stoked...

and broke...

conservatives, who elected Arnold and got California into a big financial mess, are now supposed to solve our problems..by electing guys like Stoker?? Arnold failed because he couldn't cut waste or raise taxes when needed! How hard is it to raise taxes on wine or cigs or gamblers, or stop wasteful programs like the Channel Islands restoration scam... WE NEED TEDDY ROOSEVELT CONSERVATIVES, not these punks! The election is a long way off, still time for Stoker to start getting honest and start making sense, but he looks too much like a puppet for wealthy interests and trust fund babies..
making excuses
from Santa Maria Times:
Greka spokesman Mike Stoker said that he believes the Jan. 4 spill might have been the result of tampering from someone outside the company.
"Either there is a ghost out there, or someone is intentionally doing things to the equipment," he said.
Equipment failures aside, County Fire Department Capt. Eli Iskow said that regulations require that there be containment ponds or tanks in place to capture any spills. In this case, Stoker said, the pond put in place to capture a potential spill was full of rainwater.

from USA TODAY....
USA
Brooks Firestone, whose family leases land to Greka, was one of two members of the county Board of Supervisors who blocked an emergency hearing on Greka in December. He said the staff needed more time to prepare, and warned board members not to become hysterical.
"To me, a huge event involving oil was the Kuwaiti oil fields that were fired by the Iraqi army in the first Gulf War, the 1969 oil spill in the channel, the Valdez tanker and the Normandy tanker," Firestone said at the time. "What is the meaning of this incident?"
Days later, on Jan. 5, Greka spilled more than 190,000 gallons of oil and contaminated water on the land it leases from the Firestone estate. Since that spill, Firestone has withdrawn from deciding matters related to Greka.
Firestone, an heir to the tire fortune, said it would be too difficult to calculate how much income he receives from Greka. On political disclosure forms, he said he owns only 9 percent of the vineyard land on which the Greka installation sits. Officials have to own at least 10 percent of a business to disclose income from it.
A former county supervisor, Mike Stoker, has served as a Greka spokesman and said he was hired last year as a consultant to improve the company's relationship with local regulators and help Greka become a "better corporate citizen." He would not say what Greka pays him. Stoker is also the $60,720-a-year district representative for state Sen. Tom McClintock.
now really..how is this an improvement ??