So the Shredder sticks pins in what he calls the Los Osos Sewer Nuts. Now New Times reports that on Oct 11th, Linde Owen came to the microphone to object to "what she said was a lax county investigation into a relationship between Public Works Director Paavo Ogren and former Los Osos Community Services District director Maria Kelly" and County Supervisor Adam Hill shut her down, claimed he wouldn't allow "slanderous" statements at public comment time. So Hill cut off Owen's microphone and whistled up the sherrif's deputy who escorted Owens from the lecturn.
The following week Linde and others came back to the microphone to condemn Hill for cutting off Owen's 3 minutes and violating various public comment statutes and etc. Then Erick Greening, The Most Amazing Civic Minded Person In The Room, Always, stood up and, according to the New Times article, said:
"I'm a grateful user of the First Amendment. Whenever I hear speakers that I agree with I'm grateful for the First Amendment. When I hear speakers I disagree with I'm grateful for the First Amendment. When I hear people presenting illuminating information I"m grateful for the First Amendment. When I hear people presenting what I think is misinformation I'm grateful for the First Amendment. And when I get up there and correct what I think is misinformation I'm grateful for the First Amendment. And I hope everyone in this room always treasures the First Amedment on that basis and we all have a chance to use it."
THAT's why I call Eric The Most Amazing Civic Minded Person In The Room, Always.
Apparently, our Mr. Hill didn't make a peep and, I'm sure, didn't hear a word Eric had to say. Poor Mr. Hill. He hasn't quite figured out that it's impossible to get the public out of public comment. I fear he's in over his head, has risen to his level of incompetence and just hasn't mastered the art all Supervisors need to master: The art of the Snile -- you know it well, the just-slightly insincere smile crossed with a barely perceptible sneer, a deliciously subtle fake (but deniable) smirk that communicates the following perfectly: Thank you for sharing now shut the f--k up and go away thank you.
Instead, Hill panics and turns bully-boy and that never works out well. Not with Bearish folks from Los Osos.
Somebody Get These Guys A Calculator? An Abacus? Some Fingers and Toes?
Are you still here? The world was supposed to end yesterday. Yep, the Oakland-based Family Radio International, the folks who brought you the Rapture last May that didn't rapt, said their 90-year-old leader, Harold Camping, was at it again. Sez the good reverend, "Thus we can be sure that the whold world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect) are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on Oct 21."
Well, bless Harold's little heart. Here it is the 22nd and I'm staring at the computer screen and the dogs are snoozing on their beds and the sun is about to come upjust like it has for the past, oh, I don't know, gazillion years and will continue to do so for another gazillion. Well, DANG!
OH, Don't Worry, Take A Pill. That's What We Do Here In Toxic Nation
This from a Nation Roundup in the Trib: "About 1 in 25 adolescents in the United States is taking an anti-depressant, according to a new government study billed as the first to offer such statistics on that age group. " The ages studies were from 12 to 17 and was based on surveys and depression screenings of about 12,000 U.S. adolescents and adults, 2005 through 2008.
The study also found that about 1 in 10 adults are taking antidepressants as well.
Wait, it gets better: From the L.A. Times: A new report from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, a leading health policy foundation, found that "The U.S. health care system is lagging further and further behind other industrialized countries on major measures of quality, efficiency and access to care."
Even better, is this conclusion: "Despite the problems with access and quality, the U.S. continues to spend far more than other industrialized nations on health care, with per capital spending now topping $8,000 a year, more than twice what most other industrialized countries spend."
In short, we pay more for crappier health care and have poorer health outcomes than other countries. Someone seeing that might conclude that Americans are stupid. In our case, it would be more accurate to say we're overweight and sick and stupid-- fools just asking to be fleeced.
No wonder we and our children are depressed. That's what living in a sick, fleeced, toxic culture can do to you if you're dumb enough to keep clinging to the status quo. So, eat up those Big Macs and keep shoving tranqs down your kids gullets. And whatever you do, be sure to vote for politiciams who will dismantle Obamacare and Medicare/Medicade, public health programs, and will remove all government regulatons on the health care industry as a whole. After all, the free marketplace will solve all our health care problems. True, a reformed and improved, innovative Medicare for All type national health care program might be able to actually deliver better health outcomes for less money to everyone in our very, very sick nation, but that would be "socialized medicine" and in Toxic America, we can't have that.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
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22 comments:
I love Erick Greening. I've never met someone who so truly walks the talk, and every time I see him downtown (most often entering or exiting public transportation) I let him know how much I admire and appreciate his intelligence and dignity.
What Erick brings to the BOS each and every week, and why the supervisors hold him in such high esteem, is RESPECT for the process and the Board. He is never crude, or rude, or offensive, or accusatory, or downright mean-spirited, nasty, petty or grating. He affords those he speaks to the same dignity and courtesy he respects in return, and he always gets it.
The First Amendment is truly a beautiful thing. But so is decorum and respect. I'm sure the Los Osos "activists" the Shredder speaks of think they are pure class, but I see it differently. As I'm sure many many around the county do as well.
Of course, the built-in response from the "activists" is that they are treated terribly by the BOS (or water board, or coastal commission, or the state, etc etc etc) so they act as they do. But I know I could never be a supervisor and sit on that board and listen to the crap these people spew week in and week out, or more precisely, how they spew it.
It is what it is. I'm just always a little satisfied when someone (like the Shredder) calls out the behavior of the Los Osos "activists." Civility/respect and decorum/passion to a cause should not have to be mutually exclusive. Just ask Erick Greening.
About feeding our children anti-depressants: one thing nobody ever mentions is that anti-depressants cause weight gain--and often lead to obesity. There's nothing our culture loves to do more than bully and humiliate fat children. Big pharma wins twice: first by selling the toxic pills, then by humiliating kids into getting weight loss surgery that will kill them. Yay to the "best health care system in the world."
Bravo Billy Dunne, your words, out of all of the words written on this topic in the different venues, have explained the entire story in a nutshell!
So Hill likes to cut off people? I notice that progressive/socialists have a practice of doing that when they are disagreed with. Apparently they feel that they are above the law. They are the liberal elite.
On healthcare: The US spends far more because it's doctors and nurses get paid far more, and there are hungry greedy trial lawyers waiting to take cases even from the hypochondriacs. In addition we offer free hospital care to illegal aliens with these charges being passed on to other users of the medical care system.
Here in Panama we have socialized medicine for all citizens that is equivalent to Canada's system (mediocre) and excellent private insurance in an excellent private hospital for non-citizens with permanent visas. I pay $960 a year for my insurance which covers 95% of everything. My medicare is no good here, but I keep it for my trips back to the US. Our doctors make $20 house calls and an office visit is $10. A full blood work is $15 at a medical lab, and no prescription is needed. Our dental care is excellent also, about 1/3 the cost of the US dentists. The average doctor in Panama makes $50000 a year and about the same for a dentist. Their office help is $15 a day. Everyone except the communists here are happy! (Very few communists).
Calhoun makes mention of a sick, fleeced, toxic culture in the US. I agree that one exists. I recently see some of it demonstrating, urinating, and defecating in big city parks. It is her culture and she should be proud of it. Her culture makes a great impression on the world. The demonstrations are all over the world press and TV, of course with an anti-American slant.
Thank you Obama Administration with special kudos to Bill Clinton, Chris Dodd, and Barney Frank. You made this severe recession possible!
What I took away from Eric's wonderful speech at the BOS podium, is The First Amendment doesn't define HOW you speak; nice, nasty, smart, dumb. That's the point. And Eric earns respect not only because he gives it, but because he's always prepared (done his homework) is reasonable/rational and on target. More important, he doesn't waste his time or energy on anger since he knows it doesn't work worth beans.
Anyone running for elected office should know that part of the job is to be the lightning rod of public frustration and anger. Comes with the territory. And they should also know that not everyone is as articulate and knowledgeable as Eric. Katcho and Frank Meacham were masters at the "Snile" and knew how to play that game. Gibson starts with the Snile but his egotistical Mr. Explain It All For Us kicks in and he ruins the effect by overwhelming the opinionater with unnecessary verbage that drowns out the whole room, removing even the air until everyone in the audience flees in terror. Adam hasn't quite got it yet. His body language and bully boy tactics shows me he's afraid and not in control of the process or himself. He'll learn, maybe. Or not. Some Sups have the temperament to be Sups. Others don't.
Anne: Yup. Ya really gotta think about that statistic. Why are so many of our kids on meds? It's amazing. and it should be our canary in the coal mine.
Ann, you say this about Eric - and I agree completely, "More important, he doesn't waste his time or energy on anger since he knows it doesn't work worth beans."
I wish those angry voices at the podium week after week got that.
I've been thinking a lot about this topic. What I don't understand is the rationale of the speakers. The project is written in stone. Its components are a given. Yet, they seem to think it can be changed at this point. When asked about how this could be accomplished, the words replied are very, very vague or not based in reality.
So I have changed my thinking on what they are trying to do - and they may even not be aware themselves of what they appear (to me) to be doing. PUNISHMENT for not giving them the project that they wanted. PUNISHMENT for all the Supes for voting to accept this (in their minds) flawed project. What else can you make of this anger that has no resolution?
The punishment the Supe's are dealing us will be much harder to absorb. Being yelled at is much easier to overcome than possibly losing your house and any semblance of reasonable lifestyle.
Sincerely, M
There's also "bearing witness" and reminding people, publicly, what has heppened here. The official stance is to bury the bodies and move on. Don't let's remind anyone about this train wreck. Perhaps what's doing on here is, in part, bearing witness, a reminder that all things are not as they seem, all smiley-faced, that lies remain lies, that lipstick on a pig is still lipstick on a pig. And, of course, there's anger and pain that will be gongoing for so much of this community for years to come. You can't smile that away easily.
M, you might look at it this way. The Supes did not "deal out punishment" as you put it, but SOLVED A PROBLEM that those earlier Supes kicked down the road. Those early Supes were swayed by public opinion that we didn't need a sewer (well, to be fair, not all of them), and then were swayed again by tax revenues, allowed more building without imposing the necessary infrastructure costs on both the current residents and the builders. Not good decisions any way you look at it.
Well, it is sad that people did not see the handwriting on the wall. Thirty years is a long time to wait for a sewer, but a long time to SAVE for one too. Those looking for a free ride were simply hiding their heads in the sand. As we have seen, it sure hasn't gotten any cheaper.
I'm afraid the "bearing witness" part is not that of a positive witness. Judging from the comment sections on other articles about LO sewer topics, those who don't live in Los Osos, and, many who do, think the protests are not valid ones, but just obtrusive word banners signaling how annoying, short-sighted and entitled some people can be. I mean really, does anyone enjoy hearing a broken record? “Acoustic bombardment” is actually a form of torture.
A broken record, like you, bitch?
Now you can summarize what people think in other "comment sections" now?
Go fuck yourself.
Toons projected this bit of fantasy:
" SOLVED A PROBLEM that those earlier Supes kicked down the road. Those early Supes were swayed by public opinion that we didn't need a sewer (well, to be fair, not all of them), and then were swayed again by tax revenues, allowed more building without imposing the necessary infrastructure costs on both the current residents and the builders. Not good decisions any way you look at it."
Wow, that is just so full of misinformation, where do you start?
Los Osos at the time of the first sewer project ( the first one proposed by the county) was an unincoporated area, having no local government. No podiums, No CSD meetings, the County BOS served as the only governing body AND THEY HAD A SEWER PLAN They did not "kick it down the road" The people that really kicked it down the road was the first two years of the CSD BOS (Solution Group) that kept trying to get the ponds of Avalon approved, No, the bad decisions that started the train down the road to where you are now was the decision to form the CSD on a patently false story of a cheaper better faster sewer. had the electorate been told before the election that the ponding system would not be approved it is in my opinion that the CSD would not have been formed. I know I wouldn't have voted for it. And yes, I had a free ride, but probably ended up paying for it in the end when I sold our LO house.
Mike Green, you are completely forgetting the 1973 State Water Board's Los Osos - Baywood Ground Water Protection Study (that also included other agencies). The conclusion then was that the septics needed replacing on the small lots. Then there was the chance to build a sewer in 1983... That flopped too. Never underestimate the power of the people to vote down an assessment for a sewer - guess that is a hard pill to swallow. I did forget that part of the equation. It wasn't just up to the Supes.
The Supes in 1997-8 should have just built the thing.
The public WAS told in 2005 that the Lisa Board's sewer wasn't gonna work - and who listened to that? So even being told it wasn't going to work is not enough to sway the public. It's better to leave public works projects in the hands of public works.
But that leads me to the thought that we can't always know in advance if something will work - (exonerating both the Solutions Group and the Lisa Board). What is important is what you do next with the information that comes out after a failure. I think the people finally "got it" this time around.
Not forgetting that at all, In fact it supports my position. The County BOS had a sewer plan, they did not kick it down the road, when I bought my house in LO in 81 We were assessed 10K. And there was lot's more going on in the recall election than just sewer plans, remember the public had watched a promised 38.50/ month sewer morph into a 200/month sewer park. Pretty hard to win an election with that kind of record, plus it was a squeeker. I think it was less than 100 votes that changed everything while the formation of the CSD was a landslide.
Have to agree about who should have been in control. Probably the Army Corps of Engineers would have been best.
Boy, talk about mis-information. The first real sewer that came into the realm of a possibility was the one the County finally was going for final approval on was in 1998. Then the newly formed CSD stopped that project. The newly formed CSD already had been informed that their plan was not acceptable even before the election. That information was of course kept private. Cynic that I am, I think it is odd that the Pismo site shortly thereafter became a greenbelt, never to be built on. I have owned my house here since 1973 and although I have forgotten alot of things, I can tell you unequivocably that there was no sewer presented to us until the one stopped by the first CSD. If you have proof otherwise, I would sure like to see it. Also, the post-recall CSD had agreed to continue the laying of pipe, just that the treatment plant be moved. That is a far cry from selling the community into forming a government body on a project that was already deemed unacceptable and then implementing a plan of their own at almost twice the cost. You people keep talking about how many sewers we have turned down. In reality it is only TriW. The Pismo site would have been up and running long ago if not for the original CSD.
Sincerely, M
I'm not just talking about sewers that were turned down, but ones that never happened. The study I mentioned above on water pollution in 1973 should have triggered something, but didn't.
Bill Coy tried in 1983, he found Superfund money to pay for most of the costs, I think it was around 80%. But the measure introduced in 1983 to pay the rest didn't pass by the voters and then Reagan took away Superfund monies for sewers.
The famous Water Board resolution 83-13 (in 1983) had a time frame for Los Osos to complete a sewer by 1988. The County started a project. But it was still working on an EIR for a sewer in 1987. And still working on the sewer in 1998.
Bud Laurent replaced Coy as Supe in the early 90's and he came up with the ponding idea. Experts said it wouldn't work. He was the one who came up with a Step system too. Which came with a LOT more strings than originally promised. He kept insisting on more studies. So that delay by a Supe also reinforced the idea that the County could not be trusted.
Fast forward to 1998, and 11 lawsuits later (hint the instigators of those didn't like the sewer). The CSD forms.
Fast forward to 2005 and 20 votes stopped Tri-W.
I heard from Julie Tacker herself that the CSD plan, not that the public was informed, was to only lay gravity pipes where the streets had been torn up and to do Step on the rest of the community. The agreement laid out by the Water Board however, was to do a 218, which they refused to do, and to continue laying gravity pipes, and if you recall, the Lisa board, shut down the work. They did not agree to the Water Board's conditions.
At least the SG, when fully realizing that the plan they wanted so badly did not work, they came up with a plan that passed all permitting agencies.
So M, you had a house in 1973, did you vote with the majority to form the CSD? Did you vote to stop Tri-W?
Things like this might be the funnest part about visiting Ann's site (well, funnest after the spot-on political analysis, beautiful poems, and wonderful dog-stories):
SLOTowner identifies him/her self as "a leading member of the El Morro Democratic Club," then rips off the following:
"A broken record, like you, bitch?
Now you can summarize what people think in other "comment sections" now?
Go fuck yourself."
11:59 AM, October 24, 2011
What does Shredder call them? Oh yeah. The El Morro Democratic Club must be proud as punch having such classy and erudite leaders as SLOTowner. Take a bow my friend.
More classy and erudite than you. Billy Dunne, I was told you once punched Al Barrow, one of the "nuts." Does that make you classy and erudite?
Nice criminal record too!
I have salty language. I don't like using it, but I'll explain again in words that 5-year-olds can understand.
FIRST, I do NOT live in Los Osos, but I have friends who do. My friends sent me the complaint and the police inquiry filed on Lynette.
Lynette Tornatzky, her husband Lou, and her stepson Joe have sent harassing messages to people who disagree with her views. She has placed numerous calls and e-mails to local employers with the intent to terminate the employment of people who disagree with her.
She has written some god-awful blog comments that confront people on numerous sites. "God-awful" as in disparaging, irate messages that are deprived of reason. When she spammed one of those sites, she was banned, tried evading the ban to threaten the webmaster, and she was then delivered a cease and desist order.
She has constantly wished ill health or death of respected members of the community through a bunch of nicknames that The Tribune has confirmed all belong to the same e-mail addresses as "Sewertoons," and the addresses from her Android phone. When residents, who were sick, passed away, she immediately used the Internet as her bully pulpit to attack them and their relevance.
Lynette Tornatzky is an evil person for these reasons, but somehow the "local parade" of people who speak at the podium every Tuesday are the problem. They've done nothing but express their opinion, but suddenly they're "punishing" the Supes, and the people. How could you people be that low? Lynette's been harassing people to the point that she has police reports made against her, but if people speak their minds against this project, they are the problem?
Get your head out of your ass.
Good grief.
Good grief, indeed.
If you're going to be a hypocrite, you should join the Republican Party now. I told Don Bearden the same thing a month ago.
SLOT says:
"she was then delivered a cease and desist order."
SLOT,
Perhaps you were misinformed.
Let me make it clear, this was a "cease and desist order" NOT by ANY court, by one by Aaron Ochs , written in the long form of tweets on Twitter. I did not "spam" any site, I had my posts removed on Aaron Och's blog site by Aaron Ochs, and I am blocked from viewing his site. I did not threaten Aaron Ochs the webmaster.
Anyone can make a police report, it's what done about it that counts. In my case, IF there even was a report, I was not informed of it.
It was CalCoastNews, not the Tribune that confirmed my blog names, but not all of the names that were attributed to me.
I have made no calls to threaten employment.
The rest of the comments are untruths I will not take the effort to comment on.
So you're saying he had no reason to cease and desist you? He posted on it that you threatened and stalked him and his family.
Also, I was told you drove by his house often, reporting to some person named "Mike" about his whereabouts, and this person reported about it on this blog somewhere. Really?
No wonder why he put up that cease and desist. You're a total creep! I don't even know Aaron as a person. I don't know if he's ever been to a BOS meeting, but your obsession with him is just insane. You're insane.
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