take the money and run...

non-profit Channelkeeper fleeces Santa Barbara

I never thought I'd see the day when conservatives on the Santa Barbara City Council would not only praise city workers, but also take to task a non-profit organization...but that's what happened on Tuesday in the council chambers....at issue was the rate increases for sewer line rehab litigated by non-profit Channel Keeper's against the city....

after hearing from a few Channelkeeper followers including Hilary Hauser from the nonprofit Heal the Ocean, I found out that kid did a jr high science project and found the water quality at the beach "wasn't real good"..that's the basis for the lawsuit that Channelkeeper filed...

the princesses from Channelkeeper said they don't swim at East Beach because of the bad water quality..and one gal, that Redmond chick said her husband plays volleyball and the water is sometimes too icky for him!

oh really,where are the numbers and what is the source of the pollution?? do you think maybe the creek next to the ZOO or  Bird Refuge has anything to do with it?? that little body of water is full of gnarly bacteria and stinks to high Heaven when the dissolved oxygen levels drop....actually, this Bird Refuge lagoon used to be salt water but someone installed a sluice gate to stop the tidal flushes....all they need to do is open that gate and allow the lagoon to be a marsh as intended....no need for "restoration"

I won't swim at the beach sometimes either but not because of "leaky sewer pipes" but because of the fifty motherfucking dogs running around crapping in the water!! and don't forget the dolphins, seals and sea lions..they pee and crap in the ocean, dearies!! do you enjoy swimming in that, precious??

anyway, I congratulate Dale Francisco for busting/exposing Channelkeeper... and Randy Rouse for praising the folks in the city who do the real work of treating the water and cleaning the grease-laden sewer lines out...while the debutantes at Chanel No 5 file their little lawsuits...this is the biggest waste of taxpayer dollars I've ever seen!

Dale says that Channelkeeper's lawsuit was unnecessary because the city was already stepping up sewer line clean-outs which reduced spill incidents to negligible levels...and that Channelkeeper REFUSED to meet with council members, instead all they requested was records (to prepare for the lawsuit)

the Channelkeeper lawyers received up to $700000 from the taxpayers in this particular case... $700000!! Francisco says that there's a little cottage industry among environmental organizations/lawyers to sue cities for money...well, yeah...in otherwords, the lawyers made out like a bandit....the fact being that the Channelkeeper lawsuit was FOR MONEY AND PUBLICITY, not for cleaner beaches....as long as people are afraid to go in the water, the more money these non-profits will make..

I would like to see Channelkeeper do a complete water quality analysis of the Bird Refuge, and ZOO creek...get off their little assays and do some real work!

in this case, Francisco and Rouse proved themselves invaluable members of the city council because they were spot on about the facts!

$700000..that will go a long way to paying for the next Channelkeeper party at the Coral Casino!

crowded house

Santa Barbara city councilman Grant House punks Santa Barbara media!! singlehandedly exposes media bias!! gets last laugh!! becomes a big star!!!

geez, what is the state of the local media? do they have brains? do they have heads to house those brains?? well, I think no matter what, at least you can trust me, but can you trust them...think about that girls when you remove your panties tonight....

ok so um like last week the News-Press mixed up authors of some stories...they put Andy Caldwell's name on a Sunday opinion piece by EDC Brian Trautwein , making Caldwell sound like a big environmentalist....of course Andy is as anti-environment as you can get...the dude would put a casino in the middle of the Salt Marsh if he could!

next the Independent published a letter to the editor by SB city councilman Grant House.. the letter was a long meandering rant and Grant complains about Obama letting him down like Obama was his girlfriend or mommy...it sounded way off balance....

then the Santa Barbara View editor Cherie Rae jumped on it and re-printed the letter on her blog and criticized Grant for all the times he never called her back....Cherie has big issues with city hall that she apparently needs therapy to deal with...

and here's the kicker: it turned out that Grant House did not write the letter to the Independent..it was a guy named Grant Marcus and the Indie mistakenly named Grant House as the author!! and now the Santa Barbara View and Indie have egg all over their faces...

from the SBVIEW: By Cheri Rae

Plenty of people who voted for candidate Barack Obama are disappointed in his performance as President Barack Obama.—including our second-term council member Grant House who penned an inflammatory letter to the editor addressed to President Obama that is posted on the Santa Barbara Independent website.

His letter begins with his expression of “extreme disappointment and sadness,” and quickly justifies his criticism, invoking no less than the Civil Rights leader himself: “Martin Luther King once said that a man should be judged “not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.” It is for this reason, I will not be voting for you for president this next election. It will be the first time in my life I will choose not to vote for a Democrat.”

He escalates to a laundry list of complaints, name-calling and self-righteousness: “I cannot be a good German supporting supremacist values that lead us on crusades all over the world while our country goes bankrupt, and more and more of our people beg for food and work at traffic signals with cardboard signs that read, ‘Help me! I am a single mom. My four children need your help!’”

then Indie issues apology
http://www.independent.com/news/2012/jun/02/ex-democrat/?on#commenttoggle
I read the letter too but knew something was amiss...it just didn't sound like something Grant House would write.....Grant may be a lot of things, but he's not a drama queen!

ok..to all the local media, I'm getting tired of all these fuck-ups... I don't know if you have monthly staff meeting to hash all this stuff out, but I want you to start scheduling them the first Monday of the month...and as always, report back to me...

LIE

♪♪ hey now, hey now, I'm all around you ♪♪ ...

hey now...do you realize I'm the only one to do an interview with Wendy and Nipper in the last few years? at the US Humane Society Wayne Pacelle's garden party in the upper village when I asked them about Lanny Ebenstein...their answers were curt as they tried to move away from me and hide among their adoring fans.... but I am not an adoring fan, am I?

I see that young people are graduating...their names and smiling faces are in the local papers and they all look fantastic...young and bright and full of attitude...so it troubles me when conservatives LIE and complain about how poorly the students and schools are doing...Lanny Ebenstein does this alot...cites a bunch of bogus studies showing how California schools are below some 100 year old threshold...it's all political bullshit against the teachers' unions....how can a MORON like Lanny even begin to denigrate the students??

I think the kids are smart and will help lead California in the future..Lanny et al are the same people who are trying to stop students from voting.... and they should be ashamed of themselves... LIARS!!!

next we have the biggest scam in California: NONPROFITS....these folks take money from everyone..taxpayers and governmens so they don't have to pay taxes....in the spotlight is Channelkeeper and I think people are catching on....even the News-Press had a story about the FORCED unnecessary TAX INCREASE on Santa Barbara citizens..I've gone over this before but the only thing Channelkeeper is interested in is propping up its own cult-like members' self-importance and getting more donations....I'm curious as to why the City didn't fight them harder...

as I've said, most cities are on a sewer rehab schedule when needed...this last minute lawsuit was for publicity only....and the city has to pay the lawyers fees for Channelkeeper...Santa Barbara, you just got robbed..

now, the only reason these girls in Channelkeeper do this work is cos they all have a little crush on RFK, Jr. a lawyer who started the nonprofit in 1999....he's like Charlie Manson to these gals!!

speaking of Charlie, he has an album at oldies.com called LIE.... I didn't know about it...I actually like some of his music and was always fascinated with the Dennis Wilson connection....if Dennis and producer Terry Melcher, Doris Day's son, had taken Charlie under their wing, Charlie would have been a pop star instead of a mass murderer!

but I think I'll get a copy of the CD and send it over to the gals at Channelkeeper...♪♪ hey now, hey now, I'm all around you ♪♪ ...now ♪♪ ♪♪ hey now, hey now, I'm all around you ♪♪ ...now ♪♪

on the way home

like a smoke ring day, when the wind blows

well Saturday was an unusual day..there was something in the air...the summery aroma of a cloudy smoky beachy firey day......reminded me of the time we first moved here and hung out at Shark's off Fernald Point...we'd take our big boards and sneak thru the beautiful beach properties along the hedges...in those days, the owners didn't care..they let you cut thru (most of the time!) we'd build little fires with the driftwood...the smoke smelled so good...

well, today I planned to check out the accident/crime scene at Stonehouse Ln in Montecito where two young women supposedly got hit by a car, and one was killed...

today, I'm Columbo...or if you prefer Maigret...or rather, an investgative blogger who investigates stories real reporters have already broken..ie, I fix 'em!

so I'm on Highway 101 and go over the hill in Summerland and whoa look at the waves at Shark's! and lots of surfers...I'll check it out later....

I get off at Sheffield Drive and go up by Birnam Wood then over to Stonehouse on the backside..it's a lonely two lane road AKA Highway 192...I notice some red paint on the street so I park nearby and get out for a closer look...hmmm..I've traveled this area before many times and if someone was in the middle of the road there's no way I could stop let alone see them, especially in the dark....there's not alot of room for error..and any thud I would attribute to a raccoon or coyote...hit and run???

so it's sad..I see the chalk circle where one girl died, and the blood stains..and more chalk...and some flowers on the side of the road...

how does anyone know what happened until the other gal gets better and talks.......why were the girls walking here at 5:30 AM?? I bet there was alcohol involved.......why didn't someone at the party in this ultra wealthy area give them a ride??? this story's got legs.....then I hear on KEYT that the girls may have been "car surfing" with the guy who got arrested...WTF??? why would anyone want to do that?? treat a moving car like a surfboard, doing daredevil stunts...esp if you're drunk!! like I said, this story's got legs...sea legs...

so I go to check out the waves..I pull off in Summerland and go to Lookout Park....ahhh..there's the waves and the strong ocean smell and smokiness in the hills from the fireplaces or restaurants...

it's such a shame the about the two girls..that they would have to miss this day, this smoke ring day....one girl dead and one girl in the hospital....this extraordinary day at the beach is....something is in the air...California is in the air....make sure you stick around long enough to enjoy it....

sentimental lady

sentimental gentle wind, blowing thru my life again...

ok so it's no secret that the county Grand Jury is mostly made up of old alcohol-fueled conservative white guys with high blood pressure which is why I don't pay too much attention to them..especially when they side with drunk drivers...I don't think these guys ever had a sentimental gentle wind blow thru their lives..not once...how sad..

and the Grand Jury is most definitely on the side of drunk drivers...all the poor slobs who get stopped by cops should, according to the GJ, have access to all audio and video records of their arrest and all arrests should be recorded in front of the camera....well, you can't accomplish that with a stationary camera, you would need a full time camera man to follow the cops around! and people already do have access to all the recordings, so I don't know what they are talking about...

the Grand Jury needs to get with the program and understand the real issue: DRUNK DRIVERS...and those who try to blame the cops should be horsewhipped...the cops should use every tool they have to keep these idiots of the road!!  it all comes down to personal responsibility...who is sucking up tax money? people like Lance and Denunzio, that's who..and now we have a Linda Denunzio in trouble with the law according to the criminal court calendar!

the Saturday front page  story is a set up for Peter Lance's next News-Press series against the cops...

yes, Peter Lance was recently hawking his new book on the Mr.Wimpy Show...my goodness these guys are sad cases...didn't you find love on Match.com Pete?? no sentimental ladies left? but Pete is still trying to get Officer Kasi Beutel..he says he's got three more stories on her upcoming in the News-Press...of course everyone is tired of this town drunk being enabled by Wendy and Nipper...but if I were Kasi, I'd get a restraining order against Lance....

if Lance has anything against her, why isn't he pursuing it thru legal channels instead of rerunning his big dud with the News-Press...

the NEWS-PRESS!! geez Peter you dumbass, they endorsed Orly Taitz for Senate for Pete's sake so their credibility is down there with yours at ZERO!! Peter is starting to sound like fat Nancy Crawford-Hall who blames everyone but herself for her problems and Pappas' loss to Farr..the unions, the students, the firefighters all ganged up on poor Steve and made the voters vote the way they did...and she still is promising a big story on voter fraud...fraud that if caught in the last election would have assured a Pappas win....look Nancy, the reason Steve Pappas can't win an election is because he's a pussy....did you see the debates??...he had no answers!!!

so the Grand Jury is now on my radar and look out boys...you're gonna hear from me..that's not a threat, that's a promise!

Back in the U.S.S.R.

you don't know how lucky you are....

well, I was driving around town a few weeks ago, actually up in the Carpinteria foothills and there's one flower grower who keeps posting political signs and billboards on their property..the Van Wingerdens...I've had my eye on these folks ever since I saw June VW and Joe Armendariz pal around and showed up at a luncheon for deadman Andy Breitbart at the Montecito Country Club a few years back ..of course this was when Andy was still alive and kicking..he was worried that the black folks at ACORN were about to assassinate him....but his heart got him first..

June VW also sits on the board of the Carp Water District which is heavily in debt....and June is a teabagger and flag waver and bible thumper..she had a sign on her property VOTE FOR SANTORUM ..and one about Lincoln.....and one explaining what it means to be an American...I don't need no stinking sign to tell me what it means to be an American!!

so I was curious as to why the huge Van Wingerden clan (there's more Van Wingerdens in the USA than illegal immigrants) who owns land almost everywhere in America for their flower growing operations, I was curious as to why this highly religious flag waving patriotic family would sell a majority share in every piece of property they own to a guy named Mikhail Prokhorov, a communist oligarch who ran against Putin for Russian president but lost...Putin wants Mikhail to serve on his cabinet!!

how ironic that a lady with a Dutch boy haircut and wears our American Flag on her sleeve is part of a clan that sells out to a Russian commie billionaire with a green thumb!!

from the web: But why would the Van Wingerdens sell? We asked family spokesman (and GrowerTalks columnist) Abe Van Wingerden of Metrolina Greenhouses in North Carolina.
“Easy,” Abe replied. “Mike [as Prokhorov is known in close circles] was willing to pay us each probably ten times what our businesses are worth. We get to continue operating them as we always have, and best of all he’s going to provide all the Russian natural gas that we need for winter heat—no more messing around with woodchips and biofuel. He will be paying all our production costs, so we will basically be growing for free. It was a deal the family just couldn’t pass up.”


http://www.ballpublishing.com/ballpub/ViewNewsletter.aspx?article=803
and Mikhail owns the New Jersey Nets basketball team...Kim Kardashian's ex Kris Humphries plays for the Nets...remember they were recently married in Montecito..it was a total fiasco and Kim anounced a few weeks later she was tired of Kris and wanted out of the marriage! she gave all her wedding gifts to the Dream Foundation!!!

and now the three of them are involved in a little PR war involving Kim's new beau, Kanye West...now normally I don't follow all this crap, but I don't feel normal today

and Prokhorov lost a $55 million deposit when a deal to buy a French estate fell through due to the GLOBAL recession...Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man had to pull out on the much reported deal to purchase Villa Leopolda, a $750 million estate in Côte d’Azur, the South of France after seeing a good portion of his amassed fortune lost in the current global recession.

I don't know how many degrees of separation exist in these families, but maybe June should wear the Russian flag on her sleeve from now on.....eh, comrade??

APRIL FOOLS!

ribbon of darkness

ok so now I know what it feels like to be a loser...feels weird, I'm just not used to being down here...but since I'm here, let's take a look around!

Ribbon of Same

so Mike Stoker got a measly 46% of the vote against Hannah-Beth Jackson and Jason Hodge..that means that there weren't enough conservative people even with the new districts that were thrilled with Mike..but Mike being Mike, he says he actually got 50% to 60% of the vote because the folks who voted for Hodge actually voted for him!! I couldn't believe this..he steals Hodge's votes and claims they are his....that should give Hannah-Beth a solid victory because Mike is just not honest...remember the Greka fiasco..the guy is a chronic liar!!

and then there's Lanny Ebenstein on the Mr. Wimpy Show after the elections.....poor Lanny is single again..lost that young blonde wife he married a few years back..that's a shame..Mr Wimpy fails to question Lanny about his own financial and legal issues in Eureka, but Lanny did finally admit his anti-public worker initiatives failed to reach the ballot...his excuse was he started too late...what?? Lanny, you've been blabbing and telling lies about pensions and unions in the News-Press for years, so don't give me that...the reason they didn't reach the ballot is not enough signatures...and when Lanny complains about public workers working only 4 days a week, it's because they work 10 hour shifts, depending on city needs!!

Lanny says he'll bring at least one anti-union initiative back and try again in 2014 which won't happen because Gov Brown's proposals will pass in November....people will back honest real reform but not punitive political jargon....

how many times do I have to tell these morons..the private sector is for profit and the public sector is for service...when they mingle, it's better for everyone..there are many private entities in SB that the city does business with...there's Home Improvement, Smarden Hatcher, and many more....

now, the public sector unions aren't going anywhere..the negotiations are done at the bargaining table....but if the faux-economists keep feeding the well- fed masters with tax loopholes and ignoring the billions being hidden in non-profits, all the pension reforms won't do a thing..there is absolutely nothing wrong with public workers voting for pro-labor people..no matter how hard the conservatives try to criminalize it, the real crime is the nonprofits sitting on billions and always asking for a handout...people should be up in arms that nonprofit Channelkeeper just extorted more money from taxpayers to make Channelkeeper look important! until I see one of those sorority gals from Channelkeeper cleaning out sewer lines with the D&C crew, they will remain as necessary as tits on a nun...remember Princess, real lab techs wear lab coats!

and the real reason that the unions scare the conservatives is not money...it's power...the Wisconsin vote was a drop in the bucket against the union power because unions are made up of WORKERS who have to listen to some of these nuts like Lanny...most of the anti-union voters come from conservative families: 30 year old adults still living at home with their mommies and daddies.....

the Wisconsin democrats took control of the senate so if Walker and the Kochs have anymore tricks up their sleeves, they will have to wait and see what happens in November...

it's been fun hanging out at the bottom with these flagella, but I can't stay here a minute more