Statewide Stuff Archives - Page 14 of 14 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

August 4, 2009December 28, 2009Marijuana

No Stems or Seeds That You Don’t Need

Recently Fullerton’s Redevelopment Director, Robert Zur Schmiede (who also serves on the planning commission for Laguna Beach) decided to channel his inner MD for an impromptu prescription to the Laguna Beach City Council to ban all medical marijuana dispensaries from the city. An OC Register article detailing the issue is available here, but here are a couple of noteworthy quotes:

“While acknowledging the needs of ill patients to access marijuana, I will not support — and will, in fact, vehemently oppose — the allowance of collectives in the city,” Commissioner Robert Zur Schmiede said.

“Why anyone with a grain of sense thinks this is something we should do is beyond me,” he added, to some murmurs in the audience.

Father Schmiede Knows Best — Father Zur Schmiede Knows Best

Let’s get this straight:

the majority of voters in California elected to legalize marijuana for medical use 13 years ago
Zur Schmiede is fully aware that there are ailing citizens who have a legitimate medical need for the drug
Zur Schmiede does not have a medical degree

Despite all that, he actively seeks to deny patients access to a drug that a licensed medical doctor has recommended for treatment.

Hmm... No medical marijuana for you! Trust me. I'm not a doctor.

Does Zur Schmiede really have the public interest in mind here? Can we expect this sort of reefer madness to echo in Fullerton? Or can we reasonably expect our city staff to uphold State law?

08/04/09 UPDATE BY THE FULLERTON HARPOON:

We have delved deep into our photo archives and have uncovered this image. And so continuing in the Robert Young leitmotif we share it with our Friends.

But I'm sick and need help! Nein! Ve vill never approve this pprescription! — But I'm sick and need help! Nein! Ve vill never approve zis prescription!

August 2, 2009August 2, 2009Redevelopment

Huell Howser – Redevelopment Whore? Say It Ain’t So.

by The Fullerton Harpoon14 Comments

Every things lookin' good! — Everything's lookin' good! For me.

We read in the LA Times this morning a story about Redevelopment by Jessica Garrison. It was a kind of weird hybrid about State budget raids on Redevelopment agencies and about how the California Redevelopment Association had paid to produce a series of TV shows touting the wonders of redevelopment and hosted by Huell Howser click here for story .

We have always considered Howser something of a menace to culture and intelligent television with his dopey drawl, his inability to ask an insightful question, his perpetual overstatement of the obvious, and his complete disregard for whatever his “guests” happen to be saying. The transfiguration of the mundane into the near metaphysical (hey Louie, you gotta get a picture of this bubblin’ mud hole!) is another annoying part of his tiresome schtick. But on balance he seemed to be fairly innocuous, little kids who didn’t know any better liked him, and we remember with fondness his attempt to save the Long Beach Naval Shipyard facilities.

According to Garrison’s article Howser has now been bought and paid for by the Redevelopment lobby, who undoubtedly saw an opportunity to co-opt a voice for preservation and employ it for themselves. Howser should be ashamed of himself for getting into bed with the same greedy, self-interested thieves who have done inestimable harm to the historic built environment in California. For every historic building it has saved (remuddled, more likely) redevelopment has deployed its bulldozers against a hundred others.

Hey Louie, you gotta get a picture of this!

Well, Huell has got his thirty pieces of silver. But as the article points out, the State’s raid on Redevelopment coffers may well spell the end for many Redevelopment agencies. Let’s hope so. And let’s make sure to boycott Howser’s puff piece love notes to the CRA.

May 19, 2009May 20, 2009Big Brother

Judge Jim Gray on Marijuana

by admin9 Comments

Marijuana. Decriminalize, tax and regulate. Makes a lot more sense than ban, spray and incarcerate. Of course, it’s just the dark-skinned ones that we jail mostly. For middle class kids, it’s just “experimentation”!

That was the message of retired Judge Jim Gray at last night’s packed meeting of the Neighbors United for Fullerton at the main library. Gray told the supportive NUFFsters that imprisoning marijuana offenders costs California taxpayers $1 billion yearly and taxing it would add $4 billion to state coffers. That’s a net of $5 billion!

Who are the big winners in the drug war? Prison guards, prison builders, drug lords, dumb politicians and Big Pharma. (Tough to profit from a plant that grows in the wilds!)

Elected officials attending–and positively responding–were Supervisor Chris Norby and Anaheim UHSD Board Member Katherine Smith.

Gray talked about all the costs of the entire drug war, but concentrated on cannabis as the one most likely to see real reform. AB 390 by Assemblyman Tom Amiano (D-San Francisco) would legalize and tax marijuana in California, to take effect only after federal law was changed to respect state autonomy on the issue.

How ’bout it Barack? Would society really have been better off had you been jailed back during your experimental youth?

There are just enough pro-freedom Dems and Reps to form a coaltion. Reefer Madness might soon be replaced by Reefer sanity!

May 18, 2009Statewide Stuff

No. No. No. No. No. No.

by Grover Cleveland7 Comments

Here’s how to vote on tomorrow’s state ballot initiatives: No. No. No. No. No. No.

6 No’s.

Vote against all of them. Terminate the Governator’s bogus reform. The whole thing is a fraud.

The only one that really matters is Prop. 1A, which would jack up our taxes another $16 billion by extending recent tax hikes another 2 years. As if Arnold didn’t tax us enough already! We have the highest state sales and income taxes in the known universe. Taxes need to be CUT, not raised.

We, the voters, elected Arnold 6 years ago specifically to get the budget in order — with no new taxes.

That’s what he promised in 2003, when he was first elected, and again in 2006, when he was re-elected: No new taxes.

He lied.

He’s a fraud and we shouldn’t let him get away with it.

So, tomorrow vote against all six propositions.

Next up: Recall Arnold.

Let’s kick that tax-obsessed bum out of office.

May 7, 2009May 7, 2009Friends Around the World

Barney Wewak Opines on Prop 1F

by The Fullerton Harpoon5 Comments

Former Troy High foreign exchange student and Friend of Fullerton B’rni (Barney) Wewak, current headman of a Papuan highlands tribe, recently sent us an e-mail. It seems that Barney not only follows the doings in our humble little burg, but he also keeps abreast of California politics. We reproduce his e-mail wherein he shares his thoughts on Proposition 1F. We have translated his e-mail from the original Papuan Sepik dialect so that you Fellow Friends may enjoy it, too.

Greetings Brothers and Sisters of Fullerton! May your deities grant you a bountiful red fruit crop and may the tree bark grubs fall easily onto your banana leaf!

I have been keeping myself informed about the perilous economic time of troubles in your beautiful land of California where the warm sun shines beneficently on the succulent bosoms of your generous women. I believe that the strange-speaking, abnormally shaped Headman of your noble country is attempting to lay a heavy burden on you in the form of Propositions 1A-1F. There is no need for me, once merely a humble visitor to your abundant land to tell you that 1A-1E are nothing but lies and deceit – the malicious whisperings of an evil spirit. But I must also tell you that 1F is full of danger for you, as well.

If I may be so bold, let me share with you a story about my tribe that I think will help you understand your danger.

Some time past our tribe began to experience a shortage of bright feathers. Our tribal council of elders began to borrow feathers from neighboring tribes, promising a percentage of our annual taro crop and sea shell reserve. We soon became heavily indebted to the neighboring tribes who began to lord their superiority over us. And then it became known that much of the bright feather shortage came from the elders themselves who had begun to create ever more elaborate headdresses!

Does he get a car allowance? — Does a car allowance come with that?

Finally, the tribe had endured enough and decided that unless the elders produced a balanced feather plan they would be forced to yield up their annual Yam Stipend. The elders met and deliberated for many, many months. And it came to pass that in order to maintain their splendid plummage and keep their yam allotment, the elders raised each tribesman’s feather quota!

And so my Friends in Fullerton and California I earnestly admonish you to avoid the costly error of my people and do not fall into the tapir-trap that has ensnared my tribe.

Pay attention to where you're going! — please watch your step...

In valediction I say to you – my fellow Friends of Fullerton : may the gods remain favorable to you and grant you gentle rain in the summer and confusion to your enemies.

B’rni (Barney) Wewak, D.Lit, Cantab.