DOWN THE DRAIN...Squid's always believed deep in Squid's little, black heart that state Assemblyman John Laird opposed SB 149--aka state Senator Bruce McPherson's evil plan to dump the water board and replace it with dam-friendly Peninsula mayors. (Think Monterey's Dan Albert.) But as of the end of May, Laird told Squid: "I still haven't made up my mind." And Squid thought: Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Finally Laird made up his mind. McPherson's plan is a drip, he wrote in a guest commentary published in the Sunday Herald. Okay, so Squid took a few liberties paraphrasing Laird's choice of words. Here's what he really said: "SB 149 doesn't offer a solution to the water problem and it doesn't provide any policy direction," he wrote. "Instead, it creates a side argument about governance. The real issue is how we come together to develop a new water supply." Squid's thoughts exactly. Although Squid would have thrown in a few cheap shots about McPherson, the mayors or pro SB 149 lobbyist Bob McKenzie. Squid can't help it. It's in Squid's ink.

ELEFANTE BLANCO...Speaking of silly Republicans, there's a new Latino political organization in town. It's called the Coalition of Latin American Republican Organizations, or CLARO, and is sponsored by the Monterey County Republican Party. Squid's speechless.

MORE LIBERTARIANS AT THE GATES...Sure, democracy is messy. But sometimes Squid finds it plain old boring and a big fat waste of Squid's precious time. Case in point: the "coalition of taxpayers" who stormed the Board of Supervisor's meeting on June 24, calling Natividad Medical Center the "Enron of all hospitals." Turns out they don't like the idea of a ballot measure to increase the sales tax by one-half cent to pay for the county-owned hospital. Now Squid agrees the hospital's billing system is a mess--Natividad employees told Supes as much during a series of public hearings in the spring. But some protestors--including Lawrence Samuels, vice chair of the Monterey County Libertarian Party and Salinas Valley Taxpayers Association's John Tresch--would rather the see Natividad shut its doors for good, thousands of patients be damned, than pay the one-half cent tax. And Squid thought Squid was the only cold-blooded mollusk in the Courthouse.

MORE REDDI-WIP...Squid's not a fan of quoting PR scribes, but every once in a while one clever would-be writer will pen something so touching that it warms even Squid's black little heart. Like the fax about Nancy Myers of Monterey, the latest Reddi-Wip Real Moment winner, who won $1,000 by teaching a special-needs kindergartener how to say the word "more" in sign-language. After several attempts to teach the student, Michael, to sign the word "more," Myers decided to squirt Reddi-Wip on his snack. "Sitting up straight, Michael signed 'more' perfectly and started to laugh," so the story goes. "Myers kept squirting Reddi-Wip and Michael kept signing 'more,' while being cheered by the class. 'More' is now Michael's favorite word to sign" (Squid's Note: "More" is Squid's favorite word, too) "and Reddi-Wip his favorite treat."