The Start of the 10th Annual Ojai-Ventura Film Festival was a free outdoor (brrrrr) screening at the Ojai Valley Inn of the film The Most Dangerous Man In America  – the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.  Good film about an amazing story.  Ellsberg, a highly regarded war strategist for the Rand Corp. in the 1960’s and was the consummate hawk. 

His top-secret clearance made him privy to the most sensitive documents in the U.S. Government, documents that eventually, along with the moral compass of his wife, caused Ellsberg to change his thinking about the Vietnam war.  Eventually, he made the decision to spirit out of the Pentagon some 7,000 pages of secret documents, photocopy them and distribute them to whoever would publish them.

As it turned out, it was a series of articles published in newspapers throughout the country that brought the information to light.  Even though the full pressure of the President and Attorney General were applied in an attempt to quash the publication of this information, ingenuity and guts overcame power with all major news organizations trumpeting the news for weeks.  This in turn lead to the Nixon Whitehouse hiring of men to break into democratic HQ offices and those of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, only to be discovered soon thereafter.  In short, a series of events stemming from the Pentagon papers resulted in Nixon’s resignation and the end of the war in Vietnam.

Unbeknownst to me until now was the fact that the war in Indochina really began with Truman, who provided U.S. funding to the French to overtake Vietnam and perpetuated a series of lies by presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, who had no intention of seeing the war end. 

Ellsberg was in attendance and answered questions after the screening.  At 71, he is still vigorous and as passionate as ever about taking a position and defending it.  Here’s a man who took a giant chance, against the federal government, and seemed to win, although he lost many things along the way.  Quoting Thoreau, Ellsberg said “” Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.”

The day after an election has a calming effect.  Much activity, effort and dollars were focused on elections across the nation and here in Ventura, it’s no different.  Some general thoughts:

City Council Race:  Mike Tracy was the big winner (7,411 votes) followed by Neal Andrews (6,945) Jim Monahan (6,488) and Brian Brennan (5,670) to fill the four open seats.  Incumbent Ed Summers finished fourth (5,059) followed by ten also rans.  These results were not surprising.  What is surprising is that some people are already anointing Tracy for the mayoral position.    A shout out to the Ventura Police Officers Association for their hit tactics against Andrews – it certainly sealed his victory.

The field was large and the campaign trail long, as all candidates suffered through seventeen public forums, television and newspaper interviews and lots of phone work over the past two months.  Ken Kozzens, who fared better than many others, said the experience was exhausting and not one he is likely to repeat.  

GOOD JOB CANDIDATES – NOW GO PICK UP YOUR SIGNS!!!

Measure A  –  the 1/2 cent sales tax, lost as 56% of voters said no.  This isn’t surprising as the anti-tax mantra has been sounding out loudly on many fronts and in many forms.  What remains to be seen is how the city, already $2-3 million further in the hole due to the decrease in sales tax collection, will now deal with having to make ends meet without the $7+ million Measure A would have generated.  For a  start – expect the Wright Library to close before year’s end. For another:

“Thank you for calling 911, please listen carefully as our menu has changed – your estimated wait time is 29 minutes…:

Measure B - Protecting the Viewsheds…lost with 75% of voters rejecting the notion of tall building Canyonization would be coming soon.  Reminds me of 1998’s Measure A which would have turned Midtown into Santa Barbara, or so proponents said back then.   We all like views, let’s just keep those in charge on the ball and doing the right things for our future.

Of particular note is the $28225 listed on Campaign form 460 as being contributed by Camille Harris towards this initiative.  Now that’s putting your $$ where your mouth is.

Measure C - No Big box initiative – failed as 55% of voters said no.  I understand the reasoning here – half the people hate Wal-Mart and 450 unionized grocery workers (and their families) are fearful that such a retailer could affect their livelihoods in the future.  What I didn’t like is the idea that this could stop Wal-Mart from coming, because it wouldn’t have done that.

Oxnard’s Measure E – for education, also failed.  Although the money went to schools and elderly could avoid participating, this measure failed by less than 500 votes, in a city of nearly 200,000. 

Thanks to everyone who participated in the process, life would be so boring without you!

Artists look at the world through a different lens, and I’m glad to see the results.  Our last stop at tonight’s Artwalk was to Stoneworks on the Avenue, where at closing time, there stood John White, the right brained half of the duo from Sylvia White Gallery.  John had just shut the light but beckoned us into a room to see his latest installation Art Survives Politics.  It’s a collection of political signs that John ‘borrowed’ from nearly all of the cadidates running for Ventura City Council.  He then rearranged their appearance and hung each against signs of all candidate’s names.  It’s  a beautiful use of the eyesore that is political advertising all around town.  John said that nearly all the candidates came to see the work…

For more on campaign signs, read Marie Lakin’s blog entry here: http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/mlakin/

…average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.”  These words from Eleanor Roosevelt are on a small plaque in our home which I read  frequently when walking by it.  They’re poignant to me so I try to remember them as I go about my day.  It’s sad  to see how much time American culture spends on the last of these three points, what with reality television, mainstream media myopia on inane things like “the boy in the balloon” (or not in the balloon as it were) and dissemination of disinformation through the internet leading to an ever changing degree of verisimilitude.

Imagine if each of us replaced just two hours a week of such time-wasting endeavors with activities that build our community, engage in meaningful discourse or just went for a walk, how much different the world could be.

A guy can dream can’t he?

Yesterday, Al Frankin, former SNL comedy writer/performer cum U.S. Senator from Minn. got his first piece of legislation passed.  The amendment stops federal funding to contractors who, through contracts with their own employees, deny their employees from bringing lawsuits against their employers if they were assaulted by other employees.  Said Frankin:

“The story came to my attention of Jamie Leigh Jones who, when she was 19, went to Iraq to work for defense contractor KBR (a former Halliburton subsidiary) and she was put in the barracks with 400 men and was sexually harassed,” Franken told the Huffington Post shortly after the vote. “She complained. But they didn’t do anything about it. She was drugged and gang raped and they locked her up in a shipping container. She tried to sue KBR and they said you have a mandatory arbitration clause in your contract. She tried to fight back and said this is ridiculous. She took it to court and they have been fighting her for three years.”  

What’s also notable is that 30 senators voted against this bill.  The final vote was 68 to 30, with nine republicans joining the democrats who voted it in.

Having heard some of the reasoning from those who votes nay, I just have to ask:  WHAT PLANET DO YOU LIVE ON ????????? 

Frankin said it well:  “This bill would make it so that anybody in business with the Department of the Defense can’t do this,” he concluded emphatically. “They can’t have mandatory arbitration on issues like assault and battery.”

I am sad to see the divergence of thought in this country growing further apart each day – like people at opposite sides of the grand Canyon shouting across the chasm, not hearing or caring to hear those on the other side.

In a related story, Halliburton stock, which was $5.47 in Jan, 2002, reached $50.03 in June of 2008.    You see, it really is all about the money.

“This bill would make it so that anybody in business with the Department of the Defense can’t do this,” he concluded emphatically. “They can’t have mandatory arbitration on issues like assault and battery.”

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/franken-gets-first-amendm_n_312399.html

In a surprize vote, the Nobel committee has chosen to give Barack Obama the prize for diplomacy after less than a year in office.  It may be the first time that the prize was given , as the president acknowledged, “to give momentum” to future actions, as opposed to past achievements.  Call it another vote for hope.  “I do not deserve to be in the company of past recipients” who have done so much, he said. 

Compared to the leadership and lack of collaboration among world leaders in the past decade, much has changed in the past nine months.  Let’s hope that this propels Obama, and all the world, to prioritize diplomacy and agreement to the top of the agenda.  Because it’s already a smaller world than it was before the announcement.

Just let out of the new Michael Moore film called CAPITALISM:  A Love Story.  It’s the fifth of his I’ve seen and while not as humorous as his earlier efforts, it carries on the tradition of Moore focusing his tinted lens upon a travesty in our country.  This time it’s Wall Street, the banking system, derivatives and lawmakers turning the American dream into a nightmare. 

A few things new to me:  Plutocracy:  the political control of the state by an oligarchy of the wealthy.  I believe in capitalism (small c) but over the past twenty years, things have simply gotten out of hand whereby now three percent of the people have more than the 97% remaining combined.

What’s puzzling is that so much fearmongering has been cast by certain factions using words like Socialism, that very little widespread discourse has been done on the utter imbalance that our current  financial system has wreaked upon us. 

In his time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a proponent of a Second Bill of Rights, which he delivered to the American people in April of 1944.  So pertinent were the items in that address, that I repeat them here:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. 

Let us hope that the wisest minds in the land work towards a similar set of goals for the people of this country in the near future.

This year’s Hillsides Music Festival was another great day in the sun. Newcomer Jay Nash started things off with a Counting Crows style of indie rock. Keb’ Mo’ rocked the house (his son Kevin Moore II played drums), Dave Mason did his best and the Neville Brothers brought creosoul to a town that could use more of it. The weather, crowd and event were perfect. And it was all for a good cause… nice work organizers

The funny thing about memory is that you never know when it’s going to kick in.  When I heard about E.L. Doctorow’s new book about the Collyer Brothers, it triggered something in my past.    Homer and Langley Collyer lived together for years.  One was blind, the other a pack rat of epic proportions.  Their home contained over 20 tons of trash:  cans, paper, car parts, etc… 

In high school, I had a friend from the football team named Greg.  His family was originally from Oklahoma, but had relocated to Beverly Hills a few years before I met him.  Being Okkies, his parents had the double whammy:  born dirt poor and during the depression.  They must have had a Beverly Hillies financial epiffany becaseu all of a sudden, there they were, moing on up to the West Side.

But they never forgot their roots.  Gregs house was a collection of papers, and bottles, cans, milk jugs and everything ever purchased that was not perishable.  I am not exaggerating when I say everything.  The few times I visited Greg in his parents home, it was stepping into the basement of a manufacturing plant from the 1950’s.  After navigating through the various piles in each room, we would snake through the house to Greg’s room.

For a boy of sixteen, Greg did whatever he could to be normal:  He painted his room bright blue, as was the shag carpet.  He took a liking to soul music and fancied black women.  He grew his hair into an afro, even though he was white as a ghost.  Greg was also an alcoholic, favoring gin.  I couldn’t bame him.  His parents were wierd and his environs like that of a David Lynch film.A bottle of gin per night.

One day, when his folks were out of the house, I had an idea.  They had colelcted newspapers back many years and I was wondering if we could find copies of the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times from the mid 1060’s – find ads for bands such as the Beatles, The Rolling Stones,etc…

Sure enough, the papers were in a relatively good sense of order and within a few minutes, we were finding notices from those and more.

I guess Greg’s parents had such a deep seated fear of losing their belongings, that they kept everything – every peanut butter jar, every paper bag.  It was a indoor world of grey.  They each slept on cots in their respective bedrooms.  Alone.  surrounded by piles of possessions.  Perhaps separated by these possessions.  Or perhaps separated by insanity. 

The stragest thing was the dress.  I suspect it was an important dress once worn my Greg’s mother.  Now it hung above the toilet, covered in plastic.  With a bit of dust over it. Dark red as I recall.  A sad view of the ultimate pack rat.

Sunday is a work day for FDIC workers at Affinity

Affinity Bank was seized by regulators on Friday, ending a chapter of local banking that had been waning for several months.  On Sunday, FDIC  employees were seen in Affinity’s conference room, reviewing files and counting the money. 

They had struck a deal with San Diego based Pacific Western Bank to take over Affinity’s ten branches and buy nearly $1 billion in assets.  The cost of this meltdown to taxpayers is an estimated $254 million, according the regulators.

Affinity has been a good community partner, generously giving to various non-profits in Ventura County.  In an area already sparse in corporate donors, this will likely mean fewer dollars being parsed out to worthy causes here in the future.

But the fact remains that the banking fiasco, where one of the most conservative of industries turned into one of the most aggressive and careless when it came to lending money, is still not over…