Rough Waters Might Lie Ahead

Thanks to Cap'n Buhne, over at the Buhne Tribune, it might get a bit nasty here. Looks like the Cap'n finally had enough of the vitriolic, hateful comments being made on his blog so he decided to stop accepting comments to his posts.

A shame to see him do that, as I think a lot of what makes a good blog is the ability for viewers to post comments. I can't blame him, though, as too many of the comments were over the top and detracted from being able to enjoy the blog.

Problem is, he suggested if people enjoyed commenting on current events, they should come here to do so. Oh well. We'll see what happens.

Don't know how I'll deal with any of the riff- raff that might come here. I'm pretty sure some already come here since, when I mentioned that Sim's/ Buhne poll on the B-T a while back, a few of them picked up on it right away.

I'll likely just delete posts that aren't productive in any way, shape or form. Deleted the first non- spam comment the other day, as some of you might have noticed. Someone posted an insult to me and, since it had no real value as a comment, I deleted it.

I anticipate having to do that more often in the future THANKS TO YOU CAP'N BUHNE!

Crime Is Up...

in Blue Lake that is.

A few days ago, when I used the same caption for a post that dealt with statewide crime rates, I jokingly suggested Paul Gallegos had some explaining to do as his campaign has credited him with the county being, to paraphrase, "the safest ever".

This time Gallegos does have some explaining to do.

I don't care if some are saying the spike in crime in Blue Lake is a by- product of the Blue Lake Casino. The Gallegos campaign can't have it both ways: You're either responsible for crime rates going up or down, or you're not.

Which is it going to be?

I feel so much safer now

after reading how congress is considering legislation to require ISPs to keep records of their customer's internet usage data on hand for, possibly, an indefinite period of time.

As I've said before here, everyone's hair should stand on end when we hear of legislators working in a "bipartisan manner".

"Those who would forsake liberty for a temporary sense of security, deserve neither liberty nor security."-Benjamin Franklin

Floyd Squires Taking Heat Again

Floyd Squires is in the news yet again. This time he’s taking heat for not having some of the buildings he owns retrofitted for earthquake safety. He’s not the only one, probably just the most well known.

I kind of admire his spunk at what seems to be a reluctance to knuckle under to authority. Not that anyone can just spend thousands to hundreds of thousands for building retrofitting at the drop of a hat.

He does seem to resist authority, though. I always get a kick out of reading the Legal Notices section of the Times- Standard when they list all the properties that are delinquent in property taxes. You go down the list and one after another are Squires’ properties.

Cracks me up. My kind of guy.

I think he might get a bad rap by some in the county. I knew the Squires family way back when I first moved here in ’73. In fact, the first apartment we rented up here was the Squires apartments out on Pigeon Point Road.

His mother and father, Floyd and Ruth Squires, owned a number properties in town. They used to hire some of us starving college students to do painting and other work for them on occasion. We appreciated the opportunity.

I worked for Floyd Jr. once, that I can recall, painting the house on the corner across the street from the gas station at the corner of California and Harris, in Eureka.

Floyd and his wife treated me well and were easy enough to get along with. Wonder why people keep getting on his case? Probably because now, just like back then, the Squires didn’t have a problem renting to riff- raff, like me.

As the North Coast Journal pointed out a while back in an story about Floyd Jr. and accusations that he’s a slumlord, he might well be doing society a favor by renting to people most landlords wouldn’t.

When you do that, you’re bound to collect a lot of garbage, both figuratively and literally, so maybe that’s just Floyd’s lot in life. I never had a problem with him.

Governor Candidate Spending

If you're interested in where the Governor and his two main opponents, Angiledes and Westly, are getting their campaign money from, the Sacramento Bee has a breakdown here.

If asked to log in, use humoldtlib for the username and blogspot as the password.

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Speaking of the Sacramento Bee, I just noticed what may or may not turn out to be a worthwhile effort on their part for those interested in state politics:

They've started one of those online forum/ chat room type pages where Bee columnist, Dan Walters, answers questions for people. They must have just started it as it was just announced yesterday and there's nothing there yet.

It's supposed to be a live online chat at 10pm Wednesdays. I'll have to try and remember to stop by there and see what's going on. I'm not expecting much.

Nothing against Dan Walters but the Libertarian National Committee tried something like that a few times and I didn't think it worked very well. Too many people "talking" at once, if you know what I mean.

Happy Birthday To You!!!

I just found out from my sister- in- law, Jeannette Cruz, that today is Cherie Arkley's birthday. Everyone needs to call down to Security National and wish her a happy birthday.

As for me, I don't like birthdays. I could almost say I hate them. I don't see any reason to celebrate being one year older.

"Affordable" Housing

"It's incredible how much money it takes to build affordable housing. An increase in funds would really help." - Local Housing Advocate, Kay Escardia (in yesterday's Times- Standard)

Hmmm???

The May 1 Boycott and Walkout

Looks like our friends at Democracy Unlimited are keeping busy. They've sent out notice of a march in support of "Migrant and Undocumented Workers" that starts at 7th and Broadway in Eureka at 10am, then heads to the courthouse. This is part of the upcoming nationwide protest of proposed stricter immigration enforcement.

Proving that our great minds in the State Senate have more than enough time on their hands, the Democrats (it was a party line vote) passed a resolution in support of the protest. Cooler heads prevailed in the State Assembly where the issue wasn't brought up.

I know I've said before that much of what goes on in Sacramento shouldn't be government business. This is definitely one of those instances. But I'm sure they feel better after passing that resolution, don't you think?

I have the feeling that, except for the rallies getting news coverage, no one will notice any effects from this walkout. Just another non- event to make people feel good about themselves.

Glenn F-S Going PC

I mentioned earlier on that I agreed with the Eureka Reporter editorial (was it last week?) on same sex marriage. Good things don't last forever, though. Today, E/R Editor, Glenn Franco- Simmons, goes even further into the world of political correctness in this editorial and lashes out at people who display confederate flags.

He explains how so many people find confederate flags offensive and that it's insensitive to display them in public, likening anyone who would do such a thing to a racist bigot. He also calls the movement for secession (the Confederates in the Civil War) "treasonous".

Whatever, Glenn. While I'm not going to quibble over the fine points of how southerners felt about slavery or whether it was a civil war or War of Secession. I'm just fed up with this PC thing people have about being sensitive to everyone on every issue.

A lot of people are offended by the sight of one thing or another. If we keep trying to appease everyone's sensitivities, no one will ever be able to display anything, anywhere. Heck, seems to me we're almost there now.

I actually saw a confederate flag on a car in Henderson Center, myself, the other day. I wonder if it was the same one Glenn saw? Didn't think much of it except for wondering what message the driver had in mind when he put it on his car. Other than that, it didn't bother me in the least. For those who were bothered by the sight of that flag; Get over it.

"We should have freed the slaves first and then fired on Fort Sumter."

Confederate General James Longstreet, Gettysburg, 1863

Crime Rate Is Up

Statewide that is, according to a report released today by the State Attorney General's office. Boy, does Paul Gallegos have some explaining to do, or what?

Actually, I wanted to have some fun and try to manipulate the crime statistics for Eureka and Humboldt County at large, but the report only has statistics for law enforcement jurisdictions covering 100,00 people or more.

Looking at the cities they do list, I was surprised there were that many cities that size in California. Then again, I'd never really thought about how many large cities California does have.

Thanks to Dan Weintraub for the heads up on the report.

The Boston Tea Party

The groupthink meeting the Vote Local Control folks had on Tuesday got me to thinking about the Boston Tea Party. They mention it on their web site and brought it up at their anti- corporate hate fest, although the Eureka Reporter article doesn't mention it.

They claim the Tea Party was a demonstration against corporate power. My knowledge of early U.S. history being somewhat clouded, I'd been under the impression it was an demonstration against taxes, specifically; taxation without representation.

So, which was it? Maybe a little of both, but I'm not sure corporations had anything to do with it, per se.

I did a quick check on Wikipedia and found this entry. It all started over a tax on that England levied on tea. A boycott began against the East India Company (EIC), which happened to be a corporation. The boycott succeeded at least in part because of smuggling of tea by colonists, most notably John Hancock.

Most ports in the colonies were turning the East India Company ships back, further strengthening the boycott, except for Boston, where the Governor protected the East India Ships and allowed them to dock. The Boston Tea Party was the result.

So, the colonists are upset over taxation without representation, that being the tax on tea. Smuggling starts up, as would be expected, as well as a boycott of EIC's tea imports. The boycott seems to have worked as the British then changed policy and allowed direct sales to the colonies by EIC and which allowed them to undercut the smuggler's prices.

The question I have is what did any of that have to do with EIC being an incorporated business? Nothing, it would seem. The same thing would likely have happened had EIC been owned by one person, or even an operation run by the British government.

Seems to me the Boston Tea Party had it's roots in a protest against taxes. Then, it morphed into a trade war between colonial smugglers and the EIC.

The only thing the Boston Tea Party had to do with corporations, that I can see, is the East India Company was incorporated, as were a number of companies at the time. I can't help but wonder how many colonists, including John Hancock, were incorporated as well?

A Berg Moment

I have the Redwood Times bookmarked but don't check it all that often. I found this article in the latest issue interesting. It's all about our very own State Assemblybabe, Patty Berg.

It starts out dealing with the possibility of the towns of Redway and Garberville incorporating. I guess there might be reasons one would want to have a town incorporated, but I'm not sure that there's a lot of good ones.

The story then lists a number of issues and Berg's comments on them. One I found of interest was her statement that the state population is increasing but the state's infrastructure isn't. Hmmm...I guess that depends on how you look at it.

Seems like most people in the know believe the infrastructure is deteriorating. By that I'm referring to roads, buildings and such. But state spending has increased faster than could be attributed to both population growth and inflation for umpteen years, or so I've been told. Never mind the 20,000 plus new state employees we gained during the dot com boom.

What gives? I guess it just goes to show that, in some people's view, government will never be big enough or have enough money.

Any Golfers Out There?

I just won a one year subscription to Golfer's Digest and I have absolutely no interest in golf (or any other sports for that matter). Anyone out there into golf that would be interested in the magazines? I could just send a change of address to the distributor and have the magazines sent to your place instead of mine.

Priority goes to those nice Freddy fans that pitched in for the laptop and, if there's more than one interested, whoever's e-mail response I open first wins. If no one's interested, no big deal. I can just give it to some customers of mine that are really into golf.

This assumes I end up getting the magazines. I won something last week that was supposed to be sent here 2nd day shipping, or whatever that's called, and I still haven't seen it.

Gas Prices: It's Government's Fault

This article in today's Santa Rosa Press- Democrat seems to go along with the one I posted here earlier on: That gas prices should go down after a while, but maybe not as much as they have risen. It also covers calls by the usual suspects for investigations into price gouging.

This other one, in today's Wall Street Journal, covers pretty much the same thing, but says the rise in gas prices are the fault of government policy and the politicians behind them.

Naturally, I found the WSJ article a better read.

Strange Picture?

What time does it really get dark around here nowadays? I was looking at this picture of a vehicle rollover on the North Jetty and it seems out of synch with when it supposedly happened.

The accident happended "shortly before 8pm", according to the story. Look how light it looks in that picture. There's even a shadow directly under the Highway Patrol vehicle as if the sun is overhead. Hmm???

In the hard copy version of the story there's a smaller picture of ambulance personnel hauling someone off and it looks darker in that one. Maybe they lightened up the first picture using the magic of modern photography? I don't know, but it looks weird.

Building Permits

Looks like the Times- Standard didn’t bother to make the story available online, but today’s paper has a story on some city council business in Trinidad that kind of gets me going:

Councildude, Dean Heyenga wants to give residents a discount on the permit fee residents need to pay for installing solar equipment. Well, good for him.

I never really thought much about the subject of building permits until I had a new roof put on my house some years ago. I forget how much the permit was. It was a percentage of the cost of the job and, for me, was a sizeable amount of money.

Why people have to pay for a building permit and then have someone, who might well know less about construction than the guy doing the work, come and inspect it, is something most people just accept. I don’t.

What Have They Been Smoking?

This is part two of the Times- Standard's coverage of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' conference in San Francisco. Yesterday's Part 1 focused on Tommy Chong's appearance at the meeting where he gave some of his personal observations on the marijuana wars.

I'll have to admit that, while I enjoy seeing the issue given good coverage in our local paper, I felt that the article looked out of place in the Times- Standard, at least at first glance. It just didn't seem like a fitting subject- that being an out of town conference of pot advocates- for a home town paper.

I think I felt the same way last year when the T-S convered that same conference. I'm glad to see the coverage, though. Wonder how much hate mail the T-S will receive for running that piece?

The T-S isn't the only one dealing with pot today:

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat ran an editorial this morning taking the Food and Drug Administration to task for their recent release of a statement that "no sound scientific studies" support the use of medical marijuana.

I'm not sure I support their conclusion- that we have yet another study on the issue- but I suppose that's what many people would be most comfortable with.

Syndicated columnist, Debra Saunders, had a commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning advocating an end to marijuana prohibition. I like the point she brings up about it being the Greens and Libertarians vs. the Republicans and Democrats, in this fight over prohibition.

With a lopsided battle like that, you would think the prohibition forces would be really taking ground, and they certainly do seem to be at times.

But, seems to me, just from the three articles we've mentioned here (and those being probably just three out of many more that likely were published today) the tide might well be turning against prohibition.

I think more and more people are becoming aware of what a wasted effort these pot wars are.

An Optimistic Look At Gas Prices

This insane jump in gas prices is of great concern to me, especially as I'm faced with quite a bit of long distance driving in the near future- never mind having to drive as part of my work.

So, it was a relief to me to read this item from a San Bernadino area newspaper on the record high gas prices. It quotes a spokesman for the Southern California Automobile Association as saying gas won't likely reach $4.00 a gallon.

He also goes on to say that, while the price may rise fifteen to twenty cents over the next two weeks, by Memorial Day the tide should turn and prices may even fall dramatically.

Good. Let's hope he's right. I'm just wondering whether they'll fall back to below three dollars a gallon? Of course, he's talking about Southern California, not Humboldt County, so probably not.

Pension Crisis Just Beginning

Details here on how public employee pensions are already starting to hit, not just taxpayers, but even the government agencies themselves as government employees jump at the chance of an early retirement that pays more than when they were working.

Homeless Ordinances Unconstitutional?

Plazoid asks if I would comment on the recent decision by some court that supposedly makes anti- camping ordinances unconstitutional. Ok. I'll take a shot at it:

I have mixed feelings on the decision, but we still have a ways to go before we know just how this decision will be applied.

On one hand I've always been perplexed by the issue of the homeless. They have to sleep somewhere, but where? I was somewhat sympathetic to those that set up homeless encampents on the South Jetty and Clam Beach.

I was also relieved when those camps were broken up as it seemed to reduce the presence of the riff raff in downtown Eureka to some degree, but everbody has to sleep somewhere, don't they?

I'm concerned about the effect of this latest decision, if for no other reason than it will likely end up being taken to ridiculous extremes, as so many things do nowadays. People do have a right to sleep, I suppose, but not necessarily at my, or anyone else's, expense.

I suspect that we'll see more instances of vagrants occupying both public and private property and claiming it's their "right", as a result of this decision. Hopefully, local authorities will find some angle they can use with this decision that will result in some semblence of protection for the general public.

I don't mind if there's homeless people sleeping on the Balloon Tract, but decisions like this will likely lead to the homeless folks feeling they have a right to sleep in my back yard...literally.

Geist Campaign Online

Jill Geist finally has her campaign web page up and running. I always wonder why candidates wait so long to put their web pages up? Oh well. I don't know that she has much to worry about in her bid for re- election to 5th District Supervisor.

Her opponent, Pat Higgins, is clearly far to the left of Geist, at least from what I've seen and heard. I'm surprised Local Solutions isn't supporting him, but they show Geist as their choice on their web page.

The other two candidates for 5th District, Dan Pierce and Jeff Lytle, seem to be just taking up space as there seems to be next to no information available on them. Why do they even bother running?

Today's Editorials

The Times- Standard comments on the sale of the Fireside Inn today. Odd that, as supportive of redevelopment agencies the Eureka City Council seems to be, all except Councildude Kerrigan seem to realize if they want something done, they best leave the redevelopment agencies out of it.

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Seems to me the Eureka Reporter has made comments favorable towards same sex marriage before. They did it again in today's editorial. Why do I find that odd? I suppose it's because I would think it would be contrary to the Arkley's beliefs.

Then again, I'm not one who thinks that everything a newspaper publishes is the result of some conspircacy by the paper's owners.

T-S Blog Hacked

Check it out (if it's still there). Someone hacked the Times- Standard's blog.

If they fixed it by the time you read this, the blog was gone with just a blank page with the words, fucked by zakix thnx darkcode, in its place.

Green's Catfight Continues

I'm having some fun watching the back and forth in the Eureka Reporter between David Giarrizzo and Michael Smith. Giarrizzo sent this piece in that was published today in response to this piece by Smith that was published a few days ago.

Let's hope the back and forth continues. If it does maybe I'll be able to figure out the specific differences between the two factions of the local Greens. So far, all I can figure out is there's what I'd call the Cobb Faction and the Allen Faction- the Allen Faction apparently being the smaller of the two.

I'd like to further identify the differences. I've been thinking the Allen Faction seems to be more the civil libertarian leaning group while the Cobb Faction seems more authoritarian leaning, but I can't say that for sure as I'm not in that loop.

Maybe some of the lefties that frequent this blog could throw their two cents in on the subject?

Prop. 82 Lead Shrinking

Looks like the lead Prop 82, the Universal Pre- School Initiative, had among California voters is shrinking according to the latest Field Poll. Let's hope that trend continues.

That poll also shows Senator Dianne Feinstein maintaining her lead over her Republican opponent in the race, Richard Mountjoy. If anything, that just shows what an authoritarian state California is, Feinstein being an Authoritarian, if ever there was one.

To log in to the Bee site to read the article, as usual, use humboldtlib for the username and blogspot for the password.

Eric Garris Interview

For those of you who enjoy visiting antiwar.com, here's an online video of an interview with antiwar.com's editor, Eric Garris, by LP of CA Southern Vice Chair, Mark Selzer. It's about a half hour long, assuming you have a broadband connection.

I love the way broadband makes it possible to watch videos fairly easily over the internet.

This shameless plug made possible by LP of CA Northern Vice Chair, Lawrence Samuels, who asked if I would give mention it here.

Many Questions

There certainly are a number of questions about the recent shooting of Cheri Moore after the standoff in Eureka, as the Times- Standard writes in today's editorial.

I'll forego any comments on what appeared to have happened, at least for now. There's more than enough Monday morning quarterbacking going on already, I'm sure.

One thing I found of interest, though, is the suggestion one person made about police getting better training in dealing with the mentally ill. Whatever.

Seems kind of strange to suggest that when it was supposedly an employee of Humboldt County Mental Health that asked the police to do a welfare check on Moore in the first place.

Ssshhhh...

Don't tell anyone, but I finally had enough of that damned Word Verification thing that we all have to do before posting comments. I've deactivated it for now. We'll see how it goes. If we start getting auto- spammed again, I'll have to reactivate it.

For those of you newcomers to this blog, I started the Word Verification not long after I started this blog. One day I started getting a bunch of comments to one particular post I made. They were messages saying how much they liked my blog and that I should go visit their [commercial] blog.

There were about 25 to 30 within an hour, with no end in sight. It was such a hassle trying to delete them that I just ended up deleting my original post and that seemed to end the problem. But, to make sure, I started requiring Word Verification.

Let's hope it takes a while for the spambots to find this blog again.

Candidate Job Descriptions

Here's a short but interesting piece from the L.A. Daily News on how candidates come up with the job descriptions they give themselves for use on ballots.

It might just be done with

- all the rain, that is. The Sacramento Bee ran a story today suggesting the back to back winter storms might be coming to an end. Check it out here.

Oh, by popular demand, here's a username and password you can use to access the Sacramento Bee web site: username= humboldtlib password= blogspot

Hope that works.

E/R Says No On T!

No surprise there, huh?

For some reason I didn't expect to see a recommendation on Measure T so soon in the Eureka Reporter. Well, on the good side, it's one more item to add to the What's New section of the No On Measure T page.

On the downside, sorry Glenn, I didn't think it was all that well done. Not a whole lot of substance, just a sort of generic It's Unconstitutional argument. Well, maybe that kind of argument will sway some folks. We shall see.

I was somewhat puzzled by this statement in the editorial:

"The ordinance purportedly bans nonlocal contributions from corporations, but that is unconstitutional and unfair because the Constitution does not allow treating out-of-the-area contributions differently than local contributions."

I'll have to admit to not having read the Constitution in decades, at least the whole Constitution. But I don't recall the Constitution dealing with political contributions at all. Please someone correct me if I'm missing something.

Their point about restricting freedom of association and freedom of speech is certainly a point well made and, until I read the editorial and saw this phrase is included in Measure T, I was totally unaware of it:

“(No) corporation shall be entitled to claim Constitutional rights or protections in an effort to overturn this law.”

Just imagine telling anyone or any entity, "We're passing this law because we know what's best for you and you can't go to court for redress of grievances. You'll just have to learn to live with it....".

That should make anybody's hair stand on end. I know it does mine (what little of it I have left).

Now, lets see what the other local papers end up saying about Measure T.

Gallegos Letters

So, I get my first letter to the editor published in over a year today. The first published, because it's the first one I've sent in since starting this blog. I got to thinking, after I did the post about my blog anniversary, how this was supposed to help me get more proficient in writing letters to the editor.

After making some comments regarding the Paul Gallegos campaign, I realized I could use one of those posts for a letter. I cut out some of the words and sent this one in. Not as readable to me in hard copy as it seemed when I sent it in. Oh well. My point has been made.

Why the Eureka Reporter? No particular reason except I get the impression the E/R gets letters published quicker. I suspect that's because they probably don't receive as many as the Times- Standard, although I don't know that for sure.

It used to be that I'd send the letters to all local papers, assuming the subject was something that would be relevant to all the different readers. Someone told me, though, that recently they were really grilled about whether their letter had been sent to any other papers.

I know the San Francisco Chronicle is the only one that ever asked me if I'd had the letter in question published in any other paper. But, I figured maybe the papers are getting touchy about publishing stuff other papers have already published so decided to send it to one paper, just in case.

The Eureka Reporter just left a message on my answering machine asking me to confirm if I did, in fact, send them the letter, and that was that.

Interestingly, the letter right after mine was another one about Gallegos. This one accusing him of being soft on crime- Specifically: marijuana related offenses. Well, so what? I couldn't care less if he's not cramming the jails full of pot smokers.

I suspect that's part of the reason law enforcement seems pretty much in the Worthman camp. I can't help but wonder, though, if this soft on crime charge, by some in the law enforcement community, is akin to the outlandish claims by the Gallegos groupies that crime is at it's lowest rate in however many years because of Gallegos.

No way to say for sure how true that is. The only thing that is for sure is that this is just more of the usual politics we see in any heated campaign.

Is The Humboldt Sentinel Back?

According to Charles Douglas, it's always been there. But, whenever I go to the link I have bookmarked, it's always been an edition from months ago.

Maybe he just wasn't uploading the right pages, or maybe I had the wrong url bookmarked? I don't know, but the url I had bookmarked was humboldtsentinel.com. and should have taken me to the current issue, I would think.

Now my bookmark goes to the March 24 edition, which has some interesting news and commentary on it, including this piece on our very own, Richard Marks. Seems like he's shifted his position on Measure T a bit since he was interviewed for this story as it says "he declined to back Measure T". Hmmm???

Oh well. I think Richard got a pretty good write up from the Sentinel. Some of the letters to the editor and the Green View section I found of interest, as well.

I enjoy reading the Sentinel. I wish he'd be a little more timely in updating his web page. That, and Charles needs to clean up his links. I keep finding dead links to stories I want to read.

We'll keep an eye on that site and see how it goes.

Burton Pipes In On Prop. 82

Wow! Hard to believe that former State Senate Leader and liberal icon, John Burton, would come out publicly opposing Prop. 82, the Universal Pre- School Initiative, but it looks like he did, according to the Sacramento Bee's, Dan Weintraub (April 14 post).

That makes two big time Democrats (Don Perata being the other one) that have come out against Prop. 82, so far.

Blogging For Liberty

The latest issue of the Libertarian Party of California's newsletter, California Freedom, came in the mail yesterday. I've been getting it for months now but I'm not sure why. I stopped paying dues to the state organization some time ago.

Of interest to me was the article on page 3 on spreading liberty through blogging. Interesting, if only because I'd sent a heads up to the editor of California Freedom about the potential for spreading libertarian ideas via blogging after the article on Humboldt Blogs ran in the North Coast Journal back in January.

They actually ended up doing a story on the subject but made no mention of my blog. The article mentions a couple others done by LPers:

The first one, e-liberty, by Mark Johnson, seems to be another one of those where the blogger writes two entries and apparently quits, the last entry being made March 23. Not a good idea to use a blog like that for an example of what a blog is supposed to be.

The second one, Knowing Humans, blogged by Brian Holtz, is another puzzler as the last post seems to have been made on March 2. He hasn't posted in over a month. Another bad example to use.

At first glance, it looks like Brian's topic of choice is Libertarian Party of California internal politics which, would seem to me, to be the last thing of interest to Joe and Jill Sixpack. But, looking at his past posts, he does get into any number of different topics, inserting his own take on what the libertarian or Libertarian Party position is, or should be.

Not sure that that's the best way to approach issues, either, as I don't think explaining the fine details of libertarian philosophy is of much interest to anyone other than...well... Libertarian Party insiders, if even them! But, he gave it his best shot before he gave up, so I'll give him kudos for the effort.

I'm not saying this blog is perfect, but I think I've done a better job than the examples they gave. They should have had my blog listed. I'm sooo hurt.

Uh Oh!

The weather service has an alert out for unseasonably cold temperatures over the weekend. Is this bizarre, or what? And no, Bill; Don't start in with that global warming stuff.
From Weather.com:

SEVERE WEATHER ALERT

"A STRONG LATE SEASON STORM SYSTEM WILL DROP SOUTHWARD FROM THE GULF OF ALASKA THIS WEEKEND...BRINGING AN UNSEASONABLY COLD AIR MASS INTO NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA. SNOW LEVELS WILL BEGIN IN THE 3000 TO 4000 FOOT RANGE EARLY SATURDAY MORNING...BUT WILL FALL TO 2000 TO 3000 FEET BY SUNDAY MORNING. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES...WITH LOCAL ACCUMULATIONS UP TO A FOOT...ARE LIKELY ABOVE 3000 FEET SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY. UP TO 2 TO 4 INCHES IS LIKELY DOWN TO ABOUT 2500 FEET WITH THIS STORM SYSTEM."

Let's see if they have it right this time. I hope not. I need to work tomorrow.

Get Your Taxes Done

You have a couple extra days to file your income taxes this year but, still, best to get working on it.

It isn't over yet, though. This year, Tax Freedom Day, the day you stop working for the government and start working for yourself, comes on April 26. So, for those of you enamored of government, keep busting your butt. You've got a government to pay for. You can slack off starting April 27.

More Endorsements

A lot in the news this morning about candidate endorsements. Good news, indeed, that the Eureka Greens decided to oppose Measure T. Way to go Eureka Greens!

It was also kinda nice to see them endorsing Rich Marks, for 4th District Supervisor. No surprise there, as I believe someone posted info here earlier suggesting that would be the case. I'm just glad to see the underdog in the race get some support.

Worth Dikeman is supposed to be announcing his endorsements in the near future. I suspect there will be few surprises there, with most of them coming from the law enforcement community. A quick look at his current list of endorsements shows that to be the case, already, at least from some of the names I recognize.

Jill Geist seems to have picked up a number of endorsements from the usual suspects. Of interest to me is that all her colleagues on the Board of Supes have endorsed her, with the exception of Bonnie Neely. Seems to me the same is true with Bonnie Neely, although I could be wrong.

I thought I saw somewhere where all the Supes except Geist endorsed Neely. Anyone remember seeing that? I wonder what that's all about?

Probably the same old thing I've seen all my life where some women just don't get along that well. It seems to me, at just about every job I've held in my life, if there was a personality conflict between co- workers on the job, it was always amongst the women.

I guess I should have asked Bonnie Neely about that when she came by my house campaigning last week.

The Lockyer Endorsement

Here's another one of those empty campaign tactics the Gallegos campaign is using. About the only thing we keep hearing from them is that Gallegos represents the people and the continued mention that crime is at it's lowest level in the last so many years.

This, despite the fact that a District Attorney has little, if anything, to do with how much crime takes place in a community and every candidate likes to throw out the represents the people line.

Now we see the usual campaign stunt of getting someone who probably wouldn't recognize Gallegos if he saw him on the street, giving him a glowing endorsement. I think we all know how this came about:

Some of the local Democrats contacted the State Attorney General's office or, more likely, went through their channels at the state level to get a fellow Democrat in higher office to endorse their pet candidate.

I can't just pick on the Gallegos campaign for doing that, as it's a common tactic used in nearly every campaign. Doesn't really mean much in the real world, as far as how good the candidate in question really is.

It would be nice if the Gallegos campaign could come up with something a little more meaningful to run their campaign on because, so far, they haven't got anything.

We're Slugging It Out

Oh, really?

(I was going to post on this yesterday, but the Eureka reporter didn't have their web page updated until later in the day so I gave up on it.)

I'll have to admit to being somewhat surprised at seeing the headline in yesterday's Eureka Reporter: Measure T Groups Duke It Out, in big letters across the front page. Made it look like things are really picking up in this fight. I suppose they are.

We then read of the same stuff coming from the Measure T proponents that we've read before:

Kaitlin Sopoci- Belknap refers to some supposed skullduggery in the Flemming campaign for 4th District Supervisor, where someone used some corporate loophole to get around the voluntary $500 contribution limit. She's quoted as saying:

“Measure T is about asserting our community’s right to define itself. Is the NOT campaign really opposing Humboldt citizens’ right to do that?”

Funny to hear that from the same people who's District Attorney candidate has taken his biggest contributions, so far, from out of the area. I know, we'll be hearing from the Measure T folks, "What's wrong with that? It's not corporate money".

So what? Isn't the theme of Measure T supposed to be Vote Local Control?

Kaitlin then goes on to say, “After looking at the changes NOT made to their Web site over the weekend, it is obvious that they intend to run a dirty campaign that misrepresents the truth. They are not the kind of people we trust to enter into deals with.”

Excuse me? Kaitlin, I'm hurt. What changes did I make to the web site over the weekend that misrepresents the truth?

Towards the end the article quotes Kaitlin: “We will stand by our support for the idea of a contribution limit for Humboldt (County) elections, and once Measure T passes and our community is assured LOCAL CONTROL OF ELECTIONS, we would support any effort to pass a complementary law that will also limit campaign contributions,”.

What that means, is once they tweak the playing field to their advantage, THEN they might consider contribution limits. That, of course, after they've silenced a fairly sizeable chunk of their potential opposition and still allow their side to take contributions from unions and other special interest groups from across the country.

This is a troubling development, although actually it's been going on for some time. The most troubling thing is they see nothing wrong with trying to control political activity from one group while protecting their own. In fact, not only do they see nothing wrong with it, they defend it.

It must be because they know what's best for us.

Two Out Of Three...

for the Eureka Reporter in the Fortuna City Council race. The E/R recommended voting for Campbell, Myers and Whitechurch and all won, except Myers.

I've often wondered just how much pull newspapers have with their election recommendations. I suspect that some people follow them to the letter, assuming they're the kind of people that pay next to no attention to politics in the first place. That also assumes that they'd have to read newspapers regularly.

As for me; I find the recommendations of interest, especially the reasoning behind them. But, I generally have my mind made up long before the newspapers make recommendations on most issues.

Apple Follows The Rats

Thanks to the Sacramento Bee's, Dan Weintraub, for the heads up on this item from Business Week magazine. Looks like Apple Corp. is shifting their money to Nevada to get a break on taxes.

Congrats, to all you anti- corporation types out there. It's working. They're leaving...or at least their money is.

An Old School

I believe this old school was one that I helped demolish durning one of my first years in the National Guard, with A Company, 579th Engineers.

Didn't think much about it at the time but would have probably felt differently if I had the appreciation for history and historical places I have today.

Dems Explain Endorsements

Chris Beresford, Vice- Chair of the local Democrats, explains a little about their candidate endorsements in the Eureka Reporter today. I like the way he refers to "erroneous statements" being made, rather than "lies", as is sometimes done.

Interesting to know what their policies are. I'd be even more interested in what the behind the scenes reasons are for their endorsements. For instance; Just exactly why have they endorsed Gallegos over Dikeman, and Neely over Marks?

I suppose the Neely endorsement is, as I mentioned before, pragmatism vs. partisanship; Not only is Neely pretty left leaning, she has the advantage of incumbency, so she's their best bet. And, after all, this 4th District race is all about the Ballon Tract, so they need to go for their best bet.

But Gallegos over Dikeman? I'd like to know the behind the scenes talk that led to that one.

A Look At Leaks

The L.A. Times takes a look at the skullduggery behind government agency press leaks.

Humboldt Voting Safe

or so says Carolyn Crnich, head honcho at County Elections.

Some, like Dan Berman, have been complaining about the accuracy and security of local polling equipment for some time. I've never been all that concerned about the issue. Sure, we should do all we can to ensure accurate vote tallies, but there's always going to be some way to cheat, if the powers that be want to do so. I've felt fairly confident in the ballots we use where you fill in the ovals with a marking pen. The machines that count the ballots? Who knows?

"It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes."- Joseph Stalin

The Stolen Valor Act

I found this to be interesting Sunday reading: People posing as combat veterans are getting nailed now. They even seem to have the FBI going after them. I don't know how far this should really go, but I have no problem with nailing scuzbags who make up war stories or claim military experiences they're not entitled to.

Kudos to AntiWar.com for the link.

Another Look At Term Limits

I've said here before I'm ambivalent about term limits on elected officials. After all, if we had term limits in congress, we'd likely have lost our only libertarian (Ron Paul, R-Texas) with a seat there years ago. Term limits work both ways.

It is nice to see some long standing incumbents, like Wes Chesbro, getting the boot. Not that he's gone forever as I understand he, like most politicians, has plans for a return to the political scene in some form sooner or later.

Here's an editorial from the Los Angeles Times commenting on how the desire for control of an office, if not just staying in office, has become a family affair.

Makes me wonder: Voters, at least in California, have seemed fairly consistent in support of term limits. One wonders why they deem it acceptable to vote for a former office holder's family member to take over for him once he's term limited out?

Although not in the most literal sense, that seems to defeat at least the idea behind term limits. Doesn't it?

Yet Another Political Quiz

While I do sometimes get frustrated with lefties telling me I'm a right winger, I'm also somewhat amused by it, as I've been called a left winger by some on the right.

I actually took exception, though, to the rating I got on this latest political quiz. The Moral Politics quiz consists of either a short, two question quiz, or a longer one of sixteen questions.

Problem I had with the quiz was I felt some of the questions could have been answered with more than one of the choices. For example, on the About Nature question, I felt the first three choices were all answers that were correct, yet only one choice was allowed.

At least they give you the option of checking the Too Confusing box to the right of the questions.

So, after taking the test, they add insult to injury and labeled me as the following:

System: Liberalism

Variation: Economic Liberalism

Ideology: Capital Democratism, Progressive Neoliberalism

U.S. Parties: Democratic

Presidents: Gerald Ford (A Republican???)

(I don't really understand this next one but I assume it means how people that scored like I did voted in 2004. I voted for Libertarian, Mike Badnarik)

2004 Candidates: John Kerry 82.74%, George Bush 75.69%, Ralph Nader 64.03%

It then goes on to say that .09% of the thousands of people that took the test scored as I did.

I don't know where that test is coming from and I think they're full of crap. I did submit feedback to the effect the questions could have been answered with more than one of the given choices.

Maybe the test was put up by someone from the Democratic National Committee to convince people they're Democrats? I don't know. How did you score?

Public Service Announcement

Thought I'd post info on this latest scam going around. Thanks to Richard Rider, of the San Diego LP, for the heads up:
*********

Subject: JURY DUTY SCAM

The following can be checked out on snopes --- Apparently this scam has actually been used.

It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam has surfaced. Fall for it and your identity could be stolen, reports CBS.

In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn't show up for jury duty. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator.

If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers.

Give out any of this information and bingo! Your identity just got stolen. The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. This (scam) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they're with the court system.

The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud. Check it out here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

================================
Richard Rider, Chair
San Diego Tax Fighters

NOT Kickoff a Success

The No On Measure T kick off event yesterday went very well, as far as I'm concerned. I figured maybe 25 to 30 people were there and it looks like the Eureka Reporter agrees with me.

Chris Crawford did a great job with his presentation. Reporters and others asked some questions and things seemed to move along without a hitch. A number of people, including myself, hung around after the formal meeting ended. Joy Finley hung around until I left, as did Nancy Flemming.

First time I'd ever spoken to Nancy, although I'd seen her in person at a National Guard event years ago. She sure has a pleasant personality. She told me she regularly visits this blog and the Buhne Tribune. See, I told you: Anybody who's anybody...

Rex Bohn, was there as well. I was surprised he knew who I was and my name. I'd spoken to him briefly, once before, as he was leaving the Arkley's house. I didn't recall giving him my name, but maybe I did.

I believe he said something about reading this blog and referred to the Arkley's being neighbors of mine, which I've mentioned here, even though they live two blocks away. He even knew where I live. See: Anybody who's anybody...

Oh, he said he wouldn't be running for Mayor of Eureka, for those that are interested.

Our very own Rose, showed up for the meeting. First time I'd met her in person and it was a pleasure. She tells me she was surprised at how many people she knew there. I didn't get to speak with her as much as I would have liked as there were so many people and so little time.

I ended up speaking with former Green Party guy, Charles Douglas, for a while. In fact, as we were leaving, he took a picture of me and Nancy Flemming rubbing elbows in the parking lot. If you get a chance, Charles, send me the photo and I'll post it here.

Charles was there taking notes for a story for his online paper and was sitting next to someone during the meeting I thought was probably some other newspaper type guy, maybe from the Advocate or Arcata Eye, since he asked a few questions.

Turned out to be Dennis Mayo, local activist from Mckinleyville. I'd never had known except for Rose telling me who he was later on. Never thought to ask while he was speaking with Charles and I.

I got to meet Jerry Partain, also. We've exchanged a few e-mails over time, but this was the first time we'd met in person. I keep telling him to start his own blog. He's interested and says he'll get around to it, eventually.

All in all, a pleasant time for me, surprised as I was, being one of those agoraphobia types that fears crowds and unfamiliar surroundings. After I got home, I got to wondering how the Measure T supporters would respond.

**********

Shamelessly, albeit expectedly, Kaitlin- over at Democracy Unlimited- says they stand behind Measure T as it will benefit the community: Union contributions good- Corporate contributions bad. In other words: We know what's best for you and our favored interests should be allowed to contribute but the other side shouldn't.

Kaitlin, Kaitlin, Kaitlin...I should come over there and give you a pink belly.

It will be interesting to see if their obsession with corporations and their anti- corporate mantra carries the day on June 6.

********************

I was disappointed to see Rob Arkley pipe in on the issue, sending some communique to the county counsel advising it was in the county's best interest to oppose Measure T in order to avoid paying legal penalties when Measure T loses in court.

I think it would have been best if he would have stayed on the sidelines in this matter as it only adds fuel to the fire. Not that he's not entitled to get involved. I just think it confuses the issue for some people.

As an aside, after I came home and it got around to beer o'clock, who stops by my house but Bonnie Neely. She's out canvassing the neighborhood for her re- election bid. We had a short chat in my driveway of little substance.

Not saying that was her fault as I think she knew kinda where I stood and there weren't really any questions I wanted to ask. She didn't seem too familiar with me but seemed to recognize the name.

All in all, one of the more interesting days in my life over the last few years. Boy, talk about having NO LIFE!

New Taxachusetts Health Plan

Much ado today about the latest Universal Health Care proposal in Massachusets. All the papers I've read have had glowing editorials on it, save this one.

I'll admit that, while I haven't studied every aspect of their plan, it sounds like more of the same as we've heard proposed in California and elsewhere.

I don't know what the answer is, in regards to health care problems in this country, but I don't think the Massachusets plan is the right one. And that's coming from one who's had some experience with the problem.

Here We Go!

One thing that really irks me about primary elections is, not so much candidates from the same party running each other down, but how they usually kiss and make up after the primary election. So let's see how ugly it gets between the two main contenders in the Democratic Primary for Governor of California.

This happens all the time. I'm not pointing fingers at other political parties, either, since even the Libertarian Party has at least a few individuals and candidates that put out hit pieces on their opponents, usually right up close to the nominating convention.

As much as I dislike Senator John McCain, I had to respect the fact that he didn't like George Bush and went against the normal tendency of a losing candidate after he'd lost the Republican nomination:

He didn't turn around, kiss and make up and endorse the guy who he'd been running down just the day before. He kept on hating him, despite efforts by the Republican establishment to smooth over their "problems".

Let's see what happens with this race in the Democratic Primary. Assuming the hostilities elevate and it gets really ugly, I'd almost be willing to bet money that whoever loses will turn around the next day, praise the victor and throw his support behind him, no matter how incompetent the loser said the winner was just the day before.

I don't know whether to laugh or throw up when I see that spectacle played out.

I Missed My Anniversary

For this blog, that is. I was under the impression I started this blog just a week or two before I added the hit counter to this site on May 8, 2005. I guess I was wrong. I guess that should be expected as I'm horrible when it comes to dates and remembering how long ago something happened. I often can't be sure a given event happened last year or the year before.

I created this blog and made my first post on March 9, 2005. A lot has gone on here since then, and the blog has grown, if you will. Within a few weeks of putting the hit counter here, I was getting an average of ten hits a day. I figured that wasn't too bad for a local blog and about what I expected to eventually get.

A few months ago, the hits started increasing. Now the daily hits average over 100, with the record being around 145 one day not long ago. Not bad. Problem is, there's no way I can tell how many of those hits are unique hits, meaning different people, rather than repeat visits from the same people and I know there's a lot of repeats.

Overall, I feel this blog has been a success, at least for me. It's given me an outlet, not to mention some new friends (and perhaps a few enemies). I thank you all for making this blog work and hope you all keep coming back.

Campaign Kick Offs

Did I miss something? Isn't Peter Levallee running unopposed for Mayor of Eureka?

Anyway, looks like he's having his campaign kick off event tomorrow night at the Indigo Night Club in Eureka. They mention the usual endorsements: Thompson, Berg, Chesbro, Wooley and Kerrigan. I suppose Kerrigan and Wooley will show up for this event. Wonder what other faces will be there?

The proponents of Measure T, the initiative that will ban "non- local" corporations from contributing to local campaigns, had some kind of campaign start up meeting on Sunday, I believe (or was it last week?). Wonder how many showed up for that one?

I don't recall seeing any follow up in any of the local papers for that event. I would have liked to have known who showed up, and how many. I suppose it wouldn't be any surprise as to who showed up, though.

My very own No On Measure T Committee (hey, I'm the webmaster, so I can say My very own) kicks off its campaign tomorrow at noon, upstairs at Roy's in Old Town, Eureka. I'm wondering how good a turn out we'll have for that one and just who will show up. Hopefully, we'll get a wide range of the political spectrum to show.

I don't do well in crowds. I'm one of those agoraphobia types that feels quite uncomfortable in them. Still, duty calls so I'll have to show up for this one. I just hope no cameras come after the King of Humboldt Bloggers. I don't want to screw up like I did when I showed up at the kick off for the No On Measure L campaign.

Oh well, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...

St. Joes For Sale?

I guess that's one of the options according to this story in today's Eureka Reporter. The powers that be will have to decide whether to sell St. Joseph's Hospital, create a special tax assesment district to support the it, or figure some way for the current owners, Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, to keep the hospital.

I was shocked, at first, with the suggestion of St, Joes being be sold. We'd never know for sure what we'd end up with after the deal was done. After a while, I started thinking that may not be such a bad idea.

I know many would prefer the formation of a special tax assesment district to keep the hospital running, thus putting control of the hospital more under the control of local government. Believe it or not, I'm not all that opposed to the idea. I want that hospital to stay open.

Problem is, I've been reading lately about problems with hospitals around the state. The publicly funded ones seem to be the ones with the most problems.

In Los Angeles, as I made note of here earlier on, some emergency rooms are actually being closed for hours on end. The emergency rooms from privately run hospitals are closed for less time, sometimes a lot less time, than their publicly funded counterparts.

I have no idea why the privately run hospitals are outperforming the public ones. Suffice it to say, though, if it works, it's probably not a good idea to try and fix it.

Which isn't to say that privately run hospitals "work". It just seems they tend to run a little better than the publicly funded ones, overall. What I've never heard a good explanation of, is why so many hospitals, public or private, seem to be in so much trouble nowadays.

Eureka Reporter Lies?

Not available online yet (hate it when they do that), but today's Eureka Reporter has a guest commentary by local Green, David Giarrizo, criticizing this article from last Thursday's E/R.

He starts off by saying "Readers deserve to know the truth behind the LIES printed in Thursday's Eureka Reporter...". For crying out loud. He seems to think it's all part of some media conspiracy to defame the Greens. I didn't read that into the article.

He goes on to complain about the wrong local Green organizations being given credit with various resolutions of one kind or another. Hey, I have a tough time making heads or tails of what's really going on with the local Green groups myself, at least from checking out their web pages. Two are under construction with little information on the them.

The Eureka Greens page is actually just a blog where they post their meeting agendas. How is one supposed to know where they stand on a given issue, or who said what, with that? I've suggested to them before that if they have their meeting agenda up there, they should probably post the minutes of the meetings there as well. They obviously didn't take my advice.

David then goes on to give a few good words to embattled Green higher up, Greg Allen. Looks like David must be in the minority, Allen Faction, within the Greens.

One wonders how the Eureka Greens (David being one of the Eureka Greens, as well) feel about Measure T? I know I saw something on their agenda some time ago referring to a resolution opposing Measure T but never saw any follow up on it.

You need to post your meeting minutes to your web page, David, if you want people to get everything straight about the Eureka Greens. Don't be calling people "liars" simply because they can't get things straight with a party having multiple chapters and factions. It's understandable people get confused.

Let's face it: People not familiar with the local Greens would be hard pressed to tell the players without a program, never mind who supports what resolution.

And, David, if you DO oppose Measure T, feel free to let me know and we can add your name to our No On T Endorsements page.

Pink Pistol Video

I'll have to admit to not knowing much about these video web sites popping up on the internet nowadays. I ran into this one after following a link on the CalNews.com forums. The video clip featured is one by the gay pro- gun rights group, The Pink Pistols.

My comment was, assuming that clip was part of a longer video, they should see if they can get it aired on some local community access TV stations. That assumes they haven't already done so.

I went ahead and registered with that site although I'm not sure just what to make of it. It does seem to be one of those video blogs I keep hearing about. I'll have to figure out some way to make use of it.

As an aside; I used to be a strong supporter of Gun Owners of America. Their head honcho, Larry Pratt, is probably the most articulate defender of gun rights I've ever seen or heard.

Years ago GOA, along with a number of other gun rights groups, started a petitioning effort to the powers that be- I forget if it was congress or some federal agency- over some federal gun law proposal. I can't remember what the specific issue was.

They get an unprecedented number of groups to sign on to the effort and they all sign some petition to whomever asking them to stop the proposed law. The Pink Pistols was one of the groups that had their name on the petition. GOA, seeing the Pink Pistols on the same list with their organization, had the GOA name removed.

They didn't want to be seen alongside a non- politically correct group. So, bite off your nose to spite your face, huh? I'll never understand people and organizations that won't gain an ally simply because they have other issues they disagree on.

I stopped contributing to GOA after that. It wasn't so much their pulling their name off the petition, although that had me seeing red . It was mostly because I wasn't able to contribute as much to any organization, as my financial situation deteriorated.

But, it did put them a bit lower on my list of organizations I'd be willing to sacrifice cash for.

Shades of FDR

It's been correctly pointed out over the last few years that the Bush Administration, along with the Republican led Congress, has raised federal spending at the fastest rate since the Johnson Administration in the 60s. I guess it's gotten even better, for those on the big government side of the aisle:

This article from USA Today, points out that the spending increases of the current administration rival those of the FDR Administration 1933 to '45. Looks like spending on social programs didn't fare as well. They're still only in the fastest growth period since the 60s. There still might be time for social spending to catch up, though, and it likely will, regardless of who sits in the White House next time around.

Don't blame me. I voted Libertarian!

Local GOP Back Online

Looks like all, or most, of the local political parties are back online now with the local Republicans getting their web page back up again. Seems to me they had one, off and on, over the years but the page would end up disappearing suddenly, only to reappear months, if not years, later. That's to be expected, I suppose. It takes someone dedicated to maintaining a web page to make it work well over time.

Same thing has happened with the local Democrat web page through the years, if memory serves me well. Their page seems to have been up pretty steady now for some time, though. We'll have to keep an eye out and see if it disappears all of the sudden again.

The Greens have a new page up. They've changed their page a number of times through the years, with it sometimes disappearing altogether as the others have. The Greens even list pages for some of the sub- units of the county party, like the Arcata and Eureka Greens. That's something I always wanted to do when the local LP was active: Get city oriented LP groups going, which is easier said than done.

I'll give all of them credit for having more interesting and attractive pages than my very own Humboldt LP web page. I'm not too creative and have little in the way of graphic skills so my page has stayed pretty much the same since it's inception. But, as far as staying power goes, my page has been up and running non- stop since I first put it up- probably over a decade ago- so the LP gets the prize for most continous web presence.

That's an easy prize to achieve, though, since I do next to nothing with it except add a section to the page each election season listing the LP candidates and stands on local and state ballot initiatives. Maybe one of these years I should just take that page down for a few months, then put it back up, so the Humboldt LP can be like the real political parties?