Persuasion vs Intimidation

In the US House of Representatives, Tom Delay is the Majority Leader. He's earned a nickname: "the Hammer," because of his 'take no prisoners' style of heavy-handed politics and knack for pounding money out of political-action committees (PAC's).

"Hardball" Here?

Extreme debate limits, one-sided statements, legal maneuvers to thwart criticism, potentially illegal acts by elected officials have been tools of power for some time in Washington, DC. What about our own Central Coast?

Community services districts (CSD's) are a very basic form of local government. Two CSD's, Cambria and Los Osos, appear willing to use whatever "tool" suits these elected officials in their pursuit of policy despite citizen opposition.

Consider the following:

Legal papers have been filed to compel testimony from two critics of the Cambria CSD.

A CCSD Board member compares this to "our government…investigating a terrorist."

The LOCSD locked the door of a public meeting, barring entrance to two of its own board members.

LOCSD Board members filed a request for a restraining order against citizen critic and businessman Richard Margetson who successfully used a SLAPP defense.

The SLAPP acronym comes from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. In other words, using a bogus legal maneuver to shut down criticism. Does this sound like good government in practice?

You would not know this kind of stuff was going on in SLO county if you only read the sporadic page 3 coverage in the Tribune. The weekly New Times tracks the Los Osos CSD problems because that's where the public is demonstrating. Cambria's water tank location and Nipomo subdivision construction limitations are not on either paper's media radar screen--yet.

Environment Concerns Create Pressure For Solutions

What's at stake are environmental and related conditions you need to inhabit the land--clean water, uncontaminated soil, clear air. Public comment and disagreements surround certain issues such as: construction of Cambria water tanks in an environmentally sensitive location, countering the effects of MTBE groundwater contamination in Los Osos and placing limits on subdivision construction in Nipomo.

Where To Find Better Leadership?

Similar environment, land development and other civic issues exist in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Yet there's no mention of any elected official swinging any "hammer" to avoid facing public opposition. Could it be a better brand of "leadership?"

(Something I should know? My email is: centralcoastnewsmission at gmail.com) Sphere: Related Content

What Were You Doing 35 Years Ago?

This weekend's visit of the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) near the harbor of Santa Barbara, prompted radio talk host Dr. Laura to pledge, on the air, to pay $30,000 for a disputed waterfront docking fee.

The waterfront service fee is a standard charge for all port stops by military vessels. Photo: US Navy

The Navy League at the same time was lobbying the Santa Barbara city council to waive the fee, which they voted to do--but for this one time only.

And my Vietnam military flashback began. Enlisting in 1967, my time with the United States Navy began. Four years were bursting into momentary view. The steamy, screeching sounds on the asphalt surface flight deck, catapults launching F-4 Phantoms hellbound toward the horizon.

Photo: US Navy
I am living in surreal parallel time this month, August 1969, shipping out on my first "WestPac," or western Pacific cruise. My white hat hangs jauntily as I step aboard my last permanent duty station, the USS Constellation (CVA-64). It was named after the last all-sail vessel built by the US Navy.

Four and a half football fields long, the "Connie" was the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier. Eight steam boilers drove four main steam turbine engines. Such massive power at times felt as if the sweaty Hands of God were just a few decks below.

I'm writing news releases sent to the hometown newspapers of these shipboard sailors, a journalist in the boat's public affairs office, massaging teletype from the communications center. Two Phantom pilots shot down a MiG-21. Someone wrote the news announcements of the airmen lost on deck, blown off a catwalk, lost at sea, shot down over 'Nam.

This netherworld stays alive writing itself, again and again. The closed-circuit radio and tv studios were the coolest spaces onboard the ship. Way preferable to the humid tropical temperatures outside--in the 90's to 100's most of the time.

It's a semi-comfortable joke that I am playing records "for our fighting boys overseas...in Kent State, Ohio." Just past the horizon, a patch of ground called Hamburger Hill is claiming lives. The blood of our soldiers blots the ground.

Spare time is reading, writing letters home, planning to buy stuff when we hit port in Japan. A stereo, a camera, a 14-piece place setting of chinaware littered my life. My life echoes in my reverie.

The "N" in the "CVN" of the USS Ronald Reagan's name means it's a nuclear-powered boat. No one seems to mention it has a nuclear reactor in media reports. Why would it be conveniently not mentioned?

Dr. Laura, coincidentally (?) with her money pledge, could also have been promoting her one-woman show at the Lobero this weekend. Got her front page press, so go figure.

In my never to be humble opinion: it was a cheap way to sell tickets, Doc. Most of the men on the carrier are doing what I was doing--putting in an honorable enlistment, doing good work and waiting to get back to civilian life.

Sailors don't want anyone taking advantage of them for publicity, especially a radio "Doctor." Our US sailors and soldiers, ghosts from Vietnam and Iraq, stand on hallowed sand each Sunday at Arlington West. It's a church with more than 1800 crosses for the fallen.

One other thing I know for certain. My Vietnam tears and memories--my service enlistment--will never have a discharge date. Sphere: Related Content

Blogging Goes Mainstream?

Somehow, yes, I can just feel it warming up. The "mainstream" public is beginning to realize something called "blogging" is happening. It could mean something important, such as a new advertising channel and book deals.

Fact: 1 out of 6 Americans read a blog in the first three months of this year, according to fresh research from ComScore Media Metrix.

Fact: more than 8 million Americans have created a blog (out of 120 million adult net users).

Fact: most popular blog categories: news and politics, lifestyle, tech and blogs written by women.

Four Senators and six Representatives use blogs to communicate with constituents in the home district.

Put it another way: 50 million US Internet users visited blogs. Blog readers visit twice as many web sites as the average web surfer. That's a whole lotta bloggin' gooing on.

Publishers are cutting book deals--large dollar deals--with successful bloggers who already have reams of written material and developed their "voice." They also have "a built-in audience and connection with their readers," says Sophie Cottrell, associate publisher of Little, Brown.

Gawker reported one book deal had a $650,000 price tag on it. Look for a spate of blog-centric reports, surveys and news bulletins to continue. But don't forget, New Times in SLO and The Sun in Santa Maria printed the first story of our own blog and how it came into existence. Thanks, all! Sphere: Related Content

Blogger = Journalist?

A caller to the Dave Congalton talk show (KVEC AM 920) last Monday (8/8) questioned the credibility of blogging and the trustworthiness of news reporting in general.

"I prefer to go to the source of the news, first-hand, and find out what happened," he said. The caller was from Paso Robles. My reply to that is:

Sure, that would be great if one could do it and be in multiple places at once, sort of like a journalist with super powers. Getting immediate answers on demand, everywhere... It's J-Man!

Direct experience is essential to news reporting and so is good writing and truthfulness. A real journalist in my definition, is anyone who writes an account of a direct experience, most often an interview or field observation.

Written Testimony

Consistent reporting in this fashion creates the expectation of reliable reporting. Credibility is established. Trust is formed between the reader, the reporter and the media through which the reporting is transmitted.

(Opinions, satire, and communicating a point of view may also be part of the writing. But don't get confused between the facts and the polemics.)

The advent of an original source of information may be unsettling to some. Books, newspapers, magazines, radio, tv--all sources of news as we know it have been around for quite some time. The major news media companies (ABC, CBS, NBC, newspapers, etc.) have become labeled as the "MSM," mainstream media.

Today, public confidence in news media is at an all time low, according to a new Gallup Poll. A broad level of distrust covers the land, and as the poll shows, this low level of public confidence extends to Congress, the US Supreme Court, the criminal justice system, big business and Health Maintenance Organizations.

To be fair to the caller, he did say how much he did not trust the main news channels, so he's part of the majority of Americans who don't trust much of what they see, read or hear from the MSM.

Electronically Written Testimony

As the Internet grows, we make room for another news source: specialized web sites operated by citizens with something to say, either by direct experience or good reporting skills. These are web logs, or blogs, written by bloggers.

This Central Coast News Mission (CCNM) community blog you're reading is founded on the sharing of direct experience by people known for writing the facts of their direct experience and reporting it accurately. Similar to a soldier's letters to home, complete with opinions, humor, pathos and tears. Links are often provided to source material and references online.

By any other name, this process would correctly be called "journalism."

If our caller were to post his daily first-hand, news event experiences on a blog, would he ask others to "trust" what he has written, or continue to recommend that his family, friends and neighbors go out and get the info themselves?

Your Own Good Sense Is Good Enough

When I was growing up, I believed what those closest told me, until I began to think for myself. I began to pick and choose what to believe and how to find "facts" on my own. Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the single bullet theory, why the US was in Vietnam, why our soldiers are in Iraq--all of these official "explanations" have earned my skepticism.

The sources for the last three have my extremely guarded respect and I don't believe for one second their official explanation. Too many unanswered questions make me a skeptic. For the same reasons I don't think the Tooth Fairy is a real person, I don't believe any official stated reason why the US invaded, and is occupying, Iraq.

It may have something to do with a skill and sensibility more MSM journalists dare exhibit. A willingness to "question authority" and get some real answers.

With so much riding on it, bloggers ask: how can we afford not to? Sphere: Related Content

Comfort The Afflicted

As the conversation about gang-related activities gathers intensity in Lompoc, it's reassuring to know we have a first class jail.

No less an authority on the quality of county government, the 2004-2005 Santa Barbara Grand Jury reports that the city of Lompoc's incarceration facilities are "immaculate and well run."

In the words of the report, "Lompoc has the friendliest and most beautiful jail in the county. Inmates are provided with three hot meals a day during their incarceration."

The Lompoc Police Department administers a holding Class 1 facility, for 96-hour hold, with 35 beds and 45 officers. Sphere: Related Content

Measure E And The New Lompoc Hospital

This week at the Lompoc Rotary meeting Dr. Coughlin said how necessary it is to pass Measure E. This bond will raise $74.5 million to build a state of the art Intensive Care Unit and help Lompoc Hospital meet earthquake safety standards.

Which really means that the hospital will be rebuilt according to the Measure's supporters.

Many in that room Wednesday night will, no doubt, have need of the good Doctor's professional services sometime in the future. Everyone present agreed the measure not only should pass, but would pass if the voters filled out the mail-in ballot as soon as they receive it.

Ballots will be mailed to all registered voters in the special assessment district on August 15th. A yes vote of two-thirds, or 66.66%, is required for passage.

Later, talking with another supporter, I was asked, "if the Measure passes and construction begins as soon as April 2006, where will the new hospital be built?"

A spokesperson at the campaign office stated the new building site would be approximately six acres. "The hospital board is looking at a number of potential sites around town," she said.

If the measure fails, the hospital faces closure by 2013 or later due to the building's unsafe seismic condition. The facility does not meet current earthquake safety standards. Sphere: Related Content