Moon River....

breakfast at Tiffany's.....

when the going gets tough.....the wealthy go on a cruise in their yachts on the Mediterranean!!

if you'll recall that's what Wendy did when she first bought the News-Press..the inner workings of her business were imploding so she and Nipper went for a Mediterranean cruise..when they got back, the News-Press was in disarray with key employees resigning left and right...oh, those were good times!

so I laughed when Wendy's pal Newt Gingrich who spoke at Wendy's Reagan Ranch Center on lower State St a few times, did the same thing.....his presidential campaign was floundering with news of his huge debt owed to Tiffanny's because his weird Barbie doll wife likes expensive jewelry, so Newt goes on a cruise to a Greek Isle...when he returns, most of his staff has resigned!

California Republican wants Iraq to pay for America's invasion of their sovereign nation!

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. congressman visiting Baghdad Friday suggested that Iraq pay back the United States for the money it has spent in the eight years since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher spoke during a one-day visit by a group of six U.S. congressman. The California Republican said he raised the suggestion during a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that some day when Iraq is a "prosperous" nation it pay back the U.S. for everything that it has done here.

uh oh

SB City Council member Mike Self, whom I praised recently, stood outside City Hall with a quorum of conservative members of the council, and spoke about city issues and her plans to run for re-election.....this was not a noticed meeting, therefore a blatant violation of the Brown Act....

what is with these people???

another brick in the wall...

cashing' in....

Brian Sarvis was the pits as Santa Barbara schools superintendent, flubs and mistakes were his trademark...he was well liked by slumlord pot houser and News-Press writer Lanny Ebenstein...

David Cash is the new Santa Barbara schools superintendent... Lanny likes him too and wrote a glowing op-ed piece about him....Cash was schools chief in the town of Clovis near Fresno and he has some baggage...and plenty of controversy surrounding his career as an educator..especially interesting is the sex education program in Clovis where they taught abstinence over biology, ie rightwing religious indoctrination, and issues he had with students getting drunk on a bus after the prom and sexual assaults on the wrestling team!! "We can’t leave a single child unnoticed in any school,” Cash said...... or any bus apparently....the question is why did Cash "retire" two years into a four year contract...to intercept his imminent firing by the Clovis school board??

will he be just another incompetent overpaid official in the Santa Barbara schools system...so far, it doesn't look good..the board did not do their homework!!! I am hoping that Monique Limon will take a bigger role in the future vetting the people who are responsible for educating kids...

from the Fresno Bee fresnobee


Cash's sudden departure is as surprising and mysterious as that dead leopard shark turning up in a Clovis canal. Three weeks ago, a confident Cash was selling the district's performance and beating the drum for a possible $300 million bond measure to spiff up Clovis Unified's fabulous -- but aging -- facilities. Next thing you know, the district is robo-calling news of his retirement to staff.
What happened behind the scenes is anybody's guess. Perhaps dozens of small board concerns grew into a tsunami of regret over Cash's hiring or the direction he was taking the district.

"the board served Cash with notice on Thursday that they would schedule the Friday meeting to discuss a range of options for Cash's future, including discipline, suspension, dismissal or release.
But before the meeting started, Cash said, he called the district's lawyer to say he was retiring.
Cash, 55, said he was asked by the district's lawyer not to attend Friday's meeting but to be available by telephone. He would not discuss details of the evaluation.
But Cash said that, contrary to some news reports, issues at Buchanan High School involving the wrestling team and students who were caught drinking alcohol on a chartered bus after the prom two weeks ago had nothing to do with his decision to retire.
The board voted 7-0 Friday to accept Cash's decision to retire, said Hovsepian.
The same board members voted 7-0 to make Cash the superintendent in 2009.

Lanny's got Eureka and Cash has got Clovis...and the local media will have none of it!!

darkness darkness

News-Press plague visits SB City Councilman Dale Francisco..

less than a week after a News-Press endorsement, councilman Dale Francisco starting acting funny...he let his hair grow another 1/4 inch and railed against his endorsers, the News-Press of Santa Barbara...at issue is the Brown Act, which requires government meetings be open to the public....

also in an unrelated matter, can someone please explain KEYT chick Lauren Pozen to me? I get a chill up my spine everytime she appears on the screen...

in the past, the News-Press has used the Brown Act to go after their arch enemy David Pritchett who had the audacity to stand on a stage in De La Guerra Plaza and make fun of Wendy McCaw!! so when it was discovered that Dave was having lunch with some other commission members who perhaps talked about city business related to De La Guerra Plaza (not sure what the details is), the News-Press sued citing the Brown Act had been violated... the question is what is a meeting..now in a stunning turn of political benches, Dale Francisco has come to the defense of Pritchett!!!

and why can't you have lunch and talk to people without some idiot suing you?? Well, idiot Wendy sued the City of SB and Travis bragged about it for months until he was driven out of town by irreverent blogsters, or whatever the reason was...

geez, we got way too many laws so if Franny wants to get rid of a few, I'm all for it!!

but people are crying foul..saying that Dale is trying to prevent public participation like conservatives really want anyway....they would much rather you all just go away and let them handle things..very paternalistic behavior....but the problem is they can't be trusted when they are controlled by outside wealthy individuals.....public participation is essential to the process and it is very entertaining to boot......so the question is did Dale step in Wendy's Dog Chris's doo doo...

will she sue him if he dines with fellow members of the finance committee? what if there's no quorum?? is it still a meeting?? will Wendy sue just to sue..or does Wendy only sue her enemies? why hasn't she sewn me??

beware politicians..Wendy may flash her golden undies at you, but an endorsement from the News-Press is the usually kiss of death...the black plague...not good

the book of Ruth...

Mick's Chris Sam and Dave Blog....

I just heard that Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in La Cumbre Plaza was closing....why is it closing? because their name evokes a violent outburst in some people! I've never been there, but I heard they charge an arm and a leg for a tenderloin....did you know that beef has about twelve cuts: chuck, rig, round, brisket, etc....if you wanted any of them at Ruth's Chris, they would charge an arm and a leg....they shoulda called it the Arm n Leg Steakhouse....

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse...what a dumb name for a restaurant! like if I opened a hamburger joint, I would call it Mick's Jean Burgers, to drive away customers...or Wendy's Nipper Suishi House...I mean whoever is coming up with these names should get another job at the Polo fields cleaning the horse stalls...

People want simplicity and value when they go out...they want to be the stars, not the restaurant...if your server has an attitide, then they are the star, not you..and that's not good..

and you need to know what kind of people run the restaurant...like Carl's Jr for example..we know what a dump it is and how it can't compete with the other fast food places, but they also support bigotry!! the one thing I hate is a group of people trying to mess with the civil rights of another group of people..the founder of Carl's Jr, Karl Karcher was a John Bircher conservative who hated gays and free choice for women...

In 1978, Karcher provided $1 million USD to California's Prop 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative. He was the initiative's biggest financial supporter. The proposition was a ballot measure requiring the termination of all gays and lesbians from employment in public schools. The initiative was defeated by over one million votes.

aside from the weird name, Ruth's Chris had a controversy when a restaurant manager sent a racist insult about an African-American customer to another employee via email. This offensive email made its way to the customer by accident....a little stupidity goes a long way...
so if you are a racist or a bigot, you probably won't do very well in the food industry...maybe you'll do us all a favor and move to Texas!

well, hello Mr. Soul...

I dropped by to pick up a reason..

class acts?
the Buffalo Springfield.. two Bridge benefit concerts at the Bowl...June 7 and 8..YES!!!
politicians: not so much...
News-Press: not so much....

so the News-Press is in political endorsment mode for November's election, five months away..I promise they will endorse the conservative trio of Rowse, Francisco and Self at least 50 times between now and then...I will not vote for any of them because I don't live in SB...however if I did, I would give Rowse and Francisco the heave ho...the NP suggests they are sharp watchers of the city finances, yet each one voted to spend $50000 to turn some State St benches away from the homeless, and a few million dollars to redo the Library entrance to confuse the homeless... these guys are nitwits and don't deserve to making decisions for the city..they need to go to work officially for the News-Press promoting ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

ok so what about Mike Self, who has been the target of some satire right here on this blog...well, I would give her another term....not that she doesn't have her weird moments, she does have a better grasp of common sense than the others....having met her briefly in front of the County Admin bldg, she was able to convey a keen understanding of satire...while Joe Armenrdariz was challenging me to a fight, Mike Self was mothering him and calming him down..and when I asked her why Joe was so mad at me, she calmly explained to Joe that my blog is designed for just that purpose...to bite....so I gained some respect for her....and she voted against the bench turning idea.....for the most part, she's been an asset to the council and an independent voice....

I can't say the same for Rowse and Francisco whose anti homeless obsession borders on crazy....fellows..listen to me: the bums, transients, hobos, or whatever you want to call them, have been here since the Depression..they will always be here..and your efforts to hide them have been folly....real people are working on solutions, silly people are turning benches around...we don't need anymore silly people on the council....or in politics, like Democrat Anthony Weiner of New York..now there's a silly dude....
as always....stop children what's that sound, everybody look what's goin' down.....

Rag Doll...

hand me downs...

ok..I've been keeping tabs on all the things that scare Santa Barbarans, and I made a list....first of course is the homeless, then unions, then we got city workers, they're pretty scary..and now we have a new culprit: Raggedy Ann!

that's right Raggedy Ann has created a stir in town and it's gotten so bad that Cottage Hospital has banned Raggedy Ann from entering the premises!

appparently some patients who are under sedation have been hallucinating so bad that their hallucinations are seeing hallucinations in the form of Raggedy Ann stalking them through the halls of sterile Cottage Hospital....

the crying and screaming was too much for the hospital administrators, so they had to stop the invasion..the invasion being a good nonprofit called Adventures in Caring who for years have been sending in adults dressed as Raggedy Ann dolls to cheer up patients....if I was sick, er sicker, and in the hospital and some babe dressed up in a Raggedy Ann outfit came in to "cheer me up", I would be thrilled....I mean it wouldn't be the first time I've tripped on a doll !

but seriously....hallucinations? what drugs are these people on? acid? mescaline? mescaline I can understand might induce some wild mountain honey and if you've ever read Carlos Casteneda you'd know...but I find it amusing that Cottage would overreact in such a manner....
then it dawned on me....it must be a dig against the homeless......an attempt by a for-profit hospital not to look like it is enabling homeless people..and who is a bigger poster child for the homeless than Raggedy Ann!!!

I think I might visit the SB Council chambers carrying a Raggedy Ann doll and see how Rowse, Hothckiss and Francisco react....and if you see me strolling down State St with Raggedy Ann under my arm, it's a sign your hallucinations have just begun....

dance with me...

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. Thomas Paine

there are two stories that caught my eye on the front page of the News-Press..one that the price of feathers is going up..and two, 15 kids from Kathy Ireland's Christian school graduated..... yes, apparently some young people are attaching feathers from fishing lures to their ears as a fashion statement resulting in the price of feathers going up!!

and congratulations to the fifteen graduates of Providence Hall, a Christian college in downtown Santa Barbara...founded by Kathy Ireland and her friends looking for a place to send their kids without influences from the real world... Providence Hall is an ultra conservative Christian mini college turning out future Dancing with the Stars intellectuals, like Kathy!

oh boy, I feel so sorry for these kids...there's a Westmont influence here with former Westmont/present PH headmaster David Winter, who was quoted as saying " we need to keep these kids away from the public school population to avoid corrupting them".....there's even a bronze statue of this idiot at Westmont...what's that the bible said about false idols??

and Kathy even presented Winter and his Stepford wife with a free trip to Israel...that's right..the same Israel that has been pissing on Palestine forever, beating the Palestinian kids, terrorizing them and calling them dogs, is the promised land to some Christians....America's support of Israel in this religious conflict needs to stop...but it's hard with all these brainwashed Christians running around like chickens with their heads cut off!! like pageant beauty queens..like Sarah Palin....like Kathy Ireland, always smiling and praising God for helping her throught difficult times on Dancing with the Stars, supports this: JERUSALEM – Two Israeli newspapers published disturbing accounts this week about misconduct by Israeli soldiers during this country's January offensive in Gaza – and one statement stood out from the rest.
This particular utterance did not describe a heinous incident or act but instead conveyed an over-riding state of mind, one that enabled at least some Israeli soldiers to carry out some thoroughly loathsome deeds while they were deployed in Gaza – including, it seems, the cold-blooded murder of Palestinian civilians.
The Gaza abuses reported included the unprovoked killing of a woman and her two children in one incident, and of a lone elderly woman, in another – people slain not because they posed a threat of any kind, but merely because they happened to be Palestinian.

and the News-Press loves Kathy...her blathering nonsense is eaten up by the rightwingers who think God is a magic guy in the sky who gives them lots of material things...

but we need more young people like this to enter beauty pageants, dance with the stars and create fashionable jewelry and clothing from the sweat of Guatamalan kids.... that is Providence Hall... and these are family values we can all aspire to.....