush administration's free market advocacy, Bear Stearns collapsed, Merrill Lynch failed, and Lehman Brothers collapsed. The free market enabled Goldman Sachs to act as if it believed in securities that it sold to others while at the same time betting with its own money that these securities would fail. To knowingly induce buyers with misinformation is intentional fraud, but the free market did not and has not ever protected against intentional fraud.
In a free market, British Petroleum risked environmental catastrophe in order to save money on expensive cement or time-consuming testing and used cheaper designs rather than safer ones for the most complex drilling apparatus in the world. Transocean obeyed the demands of the market by not fixing 390 maintenance items that were back-listed, ignored a leak in the control pod of the blowout preventer, and avoided the delay caused by its gas detection alarms by simply shutting them off.
Now come Rep. John Boehner of Ohio and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky leading the Republican charge toward the fall elections urging Americans to once again undo government regulation and rely for their protection and safety, their jobs and their health care on the free market. They would undo newly passed protections against free market fraud and against incentives for health care providers and against more regulation of Wall Street.
The fall campaign is therefore shaping up as a contest of slogans urging voters to choose between the free market and big government. Republicans are hoping to evoke old stories of freedom and liberty, Paul Revere and individualism. Big government, they say, is the opposite of all these and the free market is the way to be truly American.
The Democrats respond: "Wait a minute! The free market has led to outlandish gaps between the wealth of the rich and that of the rest of us Americans; it provides yachts and golf vacations for the rich and foreclosures and joblessness for the middle class! Hold on! The rich are not the only ones who count!"
But Democrats have not found a symbolic spokesperson for that cry. President Obama seems reluctant to lay down the gauntlet or to use his oratorical skills to shame the arrogant, make mad the guilty, or cow the slanderous. Perhaps he is afraid that becoming the passionate spokesperson for sufferers, workers, the destitute and the ill would open him up to the attack that he is just protecting his own. He acts as if his personal background keeps him from letting fly passionate rhetoric lest he be accused of being all for blacks or all for the poor which he supposes would lose him the support of everyone else.
Boehner and McConnell hammer away at big government, not admitting the bald truth that the opposite of government is free market gambling, recession, underfunded schools, fewer police and firemen, less money for science and China buying up American debt. Democrats have yet to find those voices who will sing with pride that the opposite of bonuses and corporate tax breaks is the undeniable reality that Americans will succeed all together or not at all, build bridges and schools together or not at all, curb our appetites for carbon fuels together or not at all, do science and research as our common endeavor, heal the sick as our common need, and sing our common future or not survive at all.
Craig Barnes is the author of Democracy At The Crossroads, Princes, Peasants, Poets and Presidents Struggle for (and against) the Rule of Law.
Published on Monday, August 16, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
The Myth of the Free Market
by Craig Barnes
Millions of Americans are today unemployed because the free market is not working for them. Millions of Americans have lost their homes because the free market did not work for them or for the banks. Before the health care bill passed last January millions could not get health care because the free market worked for them when they were healthy but often did not work at all when they needed care.
The free market sent jobs to China and Mexico, India and Taiwan. The free market encouraged subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations that were collages of numbers that the market itself did not understand. The free market encouraged insurance companies to compete for ways not to pay for health care rather than to encourage ways to provide health care.
During the years of the Bush administration's free market advocacy, Bear Stearns collapsed, Merrill Lynch failed, and Lehman Brothers collapsed. The free market enabled Goldman Sachs to act as if it believed in securities that it sold to others while at the same time betting with its own money that these securities would fail. To knowingly induce buyers with misinformation is intentional fraud, but the free market did not and has not ever protected against intentional fraud.
In a free market, British Petroleum risked environmental catastrophe in order to save money on expensive cement or time-consuming testing and used cheaper designs rather than safer ones for the most complex drilling apparatus in the world. Transocean obeyed the demands of the market by not fixing 390 maintenance items that were back-listed, ignored a leak in the control pod of the blowout preventer, and avoided the delay caused by its gas detection alarms by simply shutting them off.
Now come Rep. John Boehner of Ohio and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky leading the Republican charge toward the fall elections urging Americans to once again undo government regulation and rely for their protection and safety, their jobs and their health care on the free market. They would undo newly passed protections against free market fraud and against incentives for health care providers and against more regulation of Wall Street.
The fall campaign is therefore shaping up as a contest of slogans urging voters to choose between the free market and big government. Republicans are hoping to evoke old stories of freedom and liberty, Paul Revere and individualism. Big government, they say, is the opposite of all these and the free market is the way to be truly American.
The Democrats respond: "Wait a minute! The free market has led to outlandish gaps between the wealth of the rich and that of the rest of us Americans; it provides yachts and golf vacations for the rich and foreclosures and joblessness for the middle class! Hold on! The rich are not the only ones who count!"
But Democrats have not found a symbolic spokesperson for that cry. President Obama seems reluctant to lay down the gauntlet or to use his oratorical skills to shame the arrogant, make mad the guilty, or cow the slanderous. Perhaps he is afraid that becoming the passionate spokesperson for sufferers, workers, the destitute and the ill would open him up to the attack that he is just protecting his own. He acts as if his personal background keeps him from letting fly passionate rhetoric lest he be accused of being all for blacks or all for the poor which he supposes would lose him the support of everyone else.
Boehner and McConnell hammer away at big government, not admitting the bald truth that the opposite of government is free market gambling, recession, underfunded schools, fewer police and firemen, less money for science and China buying up American debt. Democrats have yet to find those voices who will sing with pride that the opposite of bonuses and corporate tax breaks is the undeniable reality that Americans will succeed all together or not at all, build bridges and schools together or not at all, curb our appetites for carbon fuels together or not at all, do science and research as our common endeavor, heal the sick as our common need, and sing our common future or not survive at all.
Craig Barnes is the author of Democracy At The Crossroads, Princes, Peasants, Poets and Presidents Struggle for (and against) the Rule of Law.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
PG&E Fires Up New Power Plant
The people on Humboldt Hill, just south of Eureka will be having this brown stuff for dinner as that's where it was headed.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
How To Get 60 Thousand Jobs in California in 2 Years
From Energyboom.com:
With unemployment on everyone’s mind, the Obama administration has been touting “green” projects as a source of new jobs. Now the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has confirmed that some government programs can do just that -- create jobs.
Recently the SEIA released an independent study predicting that extending the government’s Treasury Grant Program (TGP) and Solar Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit by two years will create an additional 200,000 new American jobs.
Extending TGP will also create 10 gigawatts of new solar installation by 2016 – enough to power 2 million homes. A recent study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory also found that TGP “has provided significant economic value” and predicted high employment levels in renewable energy industries.
Read more
These are the jobs we need to create. The manufacture and instillation of new green technology is something that stays here in the U.S. It is a double benefit. It is an investment in the future as well as an investment to get people working in above minimum wage jobs.
With unemployment on everyone’s mind, the Obama administration has been touting “green” projects as a source of new jobs. Now the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has confirmed that some government programs can do just that -- create jobs.
Recently the SEIA released an independent study predicting that extending the government’s Treasury Grant Program (TGP) and Solar Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit by two years will create an additional 200,000 new American jobs.
Extending TGP will also create 10 gigawatts of new solar installation by 2016 – enough to power 2 million homes. A recent study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory also found that TGP “has provided significant economic value” and predicted high employment levels in renewable energy industries.
Read more
These are the jobs we need to create. The manufacture and instillation of new green technology is something that stays here in the U.S. It is a double benefit. It is an investment in the future as well as an investment to get people working in above minimum wage jobs.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Jack in the Box Closed
The Eureka Jack in the Box restaurant is closed today. A sign on the door said "closed for remodeling".
The restraunt isn't that old and didn't seem to need a remodel.
I seem to remember this happening once before. As I recal the owner didn't pay a tax or somethng on time.
Not sure if that's why we can't get two tacos for .99 cents.
It sucks when you have to work fast food but is't even worse when that goes away. 
The restraunt isn't that old and didn't seem to need a remodel.
Not sure if that's why we can't get two tacos for .99 cents.
It sucks when you have to work fast food but is't even worse when that goes away. 
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Sudden Link Drops Ball On Last Crabs Game Of Season
Today the Humboldt Crabs play the final game of their short season against the Humboldt Steelheads.
The 12:30 pm game is not on the radio due to the internet being down again at the radio station.
Sudden Link sent a technician to the station on Wednesday and could not find any problems. This is the second game in 2 weeks that was not broadcast due to unreliable Sudden Link service at the station.
A call to Sudden Link was not returned as of this posting.
Perhaps a look into DSL is in order.
The 12:30 pm game is not on the radio due to the internet being down again at the radio station.
Sudden Link sent a technician to the station on Wednesday and could not find any problems. This is the second game in 2 weeks that was not broadcast due to unreliable Sudden Link service at the station.
A call to Sudden Link was not returned as of this posting.
Perhaps a look into DSL is in order.
Sheriffs shoot man in Blue Lake on eve of 3rd Anniversary of shooting of Martin Cotton II
OK, neither of these people were pillars of the communtiy but did they both have to die?
See Times Standard article for Saturday shooting.
Aparently, Robert Garth was shot by Humboldt County Deputies yesterday when he charged them on the freeway with a rake handle. The story says that before charging the deputies, he was assaulting another man on the freeway while trying to take his wedding band.
Below is a video commemorating the 3rd anniversary of the killing of Martin Cotton II while in police custody. Martin Cotton II died 3 years ago today in Humboldt County Jail.
See Times Standard article for Saturday shooting.
Aparently, Robert Garth was shot by Humboldt County Deputies yesterday when he charged them on the freeway with a rake handle. The story says that before charging the deputies, he was assaulting another man on the freeway while trying to take his wedding band.
Below is a video commemorating the 3rd anniversary of the killing of Martin Cotton II while in police custody. Martin Cotton II died 3 years ago today in Humboldt County Jail.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Court Rejects Warrantless GPS Tracking
In United States v. Maynard, FBI agents planted a GPS device on a car while it was on private property and then used it to track the position of the automobile every ten seconds for a full month, all without securing a search warrant. In an amicus brief filed in the case, EFF and the ACLU of the Nation's Capital argued that unsupervised use of such tactics would open the door for police to abuse their power and continuously track anyone's physical location for any reason, without ever having to go to a judge to prove the surveillance is justified.
Click for the story.
Picture from: http://schlissellaw.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/gps-tracking-car-device-police.jpg
Most modern cars already have something like this built into them.
Cops don't have to go onto private property to plant them, they're already equipped for tracking.
Fly low and avoid the radar.
I bought a Kia Rio that doesn't even offer the GPS system. Entry models don't usually spring for the extra cost for the device.
A United Nations Plot To Destroy The Country: Bike Sharing.
Look out Arcata. A Tea Party candidate Republican in Colorado is running for Governor and thinks that bike sharing programs are a U.N. plot to destroy the U.S.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0806/tea-party-candidate-sees-conspiracy-bike-sharing/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677//vp/38585754#38585754
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0806/tea-party-candidate-sees-conspiracy-bike-sharing/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677//vp/38585754#38585754
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
California's Proposition 8 Banning Gay Marriage Overturned
A District Court Judge has ruled that the ballot measure Prop. 8 that banned gay marriage in California is unconstitutional.
Corn byproduct fructose literally fuels cancer cell growth, study finds
As many of us have suspected, they were lying to us.
Read the Reuters story.
(picture from deesillustration.com) Check that out for more crazy political art, it will blow you away.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The War on the Poor Continues...
The War Against The Poor continues across this country. In Eureka, a months long protest in front of the Humboldt County Court House on Tuesdays from 3 to 6 pm offers dinner from 4 to 6 pm. There is also an activist table with information about free breakfasts and other weekly meetings like the People Project meetings on Saturdays at 1:30 pm, at the PARC ( Peoples' Action for Rights & Community) in Eureka in the Q street alley between 3rd and 2nd St. near the Samoa bridge.
Breakfast is served on Tuesday and Friday from 8:20 am to 10:30 am at Fairfield St. and W. Hawthorn St. and as is dinner on Tuesdays at the Humboldt County Court House, food is free to those that are hungry.
These people are true grass roots and are not funded by city, county or state coffiers. Everyone is a volunteer.
With unemployment around 12 percent in California and many finding that their unemployment insurance is running out, it's nice to know that there is somewhere to go for help when all other avenues have been exhausted.
From their hand bill:
"A main focus for People Project is to stop the criminalization of houseless people. Please join us to speak out and build strength to END THE WAR ON THE POOR', however you experience it."
To help, donate, volunteer or just get involved, call PARC at 707-442-7465
These people are true grass roots and are not funded by city, county or state coffiers. Everyone is a volunteer.
With unemployment around 12 percent in California and many finding that their unemployment insurance is running out, it's nice to know that there is somewhere to go for help when all other avenues have been exhausted.
"A main focus for People Project is to stop the criminalization of houseless people. Please join us to speak out and build strength to END THE WAR ON THE POOR', however you experience it."
To help, donate, volunteer or just get involved, call PARC at 707-442-7465
Monday, August 2, 2010
3 out of 4 become obsolete, Home Depot can handle the hardware.
With the advent of digital cameras , the MLPA and other effects on local fresh water fisheries making fishing a thing of the past, this sign in Orick Ca. is a blast from the recent past.
Half way between McKinleyville Home and Garden Center to the south and Home Depot to the north in Crescent City, it's hard to make it in a small town caught in between two successful enterprises peddling 3 of four relevant products.
Too bad for the fishing industry. In the ocean, they are caught in between the off shore trawlers that rape the oceans of the world and some over zealous environmental groups that would put all fishing off limits to most people.
There is a bright side to Orick Ca. and that is the Palm Motel & Cafe. Next door to the old Orick Theater on U.S. Highway 101, it has been refurbished and is a welcome sight for wary travelers caught between the two towns with diverse services.
Too bad for the fishing industry. In the ocean, they are caught in between the off shore trawlers that rape the oceans of the world and some over zealous environmental groups that would put all fishing off limits to most people.
There is a bright side to Orick Ca. and that is the Palm Motel & Cafe. Next door to the old Orick Theater on U.S. Highway 101, it has been refurbished and is a welcome sight for wary travelers caught between the two towns with diverse services.
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