Tommy Hough

The Department of Commerce hearing regarding the proposed southern extension of the Foothill South 241 toll road at San Onofre State Beach and Trestles is Monday, September 22nd, from 10:30 am to 8:30 pm. The hearing will be held at the same place as the California Coastal Commission hearing in February: O’Brien Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Turnout is going to be EXTREMELY important, so please make time to attend.

If you would like to speak at the hearing, you must submit a written request via U.S. mail or a commercial carrier to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration by THIS FRIDAY, September 12th. Requests after this date will be disqualified, and requests submitted by fax, e-mail or voicemail will, for whatever reason, not be accepted.  Submit your written request NOW.

While crucial issues include retaining the integrity of California State Parks and keeping a six-lane freeway out of the backcountry of San Onofre State Beach and the intact San Mateo Creek watershed ~ which makes up the bulk of the San Onofre backcountry and empties onto Trestles Beach ~ the message is simple: SAVE TRESTLES.

Like Eddie Vedder says, "Save Trestles."
(photo courtesy of Elizabeth Willes)

On September 22nd from 10:30 am to 8:30 pm at O’Brien Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the fight to save Trestles goes from being a state matter to a federal matter. The Orange County Transportation Corridor Agency has been appealing the state Coastal Commission’s denial of a permit to build the toll road through the park to the federal government., so this will be our only opportunity to tell the Commerce Department we want our state parks and intact watersheds to be left intact.

Send a brief, polite letter or postcard asking to speak at the Commerce Department public hearing at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on September 22nd. Be sure to indicate you are speaking only for YOURSELF, not an organization. Put a stamp on it and mail it to:

Mr. Thomas Street
NOAA Office of General Counsel for Ocean Services
1305 East-West Highway
Room 6111
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Even if you don’t want to speak at the hearing, take a vacation day or a personal day and come to the public hearing at O’Brien Hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on Monday, September 22nd, from 10:30 am to 8:30 pm.  Turnout is EXTREMELY important.

Rogue Wave supports the fight to Save Trestles.
(photo courtesy of Elizabeth Willes)

The proposed Foothill South 241 toll road through the San Onofre backcountry won’t just compromise the surfing quality, clean water, and wild character of Trestles, it will also throw into jeopardy long-protected burial and cultural sites of the Panhe Nation, close miles of backcountry trails, force the closure of the San Mateo Campground, further dissect wildlife habitat area and corridors into ever-smaller pockets, and set a terrible precedent for the disposability of parks and protected places.

Interestingly, according to the Orange County Register, toll road supporter Congressman Gary Miller of California’s 42nd District (Brea/Mission Viejo) has a financial stake in seeing the Foothill South 241 toll road built through San Onofre. Coincidence?

This rebuttal from the Transportation Corridor Agency in the North County Times seems to indicate whatever wild character the backcountry of San Onofre State Beach may still retain isn’t worthy of the protection it was originally granted because it’s not 100% wilderness; therefore it’s okay to build a six-lane toll road through it. Unfortunately, the original sin proposition of building a toll road through a state park in the first place is not addressed.

Click on the video below to see Clint Eastwood talk about why Trestles and San Onofre State Park need to be saved and preserved, as was the case when the park was set aside by Governor Reagan in 1971.

You owe it to yourself to read this ABC News article about all the partying going on in Minneapolis-St. Paul, despite a greatly reduced convention schedule and Sen. McCain’s call on Republicans to think about someone other than themselves first (like their country), and work towards raising money or easing the suffering of folks along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. Or, in the words of special interest Republicans, “poor people.”

Granted, this storm isn’t (thankfully) as bad as Katrina, and national and state authorities are clearly on their game for this one (it only took them three years to show up), but it still is pretty tacky that all your usual G.O.P. suspects/guilty parites/donors like Lockheed Martin and the National Rifle Association are partying it up at some exclusive restaurant to the music of the band Hookers and Blow while wearing pink boas (ah, yes, the “family values” crowd, indeed) while their candidate and his running mate are encouraging them to be a little charitable for five minutes, if for no other reason than for some good public relations. Guess the NRA and Lockheed Martin guys opted to turn their Blackberries off so it wouldn’t get in the way of Hookers and Blow (I wonder of they take checks or do ZZ Top covers?).

Although, when you think about it, Republicans really do have something to celebrate. Not only are the official aspects of their convention being “forcibly curtailed” by a Category One storm on the other end of the country, all of the fun, social get-togethers and corporate welfare fund-raisers all go on without anyone having to worry about looking hungover for platform discussions the following morning. Man, hookers and blow indeed.

Plus, the Republicans have conveniently excused themselves from having to have either President Bush or Vice President Cheney show up and remind everyone of all the great accomplishments of the past eight years, and no one from the G.O.P. has to go to the podium before a TV crowd any bigger than the average C-SPAN quarter hour viewing audience and go on the record saying anything about all of the positive benefits of the 2008 model of the G.O.P. Plus, the Republicans were able to use Gustav as an effective cover screen to “come clean” on Governor Sarah Palin’s knocked-up 17-year old daughter (good news “value voters,” she’s keeping the kid and marrying the stud) and her husband’s 24-year old DUI (no biggie, it had been 24 years when Bush’s drunk driving arrest was revealed in 2000 as well). I’ll be the first to admit there’s never been a natural disaster the Republican party didn’t seek to benefit from, but they’ve got to be thanking their lucky political stars for Gustav.

And it’s not just in Minneapolis-St. Paul where Republicans are ignoring their candidates’ call to be magnanimous. According to the ABC News article linked HERE, “Along the Mississippi last night, corporate lobbyists for the chemical industry were entertaining Ohio Republicans on two large yachts. Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), one of about 700 guests, said he ‘could not remember’ who paid the costs of the river cruise.”

Seriously, it must be great never having to say you’re sorry, or even be slightly ashamed or self-aware. Where’s the hookers and blow?

Well lookee here, it’s Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the new darling of the maniac right and the Republican Party’s choice for your new Vice President. Wonder what ‘ol Sarah is up to here?

Well, apparently the Governor of Alaska is posing with a caribou she just shot. Nice to see she’s got one of her children with her. What better way to teach kids love and respect for the world around them than by watching their mother shoot something and then watching it die?

NEWS FLASH: John McCain really wanted Joe Lieberman to be his running mate, not Sarah Palin (who?), but the conservative “agents of intolerance” (McCain’s words, not mine) who still run the Republican party would not stand for McCain to pick a former Democrat, someone with pro-choice credentials, or someone who ran with that awful agent of Satan in 2000, Al Gore. Read the article HERE, and check out this article in The Economist (not exactly a standard-bearer for the ‘wacky left’) bemoaning McCain’s loss of gravitas, not to mention his soul.

As Michael Kinsley wrote in the September 1st edition of the Washington Post:

It’s about honesty. The question should be whether McCain, and all the other Republicans who have been going on for months about Obama’s ‘dangerous’ lack of foreign policy experience, ever meant a word of it. And the answer is apparently not. Many conservative pundits woke up this morning fully prepared to harp on Obama’s alleged lack of experience for months more. Now they face the choice of either executing a Communist-style U-turn (’Experience? Feh! Who needs it?’) or trying to keep a straight face while touting the importance of having been mayor of a town of 9,000 if you later find yourself president of a nation of 300 million.

This is especially damning to McCain because his case for himself (besides not being Obama, a standard under which many of us might qualify) has rested on his honor and integrity. The North Vietnamese couldn’t break him, and neither could the Brahmins of his own party in the Senate. He was a maverick who always told it straight.

So much for that.

Tommy’s Thoughts Regarding John McCain’s Choice for Running Mate

(short version)

John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin proves Republicans remain curiously obsessed with Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, and somehow think putting a female western governor on the ticket with McCain will entice Hillary supporters without anyone noticing the litany of concerns about Palin’s far-right stances.

If you’re a G.O.P. bigwig who’s been a on the fence about McCain, would you be writing a check in support of this ticket, especially after qualified guys like Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, or qualified women like Kay Bailey Hutchinson were passed over? All of whom could’ve brought much of the same crowd McCain and the G.O.P. are hoping to get with Palin, plus the Republicans would’ve passed the one most important test that’s required when selecting a running mate: someone who can effectively and competently step in as President in case something happens to the Chief Executive.

McCain’s “tried and true” judgement? Either way it’s disturbing. If he picked Gov. Palin, what does that say for his judgement, unless he’s publicly shopping for wife number three, and if the party chose Palin for McCain, what else are they going to put on McCain’s plate?

I have a feeling Republicans are going to be waking up on November 5th stunned at the breadth of their loss, but that doesn’t mean this is over. Send a message on November 4th and take your country back. The American flag belongs to you as well, don’t ever forget that.

(long version)

For most of the summer I’ve been figuring this was going to be a close race between John McCain and Barack Obama, and the polling numbers leading up to the Democratic convention seemed to confirm this, pretty much an even 50/50 split. In the wake of McCain’s disturbing V.P. choice, however, I’m feeling pretty good about calling this for Obama now. There are other reasons why Obama has the edge (one has to do with a seriously flaw in the way tracking polls are conducted), but picking Palin doesn’t seem to bring anyone else to the ticket who wasn’t already on board or leaning towards voting for McCain, and the immediate reaction I’ve seen has been an angry turn-off of moderates who were waiting to see how McCain handled his first Presidential-style choice.

The reasons for Governor Palin’s selection says more about the alleged judgement of a more and more elderly John McCain, and a Republican party growing more desperate to be interesting, engaging, welcoming, or having something to do with that C word Obama keeps throwing around. Like their desire to drill in every nook and cranny of the continent ~ on and offshore ~ for oil to keep their status quo-benefitting pals in the oil companies alive and afloat, the G.O.P. is completely bankrupt. It’s not that the Republican party doesn’t have bad ideas, they no ideas.

So what do they do? They call Obama a Muslim (a “bad thing,” obviously…) and send out mysterious e-mails alleging he attended Pakistani madrasas while McCain spends a month bashing on the guy because he has nothing to say about himself, and at the exact moment when McCain needs to step up and deliver some content and win over those moderates waiting on the fence for him, he passes over a solid crop of seasoned, ready-to-go running mates as the Republican Party decides it has to go as far west as Alaska to find a young, cute, cuddly western governor who also happens to be a gun nut (yes, having video taken of you firing assault rifles makes you a gun nut), a moose hunter, someone taking an active interest in the untimely demise of polar bears, and an evangelical pro-life mom of five kids who somehow has the time now to be the Vice President. Heck, if she’s so pro-life and pro-family, tell me who is going to be raising her boys and girls while she’s attending cabinet meetings and her husband is running around the Yukon in snowmobile races? This woman is the conservative Republicans think McCain needs? Jesus, does a double-wide come with this?

However popular Gov. Palin may be in Alaska, despite being under investigation (which seems to be a rite of passage for most G.O.P. politicians these days anyway) for using state employees to settle petty family disputes, the reality is she’s so far to the right she makes George W. Bush look like a liberal. The decision is just so crassly, transparently political.

I have nothing against someone who eats buffalo burgers (I had one the other day) or who owns firearms, but I do have problems with gun nuts and folks who are trying hasten the extinction of polar bears, and as much of a reformer as she claims to be, she’s every bit an oil person as Bush, she’s just clearing the old guard out of the way in Alaska for her and her dumb husband who spends his time running dogs to death in the Iditarod while no doubt leaving a trail of beer cans across the Alaskan interior.

Either McCain really thinks women and Hillary supporters are so stupid they’ll vote for this gal just because she’s a woman ~ never mind that her positions are anathema to Hillary Clinton ~ or he’s just not afraid to insult people’s intelligence (to his credit, it’s worked before in this country), or he can’t tell because he’s become too elderly. Maybe he’s publicly looking to trade up in the wife department.

A V.P. choice generally doesn’t have a HUGE effect on the outcome of the election, but it shouldn’t get in the way. Whoever picked Palin, whether it was really McCain or party operatives who forced the decision on him, they failed the one, single most important criteria for choosing a Vice Presidential running mate: someone who can immediately step in and take over as President should something happen to the Commander In Chief. It’s the first presidential decision a candidate has to make, and it’s not something you fool around with. McCain just flunked it. So much for his good judgement.

As much as I despise Dick Cheney, he’s clearly competent even when his Darth Vader tendencies get in the way, and if something happened to W there’s no doubt in my mind he would adequately be able to handle being President, provided his heart was able to handle the surprise (the martial law would come later). Lots of folks weren’t nuts about Al Gore being in the V.P.’s office in the 1990s, but even Clinton detractors knew if something happened to the President, Gore could’ve likewise stepped in and not immediately run the ship into a floating iceberg (no doubt having calved off the melting Arctic ice shelf).

In the event something happens to the President, the business of the Executive Branch needs to be able to continue with at least someone competent who could ask the right questions from Day One at the helm. The same holds true for other competent, if not always brilliant V.P.s, some of whom became or ran for President themselves, like George H.W. Bush, Walter Mondale, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, Hubert Humphrey, LBJ, Richard Nixon, and some guy named Harry Truman who had to wrap up a little something called World War II (although, in all truthiness, Truman was thought of as something of a lightweight when FDR named him to the ticket in 1944).

In a tragic situation like JFK’s assassination, you had at least a competent official like LBJ able to step in and take over the business of the executive branch. What’s Gov. Palin going to do if something happens to McCain? Pose for another round of Glamour Shots and ask for help finding the Ukraine on the map? My God, Obama has lived overseas and spent time from Asia to Africa in addition to the U.S. Has Sarah Palin ever been out of the country before? (the ski trip to Whistler doesn’t count)

The selection of Gov. Palin, however much of a cute V.P.I.L.F. she may me, proves the Republicans remain curiously obsessed with Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, and somehow think putting a female western governor on the ticket with McCain will entice Hillary supporters without anyone noticing the litany of concerns about her hysterically far-right positions, which include all the sexy G.O.P. fundamentals from the Bush years you’d think they’d be screaming to get away from by now, like an eagerness to drill in ANWR, the aforementioned gun nut concern, pro-life positions, clear-conscience ability to allow hunting of polar bears and Alaskan gray wolves from f—ing helicopters, etc. Plus, as I like to say, John McCain isn’t getting any younger.

Obama has proved he’s ready to lead and has made it a point to display his ability to listen and make good judgements, ergo working class Delaware Senator and foreign policy whiz Joe Biden as his running mate. Is Sarah Palin really ready to take over the helm of the United States during a time of war and economic fluctuation? Hillary Clinton would’ve been, but you know what, it’s not because she doesn’t have a Y chromosome. Doesn’t the Republican party brass know this?

Even a guy on Sean Hannity’s (!!) website wrote, “Scary Scenario: Like [William Henry] Harrison, McCain dies 30 days into office as the newly elected President. We then turn to a 44-year old mother of five and say, “We are at war in Iraq [and Afghanistan]. Iran threatens. Russia will test you. China will test you. North Korea will test you. The economy is in crisis. Use your degree in journalism and the two years you served as Governor of Alaska (which is akin to serving as the Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee ~ except that Memphis has a larger population) and lead us through the trials we now face. Despite the fact you have a son in Iraq and an infant to care for at home and the task before you may seem overwhelming, you cannot falter, you must not let emotion overcome you, you must guide and protect the citizens of this nation. How can conservatives criticize Obama for his lack of substance and yet applaud the Palin pick as brilliant?”

If you’re a G.O.P. bigwig who’s been a little on the fence about McCain, would you be writing a check in support of this ticket, especially after qualified guys like Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, or qualified women like Kay Bailey Hutchinson were passed over? All of whom could’ve brought much of the same crowd McCain and the G.O.P. are hoping to get with Palin, plus the Republicans would’ve passed the one most important test that’s required when selecting a running mate: someone who can effectively and competently step in as President in case something happens to the Chief Executive. How hard are valuable G.O.P. allies like Gov. Pawlenty or Mitt Romney going to work for McCain now that they’ve been vetted and led around for the last two months and passed over for someone who’s only been Governor since We Are Marshall and Apocalypto were in theaters?

Wikipedia lists a litany of concerns about Gov. Palin from well-known conservative columnists and opinion-makers. Granted, the voters McCain/Palin 2008 may be chasing at this point may not read these guys or know who they are, but faultlines are appearing in the G.O.P., and my guess is more Republicans will now cross the line to vote for Obama. Even the always annoying blowhard Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post, “The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama’s inexperience and readiness to lead. To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful ‘Is he ready to lead’ line of attack seems near suicidal.” in The National Review, David Frum writes “The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?” Even in Palin’s native Alaska, in the city where she opted to be inaugurated in over the capital Juneau, the local Fairbanks Daily News-Miner published a staff editorial saying Palin “is not ready for the top job.” My goodness, this is a sitcom scenario waiting to happen!

Two guys I know who are both political moderates were waiting to see who McCain picked for his running mate. Both are now happily voting for Obama, and one of them is angry and feels betrayed and what he sees as purely political machinations behind what was an important decision for McCain. As a Hillary supporter and then a McCain supporter, he feels his intelligence has been insulted. He thought he was backing the 2000 version of John McCain. But the real John McCain wants to be President too much, and will clearly say or do whatever he needs to in order to get there, with the help of a former Karl Rove lieutenant leading him by the nose.

If you remove McCain’s hyperbole over the last month and Obama’s oratory skills, these guys have nearly the same positions, but there’s one difference: I trust one’s judgement more, and it’s not the guy who’s a known hothead who married into Budweiser dinero after he dumped his first wife who waited six years for him to get out of the Hanoi Hilton in 1973. Hmm, no wonder the G.O.P. felt they had to get a “values” candidate.

McCain’s “tried and true” judgement? Either way it’s disturbing. If he picked Gov. Palin, what does that say for his judgement, unless he’s publicly shopping for wife number three. If the party chose Palin for McCain, what else are they going to put on McCain’s plate, or in his mouth? He’s already a long, sad way from the John McCain of 2000.

The Economist said it best this week. To paraphrase, “we want the old McCain back.”

I have a feeling Republicans are going to be waking up on November 5th stunned at the breadth of their loss.

Oh, and for a final insult, check out this obnoxious clip of Glenn Beck (!!) interviewing Gov. Palin a few weeks ago. Glenn Beck is one of two guys I would punch right in the nose with zero provocation if I ever saw him (yep, the other is Sean Hannity).

I didn’t say she wasn’t cute.

NOTE: This meeting has since been cancelled by the federal government at the behest of the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies, since they were concerned 10,000 people might show up and let them know they don’t want a toll road built through a state park with an intact watershed and a wild beach with the best surf break in Southern California at the end of it. Surprise surprise. A new meeting has been scheduled for September 22nd at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. We need you there! A new blog post will give details shortly, but please, just go to my Treehuggers International page at FM 94/9’s website for a forest of weblinks and more information than you’ll know what to do with. - Tommy

Right now we need as many people as possible to be present at the Bren Center at U. C. Irvine on Friday July 25, 2008 for the Commerce Department hearing on Trestles! If you care about Trestles beach and San Onofre State Park and want to see them preserved, we need you there, like at the successful turnout at the California Coastal Commission hearing in Del Mar on February 6th.

See my FM 94/9 Treehuggers International page for more, and clear your calendar for Friday, July 25th! We need your help to succeed and preserve Southern California’s natural heritage.

I’ve posted this clip before, but while you’re at it, click on the video below to see Clint Eastwood talking about why Trestles and San Onofre State Park need to be saved and preserved, just as they were when the park was set aside by then-Governor Reagan in 1971.

One of the funniest guys I’ve worked with in this business and one of the most unusual, lovable characters I’ve come across in my 20 years of doing radio, or anything else, died this week in Cincinnati from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. Mr. K was 48.

Mr. K’s real name was Ken Glidewell, but I know no one who ever called him by that name. It was always Mr. K. Even when he was being yelled at by a brand new Program Director only moments after we learned we were being fired only to be rehired by the new company owning our radio station, he was still referred to as Mr. K, or sometimes, in anger or exasperation, just “K.”

K was the first guy I came across in radio who worked from his “own set of notes,” as I like to say, having long thrown out the worrying-how-to-live-your-life-and-get-along-with-others rule book. Mr. K did his own thing, made no bones about it, and didn’t put much thought into what anyone else thought about it, but did so in such a good-natured, if curmudgeonly mischievous way. Likeable guy.

Mr. K immediately, if innocently, let you know what was on his mind in the most engaging manner, and whether he was dealing with a new boss or anyone else, he never changed his tune to suit the person in front of him. Man, did I admire that. K was real-deal on-air talent. I can’t imagine him having any other job, other than playing bass in his band.

I met and worked with a lot of great, wonderful people during my Ohio radio days, I learned a lot and had a lot of laughs, but Mr. K remains the one guy I would tell stories about for years afterward. I was just talking about him at FM 94/9 a few days ago. K taught me more about doing your own thing and doing the right thing, and he was such a funny goddamn guy in that matter-of-degrees-from-insanity, good-natured-degenerate way the most creative people in this business tend to be. Some folks call people like Mr. K a force of nature. Mr. K would’ve said that’s bullshit.

I first met Mr. K as a nervous, commercial rock radio rookie in 1992 when I started at the now-defunct 102.9 WAZU in Dayton, Ohio. The station was an active rock outlet, and a complete asylum of zanies. Mr. K was one-half of the morning show, and on the air and off the cuff Mr. K was absolutely, over the top hilarious, but also really fun to be around off the air. He always had lots of patience with me while I was still learning how to do radio for real.

Mr. K would make time to explain how things worked around the office and in the business in his own “look kid, here’s how it is” way, and he was the first to make me feel like part of the team. When WAZU was LMA’d by the now-former Great Trails Broadcasting in early 1993, Mr. K was the first guy to ask our new managers, who were all dressed in suits and weren’t even sure if they knew what to do with our rabble of an airstaff, if we were going to be subject to drug tests. You had to know him. Swear to God, he really was asking for the rest of us. You should’ve seen what I’d been doing the night before!

Later on that morning he led us down to this bar/diner around the corner from the station where we all used to hang out, and we breathed a laughter-filled, “we showed them” sigh of defiant relief. I remember spending several heavily inebriated nights (or days, perhaps) in the country bar underneath our rock station with Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson blasting over the bar’s sound system, watching a seemingly sober Mr. K subversively encourage everyone on the airstaff to take a turn riding the bar’s mechanical bull. He would work on the most reluctant person for HOURS, alternately explaining to them why and then yelling at them to do so over the music. It was hilarious. Seriously, who got me on a mechanical bull the one time in my life I was dumb enough to ride one? Mr. K. There was barely four pieces of straw on the metal floor in that place to break your fall, and believe me, it didn’t take long.

While at WEBN a few years later in the summer of 1997, some of the crosstalk breaks I had with Mr. K when he was getting off the air and I was getting on were positively surreal. I remember one of the last times I saw him he was haranguing WEBN’s Assistant Program Director over the phone P.A. from the studio in a mock Voice of God for scheduling too many Metallica songs during his airshift: “Rhino, how many f—ing times do I have to tell you? Stop scheduling Metallica songs! I hate f—ing Metallica! I’m not going to play them!” Later I recall K playing back a video of his band playing a nudist colony gig somewhere near his home in Hamilton, Ohio where such things are generally frowned upon. Mr. K, playing a nudist colony! In the buff, of course! You had to know him.

Ken, rest in peace pal. I’m so terribly sorry to get this news.

Thanks for the laughs and thanks for the guidance, but most of all, thanks for making me feel like part of the team. You will be greatly missed.

To read more about Mr. K on WEBN’s tribute page at their website, click HERE.

Americans with friends and family in the armed forces have given up a great deal over the years, particularly since the Iraq War began in 2003. Over 4,000 Americans have given up their lives, and many times more have returned home with shattered bodies and permanent, lasting mental scarring. And what has President Bush given up during these difficult times? Well, he’s given up golf.

That’s right, golf. Hey, the man already gave up drinking, right?

President Bush said in an interview with Yahoo and politico.com he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.” Really, Mr. President?

Ignoring the fact Bush actually used the word “solidarity” in regards to his relationship with G.I.s, but “the wrong signal?” Like cutting taxes twice while fighting two wars? That’s not sending a wrong signal?

Or ignoring hard intelligence and only cherry-picking what supported your case for an invasion of a sovereign state against the advice of legions of intelligence professionals saying Iraq had no weapons of destruction and the case for an invasion of Iraq was deeply flawed, Mr. President, sir, that didn’t send a wrong signal?

Deliberately feeding and leaking information to the media to be printed as fact in articles (Time magazine and the supposedly anti-Bush New York Times, in particular), only to quote those same articles and stories back as evidence? That sir, was not sending the wrong signal?

Or unleashing your hatchet men from the administration, your political party, and the media, to call and ridicule anyone voicing a word of protest against your administration’s designs as cowardly and traitorous? That sir, did not send the wrong signal?

Or declaring, sir, the war to be over in a made-for-TV event designed to enhance your 2004 re-election chances 18 months in advance, when each and every one of your generals and commanders on the ground felt and said otherwise, that sir, did not send the wrong signal?

Clearly your decision to quit playing golf lays bare the depth of your concern and sacrifice for those involved in carrying out your decisions, sir. Clearly, leaving your golf game on the links, sir, is your ultimate sacrifice.

For shame. I’m used to being fed and up and angry with what President Bush says, but I’m tired of being embarrassed for my country over what he says. I’m tired of Bush’s constant, airheaded belittlement of the men and women in the armed forces, whom he sends back into the Iraq meat grinder again and again and again, knowing full well these patriotic men and women will say “yes” every time they’re asked out of their sense of duty and honor. The pattern of abuse at work here akin to child abuse, and yet no one responds to the social services call.

This guy is down to a 20% approval rating, and yet he still babbles the most insane, inane, hurtful things to the press, revealing each time like another layer of an onion how utterly out of touch and isolated he is from what is going on. Czar Nicholas II had a better grasp of what was going on around him than this man. And he still has a job leading this nation, and will collect a full pension upon his retirement from office.

Giving up golf. Because it would send the wrong signal. Jesus Christ, I wish there was some way I could turn this around and make it funny or let everyone down with a joke. There isn’t. It just gets my blood up.

From: Hough, Tommy
Sent: Tue 4/29/2008 4:28 PM
To: (name deleted by poster)
Subject: Re: Al Sonja Schmidt

Hello Ms. ——–,

My name is Tommy Hough, I host an environmental affairs and natural science program at KBZT FM 94/9, a unique alternative rock station in San Diego, California.

I received a fax copy of The Inside Straight for today, April 29th, and aside from being slightly horrified and taken aback by the usual Shirley and Banister content presented for consideration, I did see one slug which may fit the bill for my environmental affairs and natural science program: the release of Deb and Seby’s Real Deal On Global Warming, and the availability of author Al Sonja Schmidt.

Just looking at the book’s cover art at the page for it on Amazon, there are so many deliberately obtuse, utter falsifications, it comes on like a circa 2002 political attack ad. In fact, there’s SO much divisive nonsense, just on the jacket (!) and in the fax your firm sent me promoting the book, you almost have to catalog all the willful inaccuracies like a listing of phone numbers in order to keep track of them.

Of course, that’s the idea, isn’t it? To overwhelm with falsifications and nonsense, hoping some will stick, all presented as a hip kids’ book…and who benefits? The “hip” childrens’ parents who want to perpetuate and even encourage a polluting lifestyle? Or the kids who have to live in and solve the problems of a world growing more toxic every day.

Does Shirley and Banister really hope Americans are so lazy and blinded by greed that pressing problems which affect everyone who breathes air and drinks water cannot at least be addressed, let alone solved? It’s such a shame such creative energy goes into something so selfish and so lacking moral leadership. That your firm seeks to promote this book says a great deal about Shirley and Banister’s values.

Of course “we are not all doomed,” as the book’s jacket suggests. Who says we are? What an awful straw man argument to bait a global-warming debunking book with, and targeted towards teens? Especially troubling. The invented, agenda-pursuing slang of “chill-ax” (don’t worry kids, there’s no climate change nautral or man-made), “green meanies” (concerned folks are mean), “eco-oopsies” (God must’ve made a mistake), “wacky global warming solutions” (Shirley and Banister’s client John McCain is certainly on the record believing and acting otherwise), and “man-made global warming…not” (despite new evidence to the contrary in this month’s edition of the science journal Geoscience, and again, contrary to the statements and action of Shirley and Banister client John McCain), are all a collective disgrace…and again, that’s just the outside jacket. I can only imagine the kind of rampant, willful misprepresentation found inside, and would be more than happy to have my suppositions proved wrong by questioning the author.

So while my program is the furthest thing from an obnoxious, cable TV-style shoutfest, I’d like to invite Al Sonja Schmidt onto my program, if for no other reason than to ask why, and to try and figure out what the motivation for such a book is. Perhaps there’s a connection to a polluting entity which wants to keep it’s tax breaks in place and an already declawed EPA off their back.

While I typically like to have my guests in the studio with me to record a program, and I’m happy to extened that courtesy to Al Sonja Schmidt, we also have ISDN capabilities at our radio station, and perhaps we could arrange an interview or discussion in this manner if Al Sonja Schmidt is not available in person in Southern California. I’ll certainly name the book in the course of a potential conversation or interview, if for no other reason than for others to see the book for what it strikes me as: a willful misrepresentation of a serious, growing concern facing the world which we all have to work together to iron out.

We may never be able to undo the damage done to the planet’s long-term health and ecosystems from 200 years’ worth of burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels and 200 years’ worth of man-made industrialized activity, but encouraging kids to disregard scientifically valid concerns even being recognized by many in the conservative communuity which Shirley and Banister seeks to represent or endorse, and presenting such willful misrepresentations in the form of a hip kids’ book, is a shameless, tragic new low in cynicism.

You or Al Sonja Schmidt may e-mail me back at this address. My office phone is (619) 718-7—. Please do not add this address to any e-mail lists; I already receive your faxes.

Best,

Tommy Hough

From: (name and e-mail address withheld by poster)
Sent: Tue 4/29/2008 4:54 PM
To: Hough, Tommy
Subject: RE: Al Sonja Schmidt

Mr. Hough,

I would be happy to remove you from our fax lists if you have no interest in receiving them.

Thanks,

——-

From: Hough, Tommy
Sent: Tue 4/29/2008 9:05 PM
To: (name withheld by poster)
Subject: RE: Al Sonja Schmidt

Hello Ms. ——-,

Thanks for getting back to me.

>> I would be happy to remove you from our fax
>> lists if you have no interest in receiving them.

I’m happy to receive the faxes. Please continue to send those as normal. You’re aware that’s not what I was writing about.

What I’m asking for is an opportunity to interview Al Sonja Schmidt about some of the concerns, theories, and general content in the kids’ book Deb and Seby’s Real Deal On Global Warming, which your firm apparently is arranging public relations for. Is that not what was advertised in The Inside Straight fax transmission today?

With one of the teaser lines in today’s fax reading, “False information has led to useless spending and legislation in an effort to change our lifestyle,” I would love to know how Al Sonja Schmidt’s lifestyle has been aversely affected by any kind of greater “eco-sensibility.” If the author has made a career out of debunking Rachel Carson, certainly as a member of the media I should be allowed to ask why, and frankly, anyone who proposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a children’s book ought to explain themselves and their position on my program.

For what it’s worth, there’s no shelf life on the interview opportunity, and once aired my program is also available on the FM 94/9 website for anyone to stream. You may assure Al Sonja Schmidt, if this is a real person, all professional courtesies will of course be extended.

Again, nice of you to reply.

Best,

Tommy Hough

Interesting news story here. A piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune gives details on a top Army Corps of Engineers official who says proponents of the Foothills-South 241 toll road mischaracterized and even made “inaccurate statements” which “misrepresent” the Army Corps of Engineers’ own research regarding the validity of the proposed toll road and plan for reducing traffic congestion, going so far as to refer to the Corps’ neutral conclusions as “unanimous recommendations,” all detailed in a letter from the Corps to the Secretary of Commerce and NOAA. Ouch. Read the entire Union-Tribune piece HERE.

Meanwhile, Lt. Governor and State Lands Commission member John Garamendi, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata, Senate Resources Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg and Senator Christine Kehoe recently called on Washington D.C. to recognize California’s right to protect it’s own coastline, saying in a letter to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez the federal government must let stand the California Coastal Commission’s rejection of the proposed toll road through the San Mateo Creek backcountry of San Onofre State Beach. Lt. Governor John Garamendi says, “After careful deliberation and an open and transparent public review process, the Coastal Commission did precisely the job it was established to do: fully and properly carry out the intent of both the California Coastal Act and the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act.”

I found a link from when I was on KING-5 News in October 2006 when the Tower Records store in Seattle was closing. KING-5 was covering the story and happened to chance upon yours truly on my way out of Tower after picking up some CDs for my birthday. I can’t find an embed code for the video, so you’ll have to click HERE to see it. From the webpage go to the section labeled “Video” and click where it says “Amy Finley reports.” KING-5 tends to keep the bar raised pretty high for Seattle TV news, and the market remains heads and tails above most local TV news markets. The delightful Mimi Jung anchors.

It’s easy to dismiss Charlton Heston as the rifle-waving, right-wing lunatic he became in his later years, just as it’s easy to dismiss Heston’s acting as mere scene-chewing and posing, although in his prime, and certainly afterwards, no one filled up space on a screen the way Heston’s oversized personality and characters could. Whether he was playing Moses or winning an Academy Award riding a chariot and challenging Roman tyranny in Ben-Hur, or mowing down mutants with a grease gun while wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses, colorful necktie, and lanky grin in Omega Man, Heston had a knack for knowing exactly how to position himself on camera, grit his teeth, and use his voice to lend overblown greatness to even the most ludicrous dialogue. Even the off-hand remarks Heston’s characters made always sounded mannered and worked over, but shucks, that’s part of the fun of being a Charlton Heston fan.

Similarly, just as his films ran the gamut from epic myth-making to cheap check-cashing in the declining years of his career, Charlton Heston managed to stand for many things and pursue many causes in his 83 years. Heston mustered a wellspring of courage and made his name as a Hollywood maverick boldly marching with Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights-era high water mark of the March on Washington in 1963, at a time when few in Hollywood or even American life in general dared “rock the boat” in support of civil rights. A few years later Heston spoke out against the Vietnam War, spoke in favor of gun control after Robert Kennedy’s murder in 1968, and as President of the Screen Actors Guild in 1980 marched in support of his fellow actors during a lengthy work stoppage.

Heston even parodied himself by reading a 10-year old letter he’d written to NBC regarding the content of Saturday Night Live as a guest on the show in 1989, and in a series of brilliant Bud Light radio ads in the mid-1990s Heston utilized his overblown style to brilliant, hilarious effect (to this day I’ve never heard radio ads so funny or clever), but the man’s progressive activism came to a sudden, sea-change end with the onset of the Reagan era, first glimpsed when he emerged as the spokesman for the Reed Irvine-financed Accuracy In Media “watchdog’ group, which was the first major shot across the bow by a defined conservative organization calling news they didn’t like (and wished wasn’t being reported) as nebulous “liberal bias,” thereby setting the stage for the increased irrationality of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and outright fiction of Fox News in the mid-1990s.

The same can be said for Heston’s activism and eventual leadership of the NRA. Sadly, most people under 35 will only ever remember Charlton Heston actively engaging NRA members and holding a handmade rifle over his head at the NRA convention in Denver in April 1999, mere weeks after the mass killings at nearby Columbine High School, reprising the old NRA mantra by declaring no one will take his firearm away except “out of my cold dead hands.” Heston’s trailblazing embrace of the NRA in the face of the Columbine holocaust speaks volumes of his maverick style, but remains a chilling, tragic contrast to his televised appeal for calm in support of President Johnson’s 1968 Gun Control Act along with actors Jimmy Stewart, Kirk Douglas, and Gregory Peck 30 years before. How the man went from one extreme to another is a mystery except to his family and those closest to him.

Still, despite his appalling choice of company and positions during the 1980’s and beyond, one must credit Heston for his compassionate, wise choices of activism earlier in his life and career, when I can only assume he was entirely free of the sad bout of Alzheimer’s which eventually ended the man’s life this weekend. I’m a fan of his movies too, from his turn in what could have been the calamitous role of a Mexican cop in Orson Welles’ A Touch of Evil (1958), to the chariot-riding hero of Ben-Hur (1959), to the Captain Ahab turned Civil War renegade officer in Sam Peckinpah’s Major Dundee (1965), to even his later years as a scenery-chewing captive astronaut in Planet of the Apes (1968), a machine gun-toting plague survivor who enjoys one of Hollywood’s first interracial sexual encounters in Omega Man (1971), and a futuristic New York City cop vaguely aware of the joy of trees and flowers and clean air and food (the environment was another one of Heston’s passions before his curious circa 1982 political sea change) in Soylent Green (1973).

While I like to remember Charlton Heston as the brave, 38-year old champion of Civil Rights, risking his box office appeal and career by appearing with Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and Marlon Brando at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. in August of 1963, I also like to remember him as the guy who saved Sam Peckinpah’s career before threatening to kill him while on location for Major Dundee in Durango, Mexico in 1964. The cinematically brilliant Peckinpah was already at a point in his life where his demons, paranoia, and abundant drinking on and off the set was rampant, and stories are legendary about Peckinpah’s inebriated abuse of Major Dundee’s cast and crew in between takes. As work fell behind schedule, Hollywood sent executives to Durango to get the unstable Peckinpah back on track. When Peckinpah again fell behind schedule, deviated from the script to create his own scenes, and ran maniacally overbudget, the Hollywood suits threatened to fire him, no matter how loyally the cast and crew stood by their troubled leader.

When Heston heard about Peckinpah’s possible removal, he brought his star power to bear and stepped in. Charlton Heston had been one of Sam Peckinpah’s most vocal supporters in the pre-production for Major Dundee, and after seeing Peckinpah’s outstanding 1962 western Ride the High Country insisted on the producers hiring Peckinpah for the job of directing Major Dundee. So when Heston learned Peckinpah was going to be fired, ostensibly for going over budget, Charlton Heston declared he’d quit if Peckinpah were fired, and offered his salary to cover cost overruns provided the production of Major Dundee continue with Peckinpah at the helm. According to actor L.Q. Jones, to Heston’s surprise, the studio bosses accepted, calling his bluff. A man to the end, Heston stayed true to his pledge and forfeited a significant portion of his salary to keep Peckinpah on board, and when Sam was too loaded or stoned to work, Heston stepped in and apparently directed a number of key scenes in Major Dundee himself. Also, during one particularly ugly moment when Peckinpah was uncontrollably berating members of the cast and crew in between takes, a fed-up Heston literally rode up to Peckinpah while mounted on his horse, drew his cavalry sword and threatened to kill Peckinpah if he didn’t start treating the cast and crew more humanely.

Now let me tell you, they don’t make movies, movie stars, or movie directors like that anymore. You don’t have the lead actor being the responsible one, going so far as to threaten to kill the director if he didn’t quit behaving like a maniac. And can you imagine any actor or actress today, anyone, actually putting their financial worth and reputation so far on the line as to offer to forfeit their salary to keep a director on board? That’s passion for filmmaking, and Heston understood, as many film scholars and fans do today, there is artistry behind the mania of creativity. While I’m sure everyone would’ve preferred a less dramatic shoot for Major Dundee, Peckinpah’s stable of actors and crew came back to work with him on project after project, and even though Heston never worked with Sam Peckinpah again, I give him a great deal of credit for seeing past Peckinpah’s outbursts and insanity, and recognizing early on the kind of cinema Peckinpah was eventually capable of.

Charlton Heston gave people plenty of reason to question his judgement later in life, and he eventually made some terrible moral decisions. While I continue to applaud Heston’s rejection of Senator McCarthy’s communist witch-hunts in the 1950s and his Civil Rights support in the 1960s, his appearing with hyper-racist White Citizens Council founder Gordon Lee Baum at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 1986 remains an ugly sticking point, but Heston was always a maverick, always did what he felt was right, and was never afraid to get in the mix and get his hands dirty. I wish he hadn’t gone so far off the NRA deep end to have actually declared in 2000 Al Gore was going to take everyone’s guns away and repeal the 2nd Amendment if he became President, but that’s part of the weird duality of Charlton Heston.

So nevertheless, I still love his films, and with Charlton Heston’s death I like to think of him as that brave Hollywood icon at the March on Washington in 1963, and talking down Sam Peckinpah while holding a cavalry saber to his belly in Mexico in 1964. Movies and movie stars don’t quite come packaged the way they used to.