You would think that a routine meeting of the county Democratic Central Committee would be a rather staid affair. But what happened after the meeting adjourned sounds more like one of those Tea Party/Town Hall fiascos.
Not sure what provoked it, but after the gavel fell on the April 1 meeting of the Central Committee, long-time local Democratic party activist and Central Committee member Barbie Deutsch called Hillary Blackerby, the secretary to that body's executive board, a "bitch."
Seems like they might have been one video camera shy of turning that meeting into a reality TV show.
Deutsch has apologized for her choice of words. That apology came in response to a letter of censure from the Executive Board that went out to Deutsch earlier this week and on which the 30 plus members of the Central Committee were copied.
In her written response to the letter of censure, which she distributed to members of the Central Committee, Deutsch disputes the accuracy of many of the facts set forth in the letter, although she admits to directing the "B" word towards Blackerby. She also accuses Daraka Larimore-Hall, chair of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara, of trying to run her off the Central Committee.
And you thought the Brawlin Betties were a roller derby team.
Josh Molina has more about the drama among the Democrats in the Daily Sound.
You'll probably never guess who is among those quoted in Kitty Kelley's controversial new book, Oprah: A Biography
. None other than Scott Steepleton.Kelley cites an April 2004 column that Steepleton wrote where he asserts that the Federal Communications Commission was guilty of applying a double standard when it fined shock jock Howard Stern for broadcasting "foul-mouthed sex talk" yet took no action against Oprah Winfrey for a TV show she did on the wild side of teenage sex.
Kelley writes:
The Santa Barbara News-Press, which served the area where Oprah's mansion in Montecito was located, also noted the hypocrisy. 'What parents want their kids to come home from school, run to turn on Oprah and be subjected to that stuff?' wrote Scott Steepleton, assistant metro editor. 'The time has come for the FCC to stop applying the law in such an arbitrary fashion. If it's crude, it's crude - no matter whose show it's on.'
Yet the FCC ruled in 2006 that Oprah's show on teenage sex was not indecent because the explicit language was not used to shock.
I guess Steepleton was lucky that Oprah never pulled a Rob Lowe and called Wendy to complain about the article.
But then again, perhaps Oprah wasn't reading the News-Press.
Also getting a mention in the Kelley book is former News-Press gossip columnist Richard Mineards, who now has a weekly column in the Montecito Journal.
Randy and Eva Quaid, who failed to show up yet again for a court date, could be a Full-time Employment Act for Dog The Bounty Hunter.
