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Public Hearing Notice and Survey

A notice sent by the City of Twentynine Palms, that was supposed to have been sent February 1, 2008 arrive at my house yesterday the February 25, 2008 with a due of February 28th 2008. Not to much time to get the Survey filled out and sent back before the due date.

I made a visit to city hall yesterday to pitch a tizzy. Someone beat me to the punch and raised more hell than I and got the due date extended to March 7th. Kudos go out to the unnamed rabble rouser.

If you did not get a letter from the city, I've made a copy of the letter, the notice and the survey and attached the file as a PDF.

Of important concern is the city's desire to Enforce Vehicle Codes on Privately owned and maintained roadways. That hearing will be held Tuesday April 8, 2008 at 6:00 PM.

Download Here

Run Ralph Run !!

Lets Here it for the Green Party and Ralph Nader!!!

It just don't get any better than this for a Republican.

Preparations under way for Adelanto Grand Prix

MORAL RIGHTS AND MURALS

by Richard Solomon

(Published originally in the MCLA Newsletter, v. 6, ns. 3,4, 1995)

Most readers are familiar with the painting over of Kent Twitchell's "Old Lady of the Freeway" adjacent to the Hollywood Freeway in 1986. That disastrous event led to the formation of MCLA, and a heightened awareness of the importance of public art. What law governs such an act today? Similarly, are there any legal protections for a mural on a building slated for demolition or alteration? What about the initial question of selection; that is, can a commercial property owner, public or private, who is soliciting bids for a work of public art, or who rents out billboard space to advertisers, reject an artist's proposal because of the artist's "politics" or the "controversial" nature of the proposed work? (more)

Stepping on the third rail.... Bucklin Park

I didn’t want to be first to say this but I guess if I don’t, no one will…..

OK, now that Bucklin Park is up and running, dedicated and blessed by the Pope has anyone other than me took a good look at that thing? It’s the most gaud awful, damned thing I have ever seen in my life. It looks like Bedrock Park from the Flintstones. You half expect to see Barney and Betty Rubble walking their pet Saber-toothed Cat. I realize that it is a celebration of nature and all, but the only one who could feel natural in that park is Roger Rabbit.

It is 10 pounds of crap in a three pound bag. It is proof that nothing should ever be designed by committee. It is a third of an acre of clutter. Each piece while beautiful in itself is lost in the garishness of its totality. When all is placed together it looks like a cheap painted lady on the corner of Hwy 62 and Desert Queen.

Is that what we want people to see as they come into town?

Now come on folks, if I would have had that gaudy conglomeration of cartoon style phony boulders and a center piece statue, that I swear looks like three sperm reaching for the heavens, down on my yard on Sullivan, Gary Blackman would have moved to abate me…. again.

You want to make a comment on this and other posts? Join Cactusthorns' Spaces

Council to ask for Cannon

The Council believes like most folks in town if you ask, it's high time Veterans Park (Stanley Park) get a real cannon for display. I agree. I think Twentynine Palms has grown up enough to play with big boy toys. I mean god bless the fellow who fashioned the little cannon in the park now on display, but it isn't a real cannon. Needles has a huge WWI cannon in their town square. San Bernardino has several cannons including Civil War pieces. Why don't we?

Let's hope that the Council can sweet talk our neighbors to the North to part with a good old 75mm Pack Howitzer. I think that would be a fine artillery piece for the pocket park.

Veterans Park rises like a Phoenix

A little good news almost passed unnoticed this week. For years the little park between the City Hall and the Library in Twentynine Palms was named Veterans Park. For what ever reason, the park's name was changed to General Stanley Park. I kind of believe it was a brown nosing exercise by the former City Manager. Stanley was Base Commander during the time when the city annexed the base. Its not like Stanley had much to do with it, as it was a directive from the DoD. But for what ever reason Veterans Park was sacrificed and renamed.

Good news, at last Tuesday's Council Meeting set into motion a plan if approved, that will please Veterans and get their park back. Yes brothers and sisters, the little park between the City Hall and the Library will once again be called, "Veterans Park."

Chalk one up for the little guys.

Is there any wonder now?

'Tis the season when Community Block Grants are once again available to those worthy organizations with a plan to help the most people or provide needed services.

 Is there any questions now why all the hubub about the homeless now? Goto Spaces to comment

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OK, lets talk homeless

I am about sick and tired of the hypocritical bull-feathers surrounding the Homeless question in Twentynine Palms.

No one is questioning the fact that a person might be without a place of residence or even out in the street because of no fault of their own. Be it disaster or loss of a job, their might be folks with out a roof over their head.

Where I run into a problem with this Homeless Question being bantered around town these days is it only comes up on election year and the term is used so broadly it encompasses just about every conceivable person without a permanent place of residence.

The old guys that hang at the Wally-World...... MORE and post comments

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Cactus Thorns' Spaces

So you want to be an author? You want to share your photos? Are you mad as hell and not going to take it anymore?

Well do we have something right up your alley.

Yes we now have a user area called SPACES.

Give it a try. If you like it we will make it a perminate feature of Cactus Thorns. 

Super Tuesday

Get out to the polls and vote your concience. 

Homeless Survey turns out to be Scam

What if I were tell you that the recent survey of the "homeless" in Twentynine Palms conducted for the County of San Bernardino was a complete and total sham, teetering on fraud?

It turns out that the so called survey was more observations of a couple of guys at a local fast food restaurant one evening, on the poor fashion statements of local residents. If you where disheveled you were counted as homeless. Since none of us are what you would call on the fashion cusp, any of us could have been listed as appearing homeless.

Surveyors were told not to interview or approach the "homeless" but to make an educated guess if indeed what the saw as homeless was homeless. If it looked like a duck to them, they counted it.

The City of Twentynine Palms Council will be given testimony to these facts by a member of the survey team this Tuesday night.

I'm not sure what the scam is on this "homeless" issue, but I can smell a rat.

California State Propositions

With Super Tuesday right around the corner, I thought it is time to give you an idea of how I feel about the Propositions on the February 5th Ballot.

• Prop 91 - Yes. Transportation funds initiative. This will put the gas tax back to fixing roads.
• Prop 92-  No.  Community Colleges Funding. I have a general distrust for anything about public education funding. Can't put my finger on it but I don't get all warm and fuzzy about this one.
• Prop 93-  No. Limits on legislator Terms in office. This one is an easy NO. This gives legislators 12 years instead of a total of 8 years in office. If anything we should be shorting the legislative year and send these guys home to have and get a real job. A legislator should be a citizen politician with a real life to reference. Idle hands are the Devil's workshop, and Sacramento is his Hell.
• Indian Gaming Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97- No. This is a sweetheart deal for 4 tribes. This will do nothing for the Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians. It will give the 4 tribes that it affects Financial and political advantage that will hurt all other tribes that have gaming and those who plan to in the future. The touted $9 Billion is over 20 years has no guarantees.  Just a bad deal all around.

BLM Give Away: Sierra Club in cahoots

By Jim Harvey /Johnsonvalley.com

Here are some photos from our Ivanpah trip Friday. We are at the actual site that will be crushed and scraped for this hideous abomination. Does this land look blighted to you?

Pay particular attention to picture 019. This is the "scam" artist's rendition of what the project will look like. Notice how the Brite Source illusionists are attempting to give a very disingenuous impression that the land being used for this project is already barren and useless.

ALL 7,000 acres (OUR LAND) that will be "given" to these monsters are rich, healthy, pristine, plant and animal dense Mojave desert acres! Look at how lush this land really is! This is not barren dry lake land. This is not scorched Sahara desert. Over half of the 7,000 acres being applied for will be scraped to the topsoil. Well, it's not a total loss - Brite Source has agreed to leave all the roots intact. Gee what swell folks!

Brite Source is no more than an eco-terrorist corporation about to embark on a mission to destroy thousands of unmolested acres of our Mojave Desert. In my eyes, ANY person or organization that does not stand up and adamantly oppose this horrific potential catastrophe is no better than the eco-terrorists that are proposing it.

We just started a new organization The National Alliance for Sensible Energy Policy. We intend to fight these projects tooth and nail! We are a non-partisan group adamantly opposed to BLM giving our lands to energy corporations, thereby changing the "multi-use" designations to single private use. This new direction is counter to their original mission and charter, and it must be stopped.

Unfortunately for BLM, it is not entirely their fault. This whole issue stems from the Energy Policy Act of 2005, where our federal legislature has mandated that BLM take on this new role through unlikely partnerships with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Department Of Energy (DOE), among others.

I have the website www.stopgreenpath.com with the maps and catalogues for these projects.

 We are fighting a solar project up near the Ivanpah dry lake area. Seven thousand acres will be given to Bright Source for a mirrored solar farm, just north west of one of the most popular OHV areas in SB county. Those dry lakes will be affected by the abomination, as well as access roads going in and out.

This is not a partisan issue. We ALL must unite to stop this garbage. Bighorn Sheep lovers, turtle lovers, and OHV lovers must get together as one and win this. By the way, Sierra Club and NRDC support these projects.

Jim Harvey

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LDS leader dies

President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died this last night. He was 97.
Hinckley's life spanned the 20th century, a time marked by LDS global outreach and technological advances. He saw his church evolve from a tiny sect in the Intermountain West to a respected religious movement with more than 13 million members worldwide. He embraced each new communication device, from radio to satellite to YouTube, as a chance to spread the Mormon word.
He began his career in the 1930s as a missionary defending the faith on a soapbox in London's Hyde Park and lived to see the country's first viable Mormon candidate for president. MORE

Gordon Bitner Hinckley (June 23, 1910 – January 27, 2008) was the fifteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death. He was the oldest person to preside over the Church in its history. As president of the Church of Jesus Christ, he was considered by its members to be a prophet, seer, and revelator. His presidency was noted for the building of new temples and the creation of the Perpetual Education Fund. Hinckley holds the record for dedicating the most Church temples and dedicated more than half of the current church temples.

BLM Screws OHV Community Again!!!!

And you thought the Green Path was a nightmare, wait til you read this....

It is hard to believe that the BLM in it's infinite wisdom, gives a good rats ass about the plight of the loss of allowed land that can be used by the Off-Road Community. Quietly and almost with out any type of notice, a total that could easily exceed 26,800 acres of the Johnson Valley OHV Area, is going to be closed off for wind or solar energy generation. More that 15% of the total acreage will be gobbled up in one of the few areas left in California for OHV use.

How many times have you heard, "If you want to ride your OHV, go to the OHV areas designated by the BLM!. You've got 189,000 acres to run your foul smelling contraptions around in circles out in Johnson Valley." Right? Well not if the BLM has it's way.

Off-roading is one of the fastest growing family sports in the nation. Yet its popularity has been its own worst enemy. Environmentalists have attacked its legitimacy as a responsible recreation to such a point that the BLM now considers those areas that it has relegated OHV use, is now expendable. Just because we ride or drive Off-road vehicles does not mean we do not enjoy beauty of nature.

If the environmentalist want to keep the off-road community on the "reservation" they better join with the likes of FOGR and other off-road organizations to either stop this "Taking" or mitigate the loss with additional acreage to compensate the loss to the Johnson Valley OHV Area.

I'll tell you right now,  the OHV community will not stand by and suffer additional losses of recreational opportunity. Neither will they accept mitigation in the manner of porta-potties, visitor centers or motocross tracks.

Here is the study material.

BLM Energy Page

Wind, Solar

Comment at: http://corridoreis.anl.gov

Offical Comment Forum

You have until February 14, 2008 to make comments on these projects.

An additional 14,000 acres off Gammel Road in Wonder Valley is on the list for Solar Arays. If you haven't figured that out, that will mean a transmission line and service road, opening the door for more OHV use.

Yucca Valley: Plants have more Rights than the People

I’ve always heard it as “Government of the People, By the People and For the People,” but apparently in Yucca Valley, Joshua Trees have more rights than do Home Owners.

The Dale family have a nice piece of property out on Valley Vista. The Dale's have small children. They want to landscape their property. They want to improve the property. They want to beautify their desert environment. With over 40 Joshua trees on their small plot its a "Joshua Tree Jungle." They would like to be able to thin a few. They are not talking about killing them but professionally relocating them. Just a few to make it possible for the kids to safely play in the yard. They would like to be able to step out of the house and not be threatened with being stabbed or barbed.

The Town of Yucca Valley on the other hand, will only let them remove plants that might be a liability to the city itself, but not the plants that might cause a danger to the Dales, their children and their pets.

They had no idea that they were buying a "Joshua Tree Preserve" and thought they had a right to use all of their property.

Yeah we know that “Joshua Trees are a protected species” but it is hard for the Town of Yucca Valley to on the one hand deny a home owner the right to reasonably thin an overgrowth of Joshua Trees, yet let a large development to uproot and destroy thousands of Joshua Trees carte blanche. The Dales planned to have them professionally relocated, yet the Town of Yucca Valley turned a blind eye recently when a developer stacked their harvested Joshua trees on the back side of the developer's property only to be destroyed by a mysterious late night "arson" fire.

This is a double standard. This defies property rights. This is as close to a "Taking" as I have ever seen. This is just plain stupid.

I'd like to know, who the hell is running the insane asylum down at the Yucca Valley Town Hall?

See documents and correspondence.

You'll notice that the information was CC:ed to the local paper and radio station. I would hope that they would have the same take on this story. Let's hope they look into it.

Democrats Staying Home, GOP Voting In Droves

This morning I got up turned on the laptop to get my morning news. I went to see about the Nevada Caucus. Am I missing something here? Am I so out of step with the Main Stream Media (MSM) that I don't get it?

One thing is obvious even for a guy like me, the Democrats are in deep trouble. Nevada has historically been a strong Union and Democrat state. Oh yeah there's been recently a shift to the right but the Democrat Party has had a handle on the politics of Nevada since I can remember. In a State with over 2.5 million people you would have thought that the Democrat front runner Hillary Clinton would have won with a lot more that a total of 5,355 votes. Mitt Romney the Republican leader garnered 22,649 votes for the GOP caucus. Hell, Ron Paul pulled 6,087 votes from the caucus and he gets no respect at all from the MSM.

A total of 10,560 Democrats voted at the Nevada Democrat Caucus yet at the same time 40,803 Republicans attended the Nevada GOP Caucus held on the same day. That's 4 Republicans to 1 Democrat came to caucus for their parties nominee. Pretty pathetic if you ask me.

"Wait a sec," I say to myself, "I thought the Dems were all hyped up for this election." I then looked at the results of all the primaries and caucuses. Low and behold a startling truth becomes evident. Republicans are coming out in droves to vote and participate in the primary process but the Democrats are not. They are staying home. This is systemic to all contests thus far.

We've all heard about Iowa, right. Obama winning with 38% of the vote, right? Did the press tell you that that amounted to a total of 940 votes? While at the same time Huckabee pulled only 34% of the GOP vote but his total was 40,841votes. Ron Paul got 11,817 votes in the same caucus, eleven times more that the closest Democrat, 4.73 almost 5 times as many votes as all Democrats combined.

I know right now you're saying "Dan, you got it wrong." But I am telling you the numbers do not lie. While we've been told that the Democrats are charged up for this election by the likes of Tom Brokow and Katie Curic, that fact is this supposed Democrat Party Renaissance is Bull Crap, a fairy tale. I don't know if it is the quality of the candidates or just a lack of interest, I leave that for others to figure out.

Where are the Conspiracy theorists when it comes to MSM Propaganda?

Base to grow in size

Ray Pessa of Friends of Giant Rock reports that he and Mike Hawkins attended a meeting with Brigadier General Meldon Speis from 29 Palms combat center.

The general outlined the base expansion plan. Over the next ten years the base will increase personnel, 1700 by June of this year. 

The type of training needed for long range weapons will require land acquisitions of substantial size. No specifics of when or where were available, however the general stated that the secretary of defense has approved an EIS/EIR for this purpose that may take as long as two years.

Ray made contact with community liaison and public affairs officer and has asked to be placed on a mailing list for current information regarding base expansion progress.