"Orange Juice! Politics For The Rest Of Us." - 11 new articles
Is Assistant Santa Ana City Manager Catherine Standiford on the way out?
UPDATE: My sources have confirmed that Standiford has quit. Good riddance! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out… I am hearing rumors that Assistant Santa Ana City Manager Catherine Standiford is on the way out - she is, as the chisme goes, either resigning or getting the boot. If true, that likely means she has lost her power struggle with Jill Arthur, who also assists Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream. So does this mean that Arthur is now the heir apparent to the doddering Ream? Or is Standiford bailing before her reputation tanks as Santa Ana’s city budget collapses into a black hole? And if true does this mean that poor Jill Arthur will now have to change all of Ream’s Depends instead of splitting the duty with Standiford? I guess we will have to wait and see…I am awaiting confirmation from my city hall pajaritos.
Was president Obama wrong is saying Cambridge police “acted stupidly?”
NOTE: You may select up to two answers in the poll above. Based on a poll taken by the Washington Times let me revisit president Obama’s July 22nd Press Conference on health care where the last question, from Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times, had nothing to do with the topic and should never have been taken into consideration by the president. Here the president was fighting to save a sinking ship and went off course, and TelePrompter, to field an out of left field question from this reporter. Other than the president hitting an iceberg, the results of the Washington Times Poll of 12,836 participants follows below. I will not add the 200 comments that resulted from this poll which you can read on the story link. President Obama said he thought the police had “acted stupidly” in the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Do you think that the police’s actions were stupid? Thanks for your vote. Response Percent Votes Yes 12% 1628 votes No 84% 10799 votes Undecided 2% 317 votes Other 0% 92 votes 12836 total votes OK West coast. Perhaps Juice readers will jump in with their comments on this issue.
Another Red County Kool Aid drinker attacks Steven Greenhut
The witless Red County Kool Aid Drinker “Christian Milord” A humorless Republican named “Christian Milord” (no I did not make that name up) attacked Steven Greenhut today in a rebuttal printed by the O.C. Register. Milord claims to be a teacher in Fullerton, but his rebuttal is unbelievably lame I hope he is not teaching any of your children! Milord attacks Greenhut for a number of perceived slights, including Greenhut’s characterization of Sarah Palin, the failed GOP vice presidential nominee who recently quit as Governor of Alaska, as an “empty vessel.” How Milord can stomach defending Palin is a mystery to me. Greenhut was absolutely right about that! Milord goes on to slam Greenhut for “spending too much time finding fault with the GOP, instead of recognizing the great policy positions and traditions of the party since 1854.” Listen Milord, your Red County publisher, Chip Hanlon, picked this fight with Greenhut! Hanlon attacked Greenhut for being anti-war. Hanlon did not stop there. He also attacked and defamed Ron Paul, the popular Libertarian-leaning Republican Congressman who ran for President last year. This was a battle that Hanlon could not win. Milord echoes Hanlon’s vapidity by writing that “The federal government has the primary duty to defend our liberties and protect Americans from domestic and foreign enemies.” Does that include starting a stupid war in Iraq that cost us trillions? Greenhut is right to question that waste of money - and to question U.S. militarization in general. Milord continues with this nugget, “instead of noting the accomplishments of the Libertarian Party, Greenhut expends excessive energy bashing "fanatics" in the GOP.” Can you blame Greenhut for responding in kind after Hanlon ripped Libertarians for supposedly being fanatics? All Greenhut did was prove that there are just as many nutty Republicans. Just look at all the red-faced types who are questioning President Obama’s birthplace instead of focusing his plans to socialize our government? Milord closes with this sentiment, “Instead of railing against the GOP of the past, Greenhut ought to find points of agreement between the GOP and the Libertarian Party, and then go from there.” Excuse me Milord, but it was Hanlon who fired the first volley - and who made it clear that you redcoats don’t want freedom-loving Libertarians in your party. I agree - we should NOT be Republicans. The GOP is a dying party - and it is Republicans like Milord and Hanlon who are serving as its pallbearers.
Long Beach Unified and the SAUSD both support higher taxes and have corrupt unions
The Santa Ana Unified School District and the Long Beach Unified School District have much in common, including lame school boards and corrupt school administrations and teachers unions. For awhile they had even more in common in the form of now-retired Santa Ana teacher David Barton. He was the head of the Santa Ana Educators Association for some time. He also is a board member at Long Beach Unified. And now Barton is embroiled in a haze of union corruption that has led to the takeover of the Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) by the California Teachers Association (CTA). Here is an excerpt from the National Legal and Policy Center about this scandal:
As President of the SAEA, Barton was perfectly comfortable endorsing the horrible SAUSD Trustee incumbents Rob Richardson and Jose Hernandez, last year. He made sure they got a ton of union money. Then he looked the other way while SAUSD administrators and teachers were pressured into giving more money to Richardson and Hernandez. Barton also supported the passage of an unnecessary tax increase last year in the form of Measure G, which was yet another bond measure for the SAUSD. Jane Russo, the SAUSD Superintendent, hired a corrupt uneducated guy who was run out of CAPO to manage the Measure G construction. Sure enough, the first thing he did was remodel the SAUSD administrative offices, particularly his own. Guess what the useless Barton is doing now? The Long Beach Unified School Board recently “approved to place a $92 annual parcel tax on the November ballot to help fund school district operations and close one-third of the expected deficit for next year and beyond,” according to the Long Beach Post.
It sounds like Barton is admitting that he and his fellow School Board members aren’t up to the job! God only knows why Barton needed legal defense as a member of the Long Beach Unified School District’s Board of Trustees. I can only imagine what sort of hijinks he was involved in… UPDATE: Isn’t it interesting? The story we reported on here, from the National Legal and Policy Center, broke on March 12, 2009. Guess what? David Barton’s letter of resignation to the SAEA was also dated March 12, 2009. Coincidence?
California schools may miss out on Federal funds due to lack of teacher evaluation
President Obama wants to know who the good teachers are Ruh-Roh! “The state isn’t likely to see any of the $4.35 billion in competitive federal grants that will be passed out as part of the American Recovery Act if legislators don’t rescind a law that prevents teachers from being evaluated based on student test scores, say federal officials,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
And check out this quote from President Obama:
Can our schools take any more budget hits? And why won’t state education officials get with the program? They appear to have plenty of excuses…
O.C. hate crimes against Blacks and Latinos increased in 2008
Some of our readers have been alleging this week that white residents of Orange County are attacked more often than minorities. It turns out that is not true. The Orange County Human Relations Commission just released their 2008 report on Orange County Hate Crimes. Sure enough, the minorities are more often the targets of these attacks.
Click here to read the full report.
When will Jerbal tell Red County’s readers about Campbell’s $700m wild horse bailout?
It’s a Jerbal Countdown! When will Jerbal tell his Red County readers about John Campbell’s $700m bailout of illegal immigrant wild horses? ****DAY NINE****UPDATE: It has been over a week and Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham still has not told his readers that his boss, GOP Congressman John Campbell, voted to waste over $700 million on wild horses. Will Jerbal ever come clean with his readers? Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham is a paid twit for the Congressman John Campbell reelection campaign - and as the O.C. Register’s Steven Greenhut has previously divulged, Cunningham is given to openly shilling for his boy Campbell on his Red County blog. Today, for example, Cunningham wrote a post extolling Campbell as a fiscal conservative for his stance on health care - but he still has not mentioned to his readers that Campbell voted on July 17, to spend $700 million on a bailout of illegal immigrant wild horses! So we are starting another Jerbal Countdown! Let’s see how many days will pass before Jerbal tells his readers about Campbell’s latest bailout vote. Don’t hold your breath!
Newport Beach lifeguards saved my 13 year old son and my nephew yesterday
My 13 year old son and 13 year old nephew almost died yesterday while swimming in Newport Beach. My wife warned them about the riptides, but I was out of town on business, so I was not there to keep an eye on them. They went to the beach with my brother in law’s family. They weren’t in deep water when all over a sudden a huge wave carried them out into deep water. Luckily the lifeguards were on the job. My brother in law tried to swim out but couldn’t - and the lifeguards took over. By the time the lifeguards got to my nephew he was a speck in the water, according to my sister in law. They hauled him and my boy to safety. Monte Valentin, 50,wasn’t so lucky. He was slammed into the rocks at the Wedge by strong current and massive waves, and he later died, according to the O.C. Register.
H/T to the OC Weekly for finding the video I included above, which shows the tide conditions in Newport yesterday. THANK YOU to the lifeguards who saved my son and my nephew! God bless you guys for doing a great job and risking your necks every day.
Would SCA-24, revising term limits, be the solution?
This past week I had breakfast with an elected south county official where we covered several policy issues including the impacts of “term limits.” In June of 1998 we debated and voted on term limits in Mission Viejo. While activists lobbied for setting a cap of two, four year, terms for city council members, the council gave us a “take it or leave it” ballot measure to decide if we wanted to set a “limit of three consecutive terms” or vote no limits at all. I just received an email from the California Progress Report which ironically addresses the same topic of term limits. I will add some of their remarks in this post and add their full story link at the end.. In any discussion of “term limits” in the CA legislature I guess we can all cite the “unsinkable Willie Brown” career politician as the spark for our term limit policy. Speaker Brown served over 30 years including 15 as Speaker of the State Assembly. In Nov 1990 California voters felt we needed to establish term limits for each house of our state government and voted approval of Prop 140 setting a maximum of three 2 year terms in the lower house and two 4 year terms in the state senate. Recently there has been discussion of changing term limits via passage of a “Constitutional Amendment calling for reducing the number of years an individual can serve in the legislature from 14 to 12 years, but would allow individuals to serve three four-year terms in the Senate or six two-year terms in the Assembly or a combination of the two.” While it is easy to point fingers, at times we need new blood with fresh ideas. In a state of nearly 37 million I would hope that we can find citizens with the talent and desire to serve in our legislature. One change to consider, as stated by others, is to go to a part time legislature as is true for 17 states with “part-time, low-paid lawmakers.” We need to focus on which level of government to address in this debate. As stated below the president of the United States can only serve two terms yet members of Congress can serve as long as they can get reelected. W.Va. senior Senator Robert Byrd has been in the Senate for 50 years. While term limits enables us to cycle out those who are not performing we also lose talented legislators who fought the good fight for the taxpayers of our state such as former Senator Tom McClintock who is now serving in Congress. In addition to his many battles to reform redevelopment and eminent domain legislation, Tom was a leader in reducing the VLF (Car Tax) fees for all motorists. Another former member of our state legislature, responsible for amending eminent domain law (AB 1290), was Democratic Assemblyman Phil Eisenberg. I add Phil to show both sides of the political spectrum. Phil, a Democrat, once carried a Bill for Republican Dan Lungren that appears in my final comments. Those on the East coast have read that NYC Mayor Bloomberg has talked about changing their state laws to enable him to run for a third term. Juice readers may recall that I have even joked about “president for life” Barack Obama. Whatever you decide do not engage in “ready, fire, aim.” We can make a case for both sides of this issue. One factor relating to the present system is that bureaucrat’s in the Capitol become more powerful when we have constant turnover. Some elected officials and their supporters say they need more time to understand the issue (and find the closest rest room). Sorry, but running a state, whose budget exceeds $100 billion dollars, leaves no place for bench warmers. We voted you into office based on your rhetoric that you have solutions to the challenges ahead. http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2009/07/bi-partisan_sup.html Closing comment. Let me share a tale of how term limits impacted a Bill being moved forward by Phil Eisenberg in Sacramento. Following is from an interview of senior Sac Bee columnist Dan Walters who has his fingers on the pulse of our state legislature. In this interview Dan addresses having your name on a Bill about to be voted on as you are about to leave office. Interview with Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee. “If you put your own name on the bill, you control it. You can control it right down to its death if you want to. Whereas if somebody else puts his name on it, that control is lost. That’s what (Senator Bill) Lockyer had done. Note: Lockyer adjourned the Senate before the bill reached the floor. And then he had a confrontation with Phil Eisenberg in one of the back hallways of the capitol. Literally as the place was clearing out, he and Eisenberg ran into each other and, and Eisenberg said in effect, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you kill it? Why did you kill it?” And they got into a big row over the thing and Lockyer, who has a very short temper, yelled at Eisenberg, “F— you, Mr. Termed Out!” Meaning it was the last legislative session for Eisenberg, who was being forced out of legislature by term limits. “F— you, Mr. Termed Out.” This story could be written about Tom McClintock. My knee jerk reaction is that there are those in our state Legislature who hated Tom and would never support his bills simply because his name was listed as the sponsor. Politics is a contact sport.
Did Dick Jones Break the Law? Twice?
Below is an illuminating video clip of our old nemesis City Councilman Dick Jones defending redevelopment expansion in Fullerton. Dick's suggestion that blight exists because foreclosed houses are close to "those blighted areas", makes absolutely no sense, and, in fact directly contradicts the specific legal findings he had to make to support Redevelopment expansion; but then again look who's talking. Click here to watch the video clip.
RSM city council letter to president Obama opposing nationalized healthcare
A member of the Rancho Santa Margarita City Council provided a copy of their July 23rd letter to president Obama. The title reads: “City of Rancho Santa Margarita’s Opposition to Proposed Nationalized Healthcare Plans.” “Dear Mr. President: 1. This is Not a Reform Proposal 2. The Government Run Health Insurance Program Would Result in Healthcare Rationing–Disproportionally Hurting Our Senior Citizens 3. The Government Should Not Get Involved in the Doctor/Patient Relationship 4. A Government Run Insurance Program is Unnecessary 5. A Government Run Insurance Program Would Undercut Private Insurance Companies (and force taxpayers and health providers to pay the difference). 6. A Government-Run Health Insurance Program Would Destroy the Private Insurance Market (and Force Americans Into the Government Run Program 7. The Government Run Health Insurance Program Would Cost Too Much. 8. The Government Run Insurance Program Does Not Restrict Delivery of Free Health Insurance to Illegal Aliens 9. No Reason to Adopt the Proposed Government “Reforms” on an Expedited Schedule. Gilbert note. I commend the RSM city council for this initiative and encourage other cities around the country to consider similar voting and correspondence to president Obama. Although most city councils skip one or two meetings over the summer, I urge elected officials to send a similar message to the White House to defeat H.R. 3200 and any similar legislation.
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