June 30th, 2009 03:49pm
by PeteGolis
Minister of Finance: Here is the Treasury Department’s report, sir. I hope you’ll find it clear.
President of Fredonia Rufus T. Firefly: Clear? Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. (Long pause.) Run out and find me a four-year-old child, I can’t make head or tail of it.“
- From the Marx Brothers’ movie, “Duck Soup.”
The Sacramento Bee just reported there is no progress in reducing a $24 billion budget …
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June 29th, 2009 11:03am
by PeteGolis
With temperatures pushing into the 90s again today, this seems like a good time to bring you up-to-date on the condition of my unwatered lawn.
Two words: It’s brown.
You may remember that two months ago I wrote a column – “Can this lawn be saved?” – about our decision to stop watering the grass.
News stories were warning of a water shortage, and then I learned that lawns use more than three …
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June 25th, 2009 02:35pm
by PeteGolis
Press Democrat blogs are moving this week to a new Web platform, a new address and a new format. As a blogger and a reader of blogs, I like the changes, and I hope you will, too.
If you want to earmark the URL for my new blog, Golis Being Golis, the main page is here.
If you want to subscribe to the RSS feed, click here.
Some readers will be surprised that …
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June 24th, 2009 07:58pm
by PeteGolis
Staff Writer Derek Moore reports – here - that emergency legislation to reduce the state budget deficit failed to get the necessary two-thirds majorities in either house of the legislature today.
Unless miracles happen, the state begins issuing IOUs in exactly eight days.
After all this time, we are stuck in the same old story line.
Since Democrats control majorities in both houses of the Legislature, they are to blame, say the Republicans. …
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June 24th, 2009 12:59pm
by PeteGolis
After four days, I am ready to confess. On the first day of Apple’s new iPhone, I ran out and bought one. Friends would be shocked to learn that I even stood in line – and never once complained.
Here, we could have a much longer conversation about the popular obsession with technology – and about weak-minded consumers who can’t resist the latest marketing hype.
I don’t care. I love …
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June 24th, 2009 12:57pm
by PeteGolis
What is it with Petaluma politics? Why is it that the resident political tribes find it necessary from time to time to work themselves into a frenzy?
A few years ago, the subject was Lafferty Ranch, a proposed regional park atop Sonoma Mountain. When asked to rate the most detestable human beings on earth, Lafferty partisans tended to rate cruel dictators first, followed closely by anyone with a different point of …
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June 14th, 2009 11:17am
by PeteGolis
Nineteen months ago, I wrote a column about young people leaving Sonoma County for places where housing was affordable, jobs were plentiful and the cost of living allowed time for family. (You can read the column here.)
Here was a new and different turn to the California story. For a long time, Californians couldn’t imagine anyone would leave this special place, blessed by nature and the ingenuity of the generations …
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June 10th, 2009 11:48am
by PeteGolis
This morning’s shocking headline: “Legislature to miss budget
deadline.” What a surprise. The state Legislature hasn’t missed a deadline
since the last deadline.
The story by Staff Writer Derek Moore goes on to explain that the state may eliminate funding for the victims of domestic violence. In Sonoma County, according to YWCA Executive Director Denise Frey, that would mean the shuttering of the only shelter for women and children. It serves …
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June 7th, 2009 11:08am
by PeteGolis
“Who would have thought that America’s largest state, a state whose economy is larger than that of all but a few nations, could so easily become a banana republic?”
-New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
When Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown announced last week that she wants to maintain funding for the Orenda Center drug and alcohol treatment program, an auditorium full of Orenda Center supporters cheered.
Which left Brown the unhappy task …
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June 2nd, 2009 12:55am
by PeteGolis
When Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown announced this afternoon that she wants to maintain funding for the Orenda Center drug and alcohol treatment program, Orenda Center supporters applauded. But Brown asked them to stop.
“Don’t clap,” she said, “This only means that some other program will have to go. . . For every hurrah, there will be a tear shed.”
I dropped by the Board of Supervisors budget hearing this afternoon …
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Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat and a longtime resident of Sonoma County.
