Grover Norquist Wins State Senate Seat!

Good old “get government small enough to drown in the bathtub” Grover Norquist won Tuesday’s election for state Senator for our district. So, unless there’re other changes in the Assembly or Senate, we’ll see more gridlock as the state slowly sinks in the west. But that’ll be o.k. Last year, Grover, when facing a choice of compromising on some budget issues or seeing California crash and burn, chose crash and burn. I’m sure the same thing will happen again. But, that’s what the voters wanted, so that’s what they’ll get.

Oh, wait, did I say Grover Norquist? I meant Sam Blakeslee, but same difference.

The Russians are Coming!

Great photo on the front page of today’s Tribune. A “yacht” looking like a battleship parked outside the Morro Bay breakwater while the owner, a 38-year-old Russian tycoon billionaire visits the central coast and has a private tour of Hearst Castle.

Looking at the photo I could only think of Tolstoy’s observation that behind every great fortune is a great crime. And “business tycoon” involved with Russia’s recent “experiment” in “capitalism,” involving oil pipelines and coal and gas producers & etc. are no exception. That gang of enterprising cronies that rose after the fall of communism made our own historical robber barons look like pikers. Ah, God bless the child .

Annie Time Again

The saga of Annie, the dog that was lost, got adopted, original owner arrives, new owner refuses to give her back, continues anew with a new column by the Tribune’s Bill Morem and another spate of letters-to-the editor. The consensus seems to be that maybe Animal Services screwed up, [previous] owner Chuck Hoage and the [new] owners did everything by the book but things still got messed up and now it’s up to the new owners to “do the right thing” and give Annie back to her “real” owner.

That his hasn’t happened and instead there has been absolute silence as to WHY this hasn’t happened, is likely what keeps this story going. A mystery into which, Rorschach-like we can pour our own concerns and values. But there also seems to be a overlying larger issue best expressed by Carol Tell of Santa Maria’s letter to the editor asking “Why is it so hard for people these days to do the right thing?”

That simple question is certainly reflective of our zeitgeist – all around us we see evidence of People Behaving Badly, from sleazy, greedy, selfish Wall Street thieves, to sleazy, selfish demagogues flogging phony issues just for their political gain, and ugly Nativist Know-Nothing bigotry spilling all over the body politic, sleazy cost-cutting corporate greed whose results have oozed all over the gulf coast, while good people who have always tried to do the right thing lose their homes, lose their jobs and go broke. Our present reality is a vision filled with fear and greed and lust for power, none of which can even vaguely be described as “doing the right thing,” or even behavior that speaks to our better natures.

And then there’s Annie. A small four-footed symbol of so much that has gone so wrong in our world. With so many people asking, How can we make this right?

And only one family can answer that question. And, to date, their response is . . . silence.

Oh, Dear, How In The World Did THAT Happen?

Eight off-road race fans were killed and five others seriously injured during a “Mad Max” type road race out in the Mojave Desert. This made the front page of the L.A. Times. Front page. Huge news. Or as the Times puts it, “Fans of desert racing say nothing beats the danger, dust and noise of watching 3,500 pound trucks roaring past – close enough almost to touch – and then rocketing into the air over treacherous jumps with nicknames like tthe rock pile.’”

Until the 3,500 pound truck flies into the air, lands then rolls over and smashes into those folks standing close enough to lean out into the path of the truck to take photos of airborne trucks, heck maybe get a few shaky shots of a truck rolling over directly towards them. Such fun! Until it isn’t.

And now some of those who enjoy leaning out into the path of roaring-by trucks are whining that it’s the promoters of this race who are at fault. They should have put up fences, ignoring the high probability that drunken fans would simply tear down fences to get closer. It being a macho, racy thing, sorta like running with the bulls. Or there’s the usual default fault – blame the Bureau of Land Management for not overseeing things better. “The feds have allowed a ‘Mad Max’ atmosphere to develop with too many people and too many machines crammed into too little space,’ said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit environmental protection group that has had previous clashes with off-road enthusiasts. ‘The feds don’t have the resources and apparently not the interest, to regulate off-road vehicles properly.”

Is Suckling kidding? Try to regulate off-road vehicles properly? Try that and thousands raise such a ruckus that timid Congresspeople and understaffed BLM folks back off very quickly. Has Suckling paid no attention to our regular whoop-ups at the Oceaneo Dunes whenever some kid gets killed? Getting killed is part of the deal when 3,500 trucks fly through the air right next to crowds of people. Noted Bryant Layton, an off-road racer and friend of the driver who crashed, that  “The crowds have been getting progressively worse every year. It’s known to be out of control, with lots of people drinking .”

Yup. Flying trucks, booze, Mad Max. It’s no wonder the poor desert tortoise is endangered. And as for the front page story? Slow news day. Pointless, stupid death is always a great way to gin up circulation.

How Much Is That Governor’s Job In The Window?

Again from the Times: Billionaire Meg Whitman donated "an additional $13 million of her own money to her effort to become California’s next governor, bringing the Republican nominee’s personal state in her election bid to $104 million.”

Guess that’s our future: Being ruled by wealthy oligarcs who can buy their offices outright. Or, since the recent Supreme Court ruling, being ruled by corporations, including foreign-owned ones, who will simply buy the office outright then install a puppet in the chair. Nice.

Your Sunday Poem

Interesting snippet from the Aug 2 L.A. Times, “E-poems? A wait o’er font, integrity issues.” Seems that poetry and the new e-books won’t be an easy fit because “publishers and e-book makers have not figured out how the integrity of a poem can be guaranteed. “A three-line stanza might be expanded to four if a line is to long or a four-line stanza compressed into three if the second and fourth lines have sharp indentations . . . and a displaced word, even a comma can alter a poem’s meaning as surely as skipping a note changes a song.”

“The critical difference between prose and poetry is that prose is kind of like water and will become the shape of any vessel you pour it into,” poet Billy Collins says. “Poetry is like a piece of sculpture and can easily break.”

So, for now, there may be limited e-poetry work available as technology tries to catch up this ancient form. And many people think poems are just words arranged weirdly on a page, any page. Nope. Which is why book designers are so critical for any printed work, and why a well designed book is just a joy to look at while turning each page over and over and over. This is especially true for a book of poetry. Which is why I keep reminding you to support your favorite (and some new) poets; buy their (real) books.

And now for Tony Hoagland, from his latest book, “Unincorporated persons in the Late Honda Dynasty.”

The Loneliest Job in the World.

As soon as you begin to ask the question, Who loves me?,
you are completely screwed, because
the next question is How Much?,

and then it is hundreds of hours later,
and you are still hunched over
your flowcharts and abacus,

trying to decide if you have gotten enough.
This is the loneliest job in the world:
to be an accountant of the heart.

It is late at night. You are by yourself,
and all around you, you can hear
the sounds of people moving

in and out of love,
pushing the turnstiles, putting
their coins in the slots,

paying the price which is asked,
which constantly changes.
No one knows why.

How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

The Saga of Annie continues on the front page of the Tribune. Proof positive that it’s August, a slow news month when stories about ice cream appear on the cover of Time, and we get heavy news coverage of minor “human interest” news.

Poor Annie, an Aussie who jumped out of her owner’s truck in Nipomo and ran away back in June. Owner Chuck Hogue searched for her for weeks. Apparently she turned up at the Animal Shelter about a week later, unbeknownst to Hogue. It’s not clear from the story how Hogue came to discover Annie had been at the shelter, but she had been at the shelter for some time, and her description had been put on the call-in dog line three times. Still, no Hogue. And by the time he did realize she was there and showed up to get her back, she had been adopted by a family from Arroyo Grande.

The wrinkle in this story is that the adopting family refused to give her back to her original owner, so the “human interest” part of this story kicked into high gear, with daily updates and then outraged letters to the editor. Of which, Jeff Hamm, director of the county Health Agency, which oversees the Department of Animal Services (DAS), likely made worse when he “called the subsequent complaints to the county seeking to have Annie returned to Hogue a ‘feeding frenzy.’”

An unfortunate phrase that likely will cause more dismay and anger from “the public” which has been active and vocal in calling out Hogue (didn’t tether his dog safely in the back of his pickup truck, didn’t microchip Annie, had no i.d. tags on her, no evidence he came to the shelter or files a lost dog report & etc.), DAS (screwed up policies, past problems on similar adoption problems, mixups resulting in dead dogs, etc.) and the new adoptive family (selfish, heartless pond scum who would keep a dog from reuniting with his “real” owner.

And this morning, he saga has now ramped up to include talk-show host, Dave Congalton, Supervisor Adam Hill, who offered to “pay any expenses incurred by the new owners for adopting Annie, including the cost of a microchip and to buy them a new puppy” (buy them a puppy? Not adopt another pup from DAS?). And now there’s a planned meeting “with Jim Grant, county administrative officer, Jeff Hamm, director of the county health agency, and County Counsel Warren Jensen, in case the county decides to explore legal options for returning Annie to Hogue.”

So the big guns are threatening to bring on The Law, and/or offering money and a new puppy to the horrible, terrible, evil pond-scum AG adoptive family, while a group of Annie fans were going to hold a rally at SLO’s Farmer’s Market. And, to date, the horrible, terrible, evil pond-scum AG adoptive family has remained off the radar, likely hiding under the bed and ruing the day they ever went to DAS to get a dog for the kids.

But this story did have some great elements that helped turn it into a sad, cautionary tale. First, there’s no evidence that Hogue was a terrible, abusive, evil, terrible abusive dog owner. If he had been, the new owners would be ethically justified in keeping Annie from such a terrible person. Yes, Annie should have been collared and I.D. tagged and tethered safely, but accidents can happen and dogs can get loose from even the most secure situations, run off and remain lost for weeks from even the most loving and caring of homes. And, unfortunately, too many people who find stray dogs don’t turn them in to DAS, or notify DAS that they have the dog, fearing the dogs will be taken away and killed, and instead, keep them for weeks, often months, while the owners are checking with DAS daily. Then, after futile weeks of checking, the owners give up the search and when the dog finally does turn up at DAS, it’s too late.

And, yes, DAS is too often beset with problems due to understaffing, being underfunded, and overwhelmed at times with too many animals being dumped by too many irresponsible owners. They also have to rely on hard-working volunteers and in the past lack of time and training for the volunteers has resulted in problems. Add in the difficulty of properly describing/identifying dogs for the hot line and the problems are only magnified. As a DAS certified “Basenji Rescue” contact, I’ve gotten several calls or emails over the years claiming that there’s a basenji in the shelter. Only once has that been correct. The other dogs weren’t even close. True, very few people have ever actually seen a basenji, and basenji-mixes can be tricky, at best, so it’s easy to see how any small tan and white dog with a curled tail might be worth calling me about. But that information on the phone call-in line would flummox an owner looking for their tan terrier/retriever mix. Even the photos that were taken and sent me didn’t much match the dog when I came to the shelter for a look. So, proper identification even by photo can be hard.

Add in the fact that, believe it or not, a lot of people have no clue where DAS is or how to access it. In this case, Annie was lost in Nipomo and I’m betting her owner likely never thought to drive daily up to a shelter as far away as San Luis Obispo. And, for all we know, Annie may have been kept in somebody’s home while they tried on their own to post flyers around the neighborhood until finally turning her over, thereby confounding Mr. Hogue’s search. In short, an awful lot of people simply don’t know where to begin to look for a lost dog.

And, finally, in this story, we have to add in the adoptive family, whose story we know nothing about, except they refuse to return Annie to her “real” owner, and so-far have refused to say why they refuse. Which makes them look like evil, horrible, terrible pond-scum. And raises an interesting ethical issue: Who “owns” dogs and when?

Legally, (at this point, unless Warren Jensen can find some new wrinkle) Annie is legally “owned” by the adoptive A.G. family. They filled out the forms, paid the fees, followed the DAS rules.

But who really “owns” Annie? The A.G. family who has had her for a few weeks, or Hogue, who has “owned” Annie for 8 years? One letter-to-the-editor writer suggested we all let Annie decide. Invite Mr. Hogue over to the A.G. family home, open the door and let’s see.

And, ethically, is it right to keep someone’s dog when there’s no evidence that the owner is abusive, indifferent, cruel, etc? When the only problem may have been a lack of knowledge of how to search for and find a lost dog? When the owner has known and loved his dog for 8 years and the adopter has only known the dog for a few weeks?

When does me-first trump doing the right thing? Has Finders keepers, losers weepers become the ethical norm? Well, until we hear from the family in question, we’ll be left with a lot of questions and likely this saga will continue. After all, it’s August – Dog Days – and this is one of those slow-news-day stories. Stay tuned.

Also Stay Tuned

The Republic is safe for another week. Instead of allowing gay marriages to commence, Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker has allowed the Prop 8 supporters to delay and appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which should rule next week. The question before the 9th Circuit has now turned into an interesting one: In federal court, in order to have standing to sue, a person/group has to show that they have suffered an actual injury, and in the trial over which Judge Walker presided, the Prop 8 folks couldn’t muster any rational, credible, factual evidence that people had been injured by gay people getting married.

And since Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, as the losing parties who do have standing have refused to appeal Walker’s decision, it’ll be up to the Prop 8 folks to find and present all those injured straight people to the 9th Circuit Court. If they can’t, that’ll apparently be the end of it in California, at least, and we’ll see a lot of gay weddings happening all over the state.

Meanwhile, DOMA (federal Defense of Marriage Act) still stands and still discriminates against gay folks who are legally married in states where that’s allowed, so that case has yet to proceed on that issue. And, of course, the military – which has apparently forgotten that it’s fighting two wars – is still kicking out fully trained gay soldiers, including combat veterans. And they’ll apparently continue to do so until either President Obama signs an executive stop-order and/or the year-long “study” is completed and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is rescinded.

Such bigotry and stupidity never ceases to amaze me. But, hey, it’s sooooo American.

And Now, A Comment From One In The Know

This email came in response to my previous posting of Ron Crawford’s latest “letter to the RWQCB.” It is posted with permission, but sans name, to avoid possible blowback, but I can vouch for its authorship and vouch that it’s someone very involved with the Hideous Sewer Wars. And the author is correct: The WMH breach of contract lawsuit really should have been persued – really. It is an absolute tragedy for the residents of Los Osos that what really happened will be buried and the cost for that “breach” will eaten by the residents. And had Roger Briggs and the RWQCB and SWB, with lots of help from Pandora & The Etcs, “Fine Them Out Of Existence!,” not lost their marbles, all of this misery for the Los Osos 45 and all the rest could have been avoided utterly and we could have been well on our way with the October Compromise & etc, to having the exact same sewer system that we’ll be getting now – without the wasted years  and wasted millions of dollars. Thus, Ron Crawford correct in understanding how government agencies can act without accurate information while the citizens pay the price for their screw ups.

“The recent posts forget one thing and it is a big thing. The project was not stopped by the Post Recall Board. The State did this by refusing to engage the new Board and withholding funds. All of this was in the claim against MWH and the State. It is very disturbing that the new Board dropped those claims as MWH dodged a big one. I do understand the cost to continue that fight would have been a huge continual drain on the CSD. This is exactly one of the huge faults of the structure of the appeals processes of both the regional and state boards. Appeals should go directly to the courts.

That said the one glaring issue that the TW [Tri-W] supporters forget is that the current project is EXACTLY what we agreed to under Blakeslee in October 2005. This is what is so disturbing. Also the experts that finally looked at TW, including the most recent county consultants, absolutely confirm that the post recall board was spot on with that October 2005 compromise. this is the glaring indictment of both the TW folks fraud and the malfeasance done by both MWH and the State. The county's current project exonerates the post recall board, ENTIRELY. Those that don't get that are deniers. They are incapable of admitting that the post recall board got it right all those years ago and that the project would have been completed now, yes now, had the Briggs (the [redacted]), the state and MWH lived up to their duties. As for Young he is simply an arrogant [redacted].