Badlands Journal

The Pimlico Kid is so lame all he can think about is the sweet pasture that lies ahead at taxpayers' expense after he leaves Congress. In the following letter to his constituents he limps along in the shadow of -- of all people -- the President, whose wife the Kid insulted by preferring to attend the Preakness with lobbyists to attending a UC Merced graduation featuring the First Lady as commencement speaker.

And, of course, he lied about the whole thing, claiming he couldn't make the event due to family commitments. The Kid finished dead last by 50 lengths in that contest.

Today, in his letter, he indicates that at last the president has recognized that he, the Pimlico Kid, had the right idea about the foreclosure crisis all along. It is a simple, three-part strategy: Do everything in the power of a politician to stimulate housing growth in your district; get the taxpayers to bail out the banks for the weak mortgages on their books; sell the package as a bail out of the people. Cover the whole campaign in the Kid's patented unctious piety and you've got as fine an example as you'd ever want to see of absolute political irrelevance.

Mayor Stan Thurston, who heard about the report from his aviation business partner, agreed it's difficult to find a job in Merced. He said there are jobs available, but people don't have the right training. As an example, he pointed to the high number of agriculture-based jobs in the county with few people qualified to work them.

Councilwoman Mary-Michal Rawling agreed that education, or a lack of it, is at the heart of the issue. "It's all about education. We need to be sure our residents are getting the education they really need to have good, sustainable careers,"she said.

(Councilman) Murphy said UC Merced will play a big role in turning the situation on its head. "UC Merced will be a key to long-rangesuccess. Integrating the university and its graduates into our local economy, in a way that hasn't quite happened yet, willbe important for the community to move forward." -- "Merced County at top of magazine's 'worst' list," Merced Sun-Star, Jan.24, 2012

The award, which comes with a grant of $473,797 over five years, will pay for the tuition of two of Yang's graduate students as well as research equipment. --

"UC Merced professor earns six-figure payoff
Research project a winner," Merced Sun-Star, Jan. 24, 2012

11-06-11
Modesto Bee
DA says Andersen knew of asbestos risk in Merced school
By Victor A. Patton
http://www.modbee.com/2011/11/06/1935528/merced-county-andersen-knew-of.html

MERCED -- Merced County's former education chief broke state law by knowing that high school students were exposed to cancer-causing asbestos, but waiting more than a year to notify law enforcement.

Those accusations have been lobbed against former Merced County Office of Education Superintendent Lee Andersen after an investigation by the Stanislaus County district attorney's office. Prosecutors say that Andersen would have been charged with a misdemeanor had the one-year statute of limitations not run out.

Andersen, in a letter to the Merced Sun-Star, insists he acted quickly to look into the asbestos exposure. He told a grand jury that he wasn't obliged to report it "because it was in the past." He asked the people of Merced to keep an open mind in reading the report.

We won't be able to produce a column-length article about the forced retirement of Rep Dennis Cardoza, Pimlico Kid - -Merced, aka Shrimp Slayer. We admire the verbosity of the McClatchy Chain editorialists while noting that what they are saying -- as most of what Cardoza has said throughout his career -- is not true. Perhaps, the McClatchy Co. in this instance agrees with Badlands -- "Good riddance." Cardoza, the former lady mud wrestling impresario, could not beg, borrow or steal enough respectability to edify his political career in this McClatchy dominated zone.

We'll just skim a few of the whoppers that arose to the surface of the dairy pond.

"I love the people of the Central Valley, and thank them for the confidence they have placed in me," Cardoza said in a statement. "While I plan to retire from public service...I will energetically continue my efforts to improve California as a private citizen."

What we like about this article from the Bakersfield Californian is that, with the possible exception of mentions of truck pollution being reduced by the High-speed rail system, there is no undigested propaganda in it. This is probably because for Bakersfield, air pollution is a very serious matter, in fact an “existential threat” to the elderly and to the young. In Merced, which stands to get a rail station out of the deal that would radically increase the value of downtown real estate, the official position in the press is that high-speed rail is the best thing since UC Merced, Mom’s apple pie and sliced bread (because it promises to renovate downtown Merced, which has languished for decades in the hands of greedy, do-nothing landlords.

Badlands Journal editorial board

What could possibly be the social, economic or political incentive for the government of the State of California to negotiate a better deal for its underwater homeowners than could the other 49 states acting in concert? The California state Legislature including executive officers may be the only political body in the country more in the thrall of finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) special interests than the US Congress.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris, leader of the go-it-alone policy, seems like a competent criminal prosecutor. However, given her connections to President Obama and his connections to Wall Street (and the imperious demand for a $1-billion campaign war chest), we suggest the California settlement might well be more favorable to FIRE than the settlement negotiated by the vast majority of states...which would put Harris in a favorable fund-raising position for her next statewide campaign.

Badlands Journal editorial board

9-30-11
Washington Post
Calif. attorney general pulls out of 50-state mortgage foreclosure settlement talks with banks
Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/calif-attorney-general-pulls-out-of-50-state-mortgage-foreclosure-settlement-talks-with-banks/2011/09/30/gIQACJD3AL_story.html

The history of radiation accidents testifies that governments routinely betray their citizens in deference to their nuclear weapons program and the nuclear industry. No, only one alternative is open to the people of Japan. They must become proactive. They must seize the initiative and wrest control from government and industry of the “perception” of the catastrophe.  -- Paul Zimmerman, Sept. 27, 2011
 

 

9-27-11
Global Ressearch
Fukushima and the Battle for Truth
Large sectors of the Japanese population are accumulating significant levels of internal contamination
by Paul Zimmerman
 

Fukushima’s nuclear disaster is a nightmare. Ghostly releases of radioactivity haunt the Japanese countryside. Lives, once safe, are now beset by an ineffable scourge promising vile illness and death.

Large sectors of the population are accumulating significant levels of internal contamination, setting the stage for a public health tragedy.

A subtle increase in the number of miscarriages and fetal deaths will be the first manifestation that something is amiss. An elevated incidence of birth defects will begin in the Fall and continue into the indefinite future. Thyroid diseases, cardiac diseases and elevated rates of infant and childhood leukemia will follow. Over the next decade and beyond, cancer rates will soar.

This is a wonder idea -- to simply walk the best guess of what the route for the California High Speed Railroad might be.

Bravo for the Brothers from Hanford!

The next step is for the Valley growers, some of whom are old enough to remember other marches in past decades, to gather together with their heirs and assigns next April and hike from the Union Station in Los Angeles to San Francisco. CAll it the Ag Plutocrats' Pilgrimage against High Speed Rail.

9-19-11

Fresno Bee

Hanford brothers walk planned high-speed rail route…Tim Sheehan

http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/19/v-print/2545353/hanford-brothers-walk-planned.html

The university has contributed about $1.225 billion to the state's economy since the campus began to operate in July 2000, officials reported. Of that, the institution has contributed close to $650 million to the San Joaquin Valley...Everybody, especially in this community, seems to be struggling financially," said Mary Miller, vice chancellor for administration at UC Merced. The local economy "is probably among the worst in the country, so I don't know what it would be like if UC were not here, but I do know that just the numbers that you look at in terms of contributing suggest that we are making a huge difference in the economy of the local community, and probably in the entire region." -- Merced Sun-Star, 9-15-11

Evidently, led by Dorothy Leland, the Existentialist Chancellor of UC Merced, Bobcatflak is reaching new heights of the Absurd. Perhaps Leland is actually the Da Da chancellor or the just plain Duh chancellor.