Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/10644
6A – Daily News – Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Opinion Criminals ruin D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 intent of 215 Editor: Tehama County owner of one Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 There they go again. The Democrats, that is. All Mitch McConnell had to do was threaten to wave his arms and intone his mantra of “Activist Judges!” and they flinched like a red-headed stepchild in goal at the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. On the other hand, when Republicans pick a Supreme Court nominee in the throes of a majority swagger, they shoot the moon choosing an ideo- logue to the right of Stalin. But the donkeys are as skit- terish as a bunny in a tent full of cleat-wearing elephants and inevitably try to slide through leaving no visible ripples in the pond of midterm bipartisan- ship. Glorying in his chance to replace John Paul Stevens’ doc- tor as the most important liber- al in America, President Obama nominated moderate Elena Kagan to walk in the 90-year- old’s comfortable shoes. If con- firmed, she’ll become the third woman and fourth Supreme Court Justice from New York City: Scalia from Queens, Sotomayor from the Bronx, Ginsburg from Brooklyn and now Kagan from Manhattan. Don’t you love the new of the now-defunct medical mari- juana distribution centers, Jason LaBonte's arrest brought out peo- ple who abuse Prop. 215 The Compassionate Use Act on Daily News Topix online comments at redbluffdailynews.com. It sounds like the same gener- ation of men, who can't commit to a job, family or responsibility. Who get women pregnant and don't raise their children nor pay support. Those guys who think they're tough because they beat up their kids and women and get away with it. They're the ones who think they are too good to do real work, but the truth is they’re incapable of being man enough to suck it up and do your job. These are the men who violate 215, looking at it as another well-deserved free ride, while their whole life has been a free ride; and they have nothing to show for it. Prop. 215 wasn't about making people rich so they could sit on their lazy butts, get stoned and drink booze, while their women are off trying to support them and their loser friends, of which there are always many. It was about decriminalizing marijuana, so adults who use it to actually medicate for whatever reasons could do it without fear of being arrested, having their hard earned belongings and children taken away from them and going to prison. What ruined the good inten- tion of Prop 215 was greedy little self-centered suckers. There wasn't a problem with patients growing their own medi- cine for 15 years, until people became greedy. No one was both- ering gardens, until the passage of SB 420 and suddenly, several gar- dens were burglarized that sum- mer. If this is how distributors came up with product, then what they did was criminal and I hope law enforcement follows through with this. Had the government agencies opened up the lines of communication between patients and governments a long time ago, we could have developed real guidelines to protect patients rights and that of the neighbors and children. The county should register everyone through the health cen- ter and there should be a fee to do it. The county should take over distribution of medical marijuana and make the profit. It could go to infrastructure, schools, police, fire and rehabs for real addicts. Have one in each district, one in each incorporated city and split the money between each local entity and state. No one needs more than six plants and people who violate Prop. 215 guidelines by con- tributing to minors or selling to black market, should never be able to hold a valid Prop. 215 license ever again. All punish- ments should be doubled if you abuse Prop 215. California needs to take the lead and make good guidelines apply to all jurisdictions. We shouldn't judge people by what they do behind closed doors. Let people's contribution, or lack there of, be the standard for peo- ple to judge; not whether they smoke or drink, fat or skinny, rich or poor, redneck or hippy, Repub- lican or Democrat. There is a fix to everything, but it starts in the middle. Pat Johnston, Red Bluff Please don’t fall for Prop. 16 Editor: In 2002 PG&E filed for bank- ruptcy in order to split, a Plan of Reorganization is what was filed. UBS Warburg, LLC is a company that provides the Commission with financial and advisory ser- vices in “extraordinary circum- stances”. Funding for UBS War- burg LLC contract and out of pocket monies will be paid by California taxpayers. The plan reorganizes PG&E Company and PG&E Corpora- tion into two separate, stand- alone Companies no longer affili- ated with one another. PG&E Company will be the same as we know it. PG&E Corporation will own and operate the electric gen- eration, electric transmission and gas transmission operations, for- merly under PG&E Company. So instead of PG&E buying from other generating business’s PG&E Company will buy its util- ities back from PG&E Corpora- tion. We as PG&E customers and taxpayers are paying for this transformation. On Jan. 29, 2010 PG&E filed a request from the CPUC to recov- er $85 million in a form of rate hikes. On Feb.12, 2010 PG&E filed a request from the CPUC for an Energy Resource Recovery Account to recover Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade, in the amount of $18.3 million (another rate hike). On Feb.26, 2010 PG&E filed a request from the CPUC to recov- er, in rate hikes, the amount of $32.7 million. This is for “Peak Time Rebate Program”. This is to close the gap between Tiers, those who use more kilowatts will pay for the kilowatts unused by those who decreased their usage. This is where the SmartMeter comes into play. In Scientific American maga- zine, 2009, for four months ran a full page advertisement by PG&E, this is what it said. Your company can earn financial incentives for occasional, tempo- rary reductions in energy usage. It’s a rewarding opportunity: Since 2006, participating compa- nies have collectively received over $100 million. In very small print it states: These offers are funded by California utility cus- tomers and administered by PG&E Company under the aus- pices of the CPUC. In 2009, in the San Francisco Headquarters of PG&E it was said that if Proposition 16 passes PG&E has enough shareholders to be able to pass any ballot mea- sure they want. Katie Romans, spokesperson for PG&E said that PG&E has poured nearly $35 million into this Proposition. Guess who is actually paying the bill? We the California customers of PG&E are. Purpose for this bill is to stop as much competition as they pos- sibly can. So they can keep the monopoly as strong as possible and their rates as high as they can. Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Manhattan flannel Commentary diversity? Be surprised if some- one isn’t compiling a short list of qualified nominees from Staten Island. Who went to Harvard. Kagan attended Princeton, Oxford and Harvard, a potential sixth sitting justice to wear the Crimson. Delivering another crippling blow to we state schoolies. And the fact that I’m using “schoolies” might be part of the problem. Recent trends report the less we know of a candidate, the better their chance of slaloming through the chain-link fence of character assassination known as the Senate Confirmation Hearings; thus we know more about Martian quantum physics than we do Ms. Kagan. Besides being former dean of Harvard Law and the cur- rent solicitor general of the United States, which must mean she’s proved herself to be a pretty good solicitor. And a general. So she’s got that going for her. She wrote her senior thesis on “socialism in the early 20th century,” raising a red flag to conservatives who consider socialism contagious; even though she only studied it, she is open to accusations of being a carrier. Typhoid Elena. Her major sticking point is a lack of judi- cial experience, and to say her paper trail is scant is like intimating that BP is unlikely to be named winner of the Shrimp Fishers of America Good Citizen of the Year Award. Prepared to put on the last robe she’ll ever wear, Kagan has taken blank slate to a whole new schoolhouse. And because of her track record vacuum, her sexuality or lack there- of has begun sidling center stage. The ques- tion: Is she gay? And if so, is she out? And if not, who cares? Eliott Spitzer, a Harvard classmate, says she went out on dates with men but not with him. Because when it comes to sex, Spitzer apparently is our go-to guy. Granted, she is 50 and unmarried, and was pho- tographed playing softball and wearing flannel, setting most of Middle America’s gaydar a-tin- gling. What’s the old joke: we don’t know if Elena Kagan is a lesbian, but her hair is. However, unless Will Durst Raging Moderate photos of her in bed with the Indigo Girls surface in the Enquirer, gay, straight or Gary, the first Monday in October, the Supreme Court will consist of six Catholics and three Jews. Sounds like the dance card at a KKK lawn-burning jam- boree. We certainly have come a long way. Baby. Then again, who better to decide questions of inno- cence than members of the planet’s two most guilt-consumed faiths? Will Durst is a San Francisco-based political comic who writes. This being a dazzling example. Catch him at the Punch Line, May 27- 29, www.punchlinecomedyclub.co m, 444 Battery St., San Francisco, 415 397-7573. New CD, “Raging Moderate” from Stand Up! Records now available on both iTunes and Amazon. E-mail Will at durst@caglecartoons.com.