Joe is a big bearded man with a badge, a gun and a Smokey the Bear hat. He loves everything green - grass, trees and money, especially other people's money.
Ask famous U2 guitarist, David Evans, a.k.a., The Edge.
Evans bought 156 acres on Sweetwater Mesa above Malibu with the idea of developing a mini-enclave, including his own dream house, along with four other mogul-homes. It's good to be a rock star.
It's even better being Joe.
As in Joseph T. Edmiston, the Godfather behind America's most perfect political machine- the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA)- which is quite a mouthful.
The Edge quickly learned building on the California Coast is no simple matter, even if you know Bono. Since 2006 Evans has been denied permits from the various regulatory agencies, including the fatal opposition of the California Coastal Commission (CCC) and Edmiston's hydra-headed SMMC/MRCA.
Joe and his wingmen at the Coastal Commission threw every possible obstacle in Evans' way, chewing up a fortune in revised architectural drawings and legal fees. Not content to simply bankrupt a challenger, Edmiston's playbook also calls for character assassination. He and/or his goons malign anyone who has the audacity to insist upon their property rights by inflaming the passions of class warfare.
A famous multi-millionaire rock star wants to rip up a pristine ridgeline so
he can party in the company of A-list neighbors, hogging a Pacific vista Mother Nature bequeathed to future generations! It's demagoguery 101.
But The Edge is pretty sharp.
He realized the Coastal Commission is hopeless - a wild-eyed gaggle of ideologues and zealots who are impervious to reason. However, Edmiston's "principles" are negotiable.
In fact, they're cash and carry.
After fighting the project for years, Edmiston has suddenly agreed to keep the SMMC/MRCA "neutral" in the permit fight with the Coastal Commission.
He's also agreed to have the SMMC/MRCA "communicate support in writing" and "attend public meetings and hearings and speak in favor" of the very project he so vigorously opposed.
What's in it for him?
A cash payoff of $750,000 to the SMMC/MRCA and an additional quarter million for a consultant.
While the world watches Middle Easterners fight and die to cast off un-elected tyrants who rule by decree, thousands of acres of private lands in California have been either arbitrarily seized by Edmiston, or wrested away by the ruthless exercise of his limitless powers. An un-elected autocrat, Joe Edmiston has terrorized private property owners for three decades with no countervailing political checks and balances of any kind.
How does he get away with it?
Perhaps you've thrown a Frisbee at "The Michael Antonovich Regional Park" or taken in the vista from "Zev Yaroslavsky Mulholland Gateway Park" or jogged at sunset along "The Sheila Kuehl Beach Reserve?"
Politicians burnish their green credentials courtesy of Joe while private citizens are forced to fight him in court or buy him off.
Meanwhile fundamental property rights are routinely trampled by Edmiston's empire. The SMMC - and even more so the MRCA - represent a monumental mockery of the rule of law.
Obviously property owners don't have absolute rights. But neither does the government.
The basic objectives of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority might be noble- preserving California's natural beauty- but Joe's methodology is Machiavellian. These rogue agencies threaten the very notion of a self-governing people.
When Edmiston is allowed to use regulations and codes, joint power agreements, "Benefit Assessment District" taxes, the threat of expensive litigation and actual police powers - including guns - to enforce his will, we have lost the mantel of citizenship and are once again subjects to the whims of an arbitrary ruler.
The Edge's fight is our fight. Rock on.
Najla578
April 29th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Thanks Fadia for your quick reply!! Yes I am seeing the mark?? and I am not using firefox I guess. I will try to download Chrome from Google. I?ll keep you posted.
FadiaTube
April 29th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
@Najla578 Are U seeing ! mark?? are you using Firefox??? lately CC hasn?t been working with Firefox. try download and use Google chrome instead. it works.
Najla578
April 29th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
@fadiaTube I can not open the ccaptions, what is wrong please?? Could you please tell me how to reactive these??
Thank you very much!!!!
Najla578
April 29th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
@fadia I can not open the ccaptions, what is wrong please?? Could you please tell me how to reactive these??
Thank you very much!!!!
Son016
April 29th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
sorry ladies I just want to know is it me or we are missing �pisode 41?
thanks Fadia for your hard work i just wanted to know if am the one who can?t find this �pisode.
TurkishLover91
April 29th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Thanks Fadia?when i first watched the series i didnt like it much but when i saw how good you translation were and knew you would continue i decided to watch?.Thanks so MUCH!
FadiaTube
April 29th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
@1Zainab0 Dear didn?t you see the message at the beginning of the video that says only 1 bour and 2 minutes are translated for now..
I?m working on the rest. ))
bexigah
April 30th, 2011 at 5:27 am
@iyareatibabare
There?s no unsolvable secrets. All thinks we don?t know how to explain now, we will in the future.
As in the past, people take the thunder like a god?s implement, and then, we know that is just a fenomenon. As the entire Universe?
iyareatibabare
April 30th, 2011 at 6:17 am
man, God is amazing. ?im so happy he put a limit on the knowledge of human beings. if they actually unlock the secrets of the universe, they might start thinking they?re god. themselves. oh wait, God?s a spirit hence you can?t unlock the secret of the universe. Well played God!
duffypeter
April 30th, 2011 at 7:08 am
aliens have always been here most people who see them see them comming from under ground out of water or out of the clouds. they are not aliens but known by another name such as the fallen thats why it is covered up so much . theres is evidence that the egyptians use to pray to these beings . nothing that scientists say can be trusted because of all the cover ups.
Gohot229
April 30th, 2011 at 7:52 am
Because ?traditionally? they cloak themselves in clouds?????.. wahhaaaat, what ?tradition? Tradition means, been doing it for a long,long time, like generations. Wordsmiths?. probably find them drinking coffee at their neighbors in the trailer park, chainsmoking
number6of6the6beast
April 30th, 2011 at 9:29 am
?what if? this the whole video is a massive what if? what if? what if. very interesting
37Rusty
April 30th, 2011 at 9:38 am
Nancy red star? as much as i find SOME of this subject interesting, well, im sorry, i cant take anyone serious with a name like Nancy Red Star..
graphattic
April 30th, 2011 at 10:47 am
Why is it always the same 5 douchebags in every Ancient Aliens Documentary? They remove any legitimate feelings one might have for this.
RIOT690
April 30th, 2011 at 11:32 am
@OnslaughtAdoration
The Chinese saw supernovas and not one book or text was written about battles between gods.