A Charles Douglas Moment
Speaking of Charles Douglas, whatever became of him, other than re- registering as Decline To State? I hadn't been to his Humboldt Sentinel newpaper web site in some time so I figured that might shed some light on what he's been up to.
Judging from this piece, that covers a few issues, looks like he certainly has some differences with the Greens, the Cobb faction being one of them. Then, along the same lines, he roasts and toasts some local politicians in this piece. Not pulling many punches there, is he?
He really hammers on some of those folks. Makes me look tame by comparison. Then again, I always try to stay on people's good side. Well... with most people anyway.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 1:48 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
Very interesting and informative. He certainly seems sober, clear-headed and knowledgable. Which is more than I can say for most other local leftists I've been reading lately.
It's so depressing when flakey people get ahold of perfectly just and moral causes and discredit them thereby. And when very smooth and professional people champion grossly immoral causes.
Ah, but that's America. (And probably every other country in the world.)
Watching the watermelons and the rest of the collectivists engaged in eating their wounded is indeed a sight that gives one the warm fuzzies. More please!
If you search for this anti-anti-corporate editorial then here was this beauty of a fried DUHC. Cant wait for more dirt to pound on their graves!
Democracy unhinged! Pretty funny. I didn't agree with his up and coming and down and outers - seems everyone wants to bash on Harmony Groves because she has shown some rational thought, for one thing. But that piece on Democracy Unlimited is funny.
This is off topic, but thanks to Fred for removing the Snollygoster half sheet blog from his links. Snolly's blog had potential, but she never updated it. It was like waking up everyday and reading the Dec. 9 issue of the Times-Standard.
Yep, 1139, never updated. There will be some more removed soon.
Rose, I agree with your assessment of Harmony Groves. When I read what Douglas intended as criticism of her, it had the opposite effect on me. He said that the way she voted alienated voters on the left, right and center, so how was she going to get re-elected in 2008?
Maybe she doesn't care if she's re-elected. Maybe she just wants to vote her conscience on every issue, instead of voting with an eye to re-election. That appears to be what she's doing. If so, we need more people like her at all levels of government, people who vote on the basis of conscience, rather than with an eye to voters, financial contributors and others with political power.
Breaking campaign promises is hardly a sign of conscience. If we can't trust what she says, why should we vote for her?
That's a good point. But if you're talking about the "public comment at a reasonable hour" issue at City Council meetings, and the presence of an Arcata cop in the press box, isn't that because of irresponsible and out-of-control people in the audience who won't stop talking when their alloted time is up?
On the other hand, if, as Douglas says, Groves is against police review, medical marijuana and independence from an overly-powerful City Manager, that certainly is a betrayal of public interest.
No, I think they were mad at Harmony because she had the audacity to vote to leave McKinley alone. So therefore she had "betrayed" her "progressive" base.
Here it is: from a story in the TS by Kimberly Wear:
"As the momentum faded away, Councilwoman Harmony Groves suggested that petition supporters collect the signatures they need to trigger a vote, something that upset Michael Schleyer, who is leading the latest charge to remove statue.
”I’m extremely disappointed in the action of three members of the City Council, especially Harmony Groves, whose critical vote stopped the McKinley issue from appearing on the ballot -- which both sides seemed to support,” Schleyer said.
”We elected her as a progressive political voice in Arcata and she has let us down,” he said. “This critical central issue will not die. It will only get stronger in the months ahead. We cannot allow the consciousness of George Bush to be represented symbolically in the center of the city."
To which Harmony responded: ”I don’t think Mr. Schleyer was paying attention to what I said,” she responded Thursday. “I wasn’t trying to shut him down. I was only asking him to do a formal petition ballot initiative procedure..."
The statue is a "critical central issue"? I'd say infrastructure, roads, unemployment, homelessness, and a multitude of other issues trump the statue any day of the week. If one studies teh history of the statue one can see why some want it left there. As for Harmony Groves, While she may not like me as a person I do respect her decisions and think she is possibly one of the best women on council in quite some time. She is intelligent, thoughtful, and has dealt effectively with many of the typical rabble rousers that attend council meetings. I've also been impressed by the fact that she's gone toe to toe with Meserve on some important issues.
Who is "they?" I don't see anyone else bringing up that stupid statue.
Good question. Who and what are the "progressives"?
Are they Dems who were called liberals, but didn't want to be tarred and feathered with that word so came up with a new one - "progressive" - or is it some new out there sect of the Democratic party?
Seems to me they are more REGRESSIVE than progressive.
Read yer history book. "they" refers to the countless people over the years to bring up petitions and complaints about the statue, "they" tend to be newcomers to the community, college kids, and hang out on campus getting signatures from students who have no intention of ever living in arcata past their point of graduating HSU. "they" also comprises certain locals such as Phoenix Fhyre (or whatever he's calling himself theses days), and certain homeless people.
You'll never have Harmony! She's MINE MINE MINE! She'll never love you Bravo! She loves me and one day I shall woo her into a whirlwind romance!!
I'm dissapointed in you Nick! I thought you had a conscience. Don't you care that McKinley was a war criminal? Don't you care about the hundreds of thousands of Philippine people the racist U.S. military slaughtered from 1899 to 1902, while McKinley piously prattled that we were only trying to "Christianize the natives"?
this debate has turned into the perfect model of how corrupt politicians like harmony groves distract us with petty meaningless issues while she stabs us in the back when it really matters
Not exactly. Sounds like anonymous 4:50 shelled out five bucks for a movie ticket and now expects to get laid. The "progressives" don't understand that Harmony's worth more than that, smarter than that - "they" thought she'd just roll over and do it their way - didn't anticipate that she might have a brain and be capable of independent thought. That should mean she'll really be a big disappointment to them in the future, as she shows more and more common sense.
how is making yourself a slave of the same people whove run arcata for thirty years a demonstration of independent thought?
is that really how you see it?
i used to love arcata - it represented freedom of thought and expression - it has become animal farm.
no this, no that, don't talk if you don't agree or we will boo you down, we're going to tell you what color you can paint your house and what kind of plants you can plant in your yard, and some pigs are more equal than others (those would be the enlightened ones, like you.)
All of America is The Animal Farm, not just Arcata.
nah. it's just arcata.
Agreed, Arcata has become a shithole of repression. Who here remembers the crazy art that used to be around Arcata, the driftwood art inbetween Arcata and Eureka, and Lumberjack Days at HSU.
Arcata has gone downhill folks, and it's the "hippie dippy" eco-groovy city council we have to thank for it.
The diftwood airplane crashing into the bay? And Essence. On the freeway.
make that driftwood airplane...
Post a Comment
<< Home