Sara, read your open letter on CALITICS website, and I’d like to share a few thoughts.
Aren’t you being a bit over dramatic, crying wolf, telling everyone that the coast is under attack? Unless of course, you’re saying The Crab Monsters are at it again… and that’s some serious Mojo.
On the contrary, Ms. Wan, coastal people say thatyou, the California Coastal Commission, are the attackers.
People living along the coast of Californiawelcome this new legislation, and consider it is very good news for ALL the people of California – especially if pending legislation in the Public Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) requires the Coastal Commission to pay for all legal services previously supplied by the Attorney General (and swept under the rug - so to speak). The People of California need to know how much your commission really spends..
This is something that should have been done long ago - but now is a good time to start.
The California families you sue, that defend themselves in court against the California Coastal Commission, pay their own legal bills.
Maybe now is a good time for the CCC to return to doing what you were supposed to do when the voters passed proposition 20, e.g., protect the coast, that area from the mean high tide land to 1,000 yards in land. By the way you do such good work on the Navy Sonar marine mammal issues and overwhelming plastic debris…why not just stick the coast of California, as it was defined before you and the California Coastal Commission skewered the definition of “coast” to allow you to blitz-krieg inland?
This new budget proposal would force you to stay away from people’s homes, and private property…and stay the heck out of their lives.
This would also mean the California Coastal Commission would be have to think real hard before it capriciously attacked picnic tables, rogue rose bushes, eucalyptus trees, horses, sheep, goats, showers, house colors, trespass on private property, spy on folks, extort people’s land out from under them in exchange for a building permit or any other stuff like that.
This may be also a good time to send Mr. Cease-and-Desist Douglas packing especially since he’s so darn sue-happy. You commissars have done enough to wreck life, liberty and the California economy. Maybe this may be why so many Californians are angry.
You also say that, ” the commission may be unable to initiate lawsuits to protect public access or other coastal resources.” This is a load of rubbish. I’m sure you will still have an appropriate budget to be spent wisely… like on the beach -however this also means you have to close your department of silly lawsuits. In case you elitist imperialists haven’t noticed… times are tough for We the people.
You say, “Jerry Brown’s (the Attorney General) budget people support this bad idea.” Could that mean Jerry B does too? And perhaps whatyou’re calling a bad idea is actually a real good idea…and an idea that is way overdue.
You say, “this also effectively means that the Commission would be unable to deny any applicant or to impose any conditions on any proposal that the applicant opposes, based on whether the Commission could afford the cost of litigation.” Yes, that is what it effectively means.
What this proposal also suggests is that your bad-ass commission needs to stop the 30 year wave of terror. Quit lying and trying to steal folk’s land, then hiding underneath the judge’s robes. And most important of all - quit storm-trooping around people’s private property.
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Many good citizens up and down the coast of California would agree, these are treacherous times on the California Coast. While the California Coastal Commission’s shills gloat that “justice” has been done in Corona del Mar… has it? And if so, exactly what justice was it…and what is the cost to all the citizen of California? I would be amused my fair state spent decades and countless thousands of dollars and man-hours against a picnic table if it wasn’t so pathetic. Why doesn’t the governor or legislature have the balls to stand up to the California Coastal Commission?
The answer is, for the past 30 years, a revolution has been underway on the California coast orchestrated by a petty tyrant named Peter Douglas. This revolution as been largely unnoticed except for the poor unfortunates who have come up against this putsch in land use management. If the commission succeeds at what they do, then their actions become a template for other quasi judicial organizations like them in other states.
This revolution can be identified by thesophisticated land acquisition techniquesthatstir conflict between property rights and environmental resources - like improperly designating land ESHA when it isn’t. Placing an endangered species on an unsuspecting party’s land, and then “finding it” later. Declaring puddles, ruts and pot holes to be wetlands. Nasty stuff like that. Other techniques include trespassing, spying, bleeding families of all of their fiscal resources, tying them up in endless, costly litigation, and depriving them of full use of their land, like George and Sharlee McNamee, or in some cases driving them off their land altogether. Yeah, California Coastal Commission supporters, really something to be proud of.
The California Coastal Commission, state land trusts, in concert with the National Park Service, and their proponents break constitutional law, use fake science, skew data... and it’s all accepted by the California judiciary - because regulatory law presumes the commission is correct..
To implement resource protection plans, existing governmental agencies and nonprofit land trusts have experimented with emerging and often controversial nonregulatory approaches to land use problems. In California, this experimentation was accompanied by the creation of new governmental agencies, set up specifically for these purposes.
Joseph E. Petrillo, author “ Coastal Management” Volume 16, Issue 1 1988
Our government’s been bought out from under us.
Another issue that is integral to understanding the extraordinarily high win rate of the California Coastal Commission in courts is the issue of a fair, incorruptible judiciary. Our government is not broken; it’s been bought out from under us. No wonder people have lost faith.
In the movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” idealistic freshman US Sen. Jeff Smith (Jimmy Stewart) reminds us that it is the struggle that counts. “Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for,” he says. Just before collapsing on the Senate Floor, he croaks, “you fight for the lost causes even harder than the others“
George and Sharlee McNamee have a beautiful home and a bounty of children and grandchildren who visit them in their Corona Del Mar, California.
Life should be good. It’s not. The reason: For the last decade, the McNamees’ backyard has been a battlefield. The retired couple has spent $250,000 in legal fees fighting for the freedom to use a picnic table, a built-in barbecue pit and other amenities in their own backyard.
The Coastal Commission issued a cease-and-desist order against the McNamees in May, 2004
“We fight for two reasons, property rights and freedom,” says George McNamee, a silver-haired former insurance salesman. “My wife and I decided a long time ago, those two things matter. Without that, there isn’t much left.”
The commission wants the McNamees to convert their private backyard into a public nature reserve for the pleasure of the viewing public,” said the couple’s attorney, Paul Beard, of the Pacific Legal Foundation. “It is important we are able to restrain these kind of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in order to set an example to other agencies around the country that people have property rights that need to be respected.”
(FoxNews.com)
Although it is not, strictly speaking an eminent domain case, the case raises fundamental issues of property rights: Although the Coastal Commission hasn’t formally confiscated the McNamees’ beach property, the Commission is trying, effectively, to take control of their land. (PLF)
The case also illustrates the arrogance of the California Coastal Commission, a un-elected rogue agency long notorious for abusing property rights and property owners.(PLF)
The McNamees offered a compromise — they would get rid of the flower garden, palapa and shed if they were allowed to keep the picnic table, shower and barbecue.
The commission said no.
(FoxNews.com)
Is frivolous, capricious, and costly litigation over beach furniture the best use of the State of California’s scant fiscal resources, the office of the state Attorney General, The California Coastal Commission and the judiciary?
Join SINS OF COMMISSION filmmaker Richard Oshen on Radio Liberty February 5th at 8PM PST as he takes listeners on an incredible journey into the shadow world of the California Coastal Commission - a nether world of twisted schemes and broken dreams -where ’dedication of property’ is the buzz-word for extortion, and driving people off their land a secret agenda of state.
Find out what happened to the family farm, private property and how the commission continues to destroy lives along the coast. Discover why ordinary people can’t win against the California Coastal Commission, the politics of fire, the infulence of Paganists, social-engineering, the emergence of the eco-industrial complex, and why California Coastal Commission rulings could potentially destroy you - no matter where you live.
Radio Liberty is hosted by Dr. Stan Monteith, outspoken radio personality, author of “AIDS: The Unnecessary Epidemic”, and “A Nation Deceived and Betrayed“, February 5, 2010,8 PM - 89.9 FMSanta Cruz. The program also streams live on the web at Radio Liberty Online and is carried over the ACN Network, and CRB Network.
SINS OF COMMISSION Filmmaker Richard Oshen talks with Dr. Stan Monteith, outspoken Radio Liberty talk show host, author of “AIDS: The Unnecessary Epidemic”, and “A Nation Deceived and Betrayed“, February 5, 2010,8 PM - 89.9 FMSanta Cruz.
The program streams live on the web at Radio Liberty Online and is carried over the ACN Network, and CRB Network.
The filmmaker said he identifies with the program’s mission to bring listeners the story behind the story and the news behind the News.
Oshen went on to say, “It is up to small independently owned, grassroots radio stations to carry the message of truth - a message that is being systematically destroyed by big multinational corporations who chose our news for us. Broadcast news, as we once knew it is gone with few rare exceptions.”
[Last] week’s Supreme Court ruling that corporations are protected by “free speech” rights and can contribute enormous sums of money to influence elections is a de jure endorsement of the de facto dominance of corporations over our lives.
Truthout
Homer Simpson discovers corporations have more rights than he does.
To say money has always influenced politics along the California coast would be an understatement. Just a glance at the way the legislature turns a blind-eye to coastal commission shenanigans or how the judiciary rubber stamps rulings consistently in favor of the CCC and the story can be told.
When one ponders the implications of corporate citizenship, take into consideration the plethora of PAC’s and non-profit corporations that wield a mighty big influence on coastal politics.
Well-known orgs like the venerable Sierra Club have also helped the California Coastal Commission eviscerate people’s rights along the coast of California. The CCC is the de facto enforcer… the legal muscle for the corporate thugs. We are just now beginning to discover the pathological relationship that existed between some environment groups like EDC who will sell-out the environmental for cheap.
Last year, SINS OF COMMISSION requested an accounting by the state of California to see which non-profits gave money to infulence the California Coastal Commission at a time way before the US Supreme Court blessed corporate citizenship last week. So far those documents have not been forthcoming.
The danger of foreign loot loading into U.S. campaigns, not much noted in the media chat about the Citizens case, was the first concern raised by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who asked about opening the door to “mega-corporations” …
Truthout
Corporations will now have more rights than people.
Tara Malloy, attorney with the Campaign Legal Center of Washington D.C.
Under current laws, human-people, as opposed to corporate-people, may only give $2,300 to a presidential campaign. But hedge fund billionaires, for example, who typically operate through dozens of corporate vessels, may now give unlimited sums through each of these “unnatural” creatures.
Truthout
And there you have it.
If corporations are the new citizens… what happens to us people?
In the meantime, think about supporting SINS OF COMMISSION a flim about, by, and for the people. Help to finish the film and get it out. ALL donations are tax deductible and confidential when made through the film’s fiscal sponsor The INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION, a 501 c3 non profit foundation - a very worthy non-profit foundation concerned about preserving people’s rights to Freedom of Speech through documentary films.
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By an 8-to-3 vote, the California Coastal Commission denied a request by a Santa Cruz Countycouple to install a wind turbine.
Commissioners said the windmill’s blades might hurt birds and the structure could visually mar the area. [The Santa Cruz Sentinel].
Visually maring the area? Gimme a break!
The commission is tossing any flimsy excuse they can into the wind. Wild lions might be attracted. Swarms of locusts could descend upon us…get the picture? It’s also possible it might improve things. Truth is - they don’t know.
Wind turbines, also known as wind mills, have been part of the American landscape for hundreds of years. They’re part of our heritage. They worked then…and will work now.
Aren’t we as a nation being encouraged to seek alternative energy sources? Wind power is such a source. What is going on with the California Coastal Commission?
Wind turbines along the coast makse sense. Harness the offshore and onshore breezes? Sounds like a real good natural solution and win-win for the people of California - which is why it rattles the CCC’s cage.
The notion of American self-sufficiency is a huge part of our heritage. It is etched in our DNA…and it’s part of who we are. To be self-sufficient from big oil - the same big oil that paid off, er, I mean, contribuited to environental group EDC last week is in everyone’s interest. Do you think this why many Californians still feel things are going to hell in a handbasket?
Unnecessarily hurting wild birds or any wild animals is truly a sad state of affairs - but what about hurting people? From the California Coastal Commission’s perspective, based on 30+ year’s of Civil Rights Abuse, hurting Californians isn’t a problem - and that is an even sadder state of affairs.
The California Coastal Commission lost its gripon reality a long time ago and needs some mighty serious reform - term limits immediately comes to mind - but that reform is absolutely 100% guaranteed not going to come from within a broken system.
Until the day things change, nothing will change on the California Coast. Californians will continue to leave the state in droves while the infrastructure continues to crash - which I believe is the ultimate goal of the CCC.
Coastal Turkeys - the real problem with California.
The fate of public lands cannot be decided in contracts negotiated behind closed doors.
Controller John Chiang, Lands Commission member
I’ve been looking for a way to demonstrate what I call the new eco-industrial complex while raising awareness about whole-scale corruption in the “name of the environment” then I read this little Dusey about a secret agreement between an oil company and a California environmental group, thank-you Calbuzz, and the pieces fit neatly into place.
It seems there is some kind of a secret pact between Huston based oil company PXP and Environmental Defense Center (EDC).
EDChas been prominent in the decades-long fight against offshore drilling in California according to Calbuzz.
Wait a second.
EDC, a prominent environmental group, has been publicly eschewing off-shore drilling but privately endorsing PXP’s application for lease to slant drill into state waters, from an existing platform under federal jurisdiction, more than three miles offshore.
It is shameful that an oil company got an environmental group - in this case Environmental Defense Center to do its bidding for YEARS for a piddly 100k… peanuts compared to the billions PXP is going to make.
PXP and EDC said they recently incorporated amendments to the agreement to address criticisms raised at the initial State Lands Commission hearing by strengthening written assurances that the promised benefits of the agreement will materialize.
Calbuzz
In one fell swoop EDC has not only tarnished environmental groups and raises the pay-for-play question, but has trashed the street cred of the State Lands Commission, and all the other agencies under them. This revelation raises some very uncomfortable questions - similar to the ones I raise in SINS OF COMMISSION that demand rigorous investigation and appropriate action.
SINS OF COMMISSION reveals that for decades the California Coastal Commission, an agency of state, engages in environmental degradation in exchange for a dedication of land or an easement of property.
Now it seems this deal-making behind closed doors is “business as usual.” - despite claims of transparency. If recent scandal-ridden history has taught us anything…this is just the tip of theiceberg.
…it is not unusual for environmental groups to keep private the legal agreements or settlements it makes with corporations applying for permits or leases before public agencies.
Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center
If it is a private deal that is one thing… but oil leases are not generally considered private….oil leases are a public resource.
If permission is given, this would be the first lease granted by the state since Union Oil’s disastrous 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill - an oil spill that lead to vociferous public outrage- an outrage that needs voice now right here in California.
Time to fight a fire is before the fire is raging out of control
Fires in Los Angeles have grown to the size of Washington, D.C
“We are very fortunate that we have the best and the most aggressive, best trained, most courageous firefighters in the world and that’s why we are able to push back very heavily.”
- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
We are all proud of our firefighters. These men are all heroes. But why put them in harms way if we don’t have to? And we don’t- yet we do…why?
It’s a Turf War.
We are fighting more massive fires that ever because of a meltdown of responsibility between the State Fire Marshall, the only one responsible to protect human lives and property under the California Constitution, and resource agencies like the California Coastal Commission, the focus of SINS OF COMMISSION.
By failing to permit the clearance of ESHA in large unbroken swaths, the California Coastal Commission, and other agencies have jeopardized the very resources they are supposed to protect.
People, wildlife, the environment of California - and the world are all victims of California political in-fighting. No one…certainly not the environment… and definitely not the people benefits.
The other point that invites contemplation is, Fire fighting is big business - probably one of our state’s biggest industries - and perhaps the biggest non tax and fine business in the Golden State.
Fire fighting makes great photo ops, is big news, and gets lots of federal emergency money.
Trimming a bunch of ESHA does none of that .
Fire: Does ends justifies means?
Fire, is also a deadly political weapon. People don’t always get to rebuild their homes, and if a particular agency or commission desires to reduce population density….it can now use its permitting process to do so and deny people the right to rebuild… Santa Cruz, for instance.
It is high time the Secretary of the Interior steps to clean California’s house - since its obvious California can’t or won’t because of self-interest and completion for funds between agencies.
The state has spent $106.5 million of its $182 million emergency firefighting fund — just two months into the fiscal year
LOS ANGELES (Aug. 29) — A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles nearly tripled in size Saturday, injuring three residents, burning a small number of homes, knocking out power to many more and prompting evacuations in a number of mountain
Mandatory evacuations were extended Saturday into neighborhoods in the canyons on the northwestern edge of Altadena, Glendale, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon, Forest Service spokesman Bruce Quintelier said. It was unclear how many residents were ordered to leave.
California is heading into the most destructive part of its fire season, when winds can whip flames into 90 mile per hour storms of fire - it’s clear that a promise was not kept.
Anyone who suggests fire protection can be as good this fall as in recent years most likely will turn out to be living a fantasy. That, of course, would include Schwarzenegger, for whom everything almost always is “fantastic” in more ways than one.
The new state budget cuts $27 million from Cal Fire, the state agency that sends people and equipment wherever they’re needed most. The reduction includes more than $10 million earmarked for new fire engines, hoses, pumps and other equipment.
There’s also the matter of the DC-10 airborne tanker, another so-called budget cut likely to cost more than it saves.
For years, California has contracted for a standby DC-10 that can dump up to 12,000 gallons of water or fire retardant each time valves open beneath its huge tank.
But a stroke of Schwarzenegger’s pen cancelled the $7 million contract that kept that jumbo jet plane on standby for California.
Now, the state will pay more than $66,000 every day it uses the plane, with a five-day minimum. Anything beyond 21 deployments would end up costing more than the budget cut - and if this year turns out like the last few, that’s how it will be….assuming the DC-10 is available.
But these reductions in state firefighting ability may pale beside what local fire departments will suffer because of the new budget’s raids on local funds.
In Los Angeles, for one, firefighting officials must cover a $39 million shortfall caused in large part by the state raid. So there will be “brownouts” at many city fire stations, with a total of 87 fewer firefighters on duty each day, almost one-tenth of the usual work force. One battalion command team, 15 fire companies and nine ambulances will be out of service each day, but no city fire stations will actually close.
In other areas, including parts of San Diego County ravaged by several large fires over the last five years, fire prevention efforts are being cut. High-risk Fallbrook is one such place, while several other local districts are ironically casting about for money to pay their contracts for standby assistance from Cal Fire. If they can’t pay, the state agency will either have to let the locals handle all problems or go to work without the payment it usually gets. Since Cal Fire insists nothing will diminish its performance, the agency will probably work some fires without reimbursement. Some budget solution.
The most significant thing here is that while officials say they will still “attack and respond,” they may not be able to be as effective as usual.
So far, there heven’t been any mega-blazes anywhere in California until mid-August. But the driest part of the year is still ahead, the season when past wildfires have ravaged Malibu, Berkeley, Bel Air, Rancho Santa Fe, Laguna Beach, the Oakland hills and many other California areas.
Aren’t you being a bit over dramatic, crying wolf, telling everyone that the coast is under attack? Unless of course, you’re saying The Crab Monsters are at it again… and that’s some serious Mojo.
