The Humboldt Herald

Following announcement of the Pacific Lumber bankruptcy, the Houston Chronicle ran a stomach-churning puff piece on delusional hardships suffered by Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz. The poor guy, bloated with millions of Humboldt County dollars, is a victim, you see.

The author of the puff piece was Loren Steffy, whose blog on the Chronicle website received several comments from Humboldt County residents.

While one can understand how the Maxxam-loving Houston Chronicle would write such baseless drivel, it is harder to understand why any paper in Humboldt County would regurgitate such garbage. But hey, it’s the Eureka Reporter, PR machine for all things crappy.

The ER repeats Hurwitz’s quotes to the Houston Chronicle that Pacific Lumber “is the root of all evil for us … everything that’s bad in my business has come out of this (ownership).”

Golly, Mr. Hurwitz, if hundreds of millions of dollars are so “evil,” why not give them back? And throw in the bucks from Maxxam’s bankruptcy of Kaiser Aluminum and Simplicity Pattern, whose pension funds you looted - just like Pacific Lumber’s.

<**><**><**><**><**><**>

Emboldened by its schoolboy crush on a big Houston paper rather than factual history of Humboldt County, the ER repeats inaccuracies that further Maxxam’s “poor me” media campaign. For example, the ER mimics its big city mentor by saying no one will want to buy the ravaged Pacific Lumber:

The threat of unending tree sittings and sabotage to logging operations makes PALCO an unappealing purchase.

Sabotage? Where? When? Unending tree sittings? Who cares? No one reports on them anyway.

But make no mistake, any such bogus reports by big papers like the Houston Chronicle, and dutifully reprinted by stooges like the Eureka Reporter, serve the bottom line of crooks like Charles Hurwitz who has made millions by playing the victim of mean old regulators and activists.

Playing the victim is a time-honored method to successfully farm the government. Here again Hurwitz cries all the way to the bank, boosted by spineless stenographers like the Houston Chronicle and the Eureka Reporter.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 9:10 PM 20 comments

Ivins’ final column urged Americans to stand up against the “surge” – otherwise knows as the escalation of Bush’s failed war and occupation against Iraq.

Molly wrote:

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 4:41 PM 16 comments

Eureka Police Traffic Sgt. Mike Hislop will be filling the shoes of Jim Dawson, retiring investigator with the District Attorney’s office.

Rumors that Hislop would take over Dawson’s position were circulated on this blog last month.

The move is an interesting one following the years-long rift between Eureka Police and the DA’s office, which began after Paul Gallegos took office as the Humboldt County DA in 2003. The bad blood was exacerbated by the police shooting of Eureka resident Cheri Moore on April 14, 2006. Gallegos has yet to announce whether criminal charges will be filed against officers involved in the shooting.

The opening left by Hislop will be difficult to fill, according to Eureka Police spokeswoman Mary Kirby.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 9:37 AM 23 comments

This blogger is often perplexed at the medical procedures people utilize to bring more children (or litters, as the case may be) into the world. But this story exceeds previous methods.

The family of a dead Israeli soldier won the right to have sperm that was removed from his corpse impregnate a woman selected by the family. The soldier always wanted to have children, and the family is happy they can carry out his wish.

Apparently it is becoming common for soldiers to “donate” sperm before heading off to war. But when the Israeli solder died without having made a donation, the family had the sperm removed and the legal battle began.

The attorney who represented the family said "Ten years ago, who would believe that a human being can continue after he has died. I think it is great for humanity."

Of course, it isn't the soldier who is "continu[ing]" but his genes.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 1:01 PM 23 comments

It’s good to see that Holly Swanson’s “The Green Party is Eating Our Children” speech to the Eureka Federation of Republican Women last week is still getting attention. Ms. Swanson, as you may recall, fears kids will learn the importance of clean water and air - an affront to Republican sensibilities. The GOP gals celebrated Swanson’s ill-informed bleating with a standing ovation.

This wasn’t the first time the Eureka Republican women hosted speakers to talk about non-Republicans they’ve labeled as “radical.” In 1998 the ladies brought Barry Clausen, a self-described “expert” on environmental activists to speak about how he didn’t brush his teeth for a week in an effort to learn the activists’ secrets. Afterwards, the Republican ladies raffled off pepper spray in honor of the Q-tip chemical swabbing Humboldt County sheriffs had applied to the eyes of logging protesters.

Maybe next year they’ll have Mark Foley speak on protecting our children from on-line predators. Or perhaps Charles Hurwitz will speak about bankruptcy for profit. That’ll bring ‘em to their feet. Jack Abramoff would be a big hit. He’ll learn us about exchanging favors for Republican-friendly legislation. The possibilities are (unfortunately) endless.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 12:30 PM 43 comments

Follow him down under, Fortuna. Down under the poverty line, that is.

The Friendly City - long seen as a stronghold of pro-timber, pro-worker, pro pre-hippy Humboldt - has at its helm a sellout who delivered the riches of the once-proud Pacific Lumber Company to the clutches of greed incarnate. John Campbell praised the Maxxam takeover and called it good business. Meanwhile, Pacific Lumber, and the lands (and water) it managed (and adjoined), suffer irreparable damage.

In the lead up to the takeover, Campbell was an executive vice president at PALCO. But his enthusiastic collaboration with Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz landed Campbell behind the president's desk at Pacific Lumber.

“[Charles] Hurwitz was counting on the big Australian, John Campbell, to transform the surrounding waves of sequoia sempervirens into cash flow,” David Harris wrote in The Last Stand. “John Campbell meant to live up to his new bosses’ expectations – and then some. When the Pacific Lumber Company accelerated its operations that spring, [Campbell’s] hand was quite visibly on [the] throttle.”

But getting in good with Hurwitz lost Campbell the respect of long-time Pacific Lumber employees.

Resentment lingered... and much of it focused on John Campbell. Hurwitz was still “that son of a bitch,” but everyone knew he was just doing what he’d always done, however ugly that might be. Campbell, on the other hand, was considered a turncoat. He’d come to town fifteen years ago, knowing noting and nobody, and had been accepted. He’d played softball at the park by the river and knocked down beers at Ming’s Tavern in Rio Dell. He’d hung out at the Fortuna Bowl and plunked deer in the pine forests above Larabee Creek. Then he’d gone over to Hurwitz and hung all that history out to dry. To punish his disloyalty, people stopped talking to him. If they had to work with John, they conversed as they needed to, but, otherwise, he was shunned. When he passed someone in the hall with a greeting, it was not returned. When he stopped at Mingo’s or the Scotia Inn for a drink after work, he drank by himself.

As lead-player in Maxxam’s shameful tenure in Humboldt County, John Campbell personally ordered the “Thanksgiving Day Massacre” – an illegal logging operation that cut virgin old-growth redwoods of Owl Creek over the holiday weekend. Federal Court Judge Louis Bechtle blasted PL’s bogus wildlife studies and other deceptions that hid the presence of endangered birds.

Campbell ended his official service to Maxxam in 2001 when he ceded the PALCO presidency to Robert Manne. The timing allowed Campbell to sidestep another messy “reorganization” where hundreds of workers lost their jobs. Loggers were sent packing and Mill A shut down. Rather than retaining employees, PALCO opted for contractors whose health insurance was someone else’s problem. Thanks in part to Campbell, jobs that offered stability and pride were replaced by layoffs, uncertainty and chaos.

Pacific Lumber doesn’t suffer from old age. It’s been suffocated by a noose spun by Wall Street and strung-up by men like John Campbell.

<**><**><**><**><**><**>

With the gasping Pacific Lumber as a monument to Campbell’s handy work, it’s hard to fathom what the hell Fortuna leaders were thinking when they installed Campbell as mayor. He didn’t run for that office, but was placed there following a successful bid for city council.

And now Mayor Campbell, ex-minion of Hurwitz, will act the wretched mid-wife for Wal-Mart, so that Fortuna the former timber town will have poverty-wage jobs for its children.

In the recent meetings on Fortuna’s General Plan, more than 100 residents who spoke against big box development were dismissed as having selfish self-interests. Meanwhile, the City Council dances a jig to Campbell’s drum.

Timber workers fought Maxxam in the beginning, even taking out a full-page ad in the Times-Standard. But now the beaten-down go willingly to the guillotine.

Just as the healthy Humboldt watersheds were sacrificed for Maxxam’s impossible debt, Fortuna will sacrifice small town business and character for outside investors. John Campbell is an old hand at greasing these kinds of deals.

You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks. Campbell will do to Fortuna residents what he did to Pacific Lumber.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 1:18 PM 49 comments

Had a bad experience with the police? Want to inform fellow citizens and express your concerns? Just write a letter to the Eureka Reporter. You'll get access to a forum for your story, plus the bonus prize of a personal “editor’s note” that dismisses your complaint and justifies police action. It’s priceless.

Editor’s Notes are gifts from Eureka Reporter authorities who’ve assumed the position of propaganda mill for police (and, apparently, Maxxam). Reaching beyond the function of a “newspaper” (regardless that it’s free and subsidized by a billionaire with an agenda) the ER helps you understand when your personal experiences are valid and when they’re crushed beneath the between-your-legs muscle of the Eureka PD.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 10:46 PM 31 comments

It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. But you’d think ER editor Glenn Franco Simmons would pick a subject that’s not so fresh in the minds of Humboldt County residents.

In his review of Pacific Lumber’s history, Simmons claims that it wasn’t until February 2004 that PL got “behind [the] recall to unseat Gallegos.”

“PALCO,” as the company likes to be called, and its parent company, Maxxam spent in excess of $300,000 in the failed recall, but the corporate cash was rolling in long before the last 30 days before the March 2, 2004 election.

The North Coast Journal offered a more accurate recap in 2005:

[T]imber industry supporters started the recall just weeks after Gallegos took office [in January 2003] ... Timber money -- specifically, Pacific Lumber money -- then bankrolled the recall every step of the way: from the last-minute signature drive, in which the company paid out-of-towners $8 per name the weekend before petitions were due, to the glossy mailers and spookily lit TV ads put out by a Sacramento consultant, who turned out to be working out of Scotia. At every turn, Pacific Lumber denied its involvement until it was no longer possible to do so.

As usual, crappy news for crappy people.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 8:51 AM 55 comments

Sometimes people say the darndest things.

News of Pacific Lumber’s bankruptcy is spreading like flames through a fire-suppressed forest whose burn-resistant old-growth has been removed by ignorant capitalists.

"To a certain extent the environmentalists have been right" the ex-director of the California Dept. of Forestry told the San Francisco Chronicle. “[T]he higher rate of tree cutting ‘came at the expense of environmental protections.’”

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 11:32 PM 15 comments

Interim Eureka Police Chief Murl Harpham has an editorial in both dailies today to clarify earlier comments regarding what he sees as ineffective – and even harmful - recovery programs for meth addicts. As Fred notes, Harpham took some heat over his previous statements.

Harpham has thrown strong statements to the media lately, but it’s resulted it some good public discussion about this critical issue. Phillip Crandall, the director of Health and Human Services had a great editorial recently pointing out the illegality of cutting off services, and the public health riskes posed by letting problems go unchecked.

Harpham says “in [Eureka], drug use is on the rise, crime is on the rise, meth deaths are on the rise, homelessness is on the rise.” Whether or not all of that is true (which crimes?), it is interesting to go to the website he recommended and compare crime rates in Eureka with that of other cities. In every search I did, Eureka had the highest rate of rape when compared with Oakland, Sacramento, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Washington, DC, and Detroit. Yet this doesn’t seem to be a priority among police (especially when they are blaming women for hurting themselves).

Harpham’s editorial lost me, however, when he accused residents of being “too busy raging about the police shootings” to care about the number of meth overdoses and deaths. This is just empty-headed. Meth is not a flag you can wave to make everyone forget about other issues hurting Eureka. The fact that Cheri Moore “had a history of meth use” didn’t justify her killing, nor does it negate the questions that linger over the SWAT tactics that killed her.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 12:40 PM 53 comments

PACIFIC LUMBER and related subsidiaries have filed for bankruptcy, according to the Eureka Reporter.

After twenty-one years controlling Pacific Lumber, Maxxam has successfully driven the 144 year-old company in the ground. Or the mud. There’s a lot of mud, now.

The bankruptcy is right on schedule. Studies commissioned by Maxxam shortly after the 1986 take-over of PL predicted declines in timber “from 2003 to 2008 because most of the large, older trees would have been harvested.” And indeed, they have. But true to form, PL blames the Water Quality officials for a scenario they saw coming twenty years ago.

PL will use the bankruptcy to support the lawsuit it filed last month claiming the big, mean water board failed to give them “regulatory certainty.” Whatever the heck that means.

Don’t expect to see Charles Hurwitz, Frank Bacik or Jeff Barrett on the corner begging for their supper anytime soon. The wasteland legacy Maxxam leaves behind has worked out splendidly for them.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 10:55 AM 24 comments

It’s not just Humboldt County residents that oppose Home Depot. Ontario locals are concerned about crime and traffic associated with the big box. The proposal is the second of two HD projects proposed for the region in recent weeks. Both have drawn opposition.

Long Beach residents are fighting a proposed Home Depot citing traffic increase and dangers to wetlands near the project site.

Meanwhile, stockholders are seeking a restraining order to stop Home Depot from “paying a $210 million golden parachute to reward exiting CEO Bob Nardelli for not working there anymore.” The Chronicle calls it “one lawsuit you have to root for.”

Imagine doing a crappy job at a crappy job, but instead of having to make the decision to quit and find another source of income, you get butt loads of money in exchange for your two week notice. (Ha! CEO’s don’t give notice).

Somebody owes me back pay, if that’s how it is.

But it isn’t. Read how CEO’s live life without risk.

In other news, Home Depot, like its big brother Wal-Mart, wants to own a bank, which is currently illegal. Barney Frank (D-Mass), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee told Forbes that “[a] lender ‘should be thinking only about the likelihood of that loan getting repaid’ and not about in-store profits.”

Finally, Home Depot is facing a new lawsuit filed by residents of Montville, CT, who allege “development has polluted their wells, damaged their properties and lowered their property values.” Plaintiffs seek to halt development of the big orange box.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 10:01 AM 5 comments

Ex-Deputy takes plea deal for misdemeanors

Here’s something that’s sure to get the anti-Gallegos forces up in arms.

Former sheriff’s deputy Mike Gainey had felony charges dropped in return for guilty pleas to four misdemeanor charges of identity theft and preparing false reports. According to the Eureka Reporter, Gainey plead not guilty to the attempted sale of a badge. However, the Times-Standard didn’t mention such charges. Instead, the T-S reports original charges of “attempting to impersonate a police officer.”

Gainey’s troubles began when he lied under oath in a stalking trial for which he was the lead investigator. After first lying about submitting evidence to a company that no longer exists, he attempted to cover-up the lie by claiming to be distressed over the death of his father, who it turned out wasn’t dead.

Perhaps the father should be blamed for being a crappy parent.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 9:21 AM 28 comments

Times-Standard editor Rich Somerville’s latest editorial mentions a recent study that claims media bias isn’t the fault of media owners. To the contrary, it claims that any bias reflects the dominant slant of the paper’s geographic area. However, he fails to mention the strong Republican ties (and funding) to the group who did the study - the National Bureau of Economic Research. This same group also “found” that raising the minimum wage would hurt the working poor – a claim that has been debunked.

Somerville also seems to imply that our “increasingly contentious world” is the fault of bloggers or other free speech-wielding citizens who utilize new communication technologies. Would he have us believe that public discourse would be more civilized and honest if controlled by the professional media?

The power of mass communication was once restricted to newspapers, television and blow-hards like Rush Limbaugh. Long before Joe and Suzie Six-Pack had the ability to blog their thoughts and experiences to anyone with internet, that sexist hypocrite was spewing hatred and lies over the airwaves encouraging yelling and name-calling in place of diplomacy. Unfortunately, the trend caught on.

There is good reason news consumers are abandoning the “professional media.” Before the internet, non-reporters were simply recipients of a narrow and shallow media that skims or ignores issues affecting communities, countries or indeed, the world. Now, modern gadgets offer the freedom of peer-to-peer communication, rather than empire-to-little-people dictation.

Bias is only one problem with a pyramid-shaped media system. Consider mainstream media’s censorship by omission. While the gate keepers of media – generally giant corporations – decide what’s “news that’s fit to print” (Britney has no underwear!) stories with real significance rarely reach the front page if mentioned at all.

Project Censored reports the “news that didn’t make the news.” Their recent study looked at bias in the Associated Press, which nearly every daily US paper subscribes to. They found that “at least 95 percent of the daily papers in the US did not to pick up” a story that definitively found that detainees in US-controlled prisons were dying from torture at the hands of US interrogators.

If newspapers reported only what people wanted to hear, the people of Humboldt County would have embraced Bret Harte when he described the massacre on Indian Island. Instead, they chased him out of town.

If the mainstream media was receptive to the leanings of Americans, they would have represented citizens who opposed the war in Iraq before the invasion in 2003. Instead, the vast majority of guests on television news programs advocated for pre-emptive attack on a country that posed no threat.

“We can’t even call this a ‘mainstream’ media,” Amy Goodman writes in her latest book. “It’s an extreme media – a media that cheerleads for war.”

It’s not the media’s job to report what they assume people want to hear, but to report the truth, no matter the affect on war profiteers, so-called philanthropists, or other string-pulling crooks that steal our wealth while handing us a pack of lies.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 9:09 AM 53 comments

It’s even worse than The Alibi in Arcata. Patrons likely enjoy announcing they are “going to AA” when heading out to imbibe the fire water.

Or maybe AA just wanted to be first in the phone book.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 2:05 PM 19 comments

Public outcry has long favored the removal of the dams. However, the bastards in charge continue to advocate for outrageous propositions, such as catching and trucking salmon around the dams.

A previous video details risks to public health posed by toxic algae caused by the dams. Those who recreate on the river expose themselves to extreme liver toxins.

The Times-Standard has an update on the state of the Klamath here.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 5:38 PM 8 comments

Tonight the “Decider” will deliver his State of the Union speech calling for an escalation of troops in the occupation of Iraq. There is little support for the so-called “surge” or for Bush himself, whose approval rating has dropped to 27%.

This is a map from the Marine Corps Times showing the hometowns of soldiers who’ve been killed. It includes the first 2,991 deaths. Only one appears to be from our neck of the woods. According to the NCJ he was a 31 year-old marine from Eureka, Capt. Andrew David LaMont, killed May 19, 2003.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 2:49 PM 55 comments

A Los Angeles police officer will not face disciplinary measures despite a ruling by a citizen police review board. Two years ago the officer fatally shot Devon Brown, a 13 year-old who allegedly attempted to back a stolen car into the officer.

The shooting sparked outrage in South Los Angeles, with citizens and activists alleging that [Officer Steven] Garcia overreacted and used excessive force. Last year the city paid $1.5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Brown's family.

John Mack, president of the [civilian] Police Commission, said Tuesday that he felt as if he and his colleagues on the commission had been undermined.

Follow the link for a video news report embedded in the Times article.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 1:26 PM 8 comments

The Times-Standard got around to publishing those Haiku poems they asked for. Hopefully the paper format improves on the jumbled confusion (no spaces!) appearing on the website.

One haiku beckons us fog lovers to “see that grizzly bear.” Aside from a depiction on the California flag, you won’t see any grizzly bears in the golden state following their civilized1920’s extinction.

Maybe poems are better when ancient redwoods are protected, Klamath Salmon are thriving and the Marbled Murrelets love clear-cuts.

Oh, how it injects thine heart to believe Home Depot® in Humboldt is evolutionary progress.

<**><**><**><**><**><**>

Humboldter’s Haiku
Read a slice of North Coast life
Forget Cheri Moore

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 5:43 PM 21 comments

It hit the morning of January 9 and registered a whopping 7.9 on the Richter scale but only two people died in the thinly populated Southern California of 1857. A similar quake today would unleash damage that would dwarf the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

The 150^th anniversary of the quake inspired a new year-long campaign called Dare to Prepare. How ready are you for the big one?

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 2:18 PM 7 comments

Taking aim, he begins:

Some community residents believe the Eureka Police Department acted too quickly and aggressively in the shootings of Christopher Burgess and Cheri Lynn Moore, but they have been virtually mute on the shootings of Jonni Honda and Zachary Cruz Cook.

After encouraging readers to lump all police shootings into the “good” category, he later discovers not all shootings are the same:

Doesn’t each situation bring different variables?

Now he’s catching on.

Do you really believe that there is a cookie-cutter response to potentially lethal standoffs?

No, Glenn, we don’t.

Next we walk through Glenn’s lawyerly fantasy. Lucky for the city, he will not justify the shootings thusly to a jury:

Even though Moore was not under the influence of meth at the time of her death, it could be argued that her alleged past use of meth and other drugs could have contributed to her deteriorating mental condition.

And then we really get down to business:

You call for a police review commission, but where are your calls for addressing the real cause — a spiritual void — in our community?

How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?

Let us pray:

We can have all the police review boards you want, but if we as a community, as a society, continue to ignore God, we do so at our own peril.

To recap: those who believe in the capital-G-God must also believe the police are above criticism, deserved or not. And as you can see, those with faith in God and police don’t abuse drugs. Phew! What a relief. Not a single cop with a drug problem. Everyone else is a godless, cop-hating druggie.

So there you have it, folks. It’s a duel-diagnosis, if you will.

Feel free to send Glenn your responses, even if you don’t agree. But be warned, such disagreements are only “contemptible ruminations” by crappy people.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 1:24 PM 69 comments

Leave the slippers home. ..[w]hile straddling this loud, “man-up” machine...

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 12:26 AM 45 comments

Five days before Eureka Police shot and killed 16 year-old Christopher Burgess, the Times-Standard reported that meth use in Humboldt County was “leveling off.” The number of people seeking treatment had gone up, it was reported, but there was “never enough” help available for users who must spend time on waiting lists to get into recovery programs.

But since that mid-October article, meth has been a regular news-grabbing topic, especially beginning with the news that Burgess had meth in his system when he was shot. Then-Police Chief Dave Douglas held a press conference to announce the toxicology report and complain bitterly about the meth problem. Coroner Frank Jager was there and reported an increase of meth over-doses. The T-S recently reported that meth deaths are on the rise.

Now, in what’s sure to be one of those “best quotes of the year,” interim police chief Murl Harpham says meth is “turning our community into a hellhole.” But he criticizes treatment programs – with their oh-so-attractive waiting lists – as enabling the problem.

In other words, people who seek treatment are not getting it, but treatment programs are fueling meth use. That’s some stellar logic.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 12:18 PM 29 comments

OK, now that we’re all sufficiently pissed off about the lying, spying corporate chicken hawks who shred the Constitution by stuffing their pockets with war profits while sending patriotic citizens to die for a pack of lies, perhaps you will be interested in this event. Get together with fellow concerned citizens at a local, independent book store for a discussion on The Bu$h Agenda with author Antonia Juhasz.

Northern Humboldters have three opportunities to get together with the author and discuss the issues raised in this acclaimed book. If you haven’t yet caught her on KMUD or KHSU, here are your upcoming opportunities:

Sunday, January 7

Redway
1:30-2:30 pm
KMUD radio interview

Arcata
4:00-5:30pm
Northtown Books
Talk and book signing
957 H Street
Sponsored by Humboldt WILPF, Veterans For Peace Ch. 56, Green Party of
Humboldt County, and Northtown Books
Contact: Northtown Books, info@northtownbooks.com, 707-822-2834

Eureka
7:00-9:00pm
Labor Temple
Talk and book signing
840 E Street (near 9th)
Sponsored by Humboldt WILPF, Veterans For Peace Ch. 56, and Green Party of
Humboldt County
Contact Person: Green Party Chair Dana Silvernale, 707-668-1694

Monday, January 8

Westhaven
7:00-9:00pm
Talk and book signing
Westhaven Center for the Arts, 501 Westhaven Drive
Sponsored by Humboldt WILPF, Veterans For Peace Ch. 56, Green Party of
Humboldt County and Westhaven Center for the Arts
Contact Person: Becky Luening, wilpf-humboldt@cox.net, 707-826-9197

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 7:12 PM 7 comments

THE WIRETAPPING THING is an abomination, and the internet spying that copies our every on-line move is treasonous in the eyes of the Constitution. The so-called Patriot Act and other crotch-sniffing provisions that invade sacred personal space of citizen life is in violation of the truths we hold self-evident. The new law is no different.

It all came about when Mr. Sneaky-Peaky attached yet another signing statement to a “routine piece of postal legislation.” Americans still have too much privacy for Bush’s comfort so he’s opened a new channel for prying eyes – your mail box. No court order required, of course.

With the death of President Gerald Ford, we’re reminded of his inaugural words proclaiming that “our long national nightmare is over.” He was speaking about the scandal known as Watergate whose place in the history books was only the first chapter of government spying. Ford went on to say:

As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 10:54 AM 37 comments

A shootout today between Eureka Police and a man suspected of armed robbery ended with the death of the suspect. The man, one of three suspected in a string of recent armed robberies, had been sought by an investigative team that included US Marshals and the Bureau of Tobacco and Firearms. The suspect’s name is being withheld pending notification of kin.

Under no circumstances will this blogger allow any questions, comments or reactions regarding the shooting to be posted on this blog. Remember, your comments don’t help. So whatever you have to say, stuff it. Just believe in the police, brothers and sisters. Discussion is not the answer.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 8:16 PM 63 comments

Nobody liked him, and his management style has been described as “autocratic” and “militaristic.” Home Depot has consistently made news lately with their tanking stock prices, which actually rose upon news of his departure. Despite it all, the HD board tossed Robert Nardelli $210 Million on his way out the door.

Where else can you perform poorly, piss off shareholders, erode the reputation of the world’s second largest retailer and still walk away with a backside full of cash?

God bless Corporate America.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 11:23 PM 15 comments

Humboldt County is not the only place where the otherwise housed endure cold temperatures to call attention to the plight of the homeless. Reportedly “dozens” of middle-class French spent New Years Eve living among the Parisian houseless in a “sleep-in [that] is meant to embarrass the French government into doing something about the problem.”

Thankfully, none of the homeless protestors reported accidental burnings of wood treated with carcinogenics.

Despite wind and rain, the protesters toughed it out in tents supplied by the French government.

France has roughly the same number of homeless as the City of Los Angeles – about 86,000.

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 3:36 PM 20 comments

It’s a good thing crime is under control because a new law will give otherwise aimless police something to enforce. Starting today, anyone caught helping themselves to 26 or more copies of a free newspaper will face a $250 fine.

Sure those thick, white pages make great kindling, but please limit yourself to 25 copies per day or risk a showdown with Eureka’s finest.

Thanks in advance to any fool who gets caught breaking (or enforcing) this law. The headlines will be fun. Just imagine:

Paper Caper Nabbed with 30 Copies – Gallegos Fails to Prosecute

permalink I posted by Heraldo Riviera @ 2:43 PM 39 comments