Posted on 02/29/2004 4:54:49 PM PST by Carry_Okie
When I first heard that Bill Jones was running with the endorsement of the CAGOP establishment, I had the same reaction as most of you probably did. I remembered his feckless support for McCain, his critical vote in raising taxes for Pete Wilson, that he is a farmer, pro-life, and seemingly a nice guy. That's it. It was enough to get me to support Kaloogian instead.
Well, unfortunately, my common understandign was not the whole story. The tipping point came with Arnold Schwarzenegger's endorsement. It was curious that Arnold chose to support Bill Jones instead of Rosario Marin, the candidate anointed by Eastern RINOs, especially because Jones had come out against the recall. So I asked an honest Democrat friend of mine (they exist) what she knew about Jones, hoping to get some insight into what kind of opposition he would face. She and her network are just as disgusted about government corruption in the environmental movement as I am (yes, even on their own side), so we have a few common interests. She immediately supplied me information about Jones' questionable connections in the ethanol business. I noted that on this board and some other freepers (notably calcowgirl) started digging too. The information kept pouring in. It wasn't very hard to find.
Barbara Boxer won't have any trouble finding it either. When she does, she'll have a field day.
My guess is that, besides his pro-life stance, Boxer's attacks will concentrate upon the following issues:
Barbara Boxer will crush Bill Jones in the general election, and another CAGOP RINO Senate candidate will go the way of Matt Fong, Ed Zschau, Tom Campbell, and John Seymour, all of whom were creamed in the general election. When will conservatives ever learn to vote our consciences? At least Bruce Herschenson came close, losing by less than five points, only because of a last minute Boxer smear that caused conservatives to abandon him, a smear that was later proven false.
Bill Jones is a farmer, but not the kind of farmer you would like to think. Jones is the epitome of the corporate agriculture welfare queen, drawing massive amounts of federal subsidies for unprofitable products.
Jones hails from Fresno, home of the Westlands Water District. Westlands occupies a special place in the California political lexicon. During the early 1960s under governor Pat Brown, the Bureau of Reclamation made a special deal with a small group of California farmers: If they provided cash for construction of the California Water Project, they would get a VERY special deal on the water. The political purpose of the California Water Project was of course to allow developers in Los Angeles to cash in on otherwise worthless desert. What it also accomplished was to turn the San Joaquin Valley into a growing region for cotton, tomatoes, and other water intensive crops.
A 1996 GAO report found that:
Bill Jones and his immediate family collected over $4 million in subsidies (predominantly cotton) between 1995-2002, but it is in reality FAR more. The water Westlands provides costs less to its users than the cost of the electricity to necessary to pump it south, never mind the commodity value. Because it is so cheap, the farmers use spray and flood irrigation, even on the hottest, dry, windy days. What the water leaves behind is salt. Salt ruins soils.
Cotton is one of the most environmentally destructive crops there is. It consumes large quantities of water, requires heavy pesticide use, and produces a commodity crop that brings a very marginal profit, a fact with which Bill Jones is quite familiar, seeing as one of his operations is delinquent on its taxes. (Sources: NOTICE OF STATE TAX LIEN (R) J&J FARMS, (R) JONES M; Record Date Nov 17, 2003; Document Number 027663600; Document Type, Reel Image; and CERTIFICATE OF PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX, FRESNO COU TAX COLLR, (R) J&J FARMS Record Date, Feb 12, 2004; Document Number 003352900; Document Type Reel Image,)
Worse, because of the high selenium content of the soil and the clay layer underlying the land, there is a toxic, salt pesticide-laden runoff that ends up on both adjacent farms and in the widely decried Kesterson Wildlife Refuge, where so many birds have supposedly died from selenium and pesticide poisoning. The Sierra Club has been trumpeting this for over twenty years. Every greenie in the State believes it. As part of its cushy water deal, the government promised the farmers a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR drainage system to go with all that free water, but so far the greens have it tied up in court while the birds keep dying.
Gotta keep a bad thing going to keep the money flowing. In politics, nothing big and bad goes on for very long unless both sides are dirty.
Speaking of dirty, all Barbara Boxer has to do is whisper Westlands, Kesterson, and Bill Jones in the same sentence, and the environmental vote will be immediately energized against him and with them, a good many soccer moms AND Northern California agriculture and development interests looking a cut of Trinity River water. In California, that means something. Boxer will beat Bill Jones relentlessly about it, for wasting water, guzzling tax dollars, and poisoning the environment. Jones will have no defense.
Of course, if Bill and friends were interested in farming forever they wouldn't do anything to harm their land, but what if they weren't? Because the Feds are so tired of paying Jones et al. to grow cotton and are having trouble funding the cash to deal with the runoff, they're looking to pay him and his pals not to farm any more, to the tune of a cool $500 million dollars, of which Jones and his family expect to pocket some $70 million. So, what will be done with the land? It's flat. It's no good for farming any more.
Can you say, "housing"?
"In recent weeks, the administration reached agreement with Westlands and some of its members to pay $107 million to retire nearly 33,000 acres of damaged farmland, settlement of a decade-old lawsuit. Westlands also would pay the farmers $33 million to control the land, which perhaps could be developed in the fastest-growing part of the state." Source.
There's nothing quite like having the government pay you big bucks to own and operate property for speculative purposes so that you can make the big bucks growing crappy housing tracts and selling water to other developers later on... after the Feds bail you out of a borderline farming business.
Would Barbara Boxer be able to make hay out of that? You betcha.
What does Jones do with the money? Enter Pacific Ethanol and federal ethanol subsidies. Without the EPA requirement for oxygenated fuel, the demand for ethanol would hardly exist. With it, Jones and his friends get to cash in piggybacking on ADM's machinations from the Midwest. The problem is, adding ethanol is totally unnecessary for modern cars to meet EPA standards. Further, producing ethanol requires more energy than it returns. It cannot be transported in steel pipelines, so it has to be trucked or carried by rail, adding to already congested highways. It's a boondoggle, at your expense, something of a specialty for Mr. Jones.
Then we come to Jones' performance as California Secretary of State. Not only did he do very little to curb the massive ballot fraud in California, but he approved touch-screen voting systems that were neither secure nor properly validated. Immediately after his tenure, Jones accepted a position as a consultant for the touch-screen voting machine manufacturing industry:
"As secretary of state in 2001, [Jones] moved to rid California of the type of antiquated voting machines that helped throw the presidential election into turmoil in Florida. Then last year he sponsored a successful $200-million industry-backed bond measure that gave counties money to buy high-tech replacements. Now, the former elections chief is a paid consultant to one of the major voting machine firms vying for that business." Source
Democrats are just as scared of touch screen voting as are conservatives and, believe it or not, for the same reasons. Seeing as a good many of them know how corrupt their Party really is, it stands to reason that they would expect Republicans to do the same things given the chance.
Finally, there's fundraising ineptitude. Jones' campaign is broke and in debt despite his front runner status and having run virtually no media at all. You can expect more of the same when he runs against Boxer, with both her ample war chest funding opulent media buys and the regular news media doing exposees on the above topics going unanswered. Those of you expecting to go along with the GOP have a long frustrating campaign ahead if Bill Jones wins the primary.
Is this a man you want carrying the Republican banner into the election? Even if he wins, is this the man you want reining in Federal spending, not a small amount of which are the very subsidies off which he has made a living? Is this the man you want standing up for you against more bogus trade agreements or fighting off stupid UN treaties?
I hope not.
I am truly sorry this article came out so late. Frankly, I really didn't want to write it. The entire nature of this type of work is starting to wear on me. Unfortunately, seeing as the fourth estate has seen fit to leave the voting public totally in the dark about the background and qualifications of current Republican candidates for the US Senate, someone has to bring the issues to light so that Republicans can make an informed decision. Perhaps you should ask yourself why the media might be sitting on the information.
Might it be because they intend to use it later?
It isn't politics that has me fatigued; I am tired of political corruption. I see it everywhere. It's gone to the point that, when one sees a rising new star in either party, one must to go looking for whence the money came and what the donors want.
Because she is a mean woman who only knows the politics of personal destruction.
-PJ
Jones' weaknesses aside, I have heard Kaloogian a number of times, and he has the directness and the stomach to defeat Boxer.
In terms of conservative message and boldness, he stands head and shoulders above losers like Simon, Fong, and Lundgren.
Absolutely!
I didn't think Jones could do in Boxer before you revealed all this!
I like Kaloogian for his work on the recall!
Without the EPA requirement for oxygenated fuel, the demand for ethanol would hardly exist.
I don't think there would be any demand at all without the phony government requirement.
Well, people DO drink it (except for you and me of course)...
D'ya think Congress an the EEE PEE AAA was sampling that thar ADM corn-likker an gettin jest a tad gassed?
I received my "Citizens for Good Government" sponsored "Voter's Guide" yesterday. The Logo on this piece of work is an Elephant on a Red, White and Blue background. It was apparently sent only to Republicans.
This "Voter Guide" tells me that I should vote for GWB, Howard Kaloogian, and oddly enough, "Yes" on 56. "Yes" on 56 is mentioned several times in the mailing, at one point with an Asterisk (*). In very small print on a different page of this thing is the phrase, "Appearance is paid for and authorized by each candidate and ballot measure designated by an "*".
Guess which is the only thing marked with an "*". Right, "Yes" on 56.
Your Union Dues at work.
Fratricide wins no honor from me. All that energy to ripping another Republican. Sad. And it violates Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment.
Put your energy into defeating Boxer, not another Republican....
That's exactly what I'm doing. You have a lot to learn about the CAGOP. I suppose you consider Schwarzenegger a Republican too. Sad.
Start here, and learn how and why our Party no longer necessarily represents conservatives.
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