What has to happen for Elton Gallegly to hold a public meeting in the district he serves. We have had earthquakes, 9/11, a bogus war. What has to happen?

Auction items include: 2-week Hawaiian condo vacation, lunch with your favorite politician
and much, much, more.

Great photo of Fran with Obama! My two favorite leaders in one photo. Love it.

See everyone at the Spring Fling!

Gag, Marie.

Anyway, it should be a real blood bath on the Democratic side with Rocky Delgadillo (who went to school with my wife), Kamala Harris, Joe Canciamilla, and Pedro running against each other.

I was pleased to see that Mike Stoker has thrown his hat in the ring for the 35th Assembly District seat. We've been trying to persuade him to take the plunge for months now.

One thing's for certain, these two races won't be boring. Great stuff.

Uh, you mean the Mike Stoker who works for Tony Strickland and serial polluter oil company Greka? The poster boy for the Ugly Republican... ?

Actually, Mike Stoker worked to help Greka clean up its act and implement additional safety measures that would ensure that leaks didn't occur again. The record speaks for itself.

Mike will be a great Assemblyman and will work hard to restore pride and confidence in our State government. He is an ardent opponent of new taxes and will help reverse the absurd tax-and-spend policies of legislators like Pedro Nava and Hannah-Beth Jackson, his predecessors.

Actually he was hired to keep Greka from paying fines for its egregious spills and careless ways. He needs to work hard to restore his own record as a political hack, bottom feeder and friend of greedy oil companies.

Greka Fights County over Fines

Embattled Oil Company Appealing Repeated Fines Levied by Santa Barbara County Inspectors

By Ethan Stewart
Santa Barbara Independent
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

In a little-known office space on Figueroa Street, the first round of an unprecedented series of hearings concerning appeals of fines against Greka Energy concluded with little fanfare last week. Considered by many to be Santa Barbara’s environmental public enemy number one for its facilities’ frequent and flagrant oil spills, Greka has been quietly fighting more than 1,500 violations and more than half a million dollars in resulting fines at meetings with Santa Barbara County staffers and counsel since late January. After lawyers from both sides finished arguments on Wednesday, February 11 — closing remarks are due February 20 — the ball is now is in County Planning and Development Director John Baker’s court on just how much of the $558,000 in fines Greka must pay.

Late last winter, after a spate of mishaps at three of its facilities spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil, Greka, the biggest onshore oil operator in Santa Barbara County, found itself under increased scrutiny from county, state, and federal regulators as well as public and elected officials. Spurred into action by Greka’s track record, Santa Barbara County supervisors cracked the whip on their staff, demanding more oversight of onshore oil producers, redoubled inspection practices, and a more aggressive petroleum code to reign in repeat offenders.

"it's impossible to run an oil company without occasionally having spills," says Greka's president Andrew DeVegvar.

Last week’s hearing — which pitted Santa Barbara County deputy counsel Maria La Sala, County Petroleum Administrator Mike Zimmer, and two County Building and Safety inspectors against Greka’s lawyer Susan Whalen, former county supervisor and HIRED GREKA SPOKESPERSON MIKE STOKER, and Greka quality assurance representative Jeanette Boyer — resulted from that aforementioned whip cracking. In fact, not only were the merits of the 1,500-plus violations the crux of the meeting, but the appeal process itself had never been invoked until this time.

In a heated but informal back and forth, the Greka team and county officials retraced each facility’s violation history. While the inspection dates varied, a pattern nonetheless emerged. Greka would be inspected. Violation and correction notices would be issued. Thirty days later, when no work to fix the problems was evident, a second notice would be sent telling Greka it had 15 days to fix the problem or start accruing fines.

At the end of that period, the county would send out its first Notice of Violation (NOV) effectively starting the clock on fines and giving Greka another 30 days to fix things before a second round of fines. At the end of that period, if violations still remained — and more often than not they did — a Notice of Determination of fines would be issued to Greka, and a second NOV, with a new 30-day deadline and the potential for a whole new level of fines, would also be sent. County petroleum administrator Zimmer said that while many violations were remedied by Greka during this process, several violations remain uncorrected as of press time. Consequently, Zimmer is asking the county to fine Greka $558,000.

Not sure what any of this has to do with Mike Stoker, but oooookkkaaaaayyyy!!!

Oooh, sorry. Forgot Republicans can't digest anything but Fox News soundbites. Condensed version for those who are kinda slow:

Drill and Spill Stoker is part of Team Greka working to keep the serial polluter from have to pay up for its misdeeds. He's also been hired to spin and twist facts for his pollutin' pals.

Need an example? Think Aaron Eckhart character in "Thank You for Smoking."

The perfect pal for Tony Strickland.

Well, you got it completely wrong again, Hired Gun. No surprise there, I guess.

Mike Stoker has worked as a consultant and legal counsel for a variety of businesses, particularly those working in the south and central coast, including many in the agricultural industry. Greka Oil sought out his services, not the other way around, and he's done a yeoman's job of advising them on the need to provide more safety measures to prevent spills and other more potentially catastrophic events from occurring at their facilities.

Spills are the nature of the biz for oil companies, for those obviously uneducated in the field, like yourself, Hired Gun. But, interestingly enough, more oil is naturally leaks from the ocean floor off the Santa Barbara coast in a six-month period than what has been alleged against Greka during its years of operation. This is just Mother Gaya burping, shall we say?

You need to do a little research before you start spouting next time, Hired Gun, and turn off Rachel Dykow and Keith Older-man for a while.

Little oil company creates big problems
3/27/2008
By Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press Writer
LOS OLIVOS, Calif. — When a Firestone Vineyard employee discovered oil trickling down a creek in January in this wine country town, the source of the contamination was no surprise to firefighters.
Of 21 refineries in California, Greka Oil & Gas Inc. is the fourth-smallest producer, but the state's biggest inland oil polluter, according to state officials.

Broken pumps, busted pipes, overflowing ponds and cracked tanks at Greka installations have spilled more than a half-million gallons of oil and contaminated water since 1999, fouling the water, soil and air in the Southern California county many consider the birthplace of the nation's environmental movement.

Over the past nine years, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department has responded at least 400 times to oil spills and gas leaks at Greka, resulting in fines, citations, federal and local prosecutions and investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency and state Fish and Game.

"I've been in the hazardous materials business for 20 years and this is the worst oil company I've ever seen," said Robert Wise, who works at EPA's Superfund division.

OK, EPA. Just keep repeating the same posts over and over again with the hope that they'll make some obscure point. How childish is that?

I've been in the hazardous materials business for 20 years and this is the worst oil company I've ever seen," said Robert Wise, who works at EPA's Superfund division.

I noticed President Obama was quick to condemn the shooting death of Dr. Tiller, the late-term abortion doctor, in Kansas the other day, but has yet to say a word about the shooting death by a domestic terrorist of 24-year-old Private William Long, in Little Rock, Arkansas, a soldier in the military that Obama is Commander-in-Chief of.

I will continue to monitor this and let you know if and when our dear leader makes mention of this equally horrendous act by a homegrown terrorist on our soil.

How many times have the fire dept responded to other oil company spills in this area?