Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

On its Facebook page, The Union is touting “Patty Meckler’s voting troubles” for Friday’s newspaper.

It is a story already being promoted by Mark Meckler and George Rebane in the blogosphere. The details, and George’s and Mark’s very own spin, is here.

The Union’s editor/publisher has long given Tea Party Patriot’s co-leader Mark Meckler an ear, and in my mind and many others, favorable treatment, as I have reported here previously. Yet it has not reported the controversies surrounding Mark and the Tea Party.

When I raise this to some people in the community, I’m told, “Oh, Jeff. That’s for political reasons.” Huh? The county went for Charlie Brown, not Tom McClintock, in the last Congressional election here. More people would pick up The Union if they felt it was more balanced.

In the clerk-recorder’s race, The Union’s reporting was biased toward challenger Barry Pruett, as I’ve reported previously. Examples abound, and the details are here.

As you can see from the posts on Thursday, the nonpartisan clerk-recorder race is over — but the opponents can’t seem to accept that. Or The Union, I suppose. It is a sad commentary on our community — for elections and for journalism.

But memories are long, so it will be interesting to see the fallout in the future.

As somebody commented on George’s blog: “I think Meckler is being coy. TPP de facto endorsed Pruett, Spencer, McClintock, et al. They say they’re not a political party when it suits their purposes, but also want to march into a poll station wearing their Red Shirts. Give me a break. Yes, Mark is a lawyer and can finesse the law to the letter, but what is the intent? I believe the idea is to remove politics from the polls. And TPP is political as can be. Any claims that they are not hard right wing need to reconcile with their anti-Obama inflamatory behaviors.”

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About three weeks ago, my neighbor Terry Fieldhouse and his wife came over to the house and knocked on my door. He told me that he was terminally ill.

It was a very sad moment. My father had died about that same week three years ago. Like Terry, he was 81.

Our family was very fond of Terry: He was smart, compassionate and had a good sense of humor. He was very supportive of our family, too. You couldn’t ask for a better neighbor.

In recent weeks, we have been helping to look after Terry and his family, like any good neighbor would. Many friends and family showed up at his house to say goodbye.

I baked the family some lasagna, and my son brought him flowers, and Terry’s grand-daughter brought over a note from him on Memorial Day weekend: “Thank you very much, so much, for the beautiful flowers. They have brightened up my bedroom so much the past several days.” My son was proud.

Terry passed away this past Saturday, surrounded by his loving family. I got to know some of them, as well as their friendly dogs.

During his life, Terry served as a forester in Alaska for the Bureau of Land Management. He also spent 20 years teaching in San Jose and Menlo Park, with a year off to earn a Master’s degree in education from Stanford. He was a supporter of Health Care for All.

A memorial potluck service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 26th at the Sierra Friends Center, 13075 Woolman Lane in Nevada City. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Woolman School at the same address.

Terry’s obituary, published in the San Jose Mercury News/San Mateo Times is here.

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Soccer is still dwarfed by other sports in the United States, but the World Cup may be about to change that, according to BBC News.

The 2010 World Cup starts this weekend in South Africa and will be televised live here. The United States is one of 32 teams that are competing.

“In 2001, no English language television network in the United States wanted the rights to broadcast the 2002 Fifa World Cup,” writes the BBC. “For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, ESPN and US Spanish language broadcaster Univision paid $425 million between them for the broadcasting rights.”

In the foothills, soccer is becoming more popular than baseball with many of my school-aged son’s friends. There is a soccer camp here with players from England. Details are here and here.

In San Francisco, many bars and restaurants — including favorites such as Perry’s on the Embarcadero — will bring in extra televisions to cater to their growing soccer-watching patrons, the Chronicle is reporting. The U.S. versus England at 11:30 a.m. Saturday is being shown for free at AT&T Park.

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A website has popped up urging our Congressman Tom McClintock to run for president in 2012.

“Unlike the vast majority of our country’s political leaders, you Tom have always been a consistent voice and vote in defense of the U.S. Constitution,” reads drafttom.com. “I now join with other patriotic Americans to strongly urge you to consider running for President in 2012!”

Ted Costa, president of People’s Advocate Inc., is behind the effort. His email, reported on conservative blogging site Red County, is here.

For his part, McClintock is distancing himself from the effort:

“A group calling itself ‘Conservative Opportunities‘ has produced a website and distributed at least one e-mail from Ted Costa soliciting funds under the preposterous pretense of drafting me to run for President in 2012.

“Mr. Costa is an old friend, but neither he nor this group ever consulted me.  When I discovered their activity, I asked him to stop immediately.  Since the group continues to persist, I urge those contacted to ignore this misguided effort.”

The website drafttom.com is still up and running.

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