Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/494374
Texas stereotype shattered. Texas stereotype confirmed. ShatteredOne:HereinSan Antonio, a lively, brawling may- or's race is underway, featur- ing 14 candidates and a breath- taking number of candidate fo- rums. Most observers believe there'll be a run-off after the May 9 election. The front run- ner is former Democratic state Senator Leticia Van de Putte. If she wins, she'll be the first La- tina mayor of a major Ameri- can city. Not the stereotype of Texas. Shattered Two: En route to Texas from Arkansas I stopped at a convenience store. The shift manager's badge had his name: Osama. Not the stereo- type of Texas. Confirmed: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continues wooing the GOP's farthest right elements after becoming the first person to officially throw his red meat into the ring for the 2016 Re- publican nomination. The ste- reotype of Texas. The image of the man reviled by many in his own party for engineering last year's GOP government shut- down feeds into non-Texans' inaccurate image of this richly diverse state as a far right con- servative monolith. Call him Cruz the Crusader. Cruz is continuing his fast- track career of branding him- self as Mr. All In for the GOP's evangelicals, far-rightists and — not insignificantly —conser- vative talk show hosts who ad- vocate in-your-face, no compro- mise battle against ideological and partisan" enemies." He's throwing out trite conservative lines and red meat in Costco quantities. "Unlike Barack Obama, I was not a community orga- nizer before I was elected to the Senate." Which appeals only to GOPers who love Rush, Sean and Glenn. "A real pres- ident would stand up and say on the world stage: Under no circumstances will Iran be al- lowed to acquire nuclear weap- ons. Iran will either stop or we will stop them." Cruz is up and coming in a field of GOPers vying for the 2016 Republican nomination that increasingly looks like lo- cal talk show personalities au- ditioning to be Rush Limbaugh guest hosts. Cruz and another pain-in-the-posterior to the GOP establishment, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, want to seri- ously shake up and redefine the party, and free it from the "Party Powers That Be," who are morphing into "The Powers That Were." Not good news for Jeb, since the subtext of the Paul and Cruz campaigns is "Burn Down the Bushes." Cruz has made it clear his goal is to defeat "the mushy middle" as he works to woo his envisioned coalition, and evangelicals in particular. The New Yorker's satirist Andy Borowitz couldn't re- sist: "The Republican Presiden- tial candidate Ted Cruz's con- stant references to Jesus Christ in his speeches and campaign ads are sparking a strong inter- est in atheism among millions of Americans, atheist leaders report." But it's no laughing matter. Several online journalists have discovered a very large number of lies in Cruz's assertions. Sa- lon's Sophia McClennen warns liberals that Cruz is danger- ous, a manifestation of a poli- tics where facts mean little and political mantras prevail: "Cruz represents a turn in GOP poli- tics where political beliefs op- erate more like religious fervor than reasoned inference." Cruz is rising in polls and is likely to rise more: he ap- peals to 21st century conserva- tives who feel a response that doesn't instantly reflect parti- san or ideological group-think and suggests nuance or an ef- fort for balance is "mushy," or, worse, "going moderate." On the left, the idea that thought- ful consideration is pesky is typified by liberal talker Ed Schultz's "Rapid Response" team on his TV show. Weighing and balancing takes so darn long. There's the old phrase, "Don't mess with Texas." Cruz might consider not messing with "Mushy Moderates" and supposedly Ignoramus Inde- pendents because they might not prove so mushy or seem- ingly ignorant in the general election — or if he gets into of- fice. If the GOP gives Cruz the keys, it may find the same thing. JoeGandelmancanbe reached at jgandelman@ themoderatevoice.com. JoeGandelman Ted's Cruise to the far right Cruz is continuing his fast- track career of branding himself as Mr. All In for the GOP's evangelicals, far-rightists and — not insignificantly —conservative talk show hosts ... Don'ttrustthe newlandfillbuilding Editor: This is another part of the story which was not included in the article printed in the Daily News April 4 on the landfill. I'm just learning about who is who and what their positions are concerning the City Coun- cil, Board of Supervisors, JPA 1 and JPA 11 and the Sanitary Agency. All these people are the same people over all these dif- ferent departments. They are called the Executive Board, Full Board Tehama County/Red Bluff Landfill Management Agency, Sanitary Agency, JPA 1 and JPA 11, they just change hats. This means they are their own gov- erning board. I attended my first meet- ing March 2 of the Full Board and was surprised to see all the Board of Supervisors, and City Council members. Need- less to say I along with everyone else attending this meeting was treated with full disregard. Kristina Miller who is the Landfill Agency Manager con- tinually contradicted herself from what she tells us and what she reports to the Boards. One of the Board members blurted out, "we're going to build this no matter what." I said loudly from my seat, "did I hear you just say you were going to build this anyway?" He answered, "Yes, you did." This can be ver- ified by going to the Landfill Management Agency meeting and agenda website where you can listen to what happened at this meeting. Tehama County Supervisors are going to build a 3,000 sq. ft. office to house three employ- ees. They're also going to put in a paved parking lot, new paved entrance road from the land- fill entry driveway, on-site sep- tic system, 1,000 gallon sep- tic tank, on-site potable water system including a groundwa- ter well and pump, 168sq. ft. pump house, water lines from the pump house to the office building, fire suppression sys- tem that includes a 10,000 gal- lon water tank, a fire hydrant, storage shed, other out build- ings, gravel pathways and full landscaping all at the price of $900,000. I asked, what is the projec- tion for the monthly upkeep on this after it is built? I was told they didn't have to answer be- cause it was not on the agenda. I asked if they would recon- sider, starting the construc- tion after the drought was over as this major purposed build- ing plan would use a lot of wa- ter. I was told by Kristina they weren't going to start the con- struction until next winter. I read in the Daily News they're going to start this July, just like it was originally planned. Apparently the county thinks this project is more important than our water problems. I also asked why such a big building for just three employ- ees. I was told by Kristina she was tired of sharing the small of- fice at the landfill and the rented building next to the airport wasn't convenient, she needed to be at the site to do her work. The Chairmen of the Board said they were building for the future. The property is three lots, that are in the Westgate Es- tates Subdivision Tract and in their CCRs states, "A two- thirds majority vote of all lot owners shall be sufficient to change, modify or delete por- tions of the Restrictions pro- vided that all such changes are in conformity with appli- cable law, and provided that such changes have the consent of the Tehama County Board of Supervisors. It also states. No lot or parcel of said lands shall be used in whole or in part for the storage of rubbish of any character whatsoever, nor for the storage of any prop- erty or thing that will cause such lot or parcel to appear in an unclean or untidy condition or that will be obnoxious to the eye; nor shall any substance, thing, or material be kept upon any lot or parcel that will emit foul or obnoxious odors, or that will cause any noise that will or might disturb the peace, quite, comfort, or serenity of the occu- pants of surrounding property. The Board of Supervisors is ignoring the CCRs. So people get ready for the price of tipping to go up our water amount to go down and citations given out for those who waste their water. — Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff Response to columnist's Department of Clarification Editor: Wow. I'm as confused as a sterile rabbit. I don't know if I've been slandered or flat- tered. Did Bob, I mean Robert, lower my status to the socially elite or raise his status to a good ole boy? This is a sub- ject I'm going to have ask my friend Joe Harrop for help, I know he can straighten this out for me. I know that I'm just a romp- ing-stomping, fun-loving auto body repairman but Bob, I mean Robert, just a butcher? Even a casual observer cam see through the Washington D.C. established politicians like John McCain, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell — as well as many more in both par- ties — will eat their own if one doesn't get in step with them. Therefore, when Cruz made an attempt to fulfill a cam- paign promise comes the name "Whack-o." Maybe Cruz opened Chuck Hagel's eyes somewhat. After all, Chuck resigned as Secre- tary of Defense. Even he didn't agree with the way Obama was handling our defense. — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Imagine if a doctor struggled to pay a small debt and as punish- ment the government took away his stethoscope. Or, if a ballerina owed money and was forced to surren- der her toe shoes. Makes no sense, right? Yet, here in Cal- ifornia as many as 4 million citizens have had driver's licenses sus- pended for reasons having little or nothing to do with vehicular safety. The state increasingly uses license-suspension as a tool and, in doing so, creates "cycles of pov- erty that are difficult if not impos- sible to overcome." That is the conclusion of a just- released report co-authored by five leading legal aid and civil rights groups. An offense as min- imal as loitering can result in a fine that multiplies quickly if un- paid — often leading to a sus- pended license, lost employment and, before long, crippling debt. Such scenarios create signifi- cant economic and social prob- lems in California, where nearly a quarter of the state's 38 million residents live in poverty. Uncol- lected court-ordered fees now to- tal over $10 billion. In an ill-con- ceived effort to balance the books, California annually suspends over a half-million driver's licenses for missed court dates or delinquent payments of fines and fees. While the recent Justice De- partment probe in Ferguson, Mis- souri, got headlines for reveal- ing a pattern of abuse through fees and arrest warrants in non- criminal cases, California has long engaged in similar efforts to feed state coffers. For example, a $100 base fine — say, for fail- ure to carry proof of auto insur- ance — actually costs $490 with mandatory fees and assessments. If the initial deadline for the fine is missed, the total due soars to $815. What began as a system of fines to punish bad behavior has gradually become a scheme to fund state programs. And whereas driver's licenses were once suspended solely to keep un- fit motorists off the roads, Califor- nia now takes away driving privi- leges for such things as misplaced registration stickers, failure to re- port a change of address, failure to pay a bus fare — even for skip- ping school. Whether it's in California, Mis- souri or any other state, govern- ment actions such as these invari- ably have the greatest impact on the poor and otherwise disadvan- taged. "The human cost of this practice is enormous," said Mere- dith Desautels, a staff attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. She notes that "a dispropor- tionate burden is placed on com- munities of color, already unfairly targeted by law enforcement, and low-income people who don't have the means to pay." Under Gov. Jerry Brown, Cali- fornia has overcome many of its financial problems. The state is in the vanguard of much progres- sive legislation, yet the scandalous process of exorbitant fees and li- cense suspensions persists. Desautels and her colleagues say reform efforts in California have gained bipartisan support but remain stalled because some lawmakers believe the cost of change is too steep. Their report, titled "Not Just a Ferguson Problem — How Traf- fic Courts Drive Inequality in Cal- ifornia," suggests that California restructure its debt collection pro- cess and end the use of license suspensions. Additionally, the au- thors urge creation of a formula by which more than 4 million res- idents with suspended licenses can have their driving privileges restored. Included in the report are nu- merous case studies of crippling effects from the current system of fines, fees and suspensions. Typ- ical is Alyssa, a bus driver, who received a ticket for not notify- ing the DMV when her address changed. She corrected the doc- uments, but failed to pay the $25 fine. Her license was suspended. She was fired by the bus com- pany. Alyssa had to seek state aid to provide for her children. She is unable to pay her fine and penalty fees which now total $2,900. That's a crime. And Califor- nians like Alyssa are the victims, not the villains. Peter Funt is a writer and speaker. His book, "Cautiously Optimistic," is available at Amazon.com and CandidCamera. com. Peter Funt California's driver's license scheme punishes its poor GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. 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