Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“Republicans seem to have a really, really narrow idea of what constitutes racism — which is how they’re able to claim that the Tea Parties aren’t riddled with racism throughout,” according to Crooks & Liars.com

“But then little stories like this one from Orange County keep bubbling up to the surface of their fetid little Tea Party cesspool:

“The Weekly has obtained a copy of an email sent to fellow conservatives this week by Marilyn Davenport, a Southern California Tea Party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County Republican Party.

“Under the words, ‘Now you know why no birth certificate,’ there’s an Obama family portrait showing them as apes.

“As always, the ‘sweet little old lady’ who sent the mail had no idea that anyone might possibly construe the mail as racist, even though comparing black people to various kinds of apes has always been a stock feature of racist denigration in America. Why, some of her best friends are black!

“Reached by telephone and asked if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, ‘Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it.’

“The image did upset several local Republicans.

‘”It’s unbelievable,’ one high-ranking OC GOP official told me. ‘It’s much more racist than the watermelon email. I can’t believe it was sent out. I’m not an Obama fan but how stupid do you have to be to do this?”‘

The rest of the article is here.

Exit question: Do people know when they’re being racist?

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I see we’ve settled our homeless problem in downtown Nevada City: By relocating the free lunch program from the neighborhood of residents who complained loudly to City Hall to the other side of the freeway, where we happen to reside.

Being a good neighbor, I went out to mow the lawn for their arrival — and to welcome spring in general. It’s only fitting, given the spirt of the Easter season, and besides “good fences make good neighbors,” and we have them.

It was the first mow of the season, always a pleasant undertaking: the smell of fresh cut grass is redolent of spring. It’s late to be mowing the lawn, but the compromise is that Easter falls late this year too. And there was snow on the lawn earlier in the week.

I like lawns, and inherited this one, but educator Michael Pollan once made an apt quote about them: “A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.” I can’t wait until the lupine come up in that flower bed in the photo. I already see some buds.

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Here’s a small-town business scooplet: A new restaurant called Jernigan’s Tap House & Grill is coming to the Seven Hills district in Nevada City, according to a new sign out in front.

The restaurant at 123 Argall Way is expected to open in May.

Jernigan’s also has a website here. “Nevada/City’s new Tap House & Grill,” it reads. “Where great food, a great selection of beer, and great service is what we do.”

Jernigan’s likely will give the Seven Hills District more “oomph.” It is across the street from a planned brewery, the Ol’ Republic Brewery, as first reported here.

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“Three hundred cinemas across America yesterday bore witness a curious social spectacle,” according to the Independent in London.

“In place of overweight men queuing for the latest Star Wars re-hash or spotty youths awaiting another Twilight installment was line after line of middle-age white people wearing tricorn hats, stars-and-stripes T-shirts and pin badges suggesting that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. This is the Tea Party, on a big night out.

“The occasion was the launch of Atlas Shrugged, a film version of a novel written in 1957 by Ayn Rand. The book, a 1200-page parable espousing the author’s robust libertarian philosophy, has for years been popular bedtime reading for members of the Republican right, alongside The Bible and Townhall magazine. Today, decades after Rand’ s death, it remains one of the most popular texts of the 20th century, selling 100,000 copies a year.

“Hit movies do not make themselves, though. And putting Atlas Shrugged on the screen has taken half a century. A long and sometimes rambling tale of a dystopian world in which business leaders elect to disappear rather than submit to the creeping scourge of socialism, it is laden with dense prose, including a 60-page polemic in which an industrialist called John Galt, bids ‘farewell’ to America. Many of Hollywood’ s brightest minds therefore consider it unfilmable.”

The rest of the article is here.

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“On one hand, thousands of fliers stuck up around Butte County Wednesday night seem to promote a tea party rally planned for Monday at City Plaza,” according to the Chico Enterprise Record.

“But Tea Party Patriots said they had nothing to do with the fliers, and charge they are a vile attempt to present the rally as something it isn’t.

“The fliers provide names of people associated with the Butte County Republican Party and the Chico Tea Party Patriots. They also include the time and place — a Chico restaurant — where the Tea Party Patriots and those interested in learning more about the organization meet on a regular basis.

“But a man who claims to be associated with the Tea Party Patriots said the fliers are not being done by that group or the Butte County Republican Party.

“He said the group finds them disgusting, racist and feels they are being distributed by the opposition.

“The offending flier includes the wording ‘Help us take our country back from the Kenyan.’ The ‘Kenyan’ he believes, is a reference to President Barrack Obama.”

The rest of the article is here.

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There’s an old newsroom saying “Have you heard about the Lindberg kidnapping,” referring to reporting stale news for your readers. It occurs a lot around here.

Here’s an example: On Feb. 28 this blog reported: Weaver Auto owes $641,591 in delinquent taxes, according to the state board of equalization.

Then on April 15, The Union weighs in: “Weaver Truck and Auto Center in Grass Valley, which closed in 2008, owes various government agencies nearly $700,000 in delinquent taxes, fees and penalties, records show. For details, read Monday’s edition of The Union.”

The internet is changing the way we communicate in small towns.

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We like to shine a light on the entrenched institutions (AKA, the “good old boys/girls”) on this blog, and the administrative soap opera at the Nevada Joint Union School district is the latest shining example.

On the upside, it also shows that change is afoot in our community — a point we’ve also made at the risk of drawing heat from some entrenched factions.

I’ve been busy with my “day job” this past week, but I’ve been receiving regular updates from insiders. The soap opera stems from a shakeup that has Nevada Union high-school principal — Marty Mathiesen — being voluntarily reassigned to another school, along with an assistant principal, Cathy Peterson.

In the latest twist, I was glad to see assistant principal Sven Ostrom admit to a mistake after helping a student with a petition to keep Mathiesen and Peterson at NU. Ostrom is a longtimer at the school and will retire in June.

Many teachers had protested to the school administration this past week after finding out about the incident, pointing out that the students should be left out of the drama, according to my sources.

The biggest farce of this soap opera occurred when Sam Aanestad — our former state senator, no less — intervened on behalf of the administrators who were being reassigned. Aanestad asked that the board reconsider their decision.

“I don’t think Sam has set foot on campus for 15 years,” one source told me. “But he sure seems to know about all the ‘facts’ that the board didn’t consider.” He added that Aanestad was friends with some of the administrators who were involved.

As people at the school pointed out, however, the dissenters such as Aanesdad are the exception — not the rule. The high school district school board voted 3-1-1 to approve the transfer, with Board President Mark Heauser abstaining.

“Whenever change like this happens at a school, emotions can run high,” as one insider told me. “It’s like a divorce. We know there’s going to be protest.

“However, if you really look at it, it’s been surprisingly quiet. The silent majority. Petitions have only generated a few hundred signatures. Only three parents (not dozens) showed up at the Board meeting.”

Yup. Change is in the air. The internet is changing the way we communicate, opening up new channels of discussion.

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