June 2007

Another Sonny Star scoop

The Merced Sun-Star's big agricultural/environmental story today was a Modesto Bee story about a press conference called by Rep. Dennis Cardoza-Merced, about the plight of the honey bee. Perhaps Madame McClatchy is concerned about brand identification with a collapsing species. Cardoza seems concerned that research doesn't focus too much on pesticides.

FEMA floodplain maps redux

On June 1, the Lathrop Sun-Post reported that Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced paid the Lathrop City Council a visit on May 29 to warn Lathropians that the Federal Emergency Management Agency "is in the process of redrawing flood-plain maps and casting more stringent levee requirements in a post-Hurricane Katrina, climate-changing world ..."

Report of a meeting in Hillmar on transportation politics

Summary of Meeting at Hilmar Grange Hall, 5/29/07, 6:00PM
by Stevinson Citizen's Group

Steinberg's Blueprint for Growth

Better regional planning will help make the state's metro areas more attractive and livable, and that will allow them to grow and attract jobs in a cleaner, healthier setting.-- Sacremento Bee editorial, June 4, 2007

Endorsing a bill authored by state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, the Sacramento Bee editorialized today that the Sacramento Area Council of Government's (SACOG) "blueprint" should be made statewide policy for urban areas.

Results coming in on government by FIRE

The decisions that have created the enormous mess in real estate in the north San Joaquin Valley were made by corrupt local land-use authorities, corrupt state and federal regulatory agencies, with state and federal politicians working the backrooms, all for the benefit of finance, insurance and real estate.

“This year, we’re going to see prices drop in every market across the country for the first time since the Great Depression,” said Steven Smith, a property appraiser and consultant from San Bernardino. -- Modesto Bee, June 3, 2007.

Huh?

Why are Merced taxpayers footing the bill for a study "to analyze the economic impact of a recent ruling by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that listed thousands of acres of both city and county land as 'critical habitat'"?

Isn't that basically an economic issue for developers and landowners?

How would somebody living in central or south Merced expect to benefit by the City of Merced spending $23,000 on the study and the Board of Supervisors presumably putting in $20,000?

Requiem for the Honey Bee

Sonny Star had an intimate chat with Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced, the other day and described itself as "encouraged" that he was "leading the charge at the congressional level to get special funding to fight (Honey Bee) colony collapse disorder," but that Congress should get on with the task.

This was the finest bit of witless or cynical buffoonery yet from this newspaper, but you know Sonny.

Any species of wildlife in an endangered condition is dead meat in Cardoza's hands.

Massacre on the Delta

"The collapse of the Delta Estuary is really a regulatory collapse." Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

SWAT comments on South Merced Specific Plan DEIR

Merced SWAT
The Merced Stop Wal-Mart Action Team

Attn: Bill King
City of Merced Planning Division
678 W. 18th St.
Merced, CA 95340

The Merced Stop Wal-Mart Action Team (SWAT) is writing to comment on South Merced Specific Plan Draft EIR. We are a grassroots organization of over 2,000 Merced teachers, health professionals, business owners, parents, students, community leaders and residents working to protect the quality of life in Merced. Many of our leadership live in or near South Merced, and would be directly affected by this Plan.

An open financial wound of unknown consequence

The north San Joaquin Valley has gained another first. No doubt, Modesto-based UC/Great Valley Center is ecstatic to see that its "smart growth" agenda has been so hugely successful. Our area is now the nation's leader in mortgage foreclosures as the San Joaquin Valley bids to surpass Los Angeles as the worst air pollution region in the nation. The north San Joaquin Valley is now a suppurating financial wound for finance, insurance and real estate special interests. Who knows how far the infection will spread?

Proverbs 1:5

Audiens, sapiens sapientior erit, et intelligens gubernacula possidebit.

The silence of the Lamb

It will happen this way, now that the news cycle is over. One day, probably on a weekend this month, the Department of Homeland Security will announce that the UC/Bechtel/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proposal to place a biodanger level-4 lab near Tracy at Site 300, an LLNL bombing range already laced with depleted uranium and tritium, will make the short list for biowarfare pork. LLNL also recently announced that it will be releasing eight times as much radioactivity in bomb tests this year on Site 300.

Dude, Denny's got his cliches down!

"In exchange for having a seat at the table, you agree that at the end of the day, you're all going to be on the same page..."That does not mean I'm a lackey for Nancy Pelosi." --Rep. Dennis "I'm No Nancy Boy" Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced.

It would be funny if this was a script for a baseball comedy film called "Bull Durham." Unfortunately, this guy is our US congressman during the most corrupt moment of political history since the McKinley administration. But Madame McClatchy's dutiful stenographer, Mike Doyle, takes it all down, word for meaningless word.

Slightly troubling

The United States has 3,066 counties, represented by the National Association of Counties. Its 50 states have 50 governors, represented by the National Governors Association.

For his sins ...

Mark Arax, a fine writer of Armenian descent from Fresno, tried to tell Los Angeles about the truth about the Armenian genocide. The announcement of his departure from the Los Angeles Times, his article unpublished, comes as Israel plans its invasion of the Gaza Strip to wipe out Hamas, the democratically elected Palestinian government. Hollywood and AIPAC notwithstanding, we welcome him back to the Valley and we hope he will write a similar article on the genocide against the Assyrians, so many of their descendants residing in Turlock.

Denny the Mechanic speaks

"It's tough to get any particular issue dealt with in a very rapid fashion short of declaring war on somebody," Cardoza told CBS 5 on May 31st. "We don't move that fast in Congress." -- CBS5.com, June 19, 2007

Andale pues, McPendejo

...McNerney's bill would authorize $90 million a year between 2008 and 2012 to support geothermal research at two centers, one in the West and the other in the East.

"There's definitely a chance that one of the plants would be located in Northern California," McNerney said. "It's important that the rocks are suitable for this. They must have fissures and cracks so you can circulate water through them."

Cardoza denies being Nancy Boy

6-22-07
Modesto Bee
Rules Committee position gives Blue Dog's bark more bite...Dennis Cardoza, 18th Congressional District, which includes part of Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties and all of Merced County
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/13715696p-14302358c.html

We sicken for the benefit of greedjerks

vanitas vanitatum dixt Ecclesiates, vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas ... omnia tempus habent et suis spatiis transeunt universa sub caelo ... tempus destruendi et tempus aedificandi...

-- Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3.

The chamber needs to move forward and advocate for business, including the planned Wal-Mart distribution center. Good-paying jobs are needed in Merced, with people here making money to fill all the vacant homes, Wells said. -- Merced Sun-Star, June 19, 2007

The Hun chastises air board

The Valley seems frozen at the moment, although its credit is leaking from subprime loan foreclosures and the milk price is up so people are buying replacement heifers. Perhaps, the leaders have been shaken somewhat by the consequences of their rapacious land-use decisions, by which local lenders, developers, realtors and landowners gained enormously to the detriment of larger financial institutions that bought so much locally generated bad debt. And to the detriment of so many others, closer by, hung out to dry by the big swindle.

Red Menace over Merced

A rouge pall, like the Delta peat fires of old at twilight, hangs over Merced County.

According to Supervisor Mike Nelson, the "socialists" were out this morning at the supervisors' meeting. A group advocating agricultural preservation were arguing against parcel splits for ranchettes between Gustine and Santa Nella.

And I thought I saw Eugene Debs highballing down the Santa Fe tracks last night.

Of "oxygen sags" and Smelt slaughter

On a related note: despite claims from state officials that Delta smelt are no longer in the vicinity of the export pumps, DWR acknowledged it collected 327 smelt at the salvage facilities yesterday. The actual number of smelt killed is likely 30 times that number. -- Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director, June 29, 2007

Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced, continues to deny he is a Nancy Boy and fiddles with the controls on his home solar system while the Delta Smelt goes extinct for subsidized cotton.

New Merced County Planning Commissioner: fast and loose with public processes, public funds

The California Rangeland Conservation Coalition recently sent a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, urging him to terminate his opposition to the Williamson Act. The text of the letter appears below.