Friday, April 23, 2010

Spotted on April 15th at Dinosaur Caves Park

This "Tea Party" sign was spotted at 5:30 in Shell Beach at Dinosaur Caves Park on Tax Day.

Although no media showed up, one "I just retired last week" truck driver came up from Riverside to visit his brother. He was so upset that the "Obamacare bill" would use tax dollars to pay for abortions that he was going to walk all the way to Washington, D.C. to protest. He hoped to pay his way across the U.S. by selling caps and T-shirts with slogans on them.

We learned after people saw this sign that not only was Pismo's neighbor Arroyo Grande thrown out of the gerrymandered 23rd Congressional District by politicians in Sacramento, but even the slim slice of Shell Beach was not all in nurse Lois Capps' district. Why? Too many conservatives didn't vote for Capps after the 2000 census.

Sacramento democrats in charge carefully picked out those who did vote for Democrats from Big Sur all the way down to Oxnard. To make the 23rd district safe for Dems, they tossed most of the agriculture areas over to Bakersfield and Paso Robles assuring a safe Republican district.

Our governor tried to change it in the last election with Prop. 11. But Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi threatened Arnold with a million dollar war chest to fight it if he didn't strike out "Congressional Districts" from it. (Check your last voter pamphlet. The struck-through line of copy is shown.)

You'll note that on this map of "The Ribbon of Shame" the Santa Barbara Channel Islands are in Capp's district—even though hardly anyone is registered to vote there....except for a few park rangers and the elephant seals on San Miguel Island. To those in Sacramento, Santa Cruz Island must have been mistaken for Santa Catalina. But there is no Avalon at Prisoner's Harbor.

Monday, May 18, 2009

What has happened to local media?

After a lifetime of reading my local paper, I finally canceled it out of frustration in not seeing stories that I knew were taking place but not being reported. The Tribune should take a look at some 1930s editions of the San Luis Obispo Telegram. There was more news in less pages 75 years ago.

Is it just San Luis media? Why does Santa Maria's KCOY Channel 12 have a larger and more professional staff than San Luis Obispo's older KSBY Channel 6? And why does the young crew at KSBY not dig up original stories?

Some day I'll share copies of the tabloid section of the City Budget that ran in Telegram-Tribunes of 1959 and 1960. Would the city and county governments dare allow today's pie charts in print?

Has anyone ever seen a printed map of our recently gerrymandered 23rd Congressional District? I didn't think so. But if you Google "Ribbon of Shame" or "Fair Districts" you see how it almost disappears at high tide.