Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

As expected, KVRM gave right-wing blogger and The Union columnist George Rebane the platform to bash AB32 and put our county supervisors on the spot to support Prop. 23, the initiative that will effectively rescind the landmark global warming legislation.

There was no counterpoint to George’s claims, including that the initiative only is in effect until the “unemployment rate would come down again to a tolerable and more historical 5.5 percent.” Well guess what? We’ve only hit that rate 3 times in the past 30 years. This initiative is an AB32 killer. Details are here.

George also didn’t disclose his own conflict of interest: His family contributed to the campaign of our Congressman Tom McClintock, who is leading the effort to rescind AB32. He also said he has contributed money to the local co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, whose group is supporting Prop. 23.

Shame on KVMR. I have yet to hear them present a cogent argument against Prop. 23. They let George spin them, on the “newscast” no less.

Next up is whether the county board of supervisors will stand up to the “hard right” and their pro-Prop. 23 fervor.

Twice now — in The Union and KVMR — George has been given the platform to pre-announce that very conservative (and outgoing) Supervisor John Spencer will ask the board to support a resolution supporting Prop. 23.

He baits them by saying: “It would be a sad day if the Board ducks the issue using, for example, the lame ploy that resolving to support or oppose Prop23 would violate their ‘relevance policy’. That is one shaky leg they should not attempt to stand on.”

I don’t know about you, but our family is in the middle, and we’re tired of letting the “hard right” — and in some cases, outright “wingnuts” — lead the rest of us around by our noses.

We get labeled “liberals,” even though a family member is a registered Republican. I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats over the years.

Here’s the facts: The county’s demographics are changing. We are becoming more “purple.” The local media won’t provide any leadership (they’re afraid to), so it will take a more aggressive grassroots effort — and some bold elected leadership — to keep us pointed in the right direction.

I’m counting on the supervisors to “do the right thing.” And I think they will.

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Right-wing blogger and The Union columnist George Rebane will provide commentary on KVMR tonight “Is Prop. 23 relevant to Nevada County?”

George has been a cheerleader for Prop. 23. Last year, his family also donated $500 to our Congressman Tom McClintock, who is spearheading the effort to pass Prop. 23. Details are here.

Here’s his view when it comes to “Is Prop. 23 relevant to Nevada County?”, according to his latest blog post: “It’s hard to believe that anyone with a three digit IQ actually believes the progressive bullcrap that AB32 is going to be anything other than a burden on our state, the extent of which is the only remaining question.”

Will KVMR disclose George’s contribution, as well as his bias toward the initiative? “This will be a brain stretcher,” blogging pal Russ Steele promises. Bet your “three digit IQ, bullcrap” it will be! Hee Haw! (see photo above).

Is our community getting both sides of an issue through the local media? Why isn’t KVMR featuring a commentator with a counter-point tonight as well? This is Journalism 101. Is this the best we can do? How sad.

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A Central California and foothills broadband project called CVIN/CENIC was awarded a $46 million grant this week that will bring fiber and bandwidth to the center of western Nevada County, as well as other regional communities. It comes after a $2.5 million award to Grass Valley-based SmarterBroadband that was reported here previously.

This week, another project called Plumas Sierra Telecommunications received a $13.8 million grant that will allow Plumas Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative to offer “affordable middle-mile broadband service” to as many as 33,000 people and 2,100 businesses. It also will create more than 120 Plumas Sierra jobs.

The latest list of winners are here.

As for the “middle-mile” project that helps our county: “This approximately $46.6 million award, with nearly $20 million in matching contributions, will allow Central Valley Independent Network (CVIN) to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in the Central Valley region of California.

“The project plans to directly connect up to 63 community institutions to broadband. As many as 3.6 million people stand to benefit as do 160,000 businesses. In addition to the over 280 jobs CVIN estimates the project will create, it will provide a foundation for economic growth and job creation for decades to come.”

The map of the project is here.

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For more than 25 years, Max’s restaurant has been an institution in the Bay Area. It has served up “comfort” food, along with real singers at Max’s Opera Cafe by the San Francisco Opera Center.

It also has a sense of humor: “This is a bad place for a diet,” is one slogan. “If you want something lean, eat the turkey,” is the comeback.

On Saurday a Max’s opens in Auburn at 110 Grass Valley Hwy, next to the Holiday Inn. The menu is here: max

Max’s is not far from Auburn’s In-N-Out Burger, which also has a cult following.

This is not to be confused with the Max’s Deli & Catering Co., which already is in Auburn — also a popular spot.

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Sarah Palin — a mother of five — coined the term “mama grizzly” for the female Republican candidates that she has endorsed. “There in Alaska I always think of the mama grizzly bears that rise up on their hind legs when somebody’s coming to attack their cubs, to do something adverse toward their cubs,” Palin states. “You thought pitbulls were tough, you don’t want to mess with the mama grizzlies.”

Now the liberal political group EMILY’s list has launched a new website and video ad at www.sarahdoesntspeakforme.com. “We really felt that it was so necessary for women and men to go to just make it clear that Sarah Palin and her set of candidates do not represent them,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s list. The video is here. Palin’s “mama grizzly” video is below that.

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Like her GOP compadre Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina also isn’t supporting Prop. 23, at least for now.

Prop. 23 would effectively rescind AB32, the state’s landmark global warming legislation.

“I haven’t yet taken a formal position on Prop. 23,” she told the Bee’s editorial board this week. “But I think common sense would tell us that you don’t rush forward with AB32 when you know it is destroying jobs in the short term.”

Will she take a position before the November election? the reporter asked. “Do we have other questions?” was her only response.

Neither Meg nor Carly are jumping on the Prop. 23 bandwagon, because they see that “decline to state” or independent voters are solidly against the proposition, as I reported earlier. They are a key voting block.

As I’ve been saying all along, most of us are in the middle, and we are the ones that the politicians are listening to.

The “hard right” (led by the likes of Russ Steele, George Rebane, the Pruetts, CABPRO, Tom McClintock, Dan Logue et al. in our little burgh) can jump up and down all they want. But they are going to vote for Meg and Carly anyway.

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