MONEYBALL: What election? I call it Moneyball.
Big Oil pumped nearly $8 million into defeating anti-fracking Measure P. Why didn’t they just kill the Bill of Rights as long as they had color ads lined up?
Democracy in action? It was more like the Oakland Raiders against the Santa Barbara High JV. It was a Burger King election, loaded with whoppers and just as greasy. As in war, truth was the first victim.
Big Oil made fracking sound like grandma baking cookies. And how do you spend that kind of money in little Santa Barbara County, anyway?
I figure they sent out a fleet of dump trucks with guys scooping greenbacks out with shovels. When they ran out of money, someone just made a call to their money guys:
“Send more dump trucks ASAP to bamboozle the yokels. They’ll obviously buy anything if we plaster enough ads. We’ll even tell the dopes there’s an oil shortage. Ha!”
It would have been more honest just to send every voter a check and dispense with the cynical BS that tainted the community “leaders” who led the No on P campaign, and the oil people behind it.
As for the election, you could see this coming a mile away. But with the Lois Capps–Chris Mitchum contest, everyone was talking about how close it was going to be and how Tea Party–backed Mitchum could whip Lois. But Lois worked like a slave, hitting every school and gathering of over five people.
If she hadn’t, we might have elected a climate change denier, someone who wanted to tinker — or worse — with Social Security and Medicare, things the Republicans hate. Mitchum believes the fairy tale that Measure P would put the oil industry out of business and thinks that the dream of Americans getting health insurance through Obamacare is a disaster.
Still, if Capps hadn’t worked her buns off — and had $2 million to work with while Mitchum had less than $400,000 — we might be sending him to Congress, where he’d have lots of like-minded Tea Party company.
So Capps got another hard-won two-year term. This time. But two years from now, if she runs?
Santa Barbara City College bit off more than the community could chew, lost its bond measure, and ran into a torrent of taxpayer flak. The board needs to rethink its mission.
Surprisingly, Montecitans rejected Montecito School District’s $27 million bond measure, 55.43 percent to 44.57. I guess even millionaires have to economize somewhere, eh?
WHAT WENT WRONG? They called it The War to End All Wars. But sadly, World War I was just the prelude to World War II. What have we learned?
UCSB History Associates and UCSB Center for Cold War Studies will present a centennial panel discussion on Armistice Day, (now called Veterans Day) Tuesday, November 11, a hundred years after the senseless slaughter of millions began in August 1914. A number of professors from UCSB’s Department of History will take part in the 7 p.m. discussion at the First Presbyterian Church, 21 East Constance Avenue: Jack Talbott, on the events that led to the war; John Lee, on the thinking of the war planners; Mary Furner, on effects of the war in the U.S.; and Stephen Humphreys, on the changed map of the Middle East.
I will moderate. To prepare, I dug out my old copy of Barbara Tuchman’s highly praised The Guns of August. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
SNEDDON’S LAST CASE: Tom Sneddon, a hard-nosed, straight-arrow, old-fashioned former Santa Barbara DA, is dead at 73. No, he wasn’t “a cold man,” as Michael Jackson sang in his 1995 album, but he stayed hot on Jackson’s trail as an alleged child molester. Sneddon, who served from 1983 until 2006, will be remembered for prosecuting Jackson because he believed in his heart that he was guilty. Even though proving it was a long shot, Sneddon didn’t shirk. A jury acquitted Jackson because of a lack of evidence. Soon after the 2005 trial, Jackson fled his Santa Ynez Valley ranch for good. He died in 2009.
WALK WITH A DOC: Every Thursday afternoon, Santa Barbara–born Dr. Jennifer Hone takes a stroll with whoever shows up. Just for health and fun. It’s also free. Walks leave from the west end of Shoreline Park, from 4:45 p.m. until 6:30. It’s part of the national Walk with a Doc health program. She’s an endocrinologist, daughter of Dan and Donna Hone. Ask her questions.