June 2012

Will this chad hang?

According to the Modesto Bee last week, carpetbaggers from both the major parties are raising bundles in the primary to win one of the two top slots in the 10th Congressional District in California (Stanislaus County, Tracy, Manteca, Escalon and Copperopolis). Meanwhile, a candidate who was actually born in the district with a leaflet for his daddy in his hand, is burning up the peapatch on a fraction of the dough.

Local leaders chew the fat



Merced College President Ben Duran and county Supervisor John Pedrozo, two local hogs who have fed too long at the public trough. Skinny cowboy caught in the middle.-- Photo: Marci Stenberg, Merced Sun-Star, June 6, 2012
 

The "greatest public higher education research institution in the world" is a corporate shill?

Not quite. It's worse than that. Yes, the department at UC Berekeley from which the propaganda issues is a willing shill for any corporate grant, but emphasis should be placed on the "willing." This crap is coming out of the department of ag economics, A.P. Giannini Hall, the kitchen in which all the finest dishes of agribusiness ideology and propaganda are prepared and have been since the founder of Bank of America endowed the building, back in the day when BofA depended on agribusiness and vice versa.

It was predicted

It cannot be a good sign when the behavior of a government can be as easily predicted as the behavior of this government has been. It gives us a sense of an historical vortex of increasing velocity going down, rather than a spiral of achievement and beneficence rising. The congressional war against whistleblowers that so perfectly apes the behavior of private corporations, is not so much a symptom of political illness as it is a necrotic result, like Obama's failure to reverse suspension of Habeas Corpus.

Noyo News's Gurney nails the old "value free facilitator" fraud

Indybay
Kearns and West: Corporate Criminals…David Gurney
                   According to a June 2010 press release, "Kearns and West has been known to gather scientific experts and build a movement of common interest stakeholders” to crush public outcry and true environmentalism."

see: http://noyonews.net/?p=6231
by David Gurney

When laws leave reason too far behind

The most reasonable, fundamental principle of ecological awareness is called the "Precautionary Principle," borrwed from medicine: Do no harm. It is one thing to depart from this principle out of ignorance or scofflaw greed; it is another thing to elevate the negation of the Precautionary Principle to the level of federal law.
Badlands Journal editorial board
Wikipedia
Precautionary principle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle

Greed and entitlement: As goes Merced, so goes Europe

In one corner are the disciples of unbridled free markets. With their simplistic notions of the profit motive as a driver of growth, their selective disdain for state intervention (abhorrent except when it comes to propping up casino banks), and their dogged refusal to factor in broad consequences for their actions, they have propelled Europe and the US not just to the brink of financial ruin but to social strife.

It's the environment, stupid?


 

"It's a small step," Denham said. "We need thousands of jobs in the Central Valley, and we need many more projects like this."
The bill would allow the Merced Irrigation District to raise New Exchequer Dam spillways, temporarily expanding Lake McClure some years into a part of the river currently protected as free-flowing by federal law. -- Merced Sun-Star, June 20, 2012
DAMAGING THE ENVIRONMENT=MORE JOBS?
WRONG.

The Velvet Scourge of the Homeless takes over city Parks and Rec

Conway's no longer just a pretty face in the Merced City administration.
Some question appointment of Merced's Parks and Recreation head…JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/06/30/v-print/2403604/some-question-ap...
The city of Merced's Parks and Recreation Department continues to be at the center of controversy.