Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

The other day, I mentioned we shared some “San Francisco values” with some older parents and friends of ours from Indiana in the City by the Bay. Here’s a photo they posted on Facebook. My question: Who copied whom? LOL.

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Our resident right-wing, global warming denialists attended tonight’s presentation by CARB chair Mary Nichols in Nevada City, sat quietly, then rushed home and filed negative, preconceived reports from behind their PCs.

Sound like “passive/aggressive”? You decide.

“So what we saw tonight was a well rehearsed showtime for backwoods peons from a confident and powerful arm of California’s liberal establishment. They have ruled us for a generation and expect to show everyone what they can really do when AB32 comes into full force,” Pompous George Rebane wrote.

“Now it is Climate Weirdness, not climate disruption,” Pouting Russ Steele wrote. Both bloggers linked to each other’s reports.

No, Russ and George: It’s a public official coming to our neck of the woods to provide some insight. Go back to hiding behind your PC.

My wife and son ran into other attendees on the way to dinner at Matteo’s Public, and that couple was impressed with the presentation.

Another local blogger, Anna Haynes, filed this report.

Ironically, Russ and George had to drive up a street that was just repaved with federal stimulus funds. I figured that would be a deterrent to them showing up in the first place.

Feel free to submit your impressions of the event if you attended.

Exit question: Why do you think we’re viewed as backwoods peons? I would argue it’s partly because of our resident “wingnuts,” who are out of touch with the rest of the state (and world).

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Meg Whitman said Wednesday she paid an undocumented worker to clean her residence and provide other services in her home for *nine years* but insisted that she had been unaware of the woman’s immigration status, the L.A. Times reported.

Do you remember Zoe Baird, who also admitted to hiring illegal aliens in the Clinton administration? She lost her shot at U.S. Attorney General. The background is here.

A similar incident also severely damaged Michael Huffington’s effort to be elected U.S. senator from California in 1994, as the Times reminds us.

This comes on top of Meg’s poor voting record. And she is running for the highest office in the state, no less.

“Whitman, who has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, said her family hired Nicandra Diaz Santillan through an employment agency to which Diaz Santillan had provided documentation suggesting she was an American citizen,” according to the Times. “Whitman said Diaz Santillan provided a copy of her Social Security card and California driver’s license.”

Whitman said she fired Diaz Santillan in June 2009 after the woman revealed that she was living in the country illegally.

Meg and Jerry Brown discussing their positions on illegal immigration in Tuesday night’s debate is here.

“We do have to hold employers accountable for hiring only documented workers,” Meg said in the debate. Indeed we do.

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I hope you are enjoying the Indian Summer. We are so fortunate to call the Sierra and its foothills our home. Here is a photo of Meeks Bay at Tahoe that I shot this afternoon on my cell phone. I came to Meeks for a “lunch break” while working up here. I’ve been swimming in the lake all summer, including this afternoon. We also have been to the Yuba River repeatedly. I think I’ll break a personal record for swimming in the lake into October. I drove up on Historic Highway 40, one of the most picturesque routes in the area.

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Here’s the makeover of Broad Street in Nevada City, with crews grinding and resurfacing the street for the first time in decades — down to the dirt. The photos are courtesy of Mikail Graham, on his Facebook page. Seeing Broad Street with dirt exposed makes me think of the “rough and tumble” days. There’s a lot of history in that dirt. And to think, the repaving was done with federal stimulus money, no less.

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I’ve always been puzzled by Barry Pruett’s blog: “Inside Nevada County Politics”

Barry, if you recall, lost in every precinct in the county in the race for clerk-recorder. Long-timers tell me if was one of the biggest landslides in the county’s political history.

Now Barry purports to give us an “inside” look at county politics.

He doesn’t disclose, however, that his wife is paid by McClintock to represent the district — in a community outreach role, no less.

Needless to say Barry carries water for McClintock at every opportunity. He’s a verbal “flame thrower” too.

Should Barry disclose his conflict of interest on his blog?

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Here’s irony for you: Palo Alto-based Hewlett Packard contributed $13,200 to Democrat Barbara Boxer’s campaign for Senator. The details are here.

HP, you will recall, is where Carly Fiorina was CEO before she was forced out and ran for Senate as a GOPer. The two are now in a tight political race.

Some political pundits are wondering why Fiorina’s camp remained silent while this campaign ad from Boxer ran for a week:

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An air quality advisory for sensitive groups has been issued for Wednesday, according to the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District.

“Although it is unusual to have high ozone levels at this time of year, it is not unprecedented,” according to the group. “And this summer has been both unusual and unprecedented.”

Most of Nevada County’s ozone is transported by wind from the Sacramento and Bay Areas. High ozone levels cause breathing problems, burning eyes, sore throats and headaches.

A daily graph of ozone levels is here. Then click on “show graph.”

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The L.A. Times has a probing story on the Koch brothers and their relationship with Senate candidate Carly Fiorina. The article is here.

“Though one brother lives in Wichita, Kan., and the other in Manhattan, they seem to be taking a particular interest in California politics this year,” the Times wrote. “They helped mount the campaign for Proposition 23, the ballot measure that essentially would gut AB 32, the state law mandating lower carbon emissions as a step toward addressing global warming.

“A Koch Industries PAC has also donated $5,000 to Fiorina, and the company was among the sponsors of a Washington fundraiser for her Thursday night.”

It has some background on the brothers, too: “According to a New Yorker profile, the Koch brothers’ father was one of the original members of the John Birch Society, and his sons embraced his conservative politics, ultimately drifting into the anarchist-inflected wing of the libertarian movement. They’re currently major funders of the ‘tea party’ and of conservative Republican candidates across the country.”

Greenpeace also issued a report identifying Koch Industries as the “kingpin of climate science denial.”

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Our Congressman Tom McClintock hopes to actually live in our district some day. Meanwhile, staunch Republican Tom is making his home in Elk Grove.

As it turns out, Jerry Brown is out in front of Meg Whitman 47 percent to 38 percent in Elk Grove, according to a poll in the Elk Grove Citizen. The undecided vote is 7 percent and those who “don’t give a hoot!” is another 7 percent.

Earlier this summer, Tom said he was “not prepared to endorse” Whitman “right now.” Tom had backed Steve Poizner, who lost to Meg in the primary.

Here’s a video clip from last night’s debate between Brown and Whitman, meanwhile.

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