June 30, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Dear readers,

The following letter is from Nick Biddle, a Conservative Republican from Temecula. Mr Biddle is a fierce opponent to the proposed quarry for a variety of reasons, a lot of info can be found on this site. Here he presents a new approach to stopping the quarry from going in. It is certainly worth a read.

The video certainly worth a view. It is from CNN.com and about a mining town called Picher Oklahoma. Picher is now a ghost town with poisoned air, land and water. I am sure the people of Picher never thought their town would end up this way, and even if only 1% of what happened in Picher happened in Temecula, Rainbow or Fallbrook it would be too much. Consider all this when thinking about the future of Temecula Valley and if we trully want a mine located where Granite Construction is proposing the ‘Liberty Quarry’. Please feel free to chime in and leave comments.

Bill Gould
Publisher

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Remember when Toyota began exporting ugly, tinny, underpowered little malfunctioning copycat cars to America in 1959? (Yes, I’m that old.) GM’s Caddy Eldorado Biarritz convertible was the American dream machine then. Toyota quickly retreated in abject failure—only to return again a few years later, with a slightly less revolting car. Fast forward. “And the rest is history”, as Paul Harvey used to say. Toyota is now the top selling car in America while mighty GM is bankrupt, done, kaput.

Temecula’s Plan A, just like Toyota’s, didn’t work, with the mullahs of LAFCO in Riverside on June 4th. With an imperious sweep of the hand, they ignored all our written petititions which were arduously, and admirably gathered by hardworking, devoted SOS members and leaders, many erudite and passionate individual speeches. They sternly labeled all of us as farcical, having already leaked to the press the previous week that they were against us, and warning us not to bore them. Okay, so bring on Plan B.

Shift gears. Don’t dig ourselves deeper into the same hole with the same failed strategy. Be agile Toyota, not sclerotic, smug GM.
Copy what works. It’s unnecessary to “re-invent the wheel”. Emulate feisty, adaptable, relentless copycat Toyota. Don’t mope around. Do change strategy.

Here’s Plan B:
Copy (gulp) Granite Construction Company’s proven successful PR and advertising strategy. It works, different from our failed methods. Yes, Granite is very good at what it does. Copy them. The Japanese did cheezy knock-offs of American products fifty plus years ago, as China does today. Similarly we can outdo Granite at its own proven PR game, but we’re for real, not phony or cheezy or dishonest like Granite. When we see their huge color ads featuring laughing children, smiling miners in yellow hardhats, green Liberty Bells, back dropped with crystal blue sky over our beautiful hills with the intoned message “character matters”, we know it’s all sheer, bogus nonsense.

But it WINS!
Our strategy LOSES!

We moan about mountain lions’ and other wild critters’ interrupted paths across SMER, itself a 47 year old world famous national and international treasure. But this only allows Granite to portray us as a bunch of bleeding heart, tree hugging Socialist elitists, while good ole Granite looks out for the regular down home folks of Riverside County just trying to make a living. Our whole approach seems to have obligingly played right into their dishonest PR, like a moth to flame. Instead, let’s focus on a few (or many) groups of the 250,000 people in the Temecula Valley who will be adversely affected by the quarry.

For example:
1. Use as our template, that marvelous multicolored Granite ad. Get real laughing Temecula children and their parents playing in our beautiful, huge, new, proud Birdsall Park, one mile directly downwind from the toxic quarry, instead of the phony yellow hatted smiling truck drivers, child models, and green Liberty Bells. Keep the background blue sky and hills, though. They’re a great touch as Granite knows. We could even steal their smarmy “character matters” mantra, only we’ll be talking about the real character of all the many constituencies and businesses of Temecula and adjacent towns.

2. How about interviewing our resident Abbott Lab scientists, in their gorgeous, new, large office tower, as well as Granite’s truck drivers? Wouldn’t they have a word or two to say? By the way, Abbott has annual sales of $29.5 billion, compared to Granite’s puny $2.7 billion, and 69,000 employees, compared to Granite’s measly 3,500 employees. Shouldn’t we notice that and point it out?

3. So who’s really the 800 pound corporate gorilla in this picture who should be listened to, if we only care about corporate needs, and county tax revenues, as the Riverside Supervisors usually do? Would the Supervisors really want to sacrifice the needs of a far more important classy county client-resident, Abbott, for a rinky dink, often lawbreaking bush leaguer like Granite?
Face it. The Riverside Supervisors don’t care, and never will care, about anything other than what will get them reelected. Granite has money and influence of course, while we don’t have as much, but popular opinion and voters are the really big stick we do have, and which the Supervisors respect. Notice Iran’s Supreme Leader in Tehran today? Amazingly he’s back pedaling a bit, different from the 1979 bloodbath, and is worried about Twitter, the penultimate modern people power.

We need to get that sense of people power through to Riverside. Plan A (critters, environment and SDSU’s SMER) are still just as important as we all know and deeply care about, and must still be emphasized. But it can no longer be our main focus anymore. The 250,000 people and their lifestyle and health must be the main focus henceforth. Abbott’s hundreds of resident Temecula employees, are on our side. Let’s now enroll them and other similar corporate friends in the battle. It’s a lot more than about mountain lions, as Granite knows. At the end of the day, even if it’s only about the money, as Granite and the Supervisors believe, we win that one too, considering all the moneyed, Riverside County taxpaying interests of our community who will suffer from the Granite invasion.

Nick Biddle

Posted in Inland Empire, Old Town Temecula, Liberty Quarry, Anza, Riverside, Riverside County, Real Estate, Dumb, California, Homes, Money, Mortgage, Sports, Cars, Politics, Temecula, Family Attractions, Food, Commentary, Murrieta, Schools, Hiking, Fallbrook, United States of America, San Diego, News | Print | 1 Comment »

June 27, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

MY LAST TWO EULOGY COMMENTS ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON

Temecula, CA – Perhaps caught under the spell of MJ’s death regardless of the cause, and the resulting wave of turmoil, grief, and controversy resounding from it, two more relative memories came to mind. But first, an explanation of the title I borrowed. Years ago when I was using music to carve out my own identity in the high school power clique I ran in, James Brown was HUGE! We went to his yearly concerts when he rolled through my home town. He released his singles in groups of three while every other singer or group did it one at a time. He had that much talent. I bought every JB 45 that came out and still I missed a few. One I did get though was one that bore the above title. I played the song and it grooved in a different way than JB’s usual material. But the title’s meaning always eluded me. It was my Grandfather, I think, that shed some light on it then, and now as I look back at MJ’s life I see the truth in that song title is correct. He said, “Son, all the money in the world won’t change the person you are on the inside, but Father Time will take you on (to Death”).


Years ago before I lost touch with my eldest son, he told me of a time when he had gone to London on a tour when he was in high school. This was before MJ had done any of his plastic surgery and my son had a resemblance to him. He was walking by a club in downtown London with his school group and suddenly a Rolls pulls up to screeched halt. Out pops this well dressed couple with the guy in a top hat; they get out and pose on either side of him; the chauffer takes a picture of all three, then the couple and chauffer jumped back in the car and drove off. He said after that, he and his little bunch of bros got in and sat front row at several night clubs though they were all underage. They never asked for an ID once. He said it was crazy. He was there for a week. I miss my oldest son.

Just a few days ago I saw a band that I like called UhOh! Explosion. I posted a review about the new CD, which I also liked and got a big kick out of. They rock, but you can ‘read all about it’, just check the last story. As I am wont to do, I purchased a couple of band shirts, the new design and the old design. I like the new design, but just having gotten these shirts a few days ago, it was the old design that is interesting and now very topical. I first saw the old design even before I heard the band because there were so many people wearing it in the parking lot where they played that first show. Its message was very cool and funny. I even used the message for the first review that I did for the band: “Uh Oh! Explosion, Cooler Than Vanilla Ice, Hotter Than Michael Jackson”. Now that shirt takes on a special meaning that is yet to be seen.

No matter whether you loved him for his talent, or hated him for his weirdness, there’s no denying that the little boy who never got a chance to grow up, touched us all in one way or another (no pun intended). In the ‘let the one without sin cast the first stone’ mindset, I hope God will judge him on his overwhelming merit and not on his secret sins. None of us is perfect. “Money Won’t Change You”. Michael Jackson never grew up despite having all that money.

Posted in United States of America, Commentary, Music, News | Print | No Comments »

June 26, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

3^RD CD SHOWS A RETURN TO POP PUNK ROOTS AND HUSTLER HUMOR

Temecula, CA – Copping the long awaited third CD from the pop punk band, UhOh! Explosion, I was interested to hear if they had indeed returned to their underage bad boy subjects that make them destined to become a Sunday morning sermon subject someday. From the new Drop Out Records CD lyrics, that day appears to coming sooner rather than later, but only if you take them as dead serious, and that doesn’t appear to be the focus of this CD, ‘For The Win’. Let’s face it folks, the grown-up adult world is scary and gets scarier every day. Seeing a defenseless girl die in the street because she is protesting an alleged fixed election only to have the unelected ‘supreme’ leader call for more bloodshed because he is ‘god’; gasoline again rising in price despite over 660,000 jobs being lost last month (in this country alone); money being printed like wallpaper and funneled into bankers’ pockets; the ‘King of Pop’s probable O.D. because of being shot up with Demerol; and the Jehovah Witness presenting free (no plate passing) services to instruct people about getting through upcoming ‘end times’, not to mention Sony Pictures’ disaster pic to end all disaster flicks,’2012’, what are punk kids suppose to sing about, given the shape of today’s world and the darkness clouding their future?


Using catchy lyrics, upbeat, hard fluffer melodies, bad-ass beats, more female vocal add-ins, and even horns that have a Dixieland jazz riff to them, UO!E has indeed returned to their fun IYF core, expressing what probably most people under 25 are feeling, dgaf! This time out more than just ‘balls in your asshole’ are hit square in the middle. The only thing that isn’t heralded is a blimpkin, the 21^st Century’s ‘pearl necklace’ joke equivalent. Fast hard-driving punk tempos take over after the opening song’s R&B-ish rhythm rhyming with the next song being the band motif of personal dgaf. Next ‘The Original Mack’ sends up ‘doing it like a porn star’ complete with female backup additional vocals which will either make you blush or laugh. Having had three wives, you can guess my reaction. ‘Five Finger Discount’ is about punks coping with high prices/no money, and brought a laugh out loud from a serious hip-hop talent who listened with me to the CD the night I got it. It is also the longest track of the 15 presented, coming in at just over four minutes on a CD filled with radio time-friendly songs, though most of which the FCC would never allow on the airwaves. To paraphrase The Simpsons, ‘they’re singing what we are all thinking’, or were before the weight of the world began to crush our youthful outlook. The next two songs, ‘Big Stick Dynamite’ and ‘Kidz Go Wild’ kind of turn ‘this bitch out’ and could be a beer ponger’s national anthem. ‘Gee Eh Why’ (g-a-y) makes light of homophobia, and ‘Party Retarded’ with its steel drum intro and bridge influences crosses back and forth between punk rocker and hip-hop. ‘DGAF 187’ is the most authentic nod to the rip-hop theme of the Sub Noize genre. But just as you start to wipe the fingerprints off your crowbar used for cracking skulls, along comes the song, ‘5 Inches Of Love’, a slow tongue-in-cheek ballad about having a 3” penis that is sure to get a howl from the Sex Pixi when she hears it. Religion is touched in ‘Be Like The Antichrist’ as the tempo speeds back up to balls to the wall rock ‘n’ roll, including a searing guitar solo. Silicon in your girlfriend is the key to ‘OC Girl’, a song that paints a picture that can only be called true ‘So Cali’. ‘Don’t You Know I Gotta Nut’ could be a theme song for a Hustler video, and even includes a straight piece that explains the whole ‘birds and the bees’ thing in about 20 seconds. Take that health class. ‘I Sold Out’ is a fast romp through materialist realism but ends with love being triumphant over money. Of course, this wouldn’t be a punk record or a punk band without a song about resisting authority (think Iran) and is rightly called, ‘Rise Up’. As Dick Clark would say in rating this CD, ‘I give it a 95 ‘cause it is easy to push-pit to and has a good beat.’ Personally I would throw in a plus for all the self-debasing bawdy humor presented by a band that is both fun and in your face. Being kids, they haven’t lost the sensibility of being rude in pointing out the foibles we ‘grown-ups’ take as solemn adulthood. Carry on, my wayward sons. You can order the new CD by this link or by catching UhOh! Explosion at Warped Tour this summer, coming soon to a city near you.

Posted in Orange County, California, United States of America, Our Favorite Things, Music, Commentary, News | Print | 2 Comments »

June 25, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

GRANNY WAS RIGHT

Temecula, CA – Unless you’re living under a rock or out in the protest demonstrations shrouded from view by the Islamic government of Iran, you know that today, two people who were very famous died. One death was not so shocking and was sort of expected. That was the death of Farrah Fawcett, a television and movie star, who suffered and fought cancer for the last few years of her life. I remember seeing her as one of the original Charlie’s Angels and loosely followed her life as it appeared in the news over the years. She always stood out from the other ‘angels’ due to her big smile and beautiful tresses. She was prettier than a Playboy model to me and I was amazed to learn that she posed for Playboy when she was 50. I was also amazed and gladdened to see her win acclaim for her incredible role in ‘The Burning Bed’, proving once and for all that she wasn’t just another pretty face, she could really act. But it was the text I received earlier this afternoon from my Arizona friend Tank that really made me want to write this column. The text read that TMZ was reporting that Michael Jackson was dead at 50. Straight away I got on the internet and started to get all the available breaking news about it.


Many of my young peeps glower at me when they are talking or wearing T-shirts of bands that were big before they were born and I tell them that I saw that band live, ‘back in the day.’ That statement is also true of Michael Jackson. I saw the Jackson 5, live and onstage in Indianapolis in 71 or 72 at a two day Black Expo event. It’s funny because the woman I was dating, who had four kids, had been talking about the J5 songs. I gave her shit because the music, I judged, was too young for her. It was ‘bubble gum pop’ and was only meant for teenagers and tweens, but she insisted it was more than that and nights after I had gotten over to her house, she would play her J5 albums for me. At first I felt that the music wasn’t serious R&B, but the more I listened the more I started to change my view point, especially when hit after hit started coming from the group’s albums. I told her one afternoon that I had been wrong and that she was right. I made up for my misgivings by taking her to see the J5. That was when I saw what the buzz was all about. The moment the music started and Michael stepped out onstage in frontman fashion, I was hooked. You actually forgot the other brothers were onstage once he began to perform. Even the cartoon series on Saturday mornings had good tunage and the storylines weren’t half bad either. Later when MJ started singing solo I was aware of his impact. ‘Ben’ was a big hit with a number of my friends but I started to like his musicianship and production values when the ‘Off The Wall’ album came out. A friend named Mike first played the album ‘Thriller’ for me and I went right out and bought it, but the height of the MJ craze for me was the accompanying video. I was working in cable then and whenever the video came on a monitor, we would all stop working and take the fifteen minutes to watch it. I used to get the tingles from it. The make-up, the dancers, even the storyline and surprise ending was magical. Since I was studying about the metaphysical side of life at that time, it seemed to fit right in and inspire deep thought about the legends and fables that it was based on. There were other memorable music events of Michael’s that I, along with millions of other people, watched through his long career. His Simpson’s guest spot and writing the video song, ‘Do The Bartman’ still make me laugh when I see the DVD episodes. Later when his life turned more toward the bizarre, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him and the strange prison he seemed destined for himself. Today though, as I talked to a former roommate, a woman from Mexico City who remained a huge and loyal fan up to the end, I consider myself lucky to have seen him and his brothers live, once upon a time, when my mind was closed to anything new and fresh. Michael Jackson, the entertainer, opened up a new day for ‘black’ culture’s R&B and the world to a new level of pop music to be appreciated by people of every country and culture. R.I.P. and Sing In Paradise.  

With the passing of Ed McMahon yesterday, it looks like my Granny was right when she observed to me as a youngster that famous people seem to always die in groups of three. One of these days I will get to say to her, “Granny, once again you were right as rain. No wonder my grandfather married you.”

Posted in Movies, Los Angeles County, Family Attractions, Commentary, Music, Film, News | Print | 1 Comment »

June 23, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

THE CULTURE OF CONGRESS MUST CHANGE – YOU CAN HELP IT TO

(ED. Note: guest piece by Jake Brewer [JBrewer@sunlightfoundation.com])


The word “outrage” is so overused I’m hesitant to use it …but right now it’s the only word for what Congress is up to, and we need to act. This Friday, Congress plans to vote on a bill that could fundamentally alter our economy, dramatically affect our climate, and have huge implications for our national security - but right now, no one knows what’s in the bill or how it came to be. This is far too important. There are no acceptable excuses. Congress MUST read the bill.

 http://readthebill.org

 Last Friday the American Clean Energy and Security Act, or H.R. 2454, was 946 pages long. Over the weekend it ballooned to 1,201 pages with no explanation for how or why.  The worst part is that while it is definitely 255 pages longer, it could also be 500 pages different for all we know. My colleagues and I have been sitting in our office all afternoon trying to track and understand what has happened in the last three days, and the result is mostly confusion, anger, and marker dust from our overused white board.

And it gets even worse.

The bill is already 1,200 pages long and it isn’t even final yet.  They are going to accept changes to it right up until 9:30am on Thursday morning before an intended vote on Friday.  The fastest speed readers and the most intelligent minds can’t make informed decisions with that much time.  Does Congress really expect us to believe it can?

Posted in Liberty Quarry, Dumb, California, Cars, United States of America, Commentary, Politics, News | Print | No Comments »