- Meet the Petersons
- Mayor Protest
- Judge Bounced
- Drinking Song
- Police Reports
- Catch of the Day
- Refund Denied
- Average Grower
- Alcatraz Prisoners
- Political Entrepreneurs
- Baby FAQ
- Musical Transcendence
- Amelia
- Megadrought Warning
- Gut Mysteries
- HRC Positions
“A 32-YEAR-OLD REDWOOD VALLEY MAN is being held in the Mendocino County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder, burglary and false imprisonment, after a bizarre incident in which he was discovered inside a Potter Valley couple’s home Tuesday evening, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported.”
THAT PARAGRAPH is from the Sheriff's Department's press release. It represents the ultimate nightmare of every outback resident of this county. A woman enters her home in late afternoon to find an armed tweaker (presumably) standing there. Her husband appears to find his wife a captive. Which is why lots of rural dwellers keep a gun handy, the problem being the invader almost always has the drop on the gun household. But the police, in rural Mendocino County, are almost always at least 30 minutes away, and this unfortunate couple was on their own until help could arrive. In the mean time, and in this case it was a very mean time…
EUGENE PETERSON JR. had committed an incompetent one-man home invasion late afternoon last Tuesday in the wilds of Potter Valley. Peterson, armed with a handgun, was discovered inside the rural home by the 55-year-old woman who lives there with with her 56-year-old husband. Whatever the intruder had in his (probably) drug-clouded mind, he picked the wrong house.
WHEN the terrified but clear-thinking woman's husband arrived, Peterson waved his gun menacingly at him. The husband had to get to higher ground for cell phone reception to call the police, momentarily leaving his wife hostage to the erratic Peterson who soon fired several shots in the direction of the husband. While Peterson was shooting at her husband, the wife tried to run but was caught by Peterson. She struggled with her captor for possession of the gun, at which point her husband tackled Peterson and, in the chaste prose of the Sheriff's press release, “subdued” Peterson as his wife again frantically called for help.
![Peterson Jr.: Before, After](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/EugenePeterson3.jpg?resize=255%2C181&ssl=1)
THE UPSIDE of this frightening event, if there is one, is the inspiring courage of the couple and the 56-year-old husband's efficient suppression of the rampaging Peterson, age 32. That's a big discrepancy in age. A lot of 56-year-olds couldn't have managed it.
AT AN AFTERNOON discussion of the Potter Valley case in this newspaper's editorial offices, a trio of geezers lauded the 56-year-old Potter Valley guy's thumping of a man young enough to be his son. The consensus was something like this: “Most old guys are good for about two minutes of vigorous hand-to-hand. After that they're screwed.”
* * *
![Peterson Sr.](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/PetersonSr.jpg?resize=170%2C234&ssl=1)
PS. IT TURNS OUT that Eugene Matthew Peterson Jr. 32, is the son of Eugene Matthew Peterson Sr., 61, a registered sex offender based in Willits. Peterson Sr. was briefly featured in the AVA a few years ago when a series of booking photos appeared showing Peterson Sr. with a very nasty looking growth on his right cheek, perhaps a badly abscessed tooth. Perhaps we’ll find out more about Peterson Sr. and Jr. as the son’s case slowly wends its way through the Mendocino Superior Court system.
PPS. Since 2007 the father and son have been arrested several times each —
Peterson Sr.
07: Failure to register as sex offender.
08: Failure to register, probation revocation.
09: Disorderly conduct. Disorderly conduct.
10: Possession of controlled substance; possession of hypodermic needle, probation revocation.
Peterson Jr.
09: Under influence of controlled substance, possession of controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia. Disorderly conduct. Failure to appear, probation revocation.
10: suspended license, disobey court order. (twice). Disorderly conduct, possession of controlled substance.
13: Probation revocation.
According to the County’s case index:
43 cases have been filed against Peterson Sr. going back to 1995 (only 8 of which were traffic citations).
And 6 criminal cases have been filed against Peterson Jr. going back to 2009 (only 1 of which was a traffic citation).
FORT BRAGG MOBILIZES
A Reader Writes: "Stop the Old Coast Hotel project.
"We need to get letters to the chamber of commerce here, by Tuesday.
"Send to Debra Degraw, at Chamber2@mcn.org. Regarding the purchase of The Old Coast Hotel for homeless services.
"This is not an anti-homeless issue; this is an effort to rein in our power-mad mayor and his henchmen. The mayor's position that he is not required to notify the public on matters that affect us all, his belief that he doesn't need to consider citizens' input in the decision-making process, and his focus on staying in the grant-getting game above all else, have created a situation that requires us all to speak out in protest."
FOODMAXX attorney bounces judge, delays hearing.
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/general-news/20150214/hearing-on-costco-lawsuit-delayed
A DRINKING SONG
WINE comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
— William Butler Yeats
![Luna](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/LunaJ.jpg?resize=119%2C161&ssl=1)
ON TUESDAY February 3 at about 4:55 PM Ukiah Police responded to the Mendocino County Library, at 105 North Main Street, for a disturbance and a subject throwing books. The arriving officer located the suspect and his fiancé walking north in the 300 block of North Main Street. The suspect, later identified as 31 year old Jeremiah Benjamin Luna refused commands to stop, then suddenly charged the officer. Luna then turned and walked away from the officer refusing commands to stop, and once physically restrained tried to pull away and had to be taken to the ground. Luna continued to resist and pushed his body upwards attempting to stand up. The officer called for emergency back-up, and was able to eventually get Luna handcuffed and into custody. Officers determined Luna had become enraged with his fiance inside the library, and pushed over computers and threw books before exiting then hit his fiance in the ear causing it to redden and swell. Luna was belligerent with the officer and threatened the officer and the officer’s family, spit on the officer, stomped on the officer’s foot, and tried to kick the officer. Luna was charged with domestic violence, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer, and violating probation.
* * *
![Hunt](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Hunt2.jpg?resize=119%2C186&ssl=1)
ON THURSDAY February 5 at about 11:30 AM Ukiah Police Detectives spotted a silver 2000 BMW being driven by 43 year old Christian Wayne Hunt, turning southbound onto Oak Street from Mill Street. Hunt had evaded Ukiah Police in December, had numerous outstanding warrants for his arrest, and was believed to be armed with a firearm. Hunt fled in the vehicle and a pursuit ensued, with Hunt turning onto State Street then onto Talmage Road. The pursuit continued onto Babcock Lane and onto Oak Manor Drive, then east on Perkins Street to Watson Road reaching speeds over 80 miles per hour. Hunt turned onto Ridge Road and drove to the end of the road, then up a driveway where he abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot. The officers followed in foot pursuit and caught up to Hunt after jumping a fence, and took him into custody. A search of Hunt’s vehicle revealed pepper spray and a pistol magazine, which Hunt is prohibited from possessing as a convicted felon. Also in the vehicle was over 2 ounces of methamphetamine packaged in varying weights, a scale, packaging material, and methamphetamine smoking pipes. Hunt was charged with evading arrest, false vehicle registration, resisting arrest, possessing and transporting methamphetamine for sale, and warrants for evading arrest, violating a court order, and domestic violence.
* * *
![Guerra](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Guerra.jpg?resize=119%2C184&ssl=1)
ON THURSDAY February 5 at about 1:05 PM Ukiah Police were contacted regarding 26 year old Adriana Guerra. The caller believed Guerra was using drugs and putting her children in danger. An inspection of Guerra’s home revealed a state of disarray and about half a gram of methamphetamine was found in a location accessible by Guerra’s 10 and 4 year old children. Officers were told Guerra was believed to have used and stored drugs in the presence of her children, and that she was believed to have consumed a large amount of methamphetamine recently. Guerra was apparently commonly under the influence of drugs while caring for her children. Guerra was not present and officers proceeded to look for her. On February 6th at about 2:05 AM Ukiah Police responded to a residence in the 700 block of Village Circle and contacted Guerra, who displayed symptoms of having used methamphetamine recently and was arrested. Guerra was also charged with possession of methamphetamine and child endangerment.
* * *
ON WEDNESDAY February 11 at about 3:45 PM Ukiah Police assisted the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force serve a search warrant at a residence in the 900 block of North Oak Street. As officers entered the location the resident, 34 year old Joel Barajas, and 25 Nicholas Britton fled outside, but were soon detained. Also contacted at the location were 26 year old Adriana Guerra and 36 year old Dustin Hipes. Guerra stated she was visiting the residence and that she had recently been arrested. Guerra displayed symptoms of having used methamphetamine recently and was arrested for drug influence. Hipes was also arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance, and Britton was arrested for possessing drug paraphernalia after a methamphetamine smoking pipe was located in his possession.
![Guerra, Hipes, Britton, Barajas](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/GHBb.jpg?resize=510%2C188&ssl=1)
A search of the residence revealed over 2 ounces of methamphetamine in a variety of weights and packaging, and in various locations around the residence. Also located was a scale, packaging material, and other items associated with the sales of drugs, as well as over 20 pounds of marijuana in differing packaged amounts. Barajas had a warrant for his arrest for violating probation, and possessed several packages of methamphetamine on his person. Barajas is a known gang member, and was arrested for possessing methamphetamine and marijuana for sale, the arrest warrant, and charged with a gang enhancement.
* * *
ON TUESDAY, February 10, 2015, at 3:18 p.m., Officers of the Fort Bragg Police Department were detailed to investigate a report of a vehicle versus pedestrian hit and run traffic collision that just occurred at the intersection of East Redwood Avenue and North Main Street. Upon arrival, Officer Shaw located Cecile Hay-Arthur, 46 years of age form Fort Bragg, sitting on the sidewalk in front of the Outdoor Store. It was determined Hay-Arthur had been struck by a red Ford Ranger pickup truck as she was crossing the street. The vehicle then fled the scene. Hay-Arthur complained of pain in her left wrist. Officer Shaw requested an ambulance respond to the scene to assist Hay-Arthur with her injuries and he provided responding units with information about the vehicle involved in the collision. An ambulance from the Mendocino Coast District Hospital arrived at the scene and transported the victim to the hospital. Officers from the Fort Bragg Police Department and Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office checked the area for the suspect vehicle. The vehicle was located a short time later by one of the Deputies in the 100 block of South Lincoln Street. The vehicle was processed for evidence and it was towed and stored. A canvas of the area located a witness that provided information about the occupants of the vehicle. The investigation that followed led Officers to other witnesses allowing them to identify the driver of the vehicle at the time of the collision. Officers later located and arrested a 17 year old male juvenile from Fort Bragg failing to Stop at Scene of Accident Causing Injury, and Unlawful to Drive Unless Licensed. The male juvenile was arrested and transported to the Fort Bragg Police Department, where he was booked and later transported to Juvenile Hall in Ukiah.
(Fort Bragg PD press release.)
CATCH OF THE DAY, Feb 14, 2015
![Alvarez, Bagley, Britton](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Bkg14a.jpg?resize=478%2C231&ssl=1)
JESUS ALVAREZ, Ukiah. Battery of peace officer, resisting arrest.
ROY BAGLEY, Santa Barbara/Ukiah. DUI.
CHRISTINA BRITTON, Willits. Shoplifting, driving without a license.
![Gonzalez, Halvorsen, Hernandez-Medina](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Bkg14b.jpg?resize=478%2C220&ssl=1)
ERIC GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Resisting arrest, probation revocation.
NICHOLAS HALVORSEN, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)
HILARIO HERNANDEZ-MEDINA, Mendocino. Possession of controlled substance.
![Honeyman, Jimenez, Marin-Juarez, McNiel](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Bkg14c.jpg?resize=478%2C172&ssl=1)
PAUL HONEYMAN, Ukiah. Burglary from vehicle, receipt of stolen property, conspiracy, probation revocation.
SERGIO JIMENEZ, Redwood Valley. DUI.
MIGUEL MARIN-JUAREZ, Ukiah. Under influence of controlled substance, probation revocation.
JUSTIN MCNIEL, Ukiah. Domestic assault, battery with serioius injury.
![Medvin, Mooneyham, Roades, Wells](https://i0.wp.com/www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Bkg14d.jpg?resize=478%2C171&ssl=1)
GREGORY MEDVIN, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury. (Frequent flyer.)
JIMMIE MOONEYHAM, Fort Bragg. Possession of meth, driving on suspended license.
CALVIN ROADES, Ukiah. DUI, loaded firearm in public.
JAMES WELLS IV, Fort Bragg. Criminal threats of death or great bodily injury.
UKIAH SCHOOL BOARD DENIES UKIAH WOMAN’S REQUEST FOR A REFUND
Despite a Superior Court judge declaring its recently imposed developer’s fees invalid, the Ukiah Unified School District’s board of directors voted against refunding a Ukiah woman the nearly $9,000 she paid in 2013.
Sara Bogner, who is building a house on Parducci Road with her husband, paid $8,661.79 on Sept. 10, 2013, to the UUSD in developer’s fees, which are charged when new homes are built because of their potential to bring new students into local schools.
The following month, Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Cindee Mayfield ruled that the UUSD’s resolution declaring the need for the fees, which were $2.77 per square feet of residential development, was invalid.
Ruling on a lawsuit brought by local developer Steve Gomes, who wanted $13,500 refunded, Mayfield found that there was no evidence supporting the need for the fees, including: “No evidence to support a determination as to the number of potential new students that could be generated by new development. If the district did rely upon a 2012 study, the study’s use of the maximum potential number of homes stated in the Ukiah Valley Area Plan, with an actual buildout that would never be achieved, is not evidence that the district could use to project the potential number of new students from new development.”
Following an unsuccessful appeal of the ruling, the school district refunded Gomes and paid his attorney’s fees, and voluntarily paid back another $45,000 of developer’s fees.
UUSD Superintendent Deb Kubin said since anyone who had paid the developer’s fees within six months of Mayfield’s ruling could request a refund, “the board really felt like it would be prudent to return the fees, though it was not required to.”
When Bogner appealed to the board to refund her fees, she said her request was first denied in closed session, then she asked to have it heard in open session.
Her request was then brought before the board at its Aug. 14, 2014, meeting, but it was voted down, Kubin said, because Bogner did not pay her fees within the six-month window following the Oct. 29 ruling.
Bogner said she keeps waiting for the school district to release its latest study of enrollment, which she said was expected to have been presented at a board meeting earlier this year, but was not. In the meantime, she said she cannot let go of the $8,661 she feels she shouldn’t have paid.
“Why does the school board feel this is their money?” Bogner said, explaining that people keep telling her to just let it go, but she can’t, and thoughts of the fees she paid wake her up in the middle of the night.
“I work really hard for my money, and this is money I could be using to pay for my son’s piano lessons,” she said, adding that while she is “very supportive of our school district,” she felt that the developer’s fees she paid are far more significant to her than to the school district.
(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal.)
ADRIAN BAUMANN of the Willits News (in an article about the Board of Supervisors’ plans to study the local economic impact of possible marijuana legalization statewide) reported: “Recently the Emerald Growers Alliance has begun collecting survey questionnaires from local growers, and according to the organization their results indicate that the average marijuana farm in the area employs four full time workers, that the average growers makes about $102,000 a year, which they note is less than the national average for family farms, and that the average worker on the farm makes about $42,000. The EGA says this is significantly higher than the average for farm workers. Additionally 75% of growers surveyed also grow food.”
“It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”
— Frank Herbert
Oregon’s Governor-for-Life John Kitzhaber, 68, resigned Friday the 13th. His resignation letter was the usual lawyerly-parsed, blame-the-media/take no responsibility sham we’re used to seeing. He had been governor from 1995-2003 and again from 2011 until now. The basic allegations which forced the rest of the state’s Democratic Party elite – Senate President, House Speaker, State Treasurer and others to join the state’s largest newspaper and call for his resignation – involve influence-peddling by his ten-year girlfriend/fiancée Cylvia Hayes. Hayes, 48, – a woman with a grifter’s history – pretty much publicly advertised that her clout with the governor was for sale and cashed in for over $200,000 at the same time she was his advisor on energy policy, working out of the governor’s mansion and using government employees as subordinates. The most damning allegation? She took over $118,000 from a sham non-profit that went defunct without ever filing a report with the IRS. She herself never reported her payments. The entire purpose was to shake loose tens of millions of state subsidies for “Green” Energy projects.
— Michael Donnelly
BABIES: FAQ
Q: Should I have a baby after 35?
A: No, 35 children is enough.
Q: I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.
Q: How will I know if my vomiting is morning sickness or the flu?
A: If it's the flu, you'll get better.
Q: What is the most common pregnancy craving?
A: For men to be the ones who get pregnant.
Q: What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?
A: Childbirth.
Q: The more pregnant I get, the more often strangers smile at me. Why?
A: 'Cause you're fatter than they are.
Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational.
A: So what's your question?
Q: What's the difference between a nine-month pregnant woman and a model?
A: Nothing (if the pregnant woman's husband knows what's good for him).
Q: How long is the average woman in labor?
A: Whatever she says divided by two.
Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.
Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?
A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.
Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor?
A: Not unless the word "alimony" means anything to you.
Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?
A: Yes, pregnancy.
Q: Does pregnancy cause hemorrhoids?
A: Pregnancy causes anything you want to blame it for.
Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.
Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again?
A: When the kids are in college.
ANOTHER NIGHT — and each jazz listener anywhere in the world has experienced comparable nights of sudden revelation — Sonny Stitt was playing at a club called Basin Street West in New York. The lore had it that Sonny was Charlie Parker's successor, that Bird had actually told him so. But Sonny, though technically fluent and certainly a steady swinger, had shown little of Bird's careening imagination or his ability to hurl an audience into new dimensions of feeling time and musical space.
This night Sonny Stitt was moving efficiently through a set when the rhythm section stopped — and Sonny executed a long break, lightning flashes of searing, ineluctably connected, thrusting notes that seemed to have a palpable force. The effect on the room was as if those sounds had cast a spell. All conversation stopped. Hands about to light a cigarette or reaching for a drink froze.
In jazz you never know what's coming.
— Nat Hentoff
AMELIA
I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
it was the strings of my guitar
Amelia it was just a false alarm
The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture post card charms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh, Amelia it was just a false alarm
I wish that he was here tonight
It's so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm
A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm
I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams Amelia — dreams and false alarms
— Joni Mitchell
WESTERN STATES FACE MEGADROUGHT, EXPERTS WARN
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/12/western-states-face-megadrought-experts-warn.html
FIVE REASONS NO PROGRESSIVE SHOULD SUPPORT HILLARY CLINTON
by Joseph Mulkerin
Ever since the 2012 election results were certified, the conventional wisdom has been that Hillary Clinton is all but guaranteed a coronation in the 2016 primaries. She has racked up a series of endorsements from prominent Democrats. As early as July 2013, an MSNBC article referred to her as the "presumptive nominee," a term generally reserved for the Democratic candidate who has clinched the majority of party delegates. Although her support has slipped slightly in the past month, she still holds a commanding, and arguably prohibitive, lead in polling of Democratic primary candidates, with 88 percent of self-described "solid liberals" pledging support for her. It is possible that this high degree of support may result more from the perception that she is inevitable rather than from widespread substantive agreement with many of her policies, because upon close examination, there is a litany of positions she's taken that many on the left would find highly problematic.
- Foreign Policy
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was reportedly one of the most hawkish members of President Obama's cabinet, pushing for the 2009 troop surge in Afghanistan and US intervention in Libya. She has also been a vocal proponent of the same drone war that has led to the deaths of 2,400 civilians. In her recent memoir, Hard Choices, she bragged about having presided over the imposition of "crippling sanctions" on the Iranian economy during her tenure as secretary of state. These crippling sanctions are a form of collective punishment and have benefited the wealthy only, while making life miserable for everyone else. In an interview with Atlantic columnist Jeffrey Goldberg in August 2014, she further outlined her views on Iran, staking out a maximalist position on Iranian nuclear enrichment, which effectively opens the door to military intervention. She also suggested that the United States should have done more to intervene in Syria, by, in her words, creating a "credible fighting force," while the lack of said force led to the rise of ISIS. In addition, she vociferously defended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the assault on Gaza. Not surprisingly, her bellicose rhetoric has received praise from neocon luminary Robert Kagan. Senator Clinton's vote in favor of the Iraq war, a vote for which it took her more than a decade to express regret, was clearly not a temporary lapse in judgment.
- Economy
Her recent foray into vague populist rhetoric notwithstanding, Clinton has long nurtured close ties to the financial sector. Over the course of her political career, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have been among her top political donors, in addition to giving heavily to the Clinton Foundation. In October 2013, Clinton received $400,000 to speak at two Goldman Sachs events and delivered what was described as a "reassuring message" to the assembled bankers. In all likelihood, a second Clinton administration would involve the appointment of industry insiders to regulatory posts in the perpetually revolving door between Wall Street and the federal government. It's understandable then that her friends on Wall Street would be quick to shrug off her halfhearted attempt to shore up her left flank as anything but substantive. Nobody who was genuinely concerned with economic inequity would be hobnobbing with some of the same economic institutions whose reckless financial schemes helped engineer the 2008 economic collapse.
Hillary Clinton has a long history of being willing to serve the interests of large corporations. In 1976, while serving as legal counsel for the Rose Law Firm, she represented several Arkansas utilities companies that sued the state after a ballot initiative (sponsored by conservative boogeyman Acorn) passed that decreased utilities rates on Little Rock residents and increased them on businesses. In defending the utilities conglomerates, she argued that the initiative amounted to an unconstitutional seizure of property. The judge ruled in these companies' favor.
- Environment
As Grist magazine reported, during her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton took an active role in promoting hydrofracking worldwide through the Global Shale Gas Initiative. Clinton's State Department, and in some cases she personally, lobbied on behalf of companies like Chevron intent on expanding the practice, particularly in countries like Bulgaria and Romania where there was widespread public skepticism. This lobbying was met with mixed success, as Chevron eventually pulled out of Bulgaria due to a moratorium, while Romania's moratorium was repealed following US lobbying. Since stepping down as secretary of state, Clinton has continued to express support for the practice, which she outlined in a September 2014 speech to the National Clean Energy Summit. She has also remained disturbingly silent on the issue of the Keystone XL pipeline.
- Civil Liberties
If you have been outraged by the Obama administration's abysmal record on civil liberties - from its continuation of NSA spying, rampant secrecy and overzealous prosecution of whistleblowers - and would like to see a change in the post 9/11 status quo, then Hillary Clinton is the last candidate you should expect change from. In the Senate, she voted for the Patriot Act as well as its subsequent reauthorization. In an appearance in April 2014 at the University of Connecticut, she defended NSA surveillance and chastised whistleblower Edward Snowden, accusing him of supporting terrorism.
- Culture Wars
Clinton has a long history of cynical pandering on hot button social and culture war issues. As a senator, she frequently co-sponsored legislation that would make many on the left cringe. In 2005, she joined a bipartisan group of senators in signing onto the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which, according to the ACLU, would effectively have legalized discrimination. Later that same year, she introduced a bill that would have made flag burning a felony.
In addition, she has an extensive history of anti-video game demagoguery, something that wouldn't exactly endear her to younger voters. In July 2005, she called upon the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas over the "hot coffee mod" - a sexually explicit mini-game within GTA. This led to the game's rating being changed to Adults Only until Rockstar Games removed it from shelves. In November 2005, she introduced legislation that would have banned the sale of games rated M for mature to anybody under the age of 17. Two years later, she again introduced similar legislation in the middle of her first presidential bid.
It's also worthwhile to note that many secular Americans would find some of the company she keeps disturbing. Beginning in 1993, Clinton was a member of "The Fellowship," a clandestine and influential evangelical group, which has recruited many prominent figures in business and politics and holds meetings in gender-segregated "cells."
If you agree with these positions, then by all means, Hillary Rodham Clinton is your candidate. If, however, you want a more peaceful foreign policy at a time in which an entire younger generation of Americans have never known anything other than a state of permanent undeclared war, or if you would prefer to see Wall Street and NSA spying reined in, then you should find a better candidate to support. If we don't address these vitally important issues now and Hillary does become the nominee following a no contest primary, then to get a change in the status quo, we will have to wait until 2020, if she loses (in which case we'd face the terrifying possibility of an ultra-reactionary Republican Party in control of the White House and both houses of Congress), or 2024, if she wins. Neither of these options bodes well for the future of the Democratic Party or the country.
If, as progressives, we simply allow ourselves to fall in line behind a Democratic establishment that smugly mocks us, then we will forever be marginalized and beholden to a political system in which the Overton window is permanently slanted to the right.
America needs Elizabeth Warren!
The U.S. needs another Huey Long.