SoHumBorns Gone

Everyone goes goo goo over ga ga and now she's gone.

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--Joe

What's Wrong With This Picture?

EPD: Officer draws gun to stop angry crowd at EHS

A Eureka Police officer drew his service weapon to back down an angry crowd Wednesday night after making an arrest in front of Eureka High School at about 8:30 p.[Full Story]

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The print edition says, "Woman Tasered following high school basketball game"
Officer draws his gun on crowd - Sean Garmire

PLENTY IS WRONG! Even if you take the story at face value. It points up or identifies some of what is seriously wrong with the police and law enforcement in Humboldt County today. If you can believe EPD Lt. Murl Harpham, and I'm sure you can, this guy, officer John Silvey, was scared crapless and totally incompetent. "He felt threatened"? It seems, they all feel threatened all the time! Had he fired his gun at that crowd, for whatever reason, effective policing in this county would not be worth a plugged nickle.

First, officer John Silvey was grossly incompetent. Any legitimate and moderately trained police officer, man or woman, but especially a man with full authority to expedite an arrest would have placed the woman directly in handcuffs and delivered her to his patrol car without exposing himself. That woman was obviously not interested in resolving her problems "legally" since she had already taken the law into her own hands. That was his first clue, if he was to believe those that were accusing her, in particular the Principal Joseph Pawlick. Obviously, he did not see her assault anyone. She was obviously extremely upset and when she did not immediately "calm down" and "speak" with the officer like the dutiful, obedient citizen is supposed to when spoken to by the police, he had cause to arrest her. He effectively set her up. This is why I say he had no authority to affect the arrest in the first place. The second reason is that he tried to Taser her. Tasers are used to torture people into submitting to police demands when they are incapable of legitimately doing their mandated job.

Throwing her to the ground in front of a crowd? Since when does an officer take a person down to the ground in a crowd of potentially hostile people? All that did was reinforce the appearance of further bullying a distraught woman. Couple that with the ineffective use of the Taser and you've got a mob in the making. This is what you get when people, for whatever reasons, refuse to accept the police's right to enforce their authority on these terms. That woman is looking at some serious "felony" charges, all thanks to the incompetence of the Eureka Police Department and their officer John Silvey.

This is what you get when a society degenerates into a total state of anarchy, when the courts enforce a double-standard and law enforcement is only implemented at the discretion of the police when they are mostly trying to defend themselves and their jobs. The police degenerate into a gang of thugs and bullies and the populace merely tolerates them as long as they appear to be protecting the majority, but only for awhile. The next time that mob just might not stop, or the officer's finger slips, then what?

The Humbold Hearld has commentary on the Associated Press picking up on this. While Heraldo's initial post is rather neutral, the commentary is more interesting.

UPDATE :: Friday, February 20, 2009

Times-Standard Pg. A3: "EPD reviewing gun-drawing incident at Eureka High"
"Chief: Initial reports indicate the officer followed policy"
Nielsen said: "it seems the officer believed his safety was under threat by the advancing group." "My initial read of the report is that he conformed to our policy." Whose policy? (Emphasis added)

According to Nielsen, EPD officers are taught to use deadly force to protect themselves or others from an imminent threat to their personal safety. And “any time you pull your weapon out of its holster, the assumption is that you are prepared to use deadly force if necessary,” Nielsen said.

The police are licensed to shoot anyone (use deadly force) they feel is a treat to their personal safety. A threat to someone's "personal safety" is altogether different than a direct threat to their lives. Realistically, anyone could get shot for simply telling a police officer what you think of him and the horse he rode in on!

In plain language, according to Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen, police officer's lives, by legal policy, are more important than anyone else. They have the right to defend themselves with deadly force for anything they feel might threaten (only) their personal safety (not their lives), but we do not. That policy might work if these "police officers" were not operating in a state of near "post-traumatic stress disorder," forced to deal with a social system that is on the brink of total meltdown.

We realize that these officers are required to deal with the contemptuous, scummy dregs of our society on a daily basis. Problems arise when they forget that not all of us walk in that sewer. When their "policy right" to perceived "personal safety" trumps my right to personal safety and that of my family; the right to be free from challenge and threat, to NOT be touched in any compromised way (physically searched), we've got a serious problem.

--Joe

HumBug Blogger Elite Report II

At least once a week I go through my list of local blogs whether they really interest me or not. Most do. Some change or dry up. It's a kind of penance I pay for writing the Report. Occasionally, if the subject interests me, I'll even post an observation or ask a question. Over the months, I've noticed that the regular commentators, the Blah, Blah, Blah types who regularly wash each others hands, work together like a pack of ravenous dogs when a stranger tries to enter into their little social club. Or, they just ignore you altogether. No talking to terrorists you know?

Local blogs and blog commentary is a fair representation of local interests, issues and problems ranging from "A" to "Z". Everyone has an opinion on something and everything. Lord forbid someone should point out their opinions have nothing to do with rhyme, rhythm, history or the facts. Of course, it's all nothing but "WORDS" and we all know "words," when you get right down to it, are pure, unadulterated bull-shit.

So, why then all the animus when someone has the courage to disagree, point out their insincerity, or rank dishonesty?

I recently went on SoHum Parlance II and asked a couple of questions. For that I was told that I "looked like a duck," "walked like a duck" and that my comments were "duck crap." Remember, there's one rule the Blogger of Record, Eric Kirk insists upon: NO NAME CALLING. Even though he joined in with the excoriating ridicule he rose above, NAME CALLING! The ad homonym belittling insults of Kirk and his ad hoc groupies speaks for itself, to anyone wasting their time reading that crap. Yet, we find he's accepted and fits right in the Humbug Blogger Elite.

The above reveals, to any serious peruser of these local blogs, a couple of common threads. One, there is really NO serious conversation regarding important issues and problems. It's mostly all fluff and smoke and mirror stuff. Second, is the grid lock caused by the intolerance, xenophobic bigotry and hatred. Lest we forget to mention, there's a third thread Joe chooses to call the Humbug Blogger Elite. They represent the kind of club that has permeated the North Coast's perennial problems and ailments that ostracizes and victimizes every citizen and non-citizen alike. Such things like why there is no freeway bypassing Eureka and Bayside, Eureka police use of tazers, lack of transparency in government, some sort of serious police review, lack of effective traffic enforcement, and the list goes on.

What got me to thinking about this is what happened when I clicked on the North Coast Journal Blog and I was introduced to their new Blogthing. Hank Sims was ecstatic about their new Robot. He's got his robot setup to search the Times-Standard's internet homepage and as he says, "He watches a list of local blogs and informs us when they are updated." A real tiny list!

I would guess they think that tiny list of blog sites is a good enough cross-section of "politics, people and art" in Humboldt County to justify their little news paper. Here's one list, it changes every day:

Eureka Ruin: Money Trees Abound + 10 more… Eureka Ruin: Money Trees Abound • NCJ Blogthing: The Blogthing is Dead • Watch Paul: Heinous? • Redheaded Blackbelt: Color at Dawn • Continental Shelf: Historical Society 49th annual luncheon • The Plazoid: Judges Cash In on Prison Profits • SoHum Parlance: Krugman: It’s not enough • Continental Shelf: Marina Center DEIR comments posted • Fred’s Humboldt Blog: Ocean Salmon Fishing This Year? • Humboldt Herald: Marina Center comments online

This is what The Journal says about itself:

The North Coast Journal of Politics, People & Art is a guide to what's really happening on the far North Coast of California. We provide news in a way that will make you think and we deliver all the fun through the liveliest, most comprehensive and interactive events calendar on the North Coast on the web at www.northcoastjournal.com with highlights each week in print.

Unfortunately saying it doesn't make it true. Hank Sims seems to think that print media and their reporters stands head and shoulders above electronic media when it comes to accountability, honesty and integrity. He may have a point. Being an honest reporter in this day and age is a dangerous business. Sticking to the facts and not getting caught up in disseminating persuasive propaganda and rampant character assassination is a tough job, too. Even so, maybe it's time Joe Blow spent a little more time getting to know The Journal.

Look at the Blog Roll on each of these sites and you begin to see the thread of commonality. Joe has to ask, "Where's the beef"?

ADDENDUM :: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2009

I came across this newspaper article by Mark Morford,
"Death by moron
Has anonymous commenting destroyed meaningful online dialogue? Oh, hell yes"

We agree. You can read some of our commentary on this subject here. "Death by Moron" says a lot about anonymous commentators. Moronic blogs and commentators discourage most decent conversation, if you can find any, unless moderated.

--Joe

The Jew Agenda Comes Clear

Finally, we begin to see the Zionist Jew's true intentions regarding Israel. They made their move in 1948, but were unable to sustain their intent to completely eradicate the Palestinian people from their lands. As noted in previous posts, the Zionist Jew began to wage war on the civilian people to force the Palestinians to submit to or go along with the Jew's right to take their land by force or without any compensation. The so-called decades old "peace process" was nothing more than a ruse to allow the Jews time to take more Palestinian land by build illegal settlements. The two-state solution merely furthered that ruse for another decade. Neither Israel nor the United States ever intended to recognize Palestinian legitimacy that comes with statehood.

Another Update :: Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Israel's targeting of civilian resistance to the separation wall proves the two-state solution is now just a meaningless slogan - The Report has maintained this from the beginning. Nice to have some confirmation.

Update :: Saturday, February 21, 2009

Israeli Zionists have no intention of peace, only expansion of Eretz Yisrael

Addendum :: Monday, February 16, 2009

If the Jews truly wanted peace they would NOT continue to do this:
Israel seizes land for settlement expansion

Jews begin to feel the bite of Gaza assault:
Jews in Muslim lands anxious over Gaza war
By AMY TEIBEL – 6 hours ago

Addendum :: Thursday, February 11, 2009
Fraud in the Holy Land - Independent versus Sovereign State

"Writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy says: “Netanyahu’s election is likely to bring the curtain down on the great fraud… the lie of “negotiations” and the injustice of the “peace process.” Israel consistently claimed these acts proved the nation was focused on peace and the end of the occupation. All the while, it did everything it could to further entrench the occupation and distance any chance of a potential agreement.

For 16 years, we have been enamored with the peace process. We talk and talk, babble and prattle, and generally feel great about ourselves; meanwhile the settlements expand endlessly and Israel turns to the use of force at every possible opportunity, aside from a unilateral disengagement which did nothing to advance the cause of peace.”

The truth defines itself - 61 years of undisputed history speaks.

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It's become quite obvious today that with the election and continued support by a majority of Palestinian people for a Hamas government, or at least a national unity government that includes Hamas, that these people will not totally go along with Israel's right to their 61 years of visceral rape. The only solution for the Jew is to finally cut the Palestinian throat. Right at this moment the knife is already moving with the starvation of 1.5 million Gaza refugees. Fata and Abbas think they've cut a deal with Israel to survive, but all they've done is expose their treason. Israel will deal with them equally, regardless.

In the aftermath of Israeli elections, one way or another, Israel's latest vote count puts the Right Wing, neo-fascist in control. According to Neve Gordon, a professor of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University and the author of Israel’s Occupation, as reported on Democracy Now, this is the trend even with the younger generation.

What we see in—before the elections, that in all the high schools in Israel, Lieberman was the leading party in [inaudible] votes. So we see that the younger generation is supporting these neo-fascist tendencies. And we cannot blame the schools from it, but we have to blame the whole atmosphere in Israel, which is indeed a racist atmosphere, an anti-Arab atmosphere, anti-Palestinian Arab atmosphere. And Lieberman, what he has learned to do well is to feed on the hatred and the fear of the Arabs, to use a xenophobic method. And this is extremely dangerous. And to tell you the truth, I fear for Israel. I fear for the citizenry in Israel. And I think we are in a watershed moment in Israeli politics.

Mustafa Barghouti, independent Palestinian lawmaker and democracy activist lays out a far worse situation.

This is a very serious shift, but not only to the right; this is a shift to racism. In my opinion, in these elections, Israel has completed the transformation into an apartheid state with an apartheid racist political system.

And this is the outcome of two processes. One is the implantation of fear and hatred in the Israeli society by the Israeli establishment. The army is a big part of that establishment, and the military-industrial complex is a second big part. And the second factor has been the complicity of the international community. The United States administration, previous administration, the European governments, the whole official international community has been complicit with Israeli crimes, war crimes in Gaza and in other places, and silent about forty-one years of occupation. So, basically, people in Israel think they can do what they want. If they violate human rights in such a terrible manner and nobody is objecting, I think they think they can move forward towards racism and an apartheid system, and that is unfortunately the case today.

In addition to what was said about practically the Likud racist approach dominating the whole scene, with Livni and Netanyahu—and here I would agree that there aren’t much differences between the two. Maybe you can say that both of them are racist. Only, Netanyahu is a blunt racist, and Livni is a racist with some makeup. But they both represent the same. [ ... ]

In my opinion, we have reached a very critical moment, and that’s why these elections are of great importance, because the bringing in of racist tendency in Israel and this whole extreme coalition into the Israeli government, which would be the case, is happening exactly at a moment when we are about to lose the last opportunity of two-state solution, because of the growth of settlements, because of the fragmentation of the West Bank, because of the consolidation of a situation where Palestinians practically live now in bantustans and ghettos. And they’re in a situation where, after fifteen years of the creation of the Palestinian Authority, the only road open for it by Israel is to become only a security sub-agent for occupation and something like Vichy government in a bantustan entity. That is the risk. And that’s why this is dangerous, not only because it is against peace, but also it is like the last hit in the direction of killing the final or the last opportunity of two-day solution. [ ... ]

I would like to emphasize here that I believe that the last war on Gaza, plus other things that the Israeli government did jointly with the Bush administration, was nothing but an effort to create a preemptive strike against the Barack Obama administration. That was clear in the Resolution 1850, which tried to restrict the peace process only to the failing Annapolis process. And that was clear in the war and intensification of tension in the region, to prevent, in my opinion, peaceful dialogue with Syria and Iran that Barack Obama wants to have and to obstruct a fast and quick withdrawal from Iraq. But finally, that agreement that was concluded between Livni and Rice, in the very last hours before Rice left her position, was also a preemptive strike against this administration. [ ... ]

That agreement was that the United States and NATO will be providing guarantees to Israel and provide protection to the occupying force, being Israel, and to prevent the resistance of the Palestinian people who are under occupation. So this is the first time in human history where, from one side, the people under occupation in West Bank are supposed, through this huge security apparatus, which is consuming 34 percent of our budget, depriving us from healthcare and education—the Palestinian Authority is supposed to provide protection to its occupiers, and the world community has to provide protection to the occupying force of Gaza, in this case the Israeli occupying force. [ ... ]

And maybe these results of elections in Israel will show everybody the time has come for a real change in the American policy. Every value that President Obama spoke about—values of respect of human rights, of democracy, of respect for Geneva Convention, avoiding torture, justice, equality, equal opportunity—every value of those are violated by Israel.

So, there you have it. The picture, the truth about Zionist Israel's legitimate right to exist, is getting clearer and clearer. President Barack Obama will not do what is necessary to preserve the Jewish state or try to protect his or America's integrity, what little bit that's left. Certainly, now when he's bombing innocent civilian people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Zionist Israel is revealing itself to be exactly what it is. No civilized people wages war on defenseless and innocent women and children, for any reason. The Universe has wiped out whole civilizations for such crimes. Perhaps they should have seriously tried to make peace with the Palestinian people, recognize their legitimate right to exist along with everyone else, when they had the chance.

--Joe

When Self-Defense is No Defense

What is so difficult to understand about self-defense? America's legitimate right to exist was formulated and argued to the world in the original document, The Declaration of Independence. None of those arguments apply to the Zionist Jew. After 61 years the whole world sees Israel exactly for what it is. There is always hope for a just and sane world when a few are able to see what is and have the courage to speak up. Here's an example.

Israeli-Palestinian problem can destroy the world peace
Letter to the editor
Posted: 02/03/2009 01:16:28 AM PST

J. Porsley's “My Word” and Donald Edwards' letter bring out the dilemma Americans are facing. Like Mr. Edward, I am neither a Jew nor an Arab; but a Muslim of a type whose community feels much safer and freer in Israel than in many Muslim countries.

However, as an American, there is a reason for me, and for all of us, to analyze this conflict dispassionately. It has potential of starting an Armageddon the pain from which will be felt by everyone. A just solution is needed.

Hamas has no right to fire rockets and Israel has no right to continue to occupy the Palestinian lands. The assumption that Israel left Gaza is not genuine. Gaza is a high security prison with its borders, land, air and sea controlled by Israel. It is a human cage.

Israel has the right to defend itself and so have the Palestinians. If one can import planes, tanks, phosphorous bombs, and even possess nuclear weapons it is unjust to deny the same to the other party.

When Israel blocks the free inflow of food and medicines and the world stands by in awe of Israeli might, then the Palestinians have no alternative to digging tunnels to reach those necessities of life.

It is time to bring peace to both the sides and help the weak obtain justice. History shows that irrespective of religion unjust people and the connivers thereof are sooner or later seized by a terrible divine punishment.

Abdul Aziz

Self-Defense is No Defense when you're accused being either evil, a criminal, or a terrorist. That would be when you are an enemy of the state. Enemy's of the state are anyone that doesn't go along with or objects to the states' right to enforce their will upon you in any way they see fit.

A good example of this are Zionist Jews deciding that they wanted legitimate recognition as a people to slow down their extermination, so they (a considerable number of them) all moved to Palestine to get the land they needed to become a nation and by force of arms imposed their will upon the Palestinian people. When the Palestinian people refused to submit or surrender their land they were accused of being a form of life that wasn't fit to occupy that sacred land anyway. We have 61 years of history to prove who is and is not fit to own or occupy that land.

An ancient Jew spoke about his people today, a people that wanted the same thing then as the Zionist Jews want today, when he said:

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

--Joe

Eat This Eric Kirk - SoHum Parlance

Latest Addendum :: Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Joe Blow Calls Eric Kirk Names BAD! BAD!

Click the link and it will take you to his blog thread. Then you tell me who was doing the name-calling. Everything he said in response to my posts were derogatory, excoriating, insulting and abusive. Here you will find the classic example of what Jesus Christ was talking about when he said to NOT cast pearls before pigs or holy to dogs. “Do not give what is holy to dogs, neither throw your pearls before swine, that they may never trample them under their feet and turn around and rip you open.”

I call his blog a WHOREHOUSE because that's just what it is. (Of course, you know what that makes him.) He invites you in to share in his communion and the next thing you know you've been communing with a sick whore. In other words they've enticed you into making an agreement with them that they have the right to say anything they want about you, to denigrate, abuse, and tell you what kind of a human being they think you are and expect you to go along with their judgments. Then, if you should try to defend yourself from these kinds of people, people Jesus Christ calls "pigs" and "dogs" you're accused of calling them "names." "Hypocrites" and "liars" is something Jesus Christ called the same kind of whoremongers. If it was good enough for Jesus Christ is certainly is good enough for me.

You know why Jesus called these kinds of people "pigs" and "dogs" don't you? Because pigs wallow in their own crappy sewer and dogs return to eat their own vomit. Jesus identified these kinds of people as carnal, non-humans because that is their manifest personality; they think and act like rabid, vicious animal. The Dictionary defines vicious as:

1. addicted to or characterized by vice; grossly immoral.
2. given or readily disposed to evil.
3. reprehensible; blameworthy; wrong.
4. spiteful; malicious: vicious gossip; a vicious attack.
5. unpleasantly severe.
6. characterized or marred by faults or defects; faulty; unsound: vicious reasoning.
7. savage; ferocious.
8. (of an animal) having bad habits or a cruel or fierce disposition.

All in all, Joe figures he keeps good company. Jesus Christ wasn't popular with these same kinds of people either. He certainly wasn't averse to telling people or calling them for what they were when they were arrogant, self-righteous hypocrites, vipers, blind guides, liars, or whitewashed graves .

That's what you'll find on Eric Kirk's SoHum Parlance II. Do beware!

--Joe

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“When leaders of competing Palestinian factions make maximalist claims to appeal to hardline constituencies, it’s extremism. But when Israeli leaders do it, it’s politics. If the goal of the U.S. and Israel is to strengthen Palestinian moderates like Abu Mazen against Hamas — and people keep telling me that’s the goal — it’s hard to see how this helps.”
Livni Promises To ‘Maintain Maximum Settlers’»

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Israeli Foreign Minister Backtracks On Commitment To Force Jewish Settlers Out Of The West Bank»

President Obama has said that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is going to be a top priority for his administration. During an interview with Al-Arabiya last week, Obama said the Israel-Palestine issue is “interrelated” with “what’s happening” throughout the region. He also offered support for the so-called two-state solution. “I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state,” Obama said, adding, “But it is not going to be easy.”

No it will not be easy. As CBS reporter Bob Simon noted on 60 Minutes last week, “hundreds of thousands” of Jewish settlers would have to withdraw from the West Bank for it, along with the Gaza Strip, to be part of a Palestinian state. But also during Simon’s report, this two-state

solution may have received a small boost. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is in the running to become the country’s next prime minister, told Simon — bluntly — that in order to achieve peace and advance a Palestinian state, the Israeli government would force the settlers to leave the West Bank:

SIMON: Can you really imagine evacuating the tens of thousands of settlers who say they will not leave?

LIVNI: It’s not going to be easy, but this is the only solution.

SIMON: But you know that there are settlers who say, “We will fight. We will not leave. We will fight.”

LIVNI: So this is the responsibility of the government, of the police to stop them, as simple as that. Israel is a state of law and order.

This is the end . . .

Addendum to the peace viper :: Monday, February 2, 2009

Israel rules out Hamas contacts, threatens force

By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

If you want to know why there is no prospect for peace, just read what this guy has to say. The root cause of the problem is right there for anyone to see that cares to look. The problem has absolutely nothing to do with a difference of opinions. It has everything to do with that woman and this guy, Tzipi Livni and Benjamin Netanyahu and all their kind.

ADDENDUM :: Thursday, February 5, 2009

The corrupt continue to pervert as the noose tightens around the collaborators.

Olmert approves transfer of NIS 170 million to Gaza Strip

Just hours after a top Hamas official was caught by Egyptian authorities trying to smuggle millions of dollars and euros into the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave permission for the Palestinian Authority to transfer NIS 170 million from the West Bank to Gaza to pay government officials there.

The Prime Minister's Office said it agreed to transfer the funds in accordance with a request by PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

The officials to be paid are mostly Fatah members.

Israel agrees to let $43 mln into Gaza for Abbas

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Israel seizes Gaza freighter

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora condemned the action.

"Those who commit massacres against innocent civilians in Lebanon and Gaza will not stop themselves from assaulting, in front of the world, a ship carrying humanitarian supplies," he said. "I express my utmost condemnation for this blatant attack."

--Joe

"Ice" By Any Other Name

First, our beneficent government finds reasons to own specialized commercially viable business property, for example the fish processing facility that Pacific Choice Seafood Co. leases. A great 22 year relationship so they say. Sounds good! A nice symbiotic relationship.

Going back to 2005 apparently Humboldt County Environmental Health moved against a local family owned business, Hunter Enterprises, they deemed unsafe for public health. You can read John Driscoll's Times-Standard newspaper 9/10/08 article "Eureka Ice on ice" here. The "Powers that Be" conveniently found:

"Concerns about a major release of ammonia have been raised by environmental health and the EPA, whose inspectors found ammonia leaking from a valve during an inspection on July 16. The deteriorated condition of parts of the 60-year-old waterfront building and the potential threat to firefighters prompted city building and fire officials to recently demand repairs."

A valve leaking, deteriorating condition of "parts" of the "waterfront" building and a "potentiall" threat to our heroic and fearless firefighters "prompted" building and fire officials to "demand". Consequently, the "Environmental health (Humboldt County Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Division) entered a consent decree which called for Eureka Ice to get rid of the approximately 2,500 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on site" the business was shutdown "to spare the company millions in fines".

Then we read Mr. Driscoll's 10/31/08 piece, Eureka Ice forges resurrection plan. The plan is to rebuild after the shutdown caused further damage to the building. There was a suggestion by Pete Nichols in a My Word for the Times-Standard dated 9/235/28, "Time for a fishermen-owned and operated cold storage facility."

In many a crisis lays opportunity, and I believe this is one opportunity that the fishing community should seize upon. There are existing models to bring cooperative cold storage to ailing fishing communities. Most of these ventures are not so fortunate as to have institutions in place that could provide financial support to 1) provide immediate relief for the current crisis; and 2) secure funds to implement the long-term vision of a modern, fishermen-run community cold-storage facility.
The Headwaters Fund was designed, and is uniquely situated, to accomplish both of these tasks. In the wake of funding the boondoggle of the Redwood Marine Terminal feasibility study and business plan, one would think that they would see the development of a cooperative cold storage facility as both a refreshing and realistic opportunity to fulfill the Headwaters Fund's mission.

It seems the City of Eureka has other plans for this business. For next we read Jessie Faulkner's 01/26/08 Times-Standard article, "Headwaters Fund on ice" where he reports, "In its application, the city of Eureka said it expected that Pacific Choice Seafoods would operate the plant under a contract with the city." Today, January 28, 2009, he reports, "Supes approve request for grant - Proposed ice plant gets much-needed Headwaters cash." Mr. Faulkner identifies Bonnie Neely and Mark Lovelace, Fourth and Second District Supervisors, supported this new ownership as did Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District commissioner Ronnie Pellegrini.

So, that's some of the history of this "business-as-usual" Humboldt County-style government takeover. What would you call this style of government? Socialism, Communism, Fascism, some form of bastardized Capitalism? Symbiotic collaboration for a "number of stakeholders" is called something else that's unprintable. Is this the future for business in Humboldt County?

--Joe