The Broad View

Note to Santa Barbara County Voters

The Presidential election is NOT next week.
You can't vote for anyone in any party in a Primary election.
Just because you WANT to vote against a candidate in the City Council's race, if you don't live in the City of Santa Barbara, you CAN'T!
When your ballot says to return to the City of Santa Barbara...DON'T return it to the County Offices.
You can't register to vote if you fill in your Voter Registration Card with the address..."I can't remember."

Ahhh...got those gripes off my chest.

What a little racehorse taught me about life

I read the news today, oh my. And, for a follower of the "ponies", it is a sad day indeed. The legendary racehorse, John Henry has passed. Gone to the big race in the sky to battle down the homestretch with the other greats of the sport. And, I am heartbroken, indeed. For John Henry, although giving me great thrills at his exploits at the track, also taught me a great deal about life.

No..really.

John wasn't from the true "blue" blooded side of the track. His sire, Ole Bob Bowers was once sold for $900. John himself wasn't purchased for millions at the well-heeled sales at Saratoga. He barely brought in $1,100 at the Keeneland sales, after bashing himself in the head in the stall and arriving into the sales ring bloody.

He "suffered" the indignity of being gelded because he had his own mind...and mean temper. He also was undersized. Underweight. Underbred with unremarkable conformation.

He raced early on. He was a "workhorse" and managed to bring in some money and some attention. He was finally purchased by Dotsam Stable, the stable of Dorothy (Dot) and Sam Rubin. They shipped him out to California to the stable of Ron McAnally.

And...in the California sun and the glare of the racing public....John Henry blossomed. He started winning. Big. And the racing "elite" took notice. The fans turned up in droves to see "the little horse" that could. He captured the nation's imagination.

He certainly captured mine.

I would ride the Greyhound bus from Santa Barbara down to the tracks in the Los Angeles area, camera in tow and Racing Form in hand. And watching John in action truly was breath taking. Coming from the "nose bleed" section of the pack to win by a whisker he would give us thrills and excitement, and, yes, disappointment. He didn't win them all, but you knew he gave it his all. And we all loved him for it.

He was a ham. He truly loved the fans..almost as much as we loved him. I would squeeze up to the paddock rail to see the little guy. He would look around the ring, and, I kid you not, spot the cameras. As he was being walked around the ring, he would stop infront of someone who had a camera and "pose" until he heard that shutter click. I have a couple of great photos of him "smiling" at me.

So, what did he "teach" me, you ask...well...

More... "What a little racehorse taught me about life"

Question I'd like the Corporate Media to ask

...John McCain

"You recently were quoted as saying that MoveOn.org should be thrown out of this country for attacking the name and reputation of General Petraeus. You felt that it was disgraceful for people to attack those who have or are currently serving the country in uniform. Do you then, Senator, want members of this administration, including the President, thrown out of the country for dragging your name through the mud by suggesting in phone calls to voters that you had sired an illegitimate black child?"

Mark Your Calendars

Naomi Klein is coming to our little "adobe Disneyland"

Saturday, September 29, 2007 @ 8:00 PM
Victoria Hall Theater, 33 W. Victoria St.

"The Shock Doctrine - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism"

In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America's "free market" policies have come to dominate the world- — through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq's civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserves.... Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the "War on Terror" to Halliburton and Blackwater.... After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans's residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened.... These events are examples of "the shock doctrine": using the public's disorientation following massive collective shocks — wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters — to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don't succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

This is a FREE event.

For more info: 805.893.3535

Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the UCSB Women's Center as part of the 9th Annual Santa Barbara Book & Author Festival, September 28-29.

Living in Paradise can often bring Hell

or, how a raging wildfire can become a moment of Zen.

I've lived here in Santa Barbara for decades, with a few stray "run-away" moments in San Francisco, Sacramento, Pismo Beach and La Crescenta. I've seen many things go...and new things come to take their place. One thing, however, always remains a constant. The threat of fires.

Santa Barbara has certainly seen it's share of monster wildfires that wipe out 200, 300, 400 homes in a session. It gets to be, in a certain way, "old hat." You accept the fact that your life quite possibly could change in a single moment. Your "things" could be dust in a matter of minutes. You enjoy the beauty of the vibrant red/orange sunsets, but you know in your heart it more than likely means "disaster" fairly close by. But isn't that like life, anyhow? Enjoy the beauty while you can but understand there is a dark side to that beauty; there's a price somewhere that needs to be paid for it. Wildfires are our price for living here in "Paradise." And, often, we don't know when the payment has come due.

Well. We've been given notice with this Zaca Fire raging up in the valley, threatening to creep up and sweep down the glorious mountains, possibly taking with it our area's power supply. Residents of the City have been warned about a worse case scenario of the flames roaring down upon the City, and, with fewer hands to fight the fire, thanks to this Administration having sent the National Guard to Iraq to fight a useless and non-winable war, it quite possibly could destroy a good portion of the City and it's surrounding areas.

You start taking mental notes. Water? Check. Flashlight? Check. Radio with batteries, or in my case one of those "wind up" varietals....check. ID. Check. Extra cash. Check. Gas tank more than 3/4 full? Check.
Extra clothing? Check. But what then...which photos can you take? What favorite books can you pack? Do you really need to take the teddy bear? How about the mask from New Zealand that was handed down by a lost loved one? The paintings or lithos on the wall...can you manage to squeeze them in the car? And, don't get me started on my All Clad cookware. You know you can only take the very basics, because the simplicity of your baggage could mean life or death.

Simplicity. That's the key to survival in the threat of disaster. Simplicity. That's the key to surviving life.

Now...back to my filling up my water bottles.

Sicko

Me. Not the movie.

I've been laid low with some sort of lung/throat/fever thing that had been slammed around from person to person where I work like a hockey puck in a Red Wings game.

Hacking, coughing, unable to sleep. It still took me awhile to get to the doctors office. Out of habit, I waited for it to clear up, for I had been going without medical insurance for 6 years. I've been self trained to just ignore and go on as best as I could, slightly oblivious to possibly contaminating everyone else.

Being housebound for three days, you start to think. Alot. I started to remember my stint at Williams-Sonoma where almost all the staff would all show up sick because we didn't have health insurance nor sick days. You were only paid for the days you worked. And, if you had rent to pay, you had to pull in a certain amount of money, or else.

So...on your way to see the movie Sicko, and you stop by a coffee shop or a restaurant or even Williams-Sonoma, ask yourself if any of the people helping you could be sharing some contagious sickness with you because they can't take time off from work and have no financial access to a doctor.  The odds are good, that one of them is.

The Governator's War on Agriculture

The Ethicurean alerts us to a troubling little "add on" to The Governator's Budget Plan.

As suburbia roars into farming and ranching areas, the new housing and offices bring the possibility of higher property-tax rates for farms and ranches, which means more money in the coffers of local government. If owners of working farms and ranches are required to pay property taxes based on their land’s residential or commercial valuation, they usually have no choice but to sell the land to developers. A 1965 California law known as the Williamson Act helps preserve farms and ranches by allowing those who enroll in the program to have their land taxed at a rate based on actual use, not potential use. The state then compensates cities and counties for the revenue loss.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

BURIED IN Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget plans for next year is a small but truly bad idea. He wants to save $40 million by canceling a farmland preservation program.

He thinks he can dump the costs on rural and suburban counties, a favorite gambit of Sacramento budget balancers. In this case, however, he will unhinge a successful state plan that rewards agriculture and local government for staving off sprawl.

…Ditching [the Williamson Act] won’t mean that hard-pressed counties will step in and take over the subsidies. It will likely result in land sales, a decline in farming and ranching, new development in unprepared areas and a giant monkey wrench tossed into efforts to control and plan California’s growth.

Just a little thought...nearly 16.9 million of the state’s 29 million acres of farm and ranch land are currently protected under the Williamson Act. California Department of Conservation statistics show that between 2002 and 2004, Fresno County lost 11 agricultural acres a day. Kern County lost 9 a day, Merced 4, Stanislaus 8, San Joaquin 5 and San Diego 10. Kings and Imperial both lost the equivalent of 6 acres a day during that period.

Do we really want to trust all of our food to be imported from China?

The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) is advising consumers not to eat monkfish imported from China because the product may actually be puffer fish, a species that may contain a powerful toxin which can cause serious illness or death if consumed. - KFSN Fresno

Bloggers Hit the Beaches in Sandy Eggo

and the Convention Center, too. 

The SFChronicle has a front pager about the Democratic State Convention and how the "bloggers" have swarmed to attend...and blog about it. (Including our very own Ellen, I believe)

When Democrats gathered at their candidate-rich California state convention five years ago, a lone blogger from Berkeley was the first, and only, one of his kind to apply for media credentials to cover the events.

...This year, a record 50 Internet-publication bloggers will join the estimated 400 credentialed "mainstream" media in the press room to track the goings-on of seven Democratic presidential candidates and 2,100 California party delegates this weekend.

Calitics is wondering who said this, though.

...But one key state Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of concern for riling the netroots crowd, warns that such efforts are potentially positive and negative.

Netroots commentary can frequently be intensely personal, even "totally mean and irrational," the strategist said, with some bloggers finding power in their ability "to assassinate political characters online."

"It's amplified by the anonymity, and it can be scary that it's so irresponsible," the insider said

Commentary intensely personal and "totally mean and irrational?" Oh, you mean like the latest from those "netroots" folks Adam Nagourney and Maureen Dowd who went after John Edwards' hair?

Jerry Roberts, a local hero

Needs a little help. He's battling cancer AND he's battling his former employer, Wendy McCaw, a socialite divorcee who believes herself to be omnipotent here in town.

Dear colleagues, friends and supporters,

I was humbled and honored to be among nine journalists, all formerly on the staff of the Santa Barbara News-Press, given a National Ethics in Journalism Award several months ago by the Society of Professional Journalists.

The SPJ, after an independent investigation of the extraordinary events in Santa Barbara, awarded the honor to a group of us who felt forced to leave the paper last summer because of concerns over the ethics of management decisions involving news coverage. Our group, the SPJ citation said, "opted to risk their livelihoods rather than remain in a position where they felt their journalistic ethics and professional credibility were being violated."

Amid the ongoing exodus of dozens of professional journalists from the News-Press, the paper’s owner has filed a flurry of legal threats, claims and lawsuits against people who dared to speak out or report about what was happening in the newsroom.

In response, a group of prominent local attorneys formed the Lawyers Alliance for Free Speech Rights, to help level the playing field for journalists who found themselves bludgeoned by legal attacks by Ampersand Publishing, owned by billionaire Wendy McCaw.

I am one of those journalists, now facing a $25 million arbitration claim filed by the company.   

Colleagues and friends put together a web site - http://www.jerryrobertsandfriends.org - to help the Alliance help me and other journalists fight back.

Please take a few minutes to review the events at the paper by reading the stories on this site. And then please make a donation to the Lawyers Alliance for Free Speech Rights, in defense of the values, standards and ethics of public interest journalism.

Thanks for your consideration.

Jerry

Hope you can help him out. He's a great guy, a fine journalist and a dang good moderator of a continuing education course I'm attending, "As the World Turns: The Games People Play."

(photo from the Santa Barbara Independent)

All I Gotta Say Is....

General...My General

Bush Pilot (with English subtitles)

The Bush pilot himself reports about his job and the obstacles involved