You Dems are ‘moonbats’
In the Sunday paper you write:
”
The hit pieces both parties use is often shameful. Dredging up
President Bush’s behavior in college during the 2000 election was
silly. What was your behavior like when you were 21? And Karl
Rove’s ruthless attack on Kerry, thinly disguised as ‘Swiftboat
Veterans,’ was inexcusable. Decorated war veterans deserve more
respect than that.
”
You Dems are ‘moonbats’
In the Sunday paper you write: “The hit pieces both parties use is often shameful. Dredging up President Bush’s behavior in college during the 2000 election was silly. What was your behavior like when you were 21? And Karl Rove’s ruthless attack on Kerry, thinly disguised as ‘Swiftboat Veterans,’ was inexcusable. Decorated war veterans deserve more respect than that.”
When you resort to conspiracy theories, like “Karl Rove” attacking Kerry through the Swift Boat Veterans, you come across as flaky and intellectually dishonest. I read the Swift Boat Vets book, “Unfit for Command,” and it seemed factual and objective. Kerry’s medals in Vietnam were the result of him writing his own recommendations, in two cases for accidental, self-inflicted wounds. His Silver Star, for chasing down and shooting a wounded enemy soldier, does not strike me as worthy of the honor. It demeans all other recipients of that award, including my Uncle Theo who won his on Omaha Beach.
I have no problem with Kate Woods or John Yewell’s partisan Democrat opinions (thank goodness for freedom of press and speech), but it would be more informative if your newspaper had some balance. You should recruit some Republican columnists to provide a reality-check of competing ideas. It will keep you honest and prevent you from sounding like Moonbat Central.
Gary Waltrip
Hollister
Censoring Woods a huge mistake
You are right, civil debate needs to return to our political dialogue. In fact, any debate needs to return to our political dialogue. So many citizens appear ready to live in fear, accepting all the lies that come out of politicians’ mouths without question. People are accepting that it is right to lock up suspects without trial, to torture, to act against local citizens by filing lawsuits as part of a secret group. To speak out is fear, to be different is fear, to have different religious beliefs is fear, to protest against the government is fear.
That’s why your decision to axe Kate Woods from the Pinnacle is such a huge mistake. Someone who inspires debate, who is not afraid, who comes out swinging against evil is a rare treasure in these days of fear mongering. Why not give voice to truth, as long as other opinions are also heard? So few people go to the polls to vote, express themselves, form opinions, or have any idea how wrong and evil some aspects of our government are, that a brave voice such as Woods’ can only give a glimpse at the strange and twisted world we must deal with. An election is coming? We need brave truth!
Besides, Woods is the reason to read the Pinnacle.
Doug Reynolds
Gilroy
Richard Place muzzled Kate Woods
In reference to Richard Place, you have to ask yourselves a very important question. Why would a man, who is running for the County Board of Supervisors, do everything he can to muzzle the only really effective political reporter in the county? What has he got to hide? What is his real agenda?
C’mon, now, think. This isn’t about how you feel about Kate Woods as a reporter or as a person. This is about censorship and losing your right to know what is happening politically in your own neighborhood.
This Richard Place guy is up to something. If he wasn’t, then why muzzle Kate Woods? Something smells funny here.
R. Noah
South San Benito County
Silencing Kate Woods is not the answer
I assume that by removing Kate’s commentary the paper feels it is controlling
what the readers know about the political process in San Benito County and that we believe everything that Kate babbles and rants about. I for one am not that narrow minded.
I believe that everyone has the right to make their own decision as to who and what they pay attention to and without different opinions being presented your paper becomes very one sided and readers get a very shaded window to view from. I would like to see commentary from every faction of our political machine writing in this paper.
Without the different views of various political and social segments of our society we are handicapped to make intelligent decisions as to the future of our own society. I don’t agree with everything you have to say about what humans are doing to the environment but I read what you say and make up my own mind, I do not need you to do that for me with Kate’s opinions. I for one have just discontinued to read this paper and am very disappointed in your actions as editor.
Kate, e-mail me your opinions, I will miss them if you don’t.
Rod Hughes
Paicines
Main Street pressured Pinnacle
Why has Kate Woods been banished to the north country of Pinnacle readership for doing her job of quoting sources and stating previously reported unchallenged facts?
She obviously touched a nerve in her Feb. 19 Los Valientes article.
After a careful review of both the Feb. 19 article and the Feb. 26 management response, one can only conclude that pressure was brought to bear on Pinnacle management (Main Street Media) to do something and Kate became the fall guy.
Although you, as we, may not always agree with Kate’s choice of words in her Badlands column, you have to admit that she has done more to put the spotlight on political awareness than any other local writer. I fear that Pinnacle management has fallen into the trap of utopian idealism.
Please let us continue to read Kate’s fine political reporting.
Carl Chase
Hollister
Pinnacle has lost its spine
The Pinnacle certainly did not clarify anything about “Los Valientes,” but Richard Place’s biased position was certainly revealed.
I cannot believe the Pinnacle did not state another position except Place’s.   Someone complains about the liberal press, and the Pinnacle immediately gets rid of Leonard Pitts and Kate Woods. Too bad there is no spine, or fairness to the Pinnacle.
Ann Carpenter
Hollister
Censoring Woods is ill-advised
I am sad to see that Kate Woods’ column is “on hiatus.” The main reason that I read The Pinnacle is that there is some back-and-forth about local and national news. I don’t see this as a problem. Here is the problem: Our country is in deep trouble, financially and socially, and we must be able to hear other voices than the two parties that are in control right now. I say “two parties” because the Democrats are rubber-stamping the Republicans on the most important issues.
Kate is a fresh voice, willing to call it as she sees it. The king is naked! So why not say so?
I don’t think that we can all be good little kids, not saying anything bad about anyone. Democracy needs us all to say what we think, sometimes very loudly, so that one or the other point of view is not lost in the din. Democracy should be a very noisy thing. Think of the House of Commons in the UK. The “two” parties in our country have rigged it so that anyone who is not approved of by them has a very hard time being heard. If you try to have a say, you will be considered a member of the “fringe.” Well, what is the “fringe” anyway? It’s just that space not controlled by the two parties.
Anyway, I think that your (the editor’s) decision is ill-advised.
Tony Denning
San Martin
Gagging Woods disservice to community
I’ve been in Hollister nearly six years now. When I first arrived I considered the Pinnacle a fine local paper. I also considered them brave for taking on the entrenched “old boy network” that dominates the town. With the exile and muffling of Kate Woods, however, it would appear that the Pinnacle’s vivisection is nigh complete.
First we lose Bob Valenzuela, then Tracie Cone exits under ambiguous circumstances, and now your best reporter is, for all intents and purposes, banished and gagged. And the anemic justification for this is a plea for civil political discourse? Let me give you a hot tip: civil political discourse is oxymoronic. Just ask Karl Rove or, for that matter, Los Valientes.
By corralling Kate Woods you haven’t made politics in Hollister any prettier, you’ve merely silenced one side.
My problem is now this, with the Pinnacle now no longer worth reading, what do I do with the rag being dumped on my driveway every Saturday? Maybe I’ll get a bird. I can use the paper to line the bottom of the cage.
Ron Garcia
Hollister
GOP leader demands Woods returns
I was gravely disappointed when I opened my Pinnacle yesterday only to discover that Kate Woods’ column was on hiatus indefinitely. As the former Chairman of the San Benito County Republican Party, I, of course, did not always agree with Ms. Woods’ views in regard to President Bush and the Iraqi War, but I enjoyed her tongue-in-cheek expressiveness, particularly in regard to local political issues.
Kate’s column was a perfect example of what this country is all about-and that is freedom of speech.
I find your suggestion that the readers need to be spared from Kate’s satiric wit due to “election season” to be an inadequate excuse for the disappearance of the column. The “election season” is going to last for the next eight months or so, and I, for one, do not look forward to eight months of bland columns for the gentle reader.
Bring Kate’s column back! We hearty Pinnacle readers can handle it.
Jennifer Zapata
Hollister
Paper’s management is pushover
I was appalled to discover that Kate Woods’ column had been unceremoniously cancelled, and if the pushovers who control this newspaper think it’s even remotely less cowardly than I think it is, they are sorely mistaken. How dare you remove a journalist who has earned so many awards and whose column only reflects her diligence in truthful reporting.
Even worse is the pathetic accusation that the people who read the Pinnacle can’t handle having an opinion, positive or negative, thrown in to make them think about how things work in the world of politics that directly affects us. Reconsider your actions people, and return the best journalist you have to her job, which is to truthfully report the local news.
Hopefully she continues to piss off and win over hearts, because as long as she is reporting truthfully, that’s what journalism is about, affecting the readers on an emotional level and, God-forbid, making them think.
Jen Yoldi
Hollister
Woods was doing a fine job
Is what I heard true? Kate Woods will no longer be reporting for the San Benito County edition of The Pinnacle. There must be some mistake. Kate is the best reporter your paper has. She has interviewed me many times while I was in office and the printed word was accurate every time. I can’t say that about all the reporters.
There seems to be an undercurrent in her dismissal. Could it be that all the problems with the lawsuit naming the persons who are Los Valientes has something to do with this decision? Kate Woods has been reporting on this case from the very beginning, even attending the court hearings. That is her job; to report for heaven’s sake. And you reward her with a dismissal! What are you thinking? Who did you listen to? Why did you cave in to any pressure? Will the owner group – Mainstreet Media – ever tell what really happened in that meeting when they were bullied and browbeaten to remove Kate Woods Badlands and her well researched articles on Los Valientes? I doubt it because you aren’t going to disclose how you were bullied by someone who won’t even tell the truth and be counted like a man. Kate did her job and did it well. You can’t see that! Too bad for you.
The former owners built The Pinnacle into an excellent newspaper. The current ownership is building nothing.
And now I believe that journalistic integrity and The Pinnacle have parted ways.
Ruth E. Kesler
County supervisor, retired
San Juan Bautista
Main Street lets reporter be targeted
This is not Iraq! Journalists should not be targeted. I read nothing in “Pinnacle clarifies Los Valientes” that clarified anything except that Richard Place gives himself away. How dare he even think about running for supervisor!
Kate Woods penned it right. She did her job. She did it for truth, for her community and for the people and paper she serves. This makes her a courageous journalist in the line of fire.
The Los Valientes have no respect for people of this community or for the laws by which we abide. They accuse corruption without any clarifications. They think nothing of scattering lawsuits costly to the taxpayer. Worst of all, they are cowards like masked Klansmen who take the law into their own hands and who will lynch anyone in their way. Richard Place’s behavior gives him away.
To borrow the byline made famous by the late Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle, Hollister seems like “Baghdad by the Bay,” only in a way Herb Caen never imagined.
Mary Zanger
Hollister
Councilman was being respectful
Regarding R. Gonzales’ letter (The Pinnacle, Feb. 26), let’s set the record straight.
Councilman Geiger left the council chamber to thank the representatives of Biker Design and DAl-CON. These companies spent hundreds of dollars and their personal time to present a financial opportunity to our community. I wish to commend Councilman Geiger for his professionalism.
Councilman Geiger is the only councilmember who’s trying to bring in new revenue to SJB. In addition, Councilman Geiger records all city council meetings for reviewing purposes (broadcasted on cable TV by CMAP).
Mr. Geiger has great respect and praise and to those that give their time and energy to our community. Councilman Geiger was selected as a “San Benito County –”Volunteer of the Year” in 2005. Perhaps Mr. R. Gonzales should be asking Chief Coakley why he failed to have his presentation ready at 6 p.m.? Answer: Mr. Coakley begged the City Council to delay his presentation because he failed to notify the Fire Department volunteers of the 6 p.m. start time that had been posted for 72 hours.
If he had done his job, the Rally presentation would have occurred long after the Fire Department’s presentation.
Jim Dulin
San Juan Bautista
Concerns about Gavilan’s decision
I loved Gavilan College from the day I tracked in mud into its new physics building in 1967. I still love Gavilan, but from the points brought up in Kate Woods’ article, “Gavilan’s SBC choice opposed,” it seems that Gavilan needs to improve its communication and coordination with the community it serves. Maybe a few steps were skipped if groups such as Vision San Benito, Hollister Airport management, and the Hollister City Council feel short-changed in their involvement.
Much is made by proponents of the Gimelli land deal about the advantages of locating a campus in an outlying industrial park. Advantages for whom?
Community college students typically live with their parents. Transportation to and from the campus will consume time and increasingly expensive fuel. Students also need access to the same services as anyone else for food, clothing, and entertainment. Can student housing, even in an industrial zone, resolve these needs?
Hollister needs to anticipate expansion of its airport. The current airport site is admirably situated with respect to its downtown area – close, but not too close. Will airport growth be banished to another, more distant site, because single-dimension planning has hedged it in?
Risks of “sprawl” cry out for cautious examination. Sprawl in Los Angeles has led to an obscenity – 62 percent of all land area is consumed by roads and parking lots. Please, my San Benito compatriots, be very careful to avoid a similar laguna tarpit risk of asphalt madness.
Gary Walker
Lucca, Italy
Gavilan College Class of 1969
Gavilan Employee in 1978
Quite the college town
With the Fourth Street building being part of Gavilan College, the aviation department of Gavilan already at the airport, and looking for a new campus site, we’re going to be quite a college town.
Robert Gila
Hollister
Official call to impeach Bush
The San Benito County Democratic Central Committee hereby calls for the full investigation, impeachment, or resignation of President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. The President and Vice-President of the United States of America shall be impeached and removed from office for these alleged crimes:
1. Waging an unnecessary war in Iraq, and lying to the American people about the need for war;
2. Authorizing the torture of prisoners, in violation of the Geneva Convention;
3. Failing to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina; and
4. Ordering the secret wire-tapping of U.S. citizens without a warrant, in violation of federal law.
Jeanie Wallace
Chairperson, San Benito County Democratic Central Committee
