RONALD REAGAN VISITS UCSC. May 18, 1967. This was just after he became Governor and around the time he actually signed a bill allowing abortions which he later regretted. He was defeated in his try to become the Republican Party's Presidential candidate later this year. This scene is part of a student vigil against tuition. photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection. Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

THE PROGRESSIVE FORUM IN SANTA CRUZ. The People's Democratic Club (PDC), The Santa Cruz Action Network (SCAN), and The Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) held their Santa Cruz City Council endorsement meeting last Wednesday night at the Vet's Hall. There were about 100 intensely interested locals there. Bill Monning emceed, and each group made separate endorsements as you can imagine. The results from The Peoples Democratic Club ( PDC) endorsed Beiers and Fitzmaurice and the votes went...1.Katherine Beiers 2. Tim Fitzmaurice 3.David Terrazas 4. Tony Madrigal 5. Ryan Coonerty 6. Don Lane 7. Lisa Molyneaux 8.Blas jay Cabrera 9. Simba Kenyatta and 10. J. Craig Canada.

The Santa Cruz Action Network's (SCAN) also endorsed Beiers and Fitzmaurice their votes went 1. Katherine Beiers 2.Tim Fitzmaurice 3. Tony Madrigal 4. Simba Kenyatta 5. Lisa Molyneaux 6. Blas Jay Cabrera 7.Don Lane 8. J. Craig Canada 9. Ryan Coonerty 10. David Terrazas.

The Gay Lesbian Transgender Bisexual (GLBT) Alliance endorsed six out of the ten candidates Katherine Beiers, Tim Fitzmaurice, Don Lane, Simba Kenyatta, Ryan Coonerty, and Tony Madrigal. It was about as good as these endorsement gatherings can get. There were a few wasted questions like "why did the voters vote no on measure T," "what has been your experience with the GLBT group...duh!" and what do you think of same sex marriage just took up time but questions on living wage, 2120 Delaware, and especially on the La Bahia development gave us some ideas as to where they might stand if elected. Don Lane copped out on La Bahia of course and no one could tell what Madrigal said, but everybody else was against the 70 foot height/7 stories of the Canfield Swenson development. Coonerty stated that the developer has taken back the plans and I guess may lower that height. I'm trying to get some response from our Mayor on that one as we speak, or type as it were.

JOHN LAIRD & JOHN FLORES WEDDING. Congratulations are certainly in order for Assemblyman John Laird and his partner John Flores. They got married right here in Santa Cruz by a prominent official last Saturday. You sure can't say they rushed into this.

CHRIS MATTHEWS WAKE, CELEBRATION AND PARTY. More than 500 people gathered in the Shakespeare Glen up at UCSC last Saturday to show their love for Chris Matthews. Just like Chris the ceremony/celebration was full of bullshit, awe, respect, love, politics, lots of music, many tears, roaring laughs, and just wonderfully sincere thanks to Chris for making our lives so much more intense in every dimension. Marcus Cato obtained the Shakespeare Glen, John Sandidge arranged the talent, Geoffrey Dunn emceed, and Claire Braz-Valentine told the truth about what really happened when Chris took her to Soledad prison for the first time. More than that there were Native Americans, television, short skirts, banners, activists, columns of veterans, dancers, poets, flowers, actors, relatives, and Chris' brother Dilhon also explained why he doesn't use his name Dennis Matthews anymore. Sue Heinz Matthews proved she has as much guts and heart as Chris and told us all to carry on. Which we will, but it won't be the same.

AGENDA 21? FREEDOM 21 SANTA CRUZ? ADS IN THE METRO? What's all that stuff about Ellen Pirie, The Department of Deception, Alliance For Change? Those two full page ads in Metro Santa Cruz have everybody puzzled. Try going to their website www.straighttalknews.org it's not easy to understand. It all involves the plot behind the Global Warming Scare, and something about sustainable development, the secrets behind affordable housing and stealth like that. Then there's www.amerikanexpose.com/agenda21 that's about the world plot and plots behind the environmental movement. BUT if you go to http://www.freedom21santacruz.net/site you can read a long list of local Santa Cruz names and way down there you'll find good old Dr. Stanley Monteith. I first ran into Stan when he was a John Bircher and I was working at KGO in the 60's. He used to spend his time fighting fluoride because it was a Russian plot to kill us all. I'm still working on that Agenda 21 thing....I'll let you know if I hear anything. Oh yes, that site will also tell you about The Monterey Bay Sanctuary and what an evil plot against freedom it is...the site says, "The Sanctuary program seems to be simply a massive land grab that puts the control of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for you and your posterity under the control of a cabal of government and non-government bureaucrats. Let's contemplate what we're doing here before the Bay becomes a sanctuary for the elite and the land becomes a controlled penitentiary for us, the common fleet". Whew and jeezus...who knew??? Let's see how long they can continue paying for those Metro ads.

ELERICK'S INPUT. Mr. Paul Elerick has put his shoulder to the wheel just a bit too often...and hurt it! He'll be back writing asap.

BONNY DOON AND LAFCO MEETING. Planning and Conservation League Counsel Gary Patton says in one of this week's broadcasts, "If you live in Bonny Doon, you might want to mark your calendar for an important meeting that will be held next Monday night, September 22^nd. The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, located at 900 High Street in Santa Cruz. At that time and place, the Santa Cruz County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, will consider a proposal to establish a new Fire Protection District (the Bonny Doon Fire Protection District), and to detach the areas within the new proposed District from County Service Area #48, which currently provides fire protection services not only to Bonny Doon but to other rural areas in Santa Cruz County.

By the way, if you happen to live in or have property in one of those "other rural areas", you better mark your calendars, too. Creating a new Fire Protection District for Bonny Doon will not just affect Bonny Doon. Probably, creating such a new Fire Protection District for Bonny Doon will improve fire protection there. That's certainly the expectation and the intention. The problem is that improving fire protection in Bonny Doon, by the means currently proposed, will almost certainly reduce fire protection for rural properties located in large portions of the North Coast, the Summit, and the mountain areas of the San Lorenzo Valley.

EAGAN'S DEEP COVER. By scrolling down you can see Tim Eagan's view of the basic assumptions involved in today's political campaigns.

PATTON'S PROGRAM. Gary talks about the Los Gatos hills burning with more than just a brush fire. He relates how some land could be transferred from one county to another. Then there's the part about building sand mines on the Salinas river. Plus the two day discussion of Bonny Doon and the fire Protection District the issue of which has been smoldering in Bonny Doon for decades, believe me.

LANDAU'S PROGRES. Don't miss reading Saul's "private" letter to George W. Bush. As you can imagine Saul goes to great pains to thank Bush for all he's done for Cuba :-).

DAN BESSIE'S FRENCH TICKER. Dan, former Santa Cruz resident emails every so often from his home in France. This time he writes," Too bad Europeans can't vote in the U.S. presidential election. A significant poll was just taken in 12 European countries, asking who folks favored. The results as follows: Obama 69%, McCain 26%. No, I don't think American voters are "idiots," as a few friends viewing current U.S. polls have written to indicate. I just think that most are too busy living their lives, working hard to get by, dealing with all kinds of family and other personal problems, and so on. And so they get about 95% of their info from sound bites, commercials that demonize the other candidate by distorting their position on issues (the politics of fear), etc, and don't have (or take) the time to get very deeply into exploring what each candidate might actually do as president, what their real positions are, etc. (That's why 51% of those surveyed in recent polls continue to believe that Obama will raise their taxes, when in fact, he proposes that anyone earning less than $250,000 a year will get a tax CUT.)

Cynicism is easy. Finding common ground with people takes more work. But when it's found, most people begin to understand. (Thus, the poll results in that long message I just sent, in which women voted for Obama 47% to 45%, BUT when both his and McCain's positions on a women's right to choose was shown to them, the vote changed to 53% to 40% (for Obama). So again, that's the challenge - cutting through the distortions and lies, and making people aware. All the best, Dan.

LETTER FROM DICKMEYER. Dan writes," I think it's super interesting that Aldo Giacchino wrote the ballot argument AGAINST Measure E--the city's next attempt to raise money (for storm drains) in a nefarious manner. He heads up the Sierra Club, no less. A very convincing argument bringing up issues of double taxation, lack of planning etc.--enough to make me think again after having a nice talk with Dan Haifley, the Measure E coordinator about it. Read it on-line. Why is Santa Cruz being so stupid about raising money? Why didn't Aldo give it another shot for City Council? I guess I'll go for Simba this time (if any). Wouldn't it be fun to know what has happened to people like Keith Sugar, Kris Krone (sic as in Kris Kringle), and others who seem to not be around or never inject their thoughts into the running of their once be-loved city (or Lynn Robinson for that matter--my great female hope.) Dan.

LECTURE #1. PERMIT PROCESS REFORM. Something's also wrong when we hear every candidate for city council say we need more input from the community we need to have the community more involved and yet our existing council and City Planners and related officials continue to have private meetings with developers and make promises and deals long before their plans are made public. That's happened with 2120 Delaware, The Coast Hotel, La Bahia and plenty more projects we'll never know the truth about. That's why and how developers like Craig French/Redtree will spend vast sums of money long before neighbors and the public become aware of a project....then have it railroaded through by a council who has given them assurance their developments will pass...and justify those bucks invested. We need to change the way developments are presented so we have more community input from the very first announcement of these projects. Because this subterfuge has become a way of life in Santa Cruz I asked Gary Patton if he had any ideas...he did and does he wrote, "Here's the URL! Download the full guidebook version of Land Use and the General Plan, and read the chapter on permit process reform, it's pages 51-64 and nails the problems that developers and the public have endured for years http://www.landwatch.org/pages/publications03/gpsummit/landusegeneralplan.pdf

Let's get together and talk about this.

LECTURE # 2. THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING LIE. Even god knows there are 1000's of people who can't afford housing in Santa Cruz County. Your God probably also knows that developers make more money from building housing than industrial/commercial buildings. What no one ever figures out or explains is that all the new housing we build here doesn't go to locals but is advertised and sold to out of towners. Remember it's illegal to require buyers to be local. Check out the ads for the housing out on Shaffer Road in the Sunday Chronicle check out the ads for North Pacific Avenue condos/apartments. Locals can't afford these places, ever see a report on who is moving into these boxes? Many go to parents of UCSC Students who buy them as investments. So we keep greasing the tracks for developers to build more of those fly by night sticky, stackey, static, stressed, stylized, stunted, stucco, boxes....why?

LITTLE DINKY SAFEWAYS IN THE FUTURE!! Here's a brilliant idea from Safeway. Now they're building little convenience size stores because people don't want to shop in the big box stores like our Santa Cruz City Council just gave them on a silver plate...anybody see any trends here? If so please run for City Council next time. Read about it here

RIGHTEOUS KILLER. This movie is a terrible waste of both Robert DeNiro' s and Al Pacino' s acting skills. There are scenes that just are actually embarrassing to watch because the acting and script is so bad. I guess they have to keep making movies to afford the lifestyles and personal corporations they run but it is shameful no one can come up with scripts that are worthy of these two icons.

BURN AFTER READING. The Coen Brothers must have given up on making sense in this film. With even more talent than DeNiro and Pacino wasted in this dumb and I mean not-intentional-dumb plot you wonder how moronic these actors could be to appear in junk like this. Shame on John Malkovich, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormond, even Brad Pitt (who's dumber than usual!!) for geezus sake!! You could rent it later, don't go now. Actually, Malkovich and Swinton weren't that bad but the material reeks to high heaven.

THE WOMEN. The funniest thing about this movie is seeing Mick Jagger's name as co –producer. The New Yorker says it's the worst movie ever seen; somehow it's worse than that. Meg Ryan, Annette Bening (who looks ugly!!!) Eva Mendes, and Debra Messing should all pay us any money we spent on admission. They should be stopped from ever making another movie after this one unless they can prove it has some value to anyone.

MISTER FOE. Remember Jamie Bell the dancing kid in Billy Elliott? He's back in this movie and plays a sort of Harold as in Harold and Maude in this neatly odd, quirky, touching, semi comedy. It's a growing-up-Oedipus-type plot with murder, and the scenic rooftops of Edinburgh and dozens of plot twists thrown in. Don't miss it.

TROUBLE THE WATER. This documentary is not just a perfect piece of cinema it shows in devastating detail what is wrong with the USA. It's the Katrina Hurricane versus the poor people of New Orleans and how the people survived with NO help from George Bush's government. Please see this brilliant motion picture, you'll never forget it, and try to bring a Republican if you know any. They need to see it more than you do.

ANTIQUARIAN FUNKS BACK FROM THE DREAD TO BACK BARACK.Their Concert will feature Political Music of the Early Baroque. The Antiquarian Funks, a local ensemble dating back to at least the early 70's and specializing in original programming and authentic performance of early music, will present a special election-year concert on the theme of "Baroque Obama," featuring politically-inspired music from the 17th Century. Among the pieces to be performed are Da Pacem by Heinrich Schutz, an appeal for peace written during the Thirty Years War, incorporating text by Martin Luther. Also included will be tower music composed for the city band of Leipzig by Gottfried Reiche, trumpet virtuoso for J.S. Bach, and music honoring prominent figures of European courts.

The 12-member Antiquarian Funks include singers and instrumentalists performing sackbuts, cornett, violin, viola da gamma and small pipe organ. Members are Bill Mathews, Jon Christian, Charlie McDowell, Kevin Blodgett, John Thomas, Kate Rubin, Joel Schaefer, Kit Birskovich, Suzanne Duval, Nancy Voogd, Jas Cluff and Michael Vojvoda.

The concert will be presented Saturday, September 20 at 8 pm and Sunday, September 21 at 4 pm, at First Congregational Church, 900 High Street in Santa Cruz. There is no charge, but donations are appreciated. For more information: 423-8977. ---NOTE: All proceeds above expenses will be donated to the local Democratic activities and the Obama campaign.

"HOW TO PRICE YOUR ART" SEMINAR. Curators and artists with experience in sales and tax issues for artists will cover such topics as trends in pricing, what is selling, pricing for different venues, and other vital information for emerging and mid-career artists. The audience will have an opportunity to have their questions answered by working professionals. That's all happening on Friday, September 19^th, 2008 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the MAH – 705 Front Street, Santa Cruz, CA. There'll be a panel with Angelo Grova, Sculptor and Owner of MichaelAngelo Gallery, Ann Ostermann, Cultural Council Open Studio Art Tour Manager, James Aschbacher, Muralist, Painter, and Business Owner, Mary Anne Carson, Director of Santa Cruz County Bank's Arts Collaborative and Neno Vilamor, Sculptor/Cast Paper Artist, Bookkeeper, and Owner of GAL Studio, it'll be moderated by Susan Hillhouse, Curator at The Museum of Art & History, Cost: $10. Seating is limited. Tickets are available (cash or check) at the Cultural Council office, 2400 Chanticleer Avenue Ste. G Santa Cruz, CA 95062, Monday through Thursday between 10 am and 4 pm. For more information, contact Nabil Ghachem at the Cultural Council at grants@ccscc.org or (831) 475-9600 x 16 or Joyce Magallanes at ext 10.

SPAM NAMES. How about Penny Ho, Hurley Shantanu, Erendira Paramo, Elmore Ivy, Hansel Ahidee, Chuckusima Soludo, Dagny Dane, Con Farold, Dom Hose, Florine Whitehead, Hugo Colon, Alexi Axel, Guillaume Kimmo, Alric Milo, Shemeka Jerrica, Elwood Blankenship, and Mikko Apriss

UNIVERSITY GRAPEVINE.I host this weekly interview program on KZSC 88.1 FM every Thursday from 4-5 p.m. This Thursday Toni Cassista, Chair of the Santa Cruz County Seniors Commission will tell us what the Commission does and has done. (full disclosure... I just got appointed to the Commission). In the second half hour attorney and political observer Bob Taren will give us his views on local politics.

QUOTES. "Union...brothers...Marx...capital....bread and butter....love. It was all Greek to me", Samuel Beckett . "The flush toilet is the basis of Western Civilization", Alan Coult. "Morality—middle class morality, that is—is for me the immoral which one must fight. It is the morality that is founded on our most unjust of social institutions, like fatherland, religion, family, culture—everything that people call the "pillars" of society", Luis Bunuel.

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Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.