BONES ROADHOUSE in Gualala is the South Coast's most popular restaurant. Bones has been the South Coast's most popular restaurant for a long time. Its proprietors, Tom and Mary Thomas, besides employing people in an area where employment at fair wages is scarce, the Thomas's do a lot of community good apart from their restaurant.
AND THEY'RE BEING BLED to death by a vindictive character named Erik Price who won a fluke judgement against the Thomas's in the arbitrary courtroom of Sonoma County judge Elliot Daum.
MENDOCINO COUNTY remembers Bones before Bones burned down in an arson fire that turned out to be wildly fortuitous from Erik Price who just happened to build his own ocean view restaurant on the site of the old Bones.
MEANWHILE, a new Bones arose down the road and again became the South Coast's premier eatery, especially for locals, and reopened in possession of the liquor license owned by Price. Price wanted it back for his new restaurant, and sued Bones to get it. Bones sued him back. But when the legal dust had settled Price had won a judgement for almost $80,000 and the liquor license.
THE THOMASES are working people. They were already lawyered-out trying to defend themselves against Price who, incidentally, is funded by his wealthy parents.
BONES said they couldn't pay and wouldn't pay Price, and who can blame them when you look at the chronology of events: Bones is wiped out by a fire of mysterious origin. Price builds a restaurant on the site of the fire. Bones goes into business down the street. Price's restaurant is unsuccessful but so heavily subsidized it stays open. Down the street, the new Bones is thriving. Price sues Bones. Bones can't pay. Price begins raids on Bones on busy weekends that take all the cash on the premises, just like a stick-up man who never leaves. The raid bandit is appointed by the court. He's called a Gatekeeper. Mr. Gatekeeper is seen enjoying a free steak down at Price's otherwise empty restaurant. The raids on Bones continue right up to this past weekend. Bones is barely hanging on. Price is legally empowered to strangle a rival business to death? Something's very wrong here.
TRIVIAL THOUGHT from a small mind: Are you as irritated as I am by the ponderous rhetorical style of our leaders? Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta are the worst offenders. The simplest statement is punctuated with long ahhhhhs, as in, "We, ahhhh, expect, ahhhh, the, ahhhh, peace, ahhhh, process to be, ahhhh, successful." That kind of thing. I understand that as a nation we're seriously on the skids, that the people we put in high position anymore are a collection of idiots and hustlers, but still..... They, ahhhh, oughtta, ahhhh, be able to, ahhhh, talk.
THE FINAL BUDGET for Fiscal Year 2012-2013 has now been posted online, and can be found at:
http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/administration/12-13FinalBudget.htm
STACEY CRYER, Mendocino County's number two boss (Director of the County’s largest department, Health and Human Services) after County CEO Carmel Angelo, will be away from her desk until February. According to her newsletter, Ms. Cryer is "having a full knee replacement done at Howard Memorial Hospital. She assures us that the rest of her leadership team is fully capable of steering the good ship SS Mendo in her absence. They include:
Bryan Lowery –Social Services
Tom Pinizzotto –Behavioral Health & Recovery Services
Sharon Hunt – Public Health, Environmental Health & Animal Care Services
Dora Briley – Administrative Services
Catrina Taylor – Staff Resources
WE CAN LEARN from this guy, Gabriel Cassin, Mendocino County's happiest drunk on Friday, November 16th, the day he was corralled by the Ukiah PD.
A READER WRITES: "Just read the latest on the coastal dope bust. Sounds like they were primarily brokers. I wonder if they'll roll on their suppliers? Nine years in the Kansas pen might give a rich ganja guy (or girl) pause. Of course, if they can get a change of venue to Mendocino, they'll all walk after two weeks in rehab."
LEON PANETTA: from marine 'protector' to whale killer. Secretary of Defense/former CIA Director backed MLPA Initiative. by Dan Bacher
California’s privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, a process criticized by fishermen, grassroots conservationists, environmental justice advocates and supporters of democracy and transparency in government, has “friends in high places.”
Leon Panetta, the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and President Barack Obama’s current Secretary of Defense, has been a huge supporter of the MLPA Initiative since it began under the Schwarzenegger administration in 2004.
On August 30, 2008, prior to his appointment as CIA Director, Panetta wrote an editorial, “Protect Our Oceans,” in the Silicon Valley Mercury-News that touted the “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative process.
“California has always been on the cutting edge of policy protecting our coastline and ocean,” wrote Panetta. “In 1999, an unprecedented state law, the Marine Life Protection Act, required the creation of marine protected areas down California’s coastline. These areas are vital to restoring a sustainable fishery. Californians are forging ahead to create marine-protected areas through an inclusive, regional public process that involves sport and commercial fishermen, marine scientists, conservationists, divers, kayakers and educators.”
“In California alone, our ocean supports a $42 billion economy, dependent on the health of fish and wildlife, tourism and recreation. It is crucial to our health, our nutrition, our economy and our spirit. President Kennedy once said that the oceans are the ’salt in our veins.’ By protecting our oceans, we will protect life itself,” Panetta concluded.
The words from Panetta, who served as chair of the Pew (Sunoco Oil Company) Oceans Commission, could have come right out of an MLPA Initiative, DFG or corporate environmental NGO news release.
It is no surprise that the controversial “marine protected areas” that Panetta gushed about don’t protect the oceans and “life itself” from the impacts of military testing, pollution, oil spills and drilling, wind and wave energy projects and all other human impacts other than fishing.
After being appointed as Defense Secretary by Obama in the summer of 2010, Panetta has been pursuing al Qaeda, waging multiple wars, urging global support for tough economic sanctions against Iran – and gearing up for military exercises off the West Coast that threaten marine mammals and the ocean ecosystem.
As a Congressman in the 1980s and 1990s, Panetta voted against U.S. military intervention in different countries, but he has become more of a “hawk” in recent years.
“Some of the wars that I voted against, I didn’t think that that was — you know, that they were not — they did not make the case,” Panetta told the New York Times on October 24, 2011. “But after 9/11, there was no question in my mind that we were dealing with a group that attacked America, killed a lot of Americans, and that it was important for us to take action.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/us/leon-panetta-in-his-own-words.html)
MLPA Initiative overseen and backed by corporate interests
Panetta isn't the only powerful individual or organization to back the MLPA Initiative. The corrupt process, touted as “open, transparent and inclusive” by MLPA advocates is backed by “green” organizations and corporations such as the Western States Petroleum Association, Safeway Stores, Walmart Chairman Rob Walton's Walton Family Foundation and the shadowy Resources Legacy Foundation.
The so-called “marine protected areas” that went into effect in Southern California on January 1, 2012 were created under the “visionary leadership” of Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum and chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast. Now that fishermen have been kicked off large areas of the South Coast, Reheis-Boyd has been relentlessly lobbying for new oil drilling off the California coast, the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the evisceration of environmental laws.
A marina corporation executive, coastal real estate developer and others with numerous conflicts of interests also served on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces for the South Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.
Apparently, it’s OK for the military to conduct exercises in and around “marine protected areas” and for cities, agribusiness and the oil industry to pollute, but it’s not OK for a person to catch and release fish from a kayak or a mother and father to take their children fishing in these bizarre parodies of “marine protected areas.”
The failure of the MLPA Initiative to comprehensively protect California marine waters occurs at a time when the military, with Panetta at the helm, is planning to expand its training exercises in West Coast waters.
Groups sue to stop U.S. Navy warfare exercises
A broad coalition of conservation and tribal organizations on January 26, 2012 sued the Obama administration for failing to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.
Earthjustice, representing the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the San Juans, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and People For Puget Sound, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service’s approval of the Navy’s training activities in its Northwest Training Range Complex.
“These training exercises will harm dozens of protected species of marine mammals—southern resident killer whales, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and porpoises—through the use of high-intensity mid-frequency sonar,” said Steve Mashuda, an Earthjustice attorney representing the groups. “The Fisheries Service fell down on the job and failed to require the Navy to take reasonable and effective actions to protect them.” (http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/30/groups-sue-over-navy-sonar-impacts-on-marine-mammals-94811)
One of the reasons why this and similar lawsuits are so necessary is because the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative creates so-called “marine protected areas” that fail to protect the ocean from military testing and all other human impacts on the ocean than fishing and gathering.
“If Defense Secretary Panetta really is concerned about the health of the ocean and people, he should order a halt to destructive military tests in the ocean, help us keep fisheries open to sustainable ocean food providers, and join the world outcry for peace conversion,” said John Lewallen, North Coast environmental leader, co-founder of the Ocean Protection Coalition and North Coast Seaweed Rebellion and independent candidate for U.S. Congress in California’s Second Congressional District.
Ironically, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the former marine "guardian" who served as chair of the Pew (Sunoco Oil Company) Oceans Commission, is planning deadly military testing that will result in killing huge numbers of whales, dolphins and other marine mammals!
Even more ironically, a survey boat mapping the sea floor for the MLPA Initiative backed by Panetta, allegedly a process to protect marine life, struck and killed an endangered blue whale off Fort Bragg in October 2009, outraging fishermen, tribal members and environmentalists.
The California State Lands Commission (SLC) that December found that Fugro Pelagos, the company contracted to conduct the survey, violated the terms of its permit when it struck the whale. The company didn’t notify the State Lands Commission prior to its survey activity and failed to have marine wildlife observers on board, as required. (http://yubanet.com/california/Dan-Bacher-The-Whalegate-Scandal.php)
Coastal Commission decision sets historic precedent
Fortunately, the public is now beginning to wake up to the fact that marine protected areas must protect the ocean from other human impacts besides just fishing and gathering. The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday, November 14 to reject Pacific Gas and Electric Company's widely-contested plan to conduct seismic testing off the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. They found the plan inconsistent with the California Coastal Act.
In a massive display of unity, hundreds of fishermen, Tribal members and environmentalists showed up to oppose the plan at the standing room-only meeting in Santa Monica. Only one person - Mark Krause, the spokesman of PG&E - spoke in favor of the plan.
The high energy testing would have resulted in potential injury and death to thousands of whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, along with chinook salmon, steelhead, rockfish, halibut and a host of fish species in the Point Buchon State Marine Reserve and other marine protected areas, according to those who testified. They agreed with the Coastal Commission staff, who urged the Commission to reject the permit, since the danger posed to marine life would be great while the information to be obtained by the survey could be obtained by analyzing existing data. (http://documents.coastal.ca.gov/reports)
"The good news is that many of the proponents of the marine protected areas created under the MLPA Initiative are starting to wake up to the fact that fishing is just one small part of protecting the ocean," said Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association. "A lot of other things need to be considered, including pollution, offshore oil drilling, noise impacts and future development such as offshore aquaculture and deep sea mining."
(http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/11/16/18725854.php)
The MLPA Initiative proceeds as the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal to export more California Delta water to southern California and corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Delta advocates believe the construction of the peripheral canal will lead to the extinction of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon, southern resident killer whales and other imperiled species.
So while state and federal officials tout the creation of "marine protected areas" off the California coast, they are proceeding forward with a canal plan that will kill many more fish and other species that these "marine protected areas" would ever "save." There is no doubt that the MLPA Initiative, combined with state/federal plans to build the peripheral canal and and military plans to conduct training exercises off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington, is corporate/oil industry/military greenwashing at its very worst.
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