Remembering the Fires…

I want to start this post with a story. Once upon a time, there was a young blogger who was originally from Kansas. He grew up with tornados, floods, droughts, snowstorms, and the like. But then, out of love, he moved to San Diego. He survived his first earthquake thinking it weird but fun. He saw mudslides, and thought that was REALLY odd. But, he didn't know true terror until his first firestorm. A firestorm that almost made him pack up everything and leave San Diego forever. That blogger was yours truly...

Just the other day, Google honored KPBS with a special video about their use of Google Maps during the San Diego fires. I wanted to share this video with you, if I may.

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Just Because They Say It Doesn’t Make It So

Anyone who has had a family member in recovery will recognize this phrase, and as I watched the media's manipulation of last week's presidential primaries, I couldn't help but think it aptly applied in that case as well.

Have we become a nation of co-dependents who believe everything we hear without questioning the agenda or the pathological state of the pundit who's uttering it? It may be that we are so beat up by nearly eight years of completely unsubstantiated statements out of the White House,  "Mission Accomplished", WMD's, etc., that we are unable to decipher fact from fiction.

Ever since KPBS gave me the opportunity to become a Citizens Voices blogger, I've felt the responsibility to investigate the source of everything I read, or hear on TV, whether it's on John Stewart  or CNN or Fox. That often means researching the writer, and then the writer's affiliations, and finally, who's behind those affiliations. I can get lost in Googleland, just trying to track down the back-stories.

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Reconsidering Steve Francis

Has your first impression of someone ever turned out to be wrong? 

I hate admitting such things -- like the time in high school I misjudged an intelligent and well-connected scion for a nerd with nothing interesting to say.

It may be time to say again, I was wrong. After reading Chuck's post about Steve Francis -- the independently wealthy mayoral candidate funding his own campaign -- I thought, "Why does this man (Steve, not Chuck) think he can step into the public sector and do well?" 

It drives me kind of nutty when successful businesspeople try to impress voters with their cash and business acumen. 

Admitting I wrote off Steve Francis may not be the same as admitting I was a near-sighted fool in high school. Then again, it may be better to slow down and give some credit where it's due.

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Beyond Electability

"Bored Now."  That immortal quote from Willow Rosenberg pretty much completes my thoughts on the state of the race to be president. Voters from two more states voted on Tuesday to decide, or not decide, who might represent the Democratic Party in November.

If it were a fight about issues, I might be interested. If the two remaining candidates had competing visions for the future, the race might earn some attention. Rather, if anything, the primaries have become a battle of electability, and that doesn't serve the country well.

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Floyd Morrow, Taxes, and Elections

In local news, Democratic San Diego mayoral candidate Floyd Morrow appeared on These Days this morning. Mr. Morrow pulled no punches with the interview, and was rather scathing in his attack on the corruption, in his eyes, of some of the other candidate's campaigns. He also spoke wanting a city-wide health care system as a stepping stone to universal health care. Once again, I still can say nothing bad about this candidate. He wants affordable housing, to help the people of the county, and isn't being shoved in my face by the mass media. Overall, it was an interesting interview.

In other news, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are both urging for the 18 cents of taxes to be removed from gasoline for the tax season. Well, today they heard about it from economists around the world. All of them screamed, "NO! What are you thinking!?"

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Something for Nothing

Just listened to San Diego mayoral candidate Steve Francis be interviewed by Tom Fudge on These Days. It was interesting to hear Francis's views on what San Diego needs and how he'll improve the situation.

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This May Be Our Last Chance

Photo: Candace Suerstedt

This week marks the 38th Earth Day. It seems impossible that nearly four decades have passed since the first one in 1970. Though I had grown up reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , I don't think I realized the full significance of that first Earth Day. I do remember that a number of folks dismissed it as yet another "hippie commie" activity and even the news magazines were unsure of how to portray the event.

The Uppity Wisconsin recalled that Newsweek was bemused, and somewhat dismissive, calling Earth Day "a bizarre nationwide rain dance" and the nation's "biggest street festival since the Japanese surrendered in 1945." Time said the day "had aspects of a secular, almost pagan holiday..." Newsweek asked,  "whether the whole uprising represented a giant step forward for contaminated Earthmen or just a springtime skipalong."

At any rate, here we are 38 years later and the worst environmental predictions from those early years seem optimistic in relation to what has actually happened to our environment.

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The Iraq War

To start with, props to the WWE for offering to settle the fight between Obama and Clinton. I would personally love to see these two wrestle for the nomination, and it'd save a lot of time. But, my money is that "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would 'stunner' them both to take the nomination.

In other news, I was pleasantly shocked by Bush announcing support for troop withdrawal in Iraq. This is very welcome news to me, not just as a Libertarian, but also as someone against the war in Iraq.

Since it began, I swore up and down we had no business being in Iraq. In my opinion, we were lied to in order to get troops over there to finish up our President's Father's work. And even Bush Sr. was against the war.

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Unmentionable: District 3 Race Gets Seedy

Truthfully, I wasn’t going to vote for John Hartley to begin with.

(As a resident of District 3, my vote is likely going to (Todd Gloria… but more on that later).

That said, when a local politician running for councilmember in my district was caught with his pants down — literally —it piqued my interest.  (Also, one of my fabulous editors pointed me in the direction of writing this story. Thanks, Leng.)

So, who is Mr. Hartley, and how much did he allegedly indecently expose?

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Presidential Debates, Godwin’s Law, and Bloggers Blamed

In Libertarian news, the 2008 Libertarian Party Presidential Debate will be broadcast live from Heartland Libertarian Convention in Kansas City on Saturday, April 5. You can hear it on KCXL or Blog Talk Radio.

The debate will feature George Phillies; Wayne Allyn Root; Christine Smith; Michael Jingozian; Dr. Mary J. Ruwart; and Mike Gravel. It will start at 10:00 a.m. Central Standard Time, so it will be at 8 a.m. Saturday morning Pacific Standard Time (For those of us on the West Coast!).

Also, a 30-minute recap of the debate is scheduled! I urge all those interested or curious about third-party politics to listen in for my party's candidates.

In other news, it seems the Right Wing's spokeswoman, the 'beloved' Ann Coulter, made headlines this week when she compared Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father", to "Mein Kampf".

She does make some interesting points, but this is, by far, not the first time a candidate has been Godwin-ed in the news. Does this mean we can stop paying attention to Ann Coulter now, as she'll have noting more of value to say? Lord, I really hope so.

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