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Written by: Lorna Sue Sides

Published: 18 September 2007

Created: 18 September 2007

Last Updated: 18 September 2007

This weekend I drove to Point Arena to listen to Thomas Linzey speak. Linzey is a co-founder of Community Environment Legal Defense Fund (CELDF.org). WOW, what an eye opener.

Linzey spoke about the community of Barnstead, New Hampshire. A corporation had plans to pull 300,000 gallons of water a day from their local water resources. Barnstead fought back by drafting and ratifying the Barnstead Self-Governance Ordinance prohibiting the corporation from taking any water from their county.

This was just one of Linzey's examples of a community protecting itself from damage by corporations.

Humboldt County has passed an ordinance forbidding all non-local corporations (read "logging concerns") from contributing money to local elections. Mendocino County has passed a moratorium on GMO farming. All of these ordinances have been passed on a local level to protect the local people and the local environment.

This is, of course, very revolutionary since these ordinances challenge the rights given to corporations under the 14th amendment of the US Constitution. Linzey explained how and why the 14th amendment needs to be challenged.

Remember the long and difficult battles in this country to allow African Americans to have equal protection under the law and to allow women the right to vote? Now we find ourselves living in a country where corporations trump local government control. I am ready to participate in the process of reclaiming the rights of self-government.

For more understanding of how corporations have become so powerful in our country and in the world, try googling "Corporate Personages" or "Corporate Constitutional Rights."

If you feel that a river has a right to flow, people have a right to control what happens in their own towns and counties, and wildlife should have protection under the law, I encourage you to check the CELDF.org Web site for information on this movement.

Lorna Sue Sides lives in Nice.

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Written by: Lake County News Reports

Published: 17 September 2007

Created: 17 September 2007

Last Updated: 17 September 2007

Once again we as a people have been insulted by the media. It isn’t the first time this has happened, and certainly won’t be the last.

Here’s what I mean: Do you really think in any way that what happens to Britney’s career will effect your life? Do you imagine in your wildest dreams that Angelina and Brad adopting another disadvantaged child will cause you to lose your job, or raise your taxes? Do you care whether Sally Field used an expletive to condemn war in accepting her Emmy? If you do, I suggest you need to get out more often.

But here’s the real kicker: Does O.J. Simpson’s life alter yours in any way? I suspect the answer to all these questions is “no.”

So why must each of the news channels, particularly the so-called 24-hour “news” outlets give us O.J. ad nauseum again? I personally don’t care whether he commits a crime, unless of course it was against me or my family. In his most recent escape, it was against neither, and possibly was not a crime at all. I don’t know, because I wasn’t there, don’t have the facts, haven’t seen the evidence, and neither have you. But now we seemed doomed to relieve the 1994 murder trial, his road rage incident in Florida and every other moment of inappropriate behavior he has ever demonstrated.

Please tell me that there is a reason why hours are spent on this on national television, particularly while we have a war raging a half-world away. Aren’t there any priorities anymore? O.J.’s story deserved five minutes. He was under investigation, he was arrested, here’s the charges. More information when there is truly information, not just when we find another raw bone to gnaw on.

Do we not have an attention span greater than that of a gnat? Apparently not, or we wouldn’t give a hoot about Paris or Nicole or Britney or Lindsay and certainly not about O.J. The world will little note nor long remember any of them (sorry, Abe) but will recall our national achievements and blunders, and what we as a people have done to help, or hurt humanity.

There is nothing with even the least amount of civility about exploiting our voyeurism toward celebrities. Interesting for their given five minutes, but let’s move on. They don’t raise our taxes, put our nation in debt, or put our children at risk of death on foreign soil. We have other things to discuss that should be the focus of media reporting. Things that can and do each of those things. That’s where our focus should be.

Are we that easily distracted from things that really matter? What? O.J. called Britney to ask her out before the hotel robbery incident?

Ooohh, tell me more.

Doug Rhoades lives in Kelseyville.

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Written by: Donna Christopher

Published: 15 September 2007

Created: 15 September 2007

Last Updated: 15 September 2007

Follow the money: That is the sage advice a dear friend I greatly admired told me about a week ago. It will show you why the surge, and the War in Iraq, will fail. It has to and has been set up to.
 
With one kid active duty and one in reserves, who would want to believe that let alone hear it? That can't be right, President Bush would not sell out our county. Sorry but if you sell out our young men and women in the service you are selling out the country. He's the president for crying out loud, not a traitor.
 
You'd think that. You'd be wrong. Listening to CSPAN on Monday and Tuesday was fascinating in the same way as watching a train wreck. There were some very good, pointed questions posed by people that look like they belong in DC. There were some questions posed to look like questions that merely turned into affirmations that this group of folks should just leave DC and go to work for their respective political parties, public relations/obfuscation bureau. Gen. Petraeus' answer to Sen. Warner's (R-VA) if we were safer question was the last straw. We're not. So why aren't we? Oh yeah, follow the money.
 
No, don't follow the $9 billion in shrink wrapped plastic on a pallet. Follow the oil money. Get acquainted with Mr. Ray L. Hunt, president of Hunt Oil Company of Dallas Texas. His resume lists many things besides being a very large contributor to George W. Bush, supporting him in all the election endeavors. He is also on the Board of Directors of Halliburton. You know Halliburton, that was the company that Vice President Dick Cheney operated while they did massive amounts of work for Iran, one of the countries that is part of the Axis of Evil. Even when it was illegal to do business with them, Halliburton did; even after Iran was declared Axis of Evil material they continued to sign contracts. Just like the ones Cheney signed with embargoed Iraq after the "first Gulf War.” Smells like treason to me, Mr. Vice President.
 
But back to Mr. Hunt's resume – he is also trustee on the board of the Southern Methodist University and he graciously donated $35 million to the future George W. Bush Presidential Library located at Southern Methodist University. Now that kind of loyalty cannot go unrewarded but a Medal of Freedom wasn't what Mr. Hunt wanted. He wanted a seat on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a very important oversight body that has access to much classified information.
 
This made Mr. Hunt an insider so he decided to do a little insider trading. Not on the New York Stock Exchange, but with the government of the Kurdish Province. Having inside info Mr. Hunt knew the oil profit dispersal agreement betweens Kurds, Sunni and Shi'a factions was tenuous at best, so he decided to cut a deal with the Kurds. The Kurds, with deal in hand, no longer had a reason to sit at the table to negotiate. Mr. Hunt put his money on the premise that all these 'hanging by a thread” agreements would fall apart and he took the incentive to make sure the Iraqi Alliances fractured and failed. They did.

If this isn't giving aid and comfort to the enemy – treason – I don't know what is. It is hard to argue with Al Qaeda, Sunni or Shi'a extremists and average Iraqi citizens when they say this war was to steal Iraq's oil when that turns out to be the end product.
 
President George W. Bush has facilitated this betrayal of our troops (aiding and comforting the enemy) by his appointment of Mr. Hunt to a board (which has access to highly sensitive information) to which he was not qualified to be a member. This is merely a repetition of the status quo of this presidency, toadies need only apply – qualified applicants need not bother. True patriots need not apply. If you didn't pay, you don't get to play.

That's right folks, play. They play with our children's lives. They play with the Constitution. The Geneva Convention made a great soccer ball. Hey, let's blow up the Middle East, that should be great fun.
 
To hell with impeachment. Bush, Cheney and Hunt should be tried for treason.

Donna Christopher lives in Lucerne.

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