Sunday, August 11, 2013

Conservation District Watch: The Stacked Deck

The San Juan Islands Conservation District has merged with the San Juan County Stewardship Network and the Puget Sound Partnership's ECONet. Moreover, the non-profit Madrona Institute and the PSP's Action Agenda Oversight Group (AAOG)/Local Implementation Organization (LIO) have incestuous links to the Conservation District too.

Let's play a shortened version of 20 questions ... let's try 6 questions:
  1. Who is head of the San Juan Islands Conservation District?
  2. Who is on the steering committee of the Stewardship Network?
  3. Who is the founder and head of the Madrona Institute, which acts as the fiscal agent for the Stewardship Network, receiving a modest 5% to 10% cut on all grants?
  4. Who endorsed Pratt, Stephens, and Byers for Council?
  5. Who has been trying to take County programs and grants away from the County (e.g., Salmon Lead Entity Coordinator)?
  6. Who has been discussing #5 above with Jamie Stephens in relative secrecy?
The answer to all of the above is Ron Zee, who is part-creator, part-manipulator of a giant hairball bureaucracy that is a wolf (PSP) in Conservation District clothing. At the end of this post is an effort to depict this hairball with a graph, but honestly, it's an impossible task. Complexity is their disguise. It's a Gordian Knot of bureaucratic self-interest and conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, I hope readers begin to get an idea who the real power is behind this bureaucracy ... and it's not our elected officials.

The Stewardship Network is comprised of 24 organizations, including 5 separate County entities. The Steering Committee for the Stewardship Network is comprised of 4 people: Zee, Linda Lyshall (who works for Zee at the Conservation District), Stephanie Buffum of the Friends, and Lincoln Bormann of the Land Bank. This Steering Committee recently appointed Julia Vouri to be the coordinator of the Stewardship Network/ECONet "under the umbrella of the Conservation District."  The Conservation District Board had no say in the matter. Julia Vouri is the wife of Mike Vouri, who happens to be on the Advisory Board of the Madrona Institute. The Madrona Institute was founded and is headed by Zee. He has put together a 4-person Madrona Institute Board (himself, Land Bank Commissioner Jim Skoog, League of Women Voters member Sarah Crosby, and Elaine Kendall of the Ag Guild ... Zee's wife). In addition, Zee has assembled an 18-member Madrona Institute Advisory Committee that includes Linda Lyshall (again), Lincoln Bormann (again), the previously mentioned Mike Vouri, Nick Teague (National Monument/BLM Manager), and Katie Loring, wife of Friends' attorney Kyle Loring who Zee appointed as Associate Board member of the Conservation District.

Given the weight of all these heavily-networked advisors and board members, anyone who thinks the measly Conservation District Board has any power is at best an optimist and at worst a damn fool. The Conservation District Board consists of 5 members, two of whom are appointed by the State. There are just three elected members to the Conservation District Board in an otherwise sprawling complex of self-appointed greased-palm special interests.

And that's not even including the links between the Conservation District and the AAOG/LIO, whose links to the Conservation District are so cozy that the Conservation District has an office reserved for them in their new building. Who's on the AAOG/LIO, aside from the Conservation District itself? Let's see ... the Implementation Committee of the AAOG/LIO consists of a further 12 organizations, including the Marine Resources Committee (again), the Salmon Lead Entity Coordinator (again), the Stewardship Network (again), three County departments (Public Works, CD&P, Health), the Water Resources Committee, the Town, and 3 tribes.

In this impossible-to-follow Gordian Knot, self-appointed Zee-cronies are represented multiple times while the public is shut out. Let's look at the Salmon Lead Entity (SLE), for example. The Salmon Lead Entity Coordinator is Barbara Rosenkotter, who was the Treasurer for Byers campaign (endorsed by then-Democratic-Party-head Zee). Although Rosenkotter ostensibly works for the County, she represents the Stewardship Network, the MRC, and the AAOG/LIO Implementation Committee ... and she has been working stealthily with Zee, the Northwest Straits Commission/Foundation, and the tribes to move her position and State funding to the Conservation District.

There you have it ... 24 organizations in the Stewardship Network, 18 advisors to the Madrona Institute, 4 board members of the Madrona Institute, 13 members to the AAOG/LIO Implementation Committee, 2 State appointees to the Conservation District ... and just 3 elected members of the Conservation District Board. No independently elected official to the Conservation District or even to our County Council has a clue how they're being played by this bureaucracy of mass destruction. No matter how improved the Conservation District electoral system might become as a result of anticipated reforms and lawsuits, the fix is already in ... the elected positions don't even matter anymore ... the Conservation District is machine headquarters where the business of the PSP and Friends is done. The Conservation District is hopelessly broken as a representative body.

And this cabal will pass judgment on whether we, as a County, are good Puget Sound Partners. That's important because whether we are good Puget Sound Partners will matter when our County tries to obtain funding from the State. There is statutory language to that effect. Given the hearings this past week about Conservation District funding, the County Council may be under the misapprehension that they are funding the Conservation District, but in reality, it's the reverse. The County is being set up to be squeezed by the Conservation District, the PSP, and the Friends over State money. If we don't follow their whims, our State funding will be threatened.

And despite the high-minded labels (e.g., Salmon Lead Entity) and the strident, tearful pleas of bureaucratic insiders crying about the environment, absolutely none of the bureaucratic whims have anything to do with improving ecological health. The taxes and grants devoted to bureaucratic eco-efforts aren't funding on-the-ground "save the salmon" or "save the planet" initiatives ... they're funding "save the bureaucracy" initiatives.

Support the Conservation District and save a self-interested bureaucrat ... and maybe even earn a modest 5% to 10% cut for Zee at the same time.  Now that's environmental stewardship San Juan style.
Click to enlarge. Right-click to download.

56 comments:

  1. How can county employees like Lincoln serve on bodies that end up having a say over county programs, or even county funding? Isn't that a conflict?

    Does the county make its employees disclose their associations and conflicts on at least an annual basis?

    Six different county departments or committees serve on the PSP AAOG/LIO? Five county committees serve on the Stewardship Network along with the Friends? Two county entities serve on both?

    How much meeting time does all this take up? This is ridiculous.

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  2. @10:19

    It doesn't matter that the county committees serve with with the Friends on the Stewardship Network because the Friends make up the committees too. It's all the same people. They just wear different name tags depending what meeting their in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stephanie Buffum runs from one meeting where she's "the Friends" to another meeting where she's the "Stewardship Network" to another meeting where she's the "Steering Committee" to another meeting where she meets with her employee Kyle Loring, Associate Board member of the Conservation District, then talks to her other employee, Tina Whitman, of the Marine Resources Committee before she calls her good friend Barbara Rosenkotter, Salmon Lead Entity, and then drops by the new
    offices of fellow Stewardship Network member, the Conservation District, to chat about the PSP EcoNet messaging grant (Puget Sound is in Trouble, Our Environment is Our Economy) and see the new PSP AAOG/LIO office.

    That leaves just enough time to sign a treaty with Canada and abuse some shoreline owners before going home for the day.

    Voters? What voters? It's a sham.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is part of the real organizational chart.

    Now it becomes more clear why a lot of money poured into the past election to put Lovel and Lisa into office. To grease the palms and quietly lock this machine into place.

    Does anyone with a brain cell seriously believe all this came into place over the past few months?

    Here is a question for the day: Who is the individual and her husband who led the fund raising campaign beginning in December for both Lisa and Lovel?

    Someone who makes the initial maximum legally allowed contributions at the very beginning, set the tone and led the charge and worked the phones.

    Who?

    ReplyDelete
  5. @10:32

    You forgot to add Stephanie dropping by the Land Bank to see fellow Steering Committee member and Madrona Institute Advisor, Lincoln Bormann.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bureaucracy of mass destruction! I like it. xD

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, I think I need an insurance policy to protect myself from this racket.

    Well, citizen, I'm glad you brought that up ...

    Soooo ... what about those quiet meetings over in Deer Harbor ...

    What about that interlocal agreement back in March binding all regional Conservation Districts to the Puget Sound Partnership?

    That didn't happen overnight either.

    The Conservation Districts are on the whole, fine community assets, all over the United States.

    They are being infected and the cancer is growing. Let's just please be sure the cure isn't worse than the disease. It may be that "precautionary measures" can be taken for preventive care. It may not be too late.

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  8. Here's a precautionary measure. Get rid of the conservation district as fast as if it were a non-conforming home on the shoreline.

    Where's that petition?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Harkening back to an oldie but a goodie.

    http://trojanheron.blogspot.com/2013/03/you-have-two-cows.html

    You own two cows. Without asking, the conservation district takes away the cow that is receiving grant money from the state. Zee appoints the second cow to the Madrona Institute advisory board.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @10:19 am--the answer to the question how much meeting time (paid for by taxpayers) is taken up by all these self-interested and self-directed interrelated groups is A VERY LARGE AMOUNT. Indeed, the MRC has to meet TWICE a month to keep up with its "obligations." And all of these groups require the presence of County employees--public works, planning, water, stormwater, and so on. No wonder no one gets any work done.

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  11. Speaking of Ron Zee, who became the full time manager of the Conservation District within a New York minute of Kevin Ranker's election to the San Juan County Council?

    Who was Kevin Ranker's campaign manager when he ran for San Juan County Council?

    Looking at this diagram of who's who in the zoo, I think I finally understand what Ron's job is:

    Arranging the pigs at the trough.

    Sounds like a good job for the Conservation District.

    Oink.

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  12. The real question is WHAT is Council going to do about this?

    Are they going to reappoint the same folks as have been on the MRC for a decade or more and oversee major grant funding to their own organizations? (Tina Whitman and Jim Slocomb of the Friends, for example?)

    Are they going to start making the "in" crowd of County employees who spend all their time coordinating and liaisoning (and creating work for themselves to be paid for) account for the time they spend in these meetings?

    Why is Building Director Beliveau needed at the MRC, for example?

    Are they going to ask why no one bothered to tell them about the plan to move the Fish Lady to the Conservation District until months after she had orchestrated the whole deal with the governor, the tribes, and the other eco-crazies?
    Pretty darn insulting to our elected representatives. But the Fish Lady doesn't consider herself accountable to anyone but the fish, who . . . keep . . .disappearing . . . despite her devoted (and well-paid) ministrations?

    Are they going to reconstitute the AAOC/LIO/PQRSTU to put some actual community reps on there? The monster is the creation of the Council; it can be changed at will. Do we have the will?

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  13. @1032am

    I take umbrage at your suggestion that Stephanie Buffum spends so little time abusing shoreline property owners! Don't you know that she is offended (offended, I tell you) by the sight of people's "homes" littering the shoreline while she's out kayaking?! She devotes a goodly amount of time taking homeowners to court to prevent them from having a dock or a mooring buoy or protective armoring or anything else SHE thinks is "bad." How many cases has the Friends taken to appeals against homeowners, even when the county has not objected?

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  14. Can't put everything that needs to be included in this diagram because it would truly look like the hacking hairball it is. But there is more.

    Think outside of the box a bit and find room for the ARC, the EDC, the Visitors Bureau, the port districts, repeated efforts to infiltrate OPALCO, Leadership San Juans (now that's one piece of work) and more.

    Because the associations right back to Mr. Zee, insiders at the Conservation District into these other groups are ... how to say this ... statistically likely to exert political and economic influence.

    What we are seeing is the reason why there has been so much public concern over the advisory committees/boards/gatherings and related hoopla.

    The Conservation District is Area 51, Dreamland if there ever was such a place.

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  15. We have more government than a small nation would need, never mind a county of 15,000 people.

    We don't need it. But for the grant economy, we would be attracting people who wanted to earn an honest living here instead of being marxist capitalists trying to build bureaucracies to "compete" for the state grant dole.

    Who can vacuum up the most grants? That's our economy. We have lost touch with reality. We don't make anything anymore.

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  16. Right now, no one is more thankful for the spotlight being shifted back to the CD than Shireene Hale. She is saying "whheeeeew. That sure helps get the focus off my gross incompetence, utter failures as a planner, my agenda, and the chicanery of my dolt husband Ed. I thought for a minute the council would take notice and show me the door, but I doubt it. I'm BFFs with HR. our hubbies are sailing buddies. Ive got this made. This time next week, Ed and I will have yet another 3,000 dollars from the peasantry taxpayer fools. If only people could comprehend the complexity of what I do, they would know how important I am". Oh well.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Grants and patronage have been around a long time. Without grants and patronage there would have been no Renaissance art or classical music.

    That said, what we're seeing nowadays is patronage driving an Economy of Fear. The world’s oldest profession ain't what you think; it’s the business of fear. The pitch is always the same: We have sinned. Now we must pay.

    You know this is true. Virtually none of this money or the folks that take it, produce anything tangible, of lasting value or boots on the ground conservation. Humans should change radically, immediately, they are a cancer on Mother Earth. Catastrophe is upon us. There's no time to evaluate options, define problems that can be solved.

    What a racket. The Economy of Fear was always used to keep people down, to remind us that we are small and helpless, that we need saviors. Lovel! Kevin! Lisa! Save us!

    These grants are designed to invent solutions for non-defined problems and market fear and loathing. They support groups in their work to scare, intimidate, litigate. They scold. They are doom peddlers with handsome budgets. They want to monitor you. They want surveillance. They look for any scare tactic to grow local police power that they latch hold on.

    These guys are part of the modern surveillance state. They were born to control and regulate you. Because they don't trust themselves. Because they are full of self-loathing and narcissistic hate for humanity.

    You could try to get rid of the Conservation District. But that is addressing the symptom. A band-aid. Like spending six figures to plead with the GMHB to water down the CAO just a tad.

    We need to go for root causes.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the TH staff. Congrats on hiring the new intern.
    That chart is quite an eye opener. Someone ought to bring it to public access time and let the council have a look see.
    Crazy. BMD---->love that one.

    Can anyone tell me how many salmon have been recovered, saved, produced or whatever it's called?
    I'm curious. 12 million bucks by the MRC in the past 10 years. Dang that sounds like a chunk o change.
    You could do some crazy stuff wif dat kinda mad cash. I don't know, heck you could probably build and operate a small salmon hatchery. That might help. Call me crazy.

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  19. @2:45

    Getting rid of the conservation district is a band-aid? Haven't you been listening? The conservation district is the hideout for the Breaking Bad enviros. It's not a symptom. It's their bunker in the Bavarian Alps. It's their Cheyenne Mountain. It's their Area 51, as someone else opined. You go chase root cause windmills. I want to go after them where they live. The conservation district has to go. Sooner the better.

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  20. Does Zeero get the grant skimming funds or does it go to the Madrona Institure? Is he a paid employee?

    If the TH has the time to get some fin docs, a chart with the money flow would be telling and would make a good page in a mailer.

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  21. @ 7:05 PM

    Here's the reality. There are about a dozen Conservation Districts from Whatcom to Thurston and points in between. On March 2013 they all signed an interlocal agreement to cooperate and share resources to implement the action agenda of the Puget Sound Partnership.

    You need to expand your thinking to see the battlefront shaping up here.

    Unpaid local volunteers trying to gather over 2,000 signatures just to "pray" to the state Conservation Commission to hold a local election on dissolution. Maybe. Most likely, a none starter. However, a regional campaign will raise money, have clout, get real attention and can have an effect on 2014 legislative races. Trust me. That's where you get traction.

    And while we're at it, let's get rid of 4-H and County Extension Services. You don't just throw out mom and apple pie. A successful fight will play out on a larger stage and will require a war chest.

    ReplyDelete
  22. There is no "California King" bed big enough.

    Talk about wife/husband swapping, the
    pediatricians must be swamped.

    The only answer is to dissolve the CD.

    ReplyDelete
  23. @8:15

    4-H and Extension Services? Those can be administered by anyone.

    Big picture? Mom and apple pie? Crap! Mom's got a beard, goes by the name of Zee, and the apple pie is filled with grant-grubbing maggots. There isn't anything less mom and apple pie than our conservation district.

    Run along and fight the conservation districts in Whatcom and Thurston counties. All you seem to want to do is to distract us from what's under our noses. Everything's fine here. Absolutely fine. The problem isn't here. It's in a galaxy far far away, and you'll need lots of money to fight it.

    Not on your life.

    ReplyDelete
  24. @8:15

    Don't trust you. Dissolve the CD.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Zee and BMD. Dissolve the CD.

    That's bumper sticker good!

    ReplyDelete
  26. @ 8:42 PM

    Not trying to distract you. It's a mess here. The mainland doesn't matter. You're right. Don't pay attention over there. That's why the national monument "community forums" were all held in Anacortes.

    So you wouldn't pay attention. I think you're trying to distract us from the bigger picture. Nothing happening out there, its all good, we just got Trouble in River City. Trot out the volunteers and their little tables at the grocery stores.

    Please explain to the general public why the Conservation District is an evil blood sucking monster in our midst.

    Is this how to fight a monster? Gimme a break.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hey campers, I think they're both right. Some will be better able to fight the local fight, others will know how to fight regionally. There's more than one front to the fight that is coming.

    This is not an "either/or" situation. And it isn't a Dem vs GOP thing either.

    ReplyDelete
  28. This seems like it will be a massive undertaking, a pitched battle. We all got a bit battle weary after the last election.
    Folks, the people we are up against are pros at this stuff. Most of us on the other hand, work full time, have families, and things to do around the house.
    To successfully win these battles and ultimately this war against the eco-facism that is upon us, we are all going to have to take a deep look at our resources, our time, our leadership, and our organizational skills and dig deep, deeper than ever, in this fight.
    Winning the seats in the council was only a speed bump in the road of an advancing army. We need to put some craters in the road, set up defensive perimeters, and get ready to blow the bridge.
    This is going to be a hassle. It will be tiring, draining, mentally exhausting, confusing, and more.
    What you do right now is what matters.
    Find it in you to help.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Great work-it is clear there is no running afoul of the machine or its groupies-I thought all the committees were supposed to be cleaned out, this rats nest is made up of the same people 'advising' over and over again.

    Dissolve unneeded government.

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  30. As far as sewing the seeds for something that's actually evil, its all in place.

    Self referential associations among the same people who are no doubt reinforcing each other's mental model for some utopian vision of the future. They have cut off links to the outside world. The have money but have to take out their begging bowl to get grants from powerful patrons. They are puppets and don't know it.

    Because they don't have the resources or the courage to take on forces stronger than their own, they prey on the locals who don't have the money and knowledge to push back. This makes them feel good, that they are realizing their utopian fantasy.

    The more this madness ensues, eventually something really wrong is going to happen. It probably already has somewhere else, because this is not just about the islands any more than this is about the environment.

    You are looking at the structure of a racket, in an almost classic set up. A racket is a racket is a racket. But once we accept that fact, that realization of what we're facing and what must be done, becomes much clearer. And there are very effective ways to take down rackets, no doubt about it.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Interesting news item. Christa John, the woman on horseback in Idaho who ID'd the Amber Alert kidnapper had this to say ...

    Everyone has a "God-given feeling" when they sense wrongdoing. "Act on it," she said. "You are usually right."

    If you feel like there is wrongdoing here, you are probably right. This is a form of kidnapping, the hijacking of a community and its rural character. Not in the same league as out and out child abduction to be sure, but ... it is still wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  32. The problem here is that all of you are whiners, when it came to showing up y'all stayed home and the eco-nuts came in numbers.
    You can't just sit at your pc and blather, show up or shut up, you can't just hope ECK carries the football for you, show up or shut up.

    ReplyDelete
  33. @ 9:18 AM

    I have a bit of a different view. You are obsessed over a recent hearing when the galloping hoards showed up to protect their investment backed expectations.

    Once again, Lovel lost, twice. Lisa did not prevail. Despite the power and money behind them.

    Why would you insist that not wasting time showing up on a fools errand demonstrates abject failure while on the other hand you ignore the reality of the past election?

    Even "those in the know" are beginning to understand why they lost.

    I would not attribute their loss to any one particular thing. TH? Trust Islanders? Hubris and over-reach? Who knows.

    But I can't help thinking there are some folks around here who would really like to push the rest of us to waste our time and energy on stuff that really doesn't matter very much. And that last hearing does not matter very much. Expect to you and your Friends. And that speaks volumes.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hey, does the diagram leave out the burgeoning hobby agricultural sector? the Agricultural Resources Committee, which spawned the Ag Guild, which absorbed hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for its "Brickhouse," and the Island Grown Agricultural Network, all with their own websites and "identities."

    ReplyDelete
  35. How is it that the Hales can be close personal friends with the HR director, and the HR director can be close personal friends with the health director--all of them going out on their sailboats together? Who's in charge of the henhouse here? How does Ms. HR evaluate the performance and pay of all her close friends?? Not to mention complaints about them? Just askin'. Because this wouldn't be allowed in the "real world."

    ReplyDelete
  36. @10:53
    You can take your pissy little capital F friends insinuation and shove it up your Dorf. A few of us have put more at risk and sacrificed more than you will ever know.
    So spare us the condescension and petty insinuations.

    ReplyDelete
  37. @10:53
    Your over confidence in the outcome of an off-year election result is the greatest danger we have - the machine knows it, and they haven't given up or quit...EVERY meeting is important, EVERY-SINGLE-ONE

    ReplyDelete
  38. Then, attend every meeting, every single one. Let us all know what is going on.

    ReplyDelete
  39. 2:18
    Wow. I see you bought a copy of "sarcasm and recalcitrance for assholes". Must have been one of those can't put it down books.
    As unbelievable as it may sound, I think Shireene Hale just got bumped from the number one slot of SJCs most annoying human being. Congratulations. You finally accomplished something.
    Keep that anonymous blather rolling.

    ReplyDelete
  40. @ 2:42 PM

    Hey, cupcake. The only folks I know who actually have the time and money to show up at every single meeting around here is ...

    Who?

    You?

    ROFL ...

    ReplyDelete
  41. Cupcake? Are you actually smack talking on an annonymous blog? LOL dude, I think the point the person was making is that we have to get peeps to every meeting, didn't say all of us every time, if you're so godamn poor try getting a better job, apparently you can afford a pc and internet...unless you're at the library...

    ReplyDelete
  42. Smack talking? Please. What the hell goes on here most of the time anyway?

    Don't dish it out if you can't take it. You are more than welcome to your opinion.

    And by the way, yes, there is small group taunting the "Trojan Legion" or whatever this is, into raising a big ruckus at council sessions over minor issues that can be easily tracked with the video. Let them know you are watching. That matters. Use your relationships to work council members personally. That really works. When the big issues pop out, sure, then show up. Develop your relationships.

    I believe there is already a growing number of folks who informally spread out across a number of these committees, on a pretty regular basis. Including myself on occasion. There may be more going on out there than you think.

    I wish there was time and energy to compile the feedback, but I think some of it does wind up in TH investigative articles at least.

    ReplyDelete
  43. @7:49
    Wow, thanks for dialing the douchery back a few notches. You actually made some good points.
    Sad to see racist terms like cupcake pop up though. Thought those days were gone.
    Oh well. At least we can live lives planned by Shireene.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Not sure anyone can live a life "planned" by Ms. Hale. Certainly cupcakes would not make the menu. (As an aside, the term "cupcake" means a small cake rather than a large cake. There is probably lots of racist stuff out there somewhere, but I don't see it often on the TH, and the term cupcake certainly does not qualify.)

    This ineffectual banter here is taking too much reading time.

    Like some others I am hurt by the accusation of having done nothing. I made signs and staked them down. I sent $1,800 to the McClerren effort, yes I did mask half of it, and I have supported CSA like many of you to the tune of several thousand dollars. (Sorry, I lost track of how many donations and for what amount, but I certainly could not afford what I knew I had to give.)

    So this is serious stuff and we all need to treat it like that because these people are toying with your net worth, your life savings, your labor for 20 or 30 years.

    The idiot who thinks we are in this for a profit on real estate is a complete fool, it's just the opposite cupcake, we are only desperately trying to save what we have from the likes of MS. Hale and the CD and " The Network" FOSJ and the DOE and others who firmly believe we are nothing but land owners who need to be snuffed out.

    Well NOBODY snuffs this guy CUPCAKE.

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  45. Could someone remind me what it was in an earlier blog post about Mr. Zee literally taking a cut of ... 10%? Something like that? And from where? Was it the Madrona Institute?

    I can't keep all these committees straight!

    ReplyDelete
  46. @11:37
    I had that same question. Does Zee personally get a cut of the grants, or is it the madrona institute? Is he paid by the MI?
    We need a money flow chart. I think it would be jaw dropping.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Oh yes, that would be very interesting.

    Would it be possible to track the grants received by this group? Seems like that should be publicly available. Seems like million dollar grants are all over the place these days. So more and more people are figuring out how to make a living off the government. Just makes you sick doesn't it?

    Where the heck does all this money come from anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  48. found a site

    http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html

    but am catching the ferry. A start?

    I'm dying to know. A modest 5 or 10 percent of what? The "administrator"?

    While I'm at it...does anyone know where Ron Zee came from? What he did before he lived off grants? He's such a newbie I hadn't even heard of him until the last election began. And I'm born and raised on San Juan. He's the type of newbie I dislike beyond belief.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Re: Ron Zee's background: I read a bio when he first appeared that said something about working for the feds, possibly in DC (surprise) and then something like international mediation. Until recently, he claimed to be saving the world through networking.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Um, sorry to be so out of it, but what is "cupcake"?

    ReplyDelete
  51. "cupcake" is an attempted condescending insult favored in the vernacular of adult bedwetters.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Lt. Nyota Uhura: I'm impressed. For a moment there, I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals.

    James T. Kirk: Well, not only.

    Burly Cadet #1: This townie isn't bothering you, right?

    Lt. Nyota Uhura: Oh, beyond belief, but it's nothing I can't handle.

    James T. Kirk: You could handle me, if that's an invitation.

    Burly Cadet #1: Hey, you better mind your manners.

    James T. Kirk: Oh relax, cupcake, it was a joke.

    Burly Cadet #1: Hey, farm-boy, maybe you can't count, but there are four of us and one of you.

    James T. Kirk: So, get two more guys and then it'll be an even fight.

    ReplyDelete
  53. @12:56
    Can't immagine why so many don't want to get involved, can you?
    Oh wait I know, idiotic and immature rants such as yours.
    The Machine just keeps grinding on knowing the TH crowd will chew themselves up, hell, Rick wasn't even in office a month before y'all turned on him, and you expect he'll just go along with your demands? Oh yea I forgot, we'll "actively manage" him.

    ReplyDelete
  54. @ 1256p

    What on earth is wrong with you--have you no sense of humor? Or worse still, no knowledge of the Trek Universe? I thought the Trekkie entry was funny.

    Why would the Trekkie entry keep anyone from participating in anything? And when did we get such a group of namby-pamby citizens in this county--certain none of the early settlers would have managed wincing at every turn in the conversation.

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  55. Rick's been in office for quite some time--and has made a few missteps. You don't call someone on their missteps? He's an adult , he can take it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have run. And how else will he know how real people feel? Oh, yeah--I forgot--"staff" will tell him.

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  56. @ 12:22 and 800p

    "Cupcake

    When a muffin is consumed by magic.
    When a muffin and a unicorn fall in love they have cupcake."

    P.S. That's the real deal from the urban slang dictionary.

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