December 2013

Fracking: For Pete’s sake, the issue is not Jerry Brown’s legacy

Truth, by Yip Harburg

Truth
by Yip Harburg, Rhymes for the irreverent, FFRF, Inc. Madison, WI, and The Yip Harburg Foundation, 2006

Truth is a foreigner
Under every dome,
Truth is a refugee
Looking for a home.
Without flag or passport,
Hounded, plagued, and banned,
Truth must be smuggled in --
It has no fatherland!

News your Mama didn't tell you?

We weren't able to find news of this in the local papers and stumbled onto it in an unrelated Internet search. It seems that the new big bank in the valley is fitting in nicely with the rest of the finance, insurance and real estate scum that continue to loot the territory.
It doesn't take any character at all to cheat and steal when you are very rich to begin with. It's sort of like shopping to these people, with the !$B fine as the credit card bill. They didn't shop here, of course. - blj

10-29-13
Reuters

Decision-making by entrepreneurial commodities

The curious thinking of Chip Ashley, managing editor of Community Alliance and second vice-chairman of the Fresno County Democratic Party Central Committee, muddied the case against fracking last week. Too much fracking is ongoing or planned here in the Valley for us to afford petty partisan political bickering..

In the letter to the Fresno Bee included below, Ashley asks why, if Fresno Republican Assemblyman Jim Patterson “can’t be bought,” he accepted any money from fracking interests.

The Threat

A dozen years ago, we were watching hopelessly after 9/11 as vendors hawked equipment to protect New Yorkers again gas attacks and as it became clear that the Bush Regime had blown away any sympathy the rest of the world had for the United States in the immediate aftermath. The drums and the lies of war were busy turning sorrow into fear and hatred. Here in this county, two murdered men were found in a canal; they had worn turbans after all.

FDA puts lipstick on poultry, swine and livestock antibiotic doping

When it comes to Big Pharma, Big Food, and Public Health, guess who bats last at the federal Food and Drug Administration. Time to yell and pound on your loudest cooking utensils! -- blj

Legal comments on the published decisions in San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center v. Merced County (re. the Brown Act)

9-19-13
League of California Cities
Land Use and CEQA Litigation Update
Rick W. Jarvis, Jarvis, Fay, Doporto & Gibson

2. Open Government and Ethics
II. Open Meeting Laws
E. Agenda Requirements and Related Procedural Issues
San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center v. County of Merced
(2013) 216 Cal.App4th 1167

Bat's philosophy

Under the Carter microscope

Norman Brownstein, bigshot Denver attorney/lobbyist, who sells himself at "the 101st US Senator," is going to rue the day he took the $20,000/month lobbying contract to represent Westlands Water District, and came to the attention of Lloyd G. Carter, Fresno journalist/attorney.

Baker on "massive inequality"

California Democrats and the environment in a drought year

It was uncharacteristically candid, at least a PR faux pas: a state water official actually stating that it was not possible for the government to make it rain. And this despite the governor’s profound concern for west side farmers in an election year. The times probably make Jerry nostalgic for his youth, during which bags bulging with cash came from the west side to his father in return for road and water projects. They don’t call the canal carrying State Water Project water the ‘Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown” canal for nothing.

Assemblyman Gray paid $300 for "appearance" in mayoral race

A Merced political curiosity or just the Adam Family at work?
During the Sept.-Oct. 2013 campaign-finance reporting period, Merced mayoral candidate Noah Lor reported an expenditure of $300 for an “appearance” by state Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced.
Is this legal?
The state Fair Political Practices Commission did not return our call today. Rummaging through FPPC regulations we came across a section that appears to prohibit state legislators from accepting “honoraria” for “attendences.”