ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

We got our stimulus check last week and we've already given 20% of it away. I'm encouraging others to do the same. We gave to the Humane Society, who was so wonderful to us in helping Sydney pass peacefully. They do a lot of good work and have lovely dogs in need of good homes:

http://www.humanesocietyvc.org/DONATE.html

We also gave to this local gal, Trisha Milauckas, a server at Azu who is raising money and running in her first half marathon for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/nikesf08/tmilauckas

I also like the work Bob Ballard is doing for the homeless:

http://heartsoffire.tv/home.php

And Theater 150 and Help of Ojai are favorites of mine, too.

Please give!

this year, we found it, our Rainbow connection!

Poorly written racist rhetoric once more on VC Star's YourNews:

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/01/ventura-activists-attend-honor-america-secure/

For those that care about this election and care about Obama winning, but who also care about the upcoming FISA vote and the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution there is something you can do that is a new approach. If you have not already gone to the campaign website and signed up, you really should. There are a lot of cool features and news to be found there. You can also send Obama's campaign money, though I wouldn't advise it until after we see how he votes on FISA, probably next Tuesday.

The new approach I spoke about earlier involves the groups that people can create on the Obama website. There's hundreds, maybe even thousands of groups where people who are members of the Obama site can get emails and chat amongst themselves about various issues, what have you. You can even create your own groups. There's even a group of Ojai Obama supporters called Ojaiforbarackobama. Progressives and the netroots have been blogging and organizing all over the place, in the usual ways. It's been disheartening to say the least. Well, then someone noticed that you can make your own groups on Obama's site and they decided to make one asking Senator Obama to vote against the FISA Bill and immunity for the telcoms. The group is called SenatorObama-PleaseVoteAgainstFISA and the interesting thing is that in like four days it has become the second largest group on the campaigns website! This is awesome because the DLC type dems that seem to have ascended in the Obama campaign have to be very embarrassed by this netroots uprising. They can either shut down the group or try and diminish their own site. If they try the former, I'm afraid it'll be the end of the campaign. The group is already getting media attention from the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

If you want to join you need to first be a member of the Obama site, so click the first link and follow the instructions. If you are already a member, clicking the second link should take you right to the group. If for some reason that doesn't work, just go to groups and click the groups with the most members link. It'll be first of second on the list.

Happy Independence Day!

Oh, sorry. The above is from me.

Join up folks. Here's the NYT article. Join up to express your support and your expectations for your candidate.

Well I don't know how many of you took time away from the heat, the dead frogs, your bush or the class reunion, but we did it!

The #1 group on Obama's campaign website is the Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right group with over 15,000 members and still growing. It has until Tuesday and the vote to grow and grow. Now it's up to Senator Obama and his campaign gurus to deal with this uprising. It will probably be all over the news all weekend.

I don't know whether to be alarmed or just sad.

So much for hope. If Obama can't stand for principle on something this basic, he's hardly change to get inspired by.

When his core supporters have to go to the mattresses this early, before he's even officially nominated, to take him to task for flipflopping on basic principles, and selling out the Constitution to give immunity to telecoms for lawbreaking ... well, it is not something that inspires me at all. Obama should let FISA expire. Bush can get a warrant if he wants to wiretap you and me. If Obama believes FISA has anything to do with monitoring "terrorists," he is hopelessly naive. This is all about whether Bush can monitor you and me, and get away with it.

Hillary disqualified herself with her vote to approve Bush's war in Iraq. She sold out principal for what she thought would be political gain, and she lost that bet. Many have supported Obama because we thought he understood that. I am one who has suspected that Obama made much out of a speech, and that his record was one that indicated if he had been in the Senate, he would have approved the war alongside Hillary. This pretty much proves that theory right.

So, now what do we do?

Further to Post #1:

We got our stimulus check a couple of weeks ago, and we've already given it all away!

First, we paid down the water bill, up over 40% and running late.

Some went to the mortgage company. Thankfully, the mortgage does not reset for another 8 months. Until then, hopefully we can continue cutting back on food and drink so we can make that payment each month. (Talk about a diet that works. The broke diet. Surely I'm not the only one who has noticed Ojai getting skinnier lately?)

Gas and food have all been put on the credit card. That monthly balance has been about 50% higher than in the past. We gave the rest of our stimulus toward that bill.

That leaves a late phone bill (be blogging from the library soon folks), late electric, late gas.

But Countrywide, Chevron, the German company that owns our water and Wells Fargo got stimulated. If that's what you call it.

Still, maybe it would have been more efficient just to send the $140 billion or whatever it was directly to them. You know: Here's $140 billion. Give your "customers"/peons another month, OK?

Wow, you just erased nearly all the comments on your Stop The Trucks thread except the first one. In future, please just simply ban all comments, not just the ones you happen to agree with. I rarely agree with Brian, but your refusal to let him be heard is pretty blatant and one-sided, which only discredits the good work you are trying to do.

The name of our site is "Stop the Trucks." Anyone with another agenda can easily go elsewhere.

I admire your tenacity and I think comment-free post will serve you well.

I don't like seeing those trucks going through town much either and I don't often agree with Brian, but he does have a valid analysis on this one. You may not like it because it flies in the face of your position, but it is valid. You really should go full NIMBY and not allow any comments on your articles.

Brian had a valid analysis?

I'd say I have to see it to believe it. But I can't see it. Because someone with an opposing viewpoint and the power to delete comments has deleted it.

I guess I'll just have to take on faith that there is something seriously wrong with the Stop The Trucks agenda, so wrong that the truckstoppers cannot brook its being aired in public.

I hereby rescind my support for Stop the Trucks.

But I'd still like the chance to think for myself, rather than having to reject the cause on faith and my experience that those who censor critics do so because their cause is manifestly a bad one. After all, just because Howard obviously believes Brian has irrefutably exposed the Stop the Trucks coalition and agenda as an indefensible one that cannot stand up in the light of day, doesn't mean I would necessarily agree with him.

He copied it all here:

http://www.ojaipost.com/2008/07/stop_the_trucks_freedom_editio.shtml

Hmm. Not much to that. I can't believe that's what spk is endorsing as "valid analysis."

And I am utterly failing to see what Howard believes is so devastating to the Stop the Trucks cause in Brian's post.

See, Howard? I told you, if I could see the analysis, I might not agree with you that Brian has terminated the cause with irrefutable arguments, to the point where the only option is censorship. Seems to me he hasn't said anything that means we must embrace the trucks. What are you seeing that I'm missing?

That post isn't the only thing Brian's said about the trucks issue. It's been going on for a long long time now and there are probably a hundred comments about the trucks issue that weren't allowed to be debated on the trucks articles themselves, so they are hard to find.

Basically he's lamenting the plight of the truckers themselves. There is something to be said for that. Brian's main problem however is that he places the blame in the wrong place as usual. He blames environmentalists and liberals.

I too have written a bit about the truck thing and the main reason I am not an ardent supporter is because of its inherent NIMBY approach. My argument has been to blame the mine owners rather than the independent truck drivers. As is usually the case, those in the extractive industries have an uncanny knack for externalizing most of their costs onto the rest of us. In this case they, like many in bigger business, are also externalizing all their costs with regard to their labor. By destroying trucking unions and employing indy, some would gypsy, trucks, they are able to get away with anything. Needless to say, if the mine's customers couldn't get the gravel, the mines would have nothing to sell. Therefore the mines are absolutely dependent on transportation for their product. The way they get around the costs associated with transportation--insurance, benefits, fuel costs, federal and state regulation and all other costs but the bare minimum is to hire freelance, indy trucks. They squeeze these people for all their worth and in the end, the poor truck drivers have to take crazy short cuts and cut corners both literally and figuratively in order to make enough to survive. If these mines were using union truck drivers, the union would be able to set rational times for hauling so that the trucks could take the somewhat longer but infinitely safer routes on I-5 or the 101. Further, unions would be able to take into account the ever rising cost of fuel.

Howard's group has been very effective and a applaud them, it's just not my thing.

County biologist Pam Lindsey admitted the toxicity of the RoundUp Poison which is being sprayed by the tons into Matilija Creek and into the Ventura River.

County Watershed Poisoner Jeff Pratt said he needs much more support from the public for their campaign of ecocide.

Ben Pitterle who along with the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper is being paid to manage the disinfo for the Matilija Poison Campaign said that they were happy to profit from the Matilija Poisoning, and that they too wanted to silence those who are speaking out about it.

Supervisor Steve Bennett said he was very happy poisoning the Valley wetlands and people, and wanted to extend and expand the County's disinformation campaign, and silence those members of the public with the integrity to name him for what he is.

now that's calling a Gangster a Gangster, speaker for Frogs!

Brian Pitterle wrote to me that Santa Barbara Channelkeeper supported the propaganda campaign that spraying poison in the Matilija Creek was required in order to remove the Matilija Dam, and that the County Program was all about money.

http://ojaivalleynews.blogspot.com/2008/07/herbacide-fears-prompt-meeting.html

Lots of American and world records have been falling this week in the tryouts for the U.S. swim team for the summer Olympics....

but the most amazing one of all is a new American record in the women's fifty meter freestyle.... by Dara Torres.... at the age of FORTY-ONE..... I kid you not....

she is the mother of a two-year old girl.... she will be going to her fifth Olympics.....

this made the round of the croakers this morning!

apparently the first confirmed human-related death from the poison campaign, a 'mere' dog.

the longtime Matilija Canyon resident 'owner' of the poisoned dog was furious at the response from the poison campaign coordinator (a Mr. Pitafully in Santa Barbara) who laughed uproariously and said the aged German Shepherd was "not a native to Matilija".

"we are just doing what we are being paid for. and we can't remove the Dam Dam until AFTER the Dam Canegrass is removed."

and the croaker's response, well the Ventura Government wants and 'needs' the extra parking anyway for THEIR helipads and THEIR firetrucks, and to show off THEIR toxic wetlands to THEIR 'public' ...