0112 A Tribune - eType Services

OPINIONPage B3 THE MADERA TRIBUNE Saturday, January 12, 2013Of the peopleThe Madera Tribune2890 Falcon DriveMadera, CA 93637(559) 674-2424Les Hayes ...................... Publisher emeritusDec. 28, 1928-April 6, 2011Charles P. Doud ........... Editor and publisherLeonard Soliz .................... General managerKatrina Soliz .......................... Sales director—First Amendment to the Constitutionof The United States of AmericaCongress shall make no law respecting anestablishment of religion, or prohibitingthe free exercise thereof; or abridging thefreedom of speech, or of the press; or theright of the people peaceably to assemble,and to petition the Government for a redressof grievances.—The Madera Tribune welcomes letters fromits readers. To be eligible for publication, aletter must include the name, telephonenumber and city of residence of its writer.Name and city of residence will be published,and phone numbers will be kept forreference and used for verification of authorship.Letters may be submitted by mail,e-mail, fax, or in person.By mail: Letters, The Madera Tribune, Box269, Madera, CA 93639By e-mail to: cdoud@maderatribune.netBy fax to: (559) 673-6526In person at: 2890 Falcon Drive, MaderaOf the people ...Public meetingsThe following are regularly scheduled meetings ofelected officials and public agency governing boardsin Madera and Madera County.Madera City Council: Meets first and thirdWednesdays. Closed session starts at 6 p.m., regularsession at 6:30 p.m. City Council Chambers, CityHall, 205 W. 4th St. Information: 661-5405 (office ofSonia Alvarez, City Clerk.)Madera Redevelopment Agency SuccessorAgency: Board meets second Wednesday of eachmonth at 6 p.m. at City Council Chambers, CityHall, 205 W. 4th St. Telephone: (559) 661-5110Madera City Planning Commission : Meets thesecond Tuesday of each month starting at 6 p.m. inthe City Council Chambers, City Hall, 205 W. 4thStreet. Telephone: (559) 661-5430.Madera County Planning Commission: The Commissiontypically meets at 6 p.m. on the first Tuesdayof each month. If there are a sufficient numberof items scheduled, a second meeting will be held onthe third Tuesday of the month. Valley meetings areheld in the conference room at the Resource ManagementAgency, 2037 W. Cleveland, Madera. or theCoarsegold Community Center, 31500 Highway 41,Coarsegold. The location of each meeting is basedon where the majority of agenda items are located.Telephone: (559) 675-7821Madera County Board of Supervisors: Board ofSupervisors meets regularly the first four Tuesdaysof each month and occasionally on Mondays in theBoard Chambers of the County Government Center200 W. 4th St. Madera, CA 93637. Telephone: (559)675-7700.Madera County Mosquito and Vector ControlDistrict: The fourth Tuesday of each month. Meetingsare held at Madera County Mosquito and VectorControl District, 3105 Airport Drive, Madera, CA93637 at 1 p.m. Telephone: (559) 662-8880.Madera Irrigation District Board of Directors:The first and third Tuesday of each month. Meetingsare held at Madera Irrigation District Office, 12152Rd 28 1/4, Madera, CA 93637 in the board room.Telephone: (559)673-3514.Gravelly Ford Water District Board of Directors:Meets second Wednesday of each month at 1:30p.m. at Schaffer Ranch Office, 25176 Ave 5 1/2,Madera, Ca 93638 Telephone: (559) 474-1000.Madera Unified School District Board ofTrustees: The second and fourth Tuesday of eachmonth at 7 p.m. at Madera Unified School Distict officeat 1902 Howard Road, Madera, CA 93637. Telephone:(559) 675-4500Madera County School Board: Meets secondTuesday of each month at the Madera County Officeof Education, 28123 Ave 14, Madera, CA 93638 at3:30 p.m. in Conference Room A. Telephone: (559)673-6051Madera District Fair Board: Board meets on thethird Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. MaderaFair Grounds in office, 1850 W. Cleveland Ave.,Madera, CA 93637. Information contact Scott Sample(559) 674-8511Madera ADA Advisory Council — 2 p.m., thirdTuesday of the month, City Council Chambers, 205W. 4th St. Advisory council for the American withDisabilities Act. For information call Wendy Silva,661-5401.The Madera County Water Advisory Commission:The commission meets on the third Thursdayof each month at 10 a.m. in the Madera CountyBoard of Supervisors Chamber. The commissionmeetings are also live streamed and can be viewed athttp://madera.granicus.com/Madera County Cal-ID Remote Access NetworkBoard: Meets the third Friday of each month at 9a.m. at Madera County Government Center, 200 W.4th St., Madera, CA 93637 in the Board of SupervisorsChambers.Madera County Transportation Commission:Meets every third Wednesday in the Madera CountyTransportation Commission Conference room, 2001Howard Road Suite 201, at 3 p.m.Children see, and some children doHere is how The Wall StreetJournal describes a new televisionoffering:“An ice pick impales awoman’s eye in the firstepisode of the new TV thriller,‘The Following.’ If the sequencehadn’t been scaled backto meet the guidelines of amajor broadcast network, thescene would have been grislier.”If that makes you want to seethat show, something may bewrong with you. Why would anormal person want to watch athing like that?I know people are interestedin portrayals of violence. Theylike boxing, wrestling and cagefighting. They like football andice hockey. They enjoy filmsabout wars and videos aboutblowing things and people up.But boxing matches and warmovies seem tame compared toThomas EliasCALIFORNIA FOCUSthe carnage advertised by makersof video games for children.We allow violence into ourhomes through television andthe Internet, then we wonderwhat’s wrong when young mentake guns with them intoschools and shoot people.Compared to what they see ontelevision and experience onvideo games, shooting upschools must seem tame.And then there is pornography,which is so prevalent itseems normal. Illicit sex or sexualinnuendo are the themes ofmost of television’s comediesand a great many dramas. Ieven saw a show on carpentryin which the host is a womanwho wears hardly any clothes.Have the producers actuallyseen what carpenters wear?Even cartoons are dirty.Surely you’ve watched “SouthPark.” It’s filth. And childrenwatch it.Fortunately, many goodmovies are still made. Take“Lincoln,” for example. It’s atthe top of the Oscar heap thisyear, and it should be.But the producers of scummovies and scum televisionprograms will keep churningthem out as long as we allowthat stuff into our homes andput up with the results.Will billionaire’s intimidation work?No one spent more money tryingto influence California politicsduring last year’s electionseason than the billionaireMunger siblings, Molly andCharles Jr., the children ofCharles Munger Sr., who hasprovided them piles of money hemade as the business partner offamed investor Warren Buffett.Molly spent just short of $45million on a failed attempt toraise taxes on almost all Californiansto benefit public schoolsfrom kindergarten through highschool.Meanwhile, the $37 millionput out by Charles Jr., a physicistat the Stanford Linear AcceleratorCenter south of San Francisco,went toward efforts todefeat Gov. Brown’s relativelymodest tax increase propositionand to push for the latest incarnationof the three-time-loser “paycheckprotection” plan aimed atreducing the political power ofworkers and their unions.But Charles Munger Jr. wasalso active on the intimidationfront. This effort demonstrated agross disregard for the futureability of Californians to challengeinitiatives and other laws.It stemmed from Munger’s2010 investment in Proposition14, which established the “toptwo” primary election systemthat last fall produced numerousrunoff races matching membersof the same parties.Minor political parties consideredthemselves the prime victimsof the new system, whosehope it was (still is) to put moremoderates into state offices andbreak some of the partisan deadlocksthat often afflict Californiaand the nation.Top two cost minor parties likethe Libertarians, Greens, AmericanIndependent and Peace andFreedom their usual spots on theNovember ballot. Of course, theirmembers had the same opportunitiesto run and to present theirideas as anyone else during theprimary. None advanced to arunoff.Rather than going back to theChuck DoudEDITOR’S CORNERdrawing board and devising waysto develop more mass appeal,they and their supporters sued thestate. Enter Munger, as an intervenor.He contended state AttorneyGeneral Kamala Harris andSecretary of State Debra Bowenwere not equipped to defendProposition 14 on their own. Thiswas entirely his choice.Munger, as usual, spent big,hiring a prominent, politicallyconnectedlaw firm with officesin Sacramento and Marin Countyto make his case.When the plaintiffs, led by 69-year-old minor-party advocateRichard Winger, longtime publisherof the Ballot Access Newsblog, lost the case, Munger insistedthey be dunned for hislegal fees. A San Francisco SuperiorCourt judge assessed Wingerand his fellow plaintiffs$243,000, of which Winger is liablefor one-fifth as things nowstand. He says paying that sumwould just about break him andlikely put his blog out of business.It’s clear Munger doesn’t needthe money. It’s also clear hewants no mere citizen activists tointerfere with any of his future efforts.Keep the world safe for billionaires,seems to be his motive.His lawyers have refused to answerquestions on why they’reintent on collecting from peopleexponentially less wealthy thanMunger.But Winger and his fellowplaintiffs are not meekly acceptingthe trial judge’s assessment.They’ve appealed to the stateCourt of Appeals and they mayhave a better shot at winningthere than they did in the late Octoberhearing where that judgedenied them so much as a rehearingon the issues of the fees.While their lawsuit was pursuedby the private practitionerattorney Gautam Dutta of Hayward,the appeal has been pickedup on a pro bono basis by AndrewByrnes, a partner in thelarge international law firm ofCovington and Burling, who hasconsiderable experience in electionlaw and some clout of hisown: He’s co-chair of the financecommittee of the state DemocraticParty.Since the junior Munger hasbeen most active over the yearson behalf of Republican-backedQuote to ponder—Women, forcenturiesnot havingaccess to pornographyand now unableto bear looking at themuck on the supermarketshelves, are astonished.Women donot believe that menbelieve what pornographysays aboutwomen. But they do.From the worst to thebest of them, theydo.”—ANDREA DWORKINPORNOGRAPHY CRITICmeasures, this can now be seen ina political context, with a majorbehind-the-scenes Democratmoving against a GOP moneybag.Like Munger’s attorneys,Byrnes says little about the appeal.But most large law firms don’texpend unpaid time of their partnerson cases they deem insignificant.So it’s clear Covington andBurling agree with those who seeMunger’s insisting on collectingwhat is a pittance to him but anenormous sum to those whomight have to pay as an attemptto intimidate future possibleplaintiffs from challenging any ofhis upcoming efforts.Whether or not you agree withWinger and friends that top twoshould go (and this column hasfrequently disagreed with them),it’s clear the large fee assessmentdoes not serve the overall publicinterest. The more that can bedone to overturn it and make theworld a little more uncertain forbillionaires, the better.•••Email Thomas Elias attdelias@aol.com. His book, “TheBurzynski Breakthrough: TheMost Promising Cancer Treatmentand the Government’s CampaigntoSquelch It,” is nowavailable in a soft cover fourthedition. For more Elias columns,visit www.californiafocus.net.Send letters toLetters, The Madera TribuneBox 269, Madera, CA 93639Or e-mail to: cdoud@maderatribune.net