Talking with California State Assembly candidate Stan Ellis about politics - By N.L. Belardes
Country music statesman:
I’ve been covering the Bakersfield music scene for more than a year and a half and finally heard the story about Buck Owens’ telecaster with the red-white-and-blue flag painted on it. It’s an interesting tale about a little-known country musician from the band Stampede who had some gift baskets made for the Buckaroos (Stampede often performs at the Crystal Palace). When Buck unexpectedly showed up where the gift baskets were, there was no basket for him. So the musician had a special guitar made for Buck with an American flag on it. He gave it to Buck the same day Brad Paisley also presented Buck Owens with a guitar.
Fat chance that Buck was going to use the new American flag telecaster, right? Wrong. Buck used the guitar in his performances at the Crystal Palace over the last few years of his life. The guitar was even propped on the Crystal Palace stage at Buck’s viewing. I guess that old electric horse meant something to cowboy Buck.
Stan Ellis picks a little at Buck's Statue unveiling in 2005
Meet Stan Ellis, millionaire extraordinaire, country musician with a big heart, who even performed at Buck Owens’ statue unveiling. Ellis is a hopeful politician who prefers the word “statesman” and who is the culprit who gave the guitar that Buck Owens used to his dying day. Ellis has dumped about half a million bucks of his own pesos into his ad campaign, enough to get him pegged by the local mainstream media in what Ellis claims is unjustifiably as “the rich guy trying to buy the election”. You might love Ellis after this article; you might hate him, or even vote for him. The most important idea to remember after reading my two cents? Go out and vote…
I haven’t always voted, and that’s one of my major regrets in life.
********
A working man's office:
I sat in Stan Ellis’ office yesterday waiting on a couch while he took a phone call and walked outside the room. Now I’ve seen a lot of offices in my day. I’ve seen the fancy president’s office of the Golden Nugget Hotel-Casino. He even had his secretaries walking his dogs on Fremont Street. Talk about pampered (although I really liked the old Nugget president). I’ve seen the smoky offices of some lame presidents tucked away like caves in fortress-covered hillsides. Stan’s office is a working man’s office. Sure, he’s top dog at his company, but his office is sparse. One couch, a medium-sized desk, a stuffed quail and a few reprints of aviation history on the walls. His desk wasn’t as messy as mine, and there was a cowboy hat wrapped in plastic on the couch next to me. It's a perfect office for a conversation between guys wearing jeans and baseball caps. We weren't wearing caps.
No need for flash in the pan.
Politics, contribution money and postcards:
Now you might be wondering just what in the heck I was doing in a hopeful politicians office. It all started with a handwritten postcard in the mail that read:
“Hi and thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Stan has been a life long Republican as well as an independent businessman for 30 years. Vote Stan Ellis on June 6th. Sincerely, Mindy Ellis”
The postcard...
On the flip side I could see Stan’s campaign slogan, “Let’s Talk.”
Of course I don’t watch TV or listen to the radio, so I had never heard the Ellis slogan. So I called the number and left a message.
I wanted to learn more in case he did call me back, so I turned to the Internet. Most of you know me as an Internet junky. You can find all kinds of gobbledy-gook on folks on the Net…
Right away on Google I found a few Ellis quotes that I wasn’t too happy with. But were they misquotes? Maybe. The mixture of politics and mainstream journalism are often a deadly brew for candidates, with no antidote other than upping money spent in campaigns: billboards, signs, posters, mailers, phone calls, radio commercials, TV ads, and so on. Misquotes could just mean taking out of context. Usually depends on the media’s slant. Is the media liberal, conservative or anything in between? If you can figure out the slant, then you can usually figure out the news perspective of how candidates will be portrayed.
Just ask yourself about the Californian’s perspective on Ellis. They wrote an article talking about him spending his own money on himself. I told him, “You seem like a passionate guy, competitive in business. I’m not guessing you entered the race to lose. So why not spend your own money if you have it. I would.” I met Ellis and could tell he really gets disturbed about asking people for money. Some people are givers and not takers. His friend Chris who runs a helicopter company called me soon after the meeting and during the conversation said, “Hey, Stan really hates to take money. We practically get in fist fights every time I try to buy his lunch.”
I hope Stan doesn’t find out I write for free. He might come and kick my tail into next week.
What I did learn is that Ellis is a giver.
He even showed me an itemized Quickbooks list of contributions since 1998. The total came out to just above $183,000.00. Even if half of those items weren’t legit, it sure makes him look better than the $600.00 that some media folks say he contributed. Heck he even contributed to friends in the Democratic Party. And Ellis is a Republican! Ellis claims to have contributed another $30,000.00 to $40,000.00 on top of the list I saw. He made his point. I saw the lists: schools, school groups, politicians, Battered Women’s groups, Arnie, etc… the list was more than two pages long.
Going over contributions...
Ellis gets hot about a passionate money-spending issue regarding his campaign
and accusations against his contribution history...
And let me tell you, Stan Ellis showed some emotion. His voice raised and he was quite animated. And rightly so. Who likes to be misrepresented?
If he indeed was misrepresented. I can’t prove anything other than expressing my opinion about the paper trail that I saw.
But what did I find online that I didn’t like about Ellis political perspective?
I told Ellis that I’m a moderate and he agreed he leans to the far right, so naturally we’re not going to agree on everything.
I found one online quote about Stan Ellis referring to blogs as “tabloid journalism”. Was Ellis referring more to “conversation journalism” and political tactics using such blogs, or invasive journalism as in a paparazzi peeking over his backyard fence? I think he was referring to anonymous folks leaving baiting comments and questions. I can understand not wanting to answer folks who won’t leave their identity. Might as well talk to thin air.
Tough talk from Ellis on immigration:
Another quote went as follows:
“One of her GOP opponents in the 32nd Assembly District, Stan Ellis, objected to protests by illegal immigrants. ‘If in fact illegals are protesting in our streets, they have not earned the right to free speech,’ Ellis said.”
On Stan Ellis’ website he speaks out further in an MP3 audio file and claims that none of the 12 million illegal immigrants in American today should gain citizenship.
Not one? Well Stan, what should we do with them? And why can’t they speak out?
We talked about it later and he mentioned that the process towards legalization needs to be slow. And he does seem very sympathetic to immigrants. His ancestors are immigrants and he is a self-made man, having come to California with an old car, a few thousand bucks in the bank and a wife and kids, nothing else. Now he runs several businesses, and successfully too.
I definitely didn’t agree with his statements online though. America is country symbolic of freedom to the global community. Citizen or not, human beings have a right to speak out, especially on the streets of America. England once claimed its own subjects were illegally speaking out against mother England. England was never confused about who Americans were citizens of—England. The right to American Revolution and all the freedoms that came with it (illegally in the eyes of England) is no different than an illegal immigrant opportunist wanting to help their family in a new land. Otherwise popular American documents wouldn’t refer to inalienable rights and rights of pursuing happiness and so forth; they wouldn’t read as rights of man, but rights of only people in America who are citizens. The Declaration of Independence was to declare rights for all men who are created equal, not just for Americans are only equal on American soil. There are human rights issues at stake. All others would be victims of some militaristic notion of silencing people.
Why want to silence people? What if an illegal immigrant witnessed a crime, a murder, or was a doctor who discovered a cure for the common cold? Would you still silence them? No right to speak out?
If illegal immigrants aren’t welcome to speak out in America, then why should Americans be allowed to speak out on the streets of Baghdad? To the Iraqis we illegally invaded. And maybe rightly so. Were there Weapons of Mass Destruction? Just making a point here. I’m just saying if the war were illegal, then Americans speaking out on foreign soil through big gun mouthpieces is… just? Or any American traveling anywhere for that matter? Just because someone isn’t in a country legally doesn’t mean they don’t have human rights enough to speak out. Speaking out could mean the right not to be short-changed at a grocery store.
By the way, I have been a supporter through much of the war.
What if America were in another huge Civil War and you lived in a city being bombed and barely escaped with your belongings and family and high-tailed it over a fence into Canada. Wouldn’t you want to be treated with sympathy? Or would you prefer being silenced in some anti-American refugee camp guarded by Canucks with machine guns who don’t like illegal immigrants?
If Yahoo and Google help silence people who blog in China, should America even show disregard for anyone in America who has a voice and isn’t in jail? See, I’m not talking about murderers, embezzlers, rapists, and so forth. I’m talking about hard working people who happen to be illegal immigrants with jobs right now in America. Or even if they don’t work and they’re someone’s 80 year old grandmother…
Even they have a voice.
Foreigners own many businesses in America, and are allowed to speak about their views everyday in the global and American workplace. In fact, many foreign nationals come to America and preach propaganda about their own countries that may be under martial law, with policies that often lead to torture for everyday workers like you and me just for sneezing wrong.
Heed my advice. Stay away from Burma. Especially if you ever find their spokesmen in the U.S.
******
Avoiding the blog baiters:
Stan did speak his mind about bloggers and said he doesn’t dislike bloggers at all, he is simply aware that people might bait him in blog comments on mainstream websites. I wouldn’t call that tabloid journalism, just bait tactics that Ellis doesn’t like to be trapped into. Who wants to have to muck through the opposing party’s traps? I get folks who bait me all the time through emails and blogs. Sometimes I pretend to fall for it, other times I speak out, and a lot of the time I ignore baiting.
Just ask Senator McCain. He took a few good verbal black eyes when he recently stepped into a hornet’s nest, allowing himself to be baited and verbally pummeled.
In the case of McCain, he got more respect for allowing himself to get pummeled a bit. It’s up to Ellis whether or not he ever wants to do the same.
I was angry myself at first over an online pummeling I recently read. But the anger quickly went away and I called for more bold red sentences! Stir the buckets of controversy! Let people speak out on their websites if they don’t like me. I know that not everybody likes everybody, that people misunderstand each other, misinterpret messages, and even launch campaigns against you. That’s just the nature of what happens when people think you should act according to their standards, and not your own.
I think Ellis has his own standards. Some will like his perspective some wont. And agree or not, that doesn’t mean he has no integrity as a leader who cares passionately about the future of his kids, his business, and in wanting to help fix the over-bureaucracy of America.
Maybe that’s just plain old idealism.
Regarding blogs, Stan Ellis prefers discussions where he can see folks or hear their voice. I can’t blame him for that. In fact, I can appreciate the integrity of wanting honest debates. I get strange anonymous comments all the time that lack in credibility because there are no names attached. Like I stated earlier: might as well talk to thin air.
Ellis and I did sit down and talk about illegal immigrants and he did indicate once again that he felt illegal immigrants didn’t have a right to speak out. I gave some examples from this very article and Stan indicated, “There’s an exception to every rule.” OK, we agree on that, which was my point.
A businessman, Stan takes time out of his own day to help teach immigrants how to pilot. And he’s not mad at illegal immigrants. He’s frustrated at the system. He feels America’s bureaucratic system has let everyone down. He wants legislation backed up that was in place more than twenty years ago. “Let’s streamline immigration and secure the borders.”
OK, we sort of agree.
I know I’m fairly progressive about human rights. Not everybody believes illegal immigrants have a right to speak out. But then, I would take many an illegal immigrant’s speech over some government official who might be visiting the U.S. and talking to an ethnic group about how great working conditions are in Shanghai, when all I can think about is Communists imprisoning people like Hao Wu for simply writing a blog titled, Beijing or Bust. Try living in a Chinese prison for four months.
There’s something to say for a free country treating all immigrants with integrity who aren’t breaking a law other than sneaking over a border, and who aren’t suspected terrorists.
And yet Ellis didn’t completely disagree with my sympathetic voice.
What about MySpace.com:
We moved on. I asked his opinion of myspace.com. He claimed, “People have the right of free speech.” He also mentioned that parents should be held responsible and monitor their kids on the site. Holy smokes, we agree. I then let him in on why I asked. Yeah, I had baited ol’ Stanley a bit. I found out one of his workers was on myspace and wanted to see what he thought.
The Thomas-sleaze affair:
Yet I’m not letting Stan Ellis get away so easy. Seems there’s at least one other issue. I also received mail that reads, “Thank You! Congressman Thomas and Assemblyman McCarthy. For all the hard work you have done in helping to improve our highway and road needs. I want to assure you from Sacramento that I will be there to carry on your good work. I promise I won’t let you down.”
The Thomas-Sleaze Affair...
Seems there was a phone message on Wednesday that claimed to be Bill Thomas’ office, and that Bill Thomas does not endorse Stan Ellis, and that they know Ellis has documents with Thomas’ name on them. Check out this hateful message.
The mean message from Bill Thomas' office welcoming Ellis
to the world of American politics, where even people in your
own party might call you a sleazoid. Thanks, Bill.
So what’s the deal?
“I just appreciate what Thomas and McCarthy did for us. I made a statement about it. Why not, I donated a $1000.00 to McCarthy’s campaign.” He indicated that such name calling is juvenile.
Yeah, but now Ellis is inside the political spectrum. And within the political spectrum, relationships change, because it’s all about gaining power, forming alliances and winning votes. Statesman or politician, it’s the same sphere,and it’s a harsh world of people smearing people.
So Thomas didn’t appreciate being thanked by Ellis in a mailer. He views Ellis as a campaigner with a sleazy mission. To gain office? To win votes? If Thomas is correct, then all politicians are sleazy.
A businessman from the people:
Ellis then took me on a tour of his business.
Inside the flooring factory...
A sample flooring...
We walked through where hard dance floors are made. I could hear saws and see piles of flooring waiting to be packaged and sent out. We then headed out into the chemical engineering aspects of his business, where Ellis and his team build various systems that help dredge and clean waste.
Stan Ellis explains the waste-cleaning processes of one of his machines
He and his team have even developed a method of making asphalt that takes refinery waste products and transforms the byproducts into a binding agent used in new and old asphalt. He claims the new asphalt is extremely binding and flexible.
Various grades of asphalt samples...
We then walked across the street to where he is partners in an equipment company. I shook the hands of a few of his workers and commented that they seemed to have a good work ethic.
Did Ellis prep his workers in how to respond before I arrived?
I doubt it. He’s a likeable man with a sense of integrity and almost naïve passion about politics that not all leaders have. That’s idealism, and with idealism comes a desire to want to make a difference. He wants a new career in the Republican sector. I can see that. Why not? I saw his itemized contributions. Why not jump into the foray if he’s already spending money, and if he’s a well liked businessman and leader with an opinion?
How long have you worked for Stan Ellis?
One worker who we stopped to shake hands with said he was with the company for four years. I joked and said, “When Stan walks away do you say, ‘Four years too long?’”
We had a good laugh.
I’ve been covering the Bakersfield music scene for more than a year and a half and finally heard the story about Buck Owens’ telecaster with the red-white-and-blue flag painted on it. It’s an interesting tale about a little-known country musician from the band Stampede who had some gift baskets made for the Buckaroos (Stampede often performs at the Crystal Palace). When Buck unexpectedly showed up where the gift baskets were, there was no basket for him. So the musician had a special guitar made for Buck with an American flag on it. He gave it to Buck the same day Brad Paisley also presented Buck Owens with a guitar.
Fat chance that Buck was going to use the new American flag telecaster, right? Wrong. Buck used the guitar in his performances at the Crystal Palace over the last few years of his life. The guitar was even propped on the Crystal Palace stage at Buck’s viewing. I guess that old electric horse meant something to cowboy Buck.
Stan Ellis picks a little at Buck's Statue unveiling in 2005
Meet Stan Ellis, millionaire extraordinaire, country musician with a big heart, who even performed at Buck Owens’ statue unveiling. Ellis is a hopeful politician who prefers the word “statesman” and who is the culprit who gave the guitar that Buck Owens used to his dying day. Ellis has dumped about half a million bucks of his own pesos into his ad campaign, enough to get him pegged by the local mainstream media in what Ellis claims is unjustifiably as “the rich guy trying to buy the election”. You might love Ellis after this article; you might hate him, or even vote for him. The most important idea to remember after reading my two cents? Go out and vote…
I haven’t always voted, and that’s one of my major regrets in life.
********
A working man's office:
I sat in Stan Ellis’ office yesterday waiting on a couch while he took a phone call and walked outside the room. Now I’ve seen a lot of offices in my day. I’ve seen the fancy president’s office of the Golden Nugget Hotel-Casino. He even had his secretaries walking his dogs on Fremont Street. Talk about pampered (although I really liked the old Nugget president). I’ve seen the smoky offices of some lame presidents tucked away like caves in fortress-covered hillsides. Stan’s office is a working man’s office. Sure, he’s top dog at his company, but his office is sparse. One couch, a medium-sized desk, a stuffed quail and a few reprints of aviation history on the walls. His desk wasn’t as messy as mine, and there was a cowboy hat wrapped in plastic on the couch next to me. It's a perfect office for a conversation between guys wearing jeans and baseball caps. We weren't wearing caps.
No need for flash in the pan.
Politics, contribution money and postcards:
Now you might be wondering just what in the heck I was doing in a hopeful politicians office. It all started with a handwritten postcard in the mail that read:
“Hi and thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Stan has been a life long Republican as well as an independent businessman for 30 years. Vote Stan Ellis on June 6th. Sincerely, Mindy Ellis”
The postcard...
On the flip side I could see Stan’s campaign slogan, “Let’s Talk.”
Of course I don’t watch TV or listen to the radio, so I had never heard the Ellis slogan. So I called the number and left a message.
I wanted to learn more in case he did call me back, so I turned to the Internet. Most of you know me as an Internet junky. You can find all kinds of gobbledy-gook on folks on the Net…
Right away on Google I found a few Ellis quotes that I wasn’t too happy with. But were they misquotes? Maybe. The mixture of politics and mainstream journalism are often a deadly brew for candidates, with no antidote other than upping money spent in campaigns: billboards, signs, posters, mailers, phone calls, radio commercials, TV ads, and so on. Misquotes could just mean taking out of context. Usually depends on the media’s slant. Is the media liberal, conservative or anything in between? If you can figure out the slant, then you can usually figure out the news perspective of how candidates will be portrayed.
Just ask yourself about the Californian’s perspective on Ellis. They wrote an article talking about him spending his own money on himself. I told him, “You seem like a passionate guy, competitive in business. I’m not guessing you entered the race to lose. So why not spend your own money if you have it. I would.” I met Ellis and could tell he really gets disturbed about asking people for money. Some people are givers and not takers. His friend Chris who runs a helicopter company called me soon after the meeting and during the conversation said, “Hey, Stan really hates to take money. We practically get in fist fights every time I try to buy his lunch.”
I hope Stan doesn’t find out I write for free. He might come and kick my tail into next week.
What I did learn is that Ellis is a giver.
He even showed me an itemized Quickbooks list of contributions since 1998. The total came out to just above $183,000.00. Even if half of those items weren’t legit, it sure makes him look better than the $600.00 that some media folks say he contributed. Heck he even contributed to friends in the Democratic Party. And Ellis is a Republican! Ellis claims to have contributed another $30,000.00 to $40,000.00 on top of the list I saw. He made his point. I saw the lists: schools, school groups, politicians, Battered Women’s groups, Arnie, etc… the list was more than two pages long.
Going over contributions...
Ellis gets hot about a passionate money-spending issue regarding his campaign
and accusations against his contribution history...
And let me tell you, Stan Ellis showed some emotion. His voice raised and he was quite animated. And rightly so. Who likes to be misrepresented?
If he indeed was misrepresented. I can’t prove anything other than expressing my opinion about the paper trail that I saw.
But what did I find online that I didn’t like about Ellis political perspective?
I told Ellis that I’m a moderate and he agreed he leans to the far right, so naturally we’re not going to agree on everything.
I found one online quote about Stan Ellis referring to blogs as “tabloid journalism”. Was Ellis referring more to “conversation journalism” and political tactics using such blogs, or invasive journalism as in a paparazzi peeking over his backyard fence? I think he was referring to anonymous folks leaving baiting comments and questions. I can understand not wanting to answer folks who won’t leave their identity. Might as well talk to thin air.
Tough talk from Ellis on immigration:
Another quote went as follows:
“One of her GOP opponents in the 32nd Assembly District, Stan Ellis, objected to protests by illegal immigrants. ‘If in fact illegals are protesting in our streets, they have not earned the right to free speech,’ Ellis said.”
On Stan Ellis’ website he speaks out further in an MP3 audio file and claims that none of the 12 million illegal immigrants in American today should gain citizenship.
Not one? Well Stan, what should we do with them? And why can’t they speak out?
We talked about it later and he mentioned that the process towards legalization needs to be slow. And he does seem very sympathetic to immigrants. His ancestors are immigrants and he is a self-made man, having come to California with an old car, a few thousand bucks in the bank and a wife and kids, nothing else. Now he runs several businesses, and successfully too.
I definitely didn’t agree with his statements online though. America is country symbolic of freedom to the global community. Citizen or not, human beings have a right to speak out, especially on the streets of America. England once claimed its own subjects were illegally speaking out against mother England. England was never confused about who Americans were citizens of—England. The right to American Revolution and all the freedoms that came with it (illegally in the eyes of England) is no different than an illegal immigrant opportunist wanting to help their family in a new land. Otherwise popular American documents wouldn’t refer to inalienable rights and rights of pursuing happiness and so forth; they wouldn’t read as rights of man, but rights of only people in America who are citizens. The Declaration of Independence was to declare rights for all men who are created equal, not just for Americans are only equal on American soil. There are human rights issues at stake. All others would be victims of some militaristic notion of silencing people.
Why want to silence people? What if an illegal immigrant witnessed a crime, a murder, or was a doctor who discovered a cure for the common cold? Would you still silence them? No right to speak out?
If illegal immigrants aren’t welcome to speak out in America, then why should Americans be allowed to speak out on the streets of Baghdad? To the Iraqis we illegally invaded. And maybe rightly so. Were there Weapons of Mass Destruction? Just making a point here. I’m just saying if the war were illegal, then Americans speaking out on foreign soil through big gun mouthpieces is… just? Or any American traveling anywhere for that matter? Just because someone isn’t in a country legally doesn’t mean they don’t have human rights enough to speak out. Speaking out could mean the right not to be short-changed at a grocery store.
By the way, I have been a supporter through much of the war.
What if America were in another huge Civil War and you lived in a city being bombed and barely escaped with your belongings and family and high-tailed it over a fence into Canada. Wouldn’t you want to be treated with sympathy? Or would you prefer being silenced in some anti-American refugee camp guarded by Canucks with machine guns who don’t like illegal immigrants?
If Yahoo and Google help silence people who blog in China, should America even show disregard for anyone in America who has a voice and isn’t in jail? See, I’m not talking about murderers, embezzlers, rapists, and so forth. I’m talking about hard working people who happen to be illegal immigrants with jobs right now in America. Or even if they don’t work and they’re someone’s 80 year old grandmother…
Even they have a voice.
Foreigners own many businesses in America, and are allowed to speak about their views everyday in the global and American workplace. In fact, many foreign nationals come to America and preach propaganda about their own countries that may be under martial law, with policies that often lead to torture for everyday workers like you and me just for sneezing wrong.
Heed my advice. Stay away from Burma. Especially if you ever find their spokesmen in the U.S.
******
Avoiding the blog baiters:
Stan did speak his mind about bloggers and said he doesn’t dislike bloggers at all, he is simply aware that people might bait him in blog comments on mainstream websites. I wouldn’t call that tabloid journalism, just bait tactics that Ellis doesn’t like to be trapped into. Who wants to have to muck through the opposing party’s traps? I get folks who bait me all the time through emails and blogs. Sometimes I pretend to fall for it, other times I speak out, and a lot of the time I ignore baiting.
Just ask Senator McCain. He took a few good verbal black eyes when he recently stepped into a hornet’s nest, allowing himself to be baited and verbally pummeled.
In the case of McCain, he got more respect for allowing himself to get pummeled a bit. It’s up to Ellis whether or not he ever wants to do the same.
I was angry myself at first over an online pummeling I recently read. But the anger quickly went away and I called for more bold red sentences! Stir the buckets of controversy! Let people speak out on their websites if they don’t like me. I know that not everybody likes everybody, that people misunderstand each other, misinterpret messages, and even launch campaigns against you. That’s just the nature of what happens when people think you should act according to their standards, and not your own.
I think Ellis has his own standards. Some will like his perspective some wont. And agree or not, that doesn’t mean he has no integrity as a leader who cares passionately about the future of his kids, his business, and in wanting to help fix the over-bureaucracy of America.
Maybe that’s just plain old idealism.
Regarding blogs, Stan Ellis prefers discussions where he can see folks or hear their voice. I can’t blame him for that. In fact, I can appreciate the integrity of wanting honest debates. I get strange anonymous comments all the time that lack in credibility because there are no names attached. Like I stated earlier: might as well talk to thin air.
Ellis and I did sit down and talk about illegal immigrants and he did indicate once again that he felt illegal immigrants didn’t have a right to speak out. I gave some examples from this very article and Stan indicated, “There’s an exception to every rule.” OK, we agree on that, which was my point.
A businessman, Stan takes time out of his own day to help teach immigrants how to pilot. And he’s not mad at illegal immigrants. He’s frustrated at the system. He feels America’s bureaucratic system has let everyone down. He wants legislation backed up that was in place more than twenty years ago. “Let’s streamline immigration and secure the borders.”
OK, we sort of agree.
I know I’m fairly progressive about human rights. Not everybody believes illegal immigrants have a right to speak out. But then, I would take many an illegal immigrant’s speech over some government official who might be visiting the U.S. and talking to an ethnic group about how great working conditions are in Shanghai, when all I can think about is Communists imprisoning people like Hao Wu for simply writing a blog titled, Beijing or Bust. Try living in a Chinese prison for four months.
There’s something to say for a free country treating all immigrants with integrity who aren’t breaking a law other than sneaking over a border, and who aren’t suspected terrorists.
And yet Ellis didn’t completely disagree with my sympathetic voice.
What about MySpace.com:
We moved on. I asked his opinion of myspace.com. He claimed, “People have the right of free speech.” He also mentioned that parents should be held responsible and monitor their kids on the site. Holy smokes, we agree. I then let him in on why I asked. Yeah, I had baited ol’ Stanley a bit. I found out one of his workers was on myspace and wanted to see what he thought.
The Thomas-sleaze affair:
Yet I’m not letting Stan Ellis get away so easy. Seems there’s at least one other issue. I also received mail that reads, “Thank You! Congressman Thomas and Assemblyman McCarthy. For all the hard work you have done in helping to improve our highway and road needs. I want to assure you from Sacramento that I will be there to carry on your good work. I promise I won’t let you down.”
The Thomas-Sleaze Affair...
Seems there was a phone message on Wednesday that claimed to be Bill Thomas’ office, and that Bill Thomas does not endorse Stan Ellis, and that they know Ellis has documents with Thomas’ name on them. Check out this hateful message.
The mean message from Bill Thomas' office welcoming Ellis
to the world of American politics, where even people in your
own party might call you a sleazoid. Thanks, Bill.
So what’s the deal?
“I just appreciate what Thomas and McCarthy did for us. I made a statement about it. Why not, I donated a $1000.00 to McCarthy’s campaign.” He indicated that such name calling is juvenile.
Yeah, but now Ellis is inside the political spectrum. And within the political spectrum, relationships change, because it’s all about gaining power, forming alliances and winning votes. Statesman or politician, it’s the same sphere,and it’s a harsh world of people smearing people.
So Thomas didn’t appreciate being thanked by Ellis in a mailer. He views Ellis as a campaigner with a sleazy mission. To gain office? To win votes? If Thomas is correct, then all politicians are sleazy.
A businessman from the people:
Ellis then took me on a tour of his business.
Inside the flooring factory...
A sample flooring...
We walked through where hard dance floors are made. I could hear saws and see piles of flooring waiting to be packaged and sent out. We then headed out into the chemical engineering aspects of his business, where Ellis and his team build various systems that help dredge and clean waste.
Stan Ellis explains the waste-cleaning processes of one of his machines
He and his team have even developed a method of making asphalt that takes refinery waste products and transforms the byproducts into a binding agent used in new and old asphalt. He claims the new asphalt is extremely binding and flexible.
Various grades of asphalt samples...
We then walked across the street to where he is partners in an equipment company. I shook the hands of a few of his workers and commented that they seemed to have a good work ethic.
Did Ellis prep his workers in how to respond before I arrived?
I doubt it. He’s a likeable man with a sense of integrity and almost naïve passion about politics that not all leaders have. That’s idealism, and with idealism comes a desire to want to make a difference. He wants a new career in the Republican sector. I can see that. Why not? I saw his itemized contributions. Why not jump into the foray if he’s already spending money, and if he’s a well liked businessman and leader with an opinion?
How long have you worked for Stan Ellis?
One worker who we stopped to shake hands with said he was with the company for four years. I joked and said, “When Stan walks away do you say, ‘Four years too long?’”
We had a good laugh.
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Friday, May 26, 2006.
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Nice article... I know Stan Ellis, he's a good guy! I think you represented him well in your article and presented issues you agreed upon and disagreed upon fairly.
wow! sounds like a genuine good guy...
Great job, Nick. Very informative. It makes me want to vote.
I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing Stan since '98 & I say "Stan for President!"
Seriously, Stan is an incredible guy who does what it takes to get the job done. I can only hope to someday have his sense of business acumen & moral character.
Stephan
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