Norby Defeats The Ackermans

The race for the 72nd AD is finally over. Supervisor Chris Norby has defeated Linda Ackerman and the Republican establishment by an almost 2 to 1 margin when it's all said and done.

There are so many things to talk about in this election. First I want to congratulate Supervisor Norby and his team for running a superior campaign. He knew going into this election that it was going to get ugly early and often, but I don't think even he knew how nasty this race would get. It took a lot of intestinal fortitude to weather all the attacks that came his way via the Ackerman campaign. Chris had the advantage early on in this election and never relinquished it. He pressed this advantage to the point where now he will be the next Assemblyman come January barring any disasters.

As for the Ackerman campaign, I don't have very many nice things to say. She, Dick, and most of the Republican establishment that supported and endorsed her were defeated tonight by an almost 2 to 1 margin. Her campaign spent in the neighborhood of $350k dollars between what she raised and the IEs for her and she only received 2400 more votes than Richard Faher who didn't spend any money at all! LOL! This has to be unprecedented. Her campaign went hard negative right out of the gate before many even knew who she was. That's a great way to introduce yourself...haha. As we see by the results tonight, the blowback from her negative campaign was that she lost big. The voters were smart enough to see through all of her ridiculous negative mailers. I read Linda's statement from earlier tonight that she congratulates Supervisor Norby on his victory. That's very nice of her, but it's not sufficient. She and Dick need to endorse him now for the good of party unity. We'll give you a few days to lick your wounds and get over the bitterness that you and Dick are probably feeling towards Chris right now, but it's time to finally end this ugly chapter in OC political history and endorse Chris for the runoff. It's the right thing to do.

The other big loser in this campaign is most of the establishment in my party that early on, circled the wagons for Linda. How did that work out for you guys? The whole ethics process in the Central Committee was one big joke. Ackerman brought in all her high paid slick lawyers to the first subcommittee hearing and eked out an admonition from the Executive Committee that were in the tank big time for Linda. Now the Dems can say that, look, even the Republicans admonished Norby. That's real helpful. Thanks guys. I argued early on that our party has no business being the referee of an election contest that gets ugly because we as a party, for the most part, have no credibility right now to judge who is ethical. The voters are smart enough to figure these things out. Chris Norby now has ultimate letter of admonishion against Linda Ackerman....it's called victory. I hope this is a lesson learned.

Sheriff Arpaio/Bill Hunt Event Roundup

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is everything as advertised and more.  It was very generous of him to come out from Phoenix to headline the fundraising event for OC Sheriff candidate Bill Hunt.  Here's a flavor of what it was like...

So I'm pulling into the parking lot before the event and sure enough there are lots of protesters and media outside the Phoenix Club.  It looked mostly like La Raza types and local spanish media.  They were all speaking spanish over the bullhorn.  I still will never understand that.  We speak English in America guys. 

The event itself lasted about two hours.  I'm gonna say there were about 300 people there give or take.  250 seat had been presold before the event and there were lots of walk ups.  We were first treated to a speech by James Madison look a like Dana Parker who gave us some great insights to the Constitution and the parallels of debates going on today and what was being debated during the Constitutional Convention.  The one take away I got from Dana's speech was his telling of how some people(liberals usually) like to say that the Constitution is a living breathing document.  He reminded us that if we want to update it, there is an amendment process that the founders gave us for times when a broad consensus can be reached on amending the document.

The next speaker was Sheriff Richard Mack.  I had seen him speak a few months prior at a previous Bill Hunt event.  Sheriff Mack earned fame by suing the federal government over the Brady Bill and he won.  He likes to say that "he was the only one to sue the Clinton Administration over a non-sexual matter and not only won, but live to tell about it".  He then read a little of the Supreme Court decision that struck down parts of the Brady Bill.  He quoted Justice Scalia a lot.  One of the best Scalia quotes from this case...

"The Constitution protects us from our own best intentions"

How true this is, especially when we are talking about this Obama Administration.  My pocket Constitution doesn't say anything about socialized healthcare. 

Bill Hunt was next to speak, but before he spoke, he was given about a ten minute introduction by Tim Whitacre for all the viewing audience at home online.  The event was streamed live on Bill's website thanks to James Sugra.  Tim gave everyone who doesn't know Bill the cliff notes version of Bill's life the last six years.  So Bill got up and spoke for about fifteen minutes.  His best line of the night really hit home....

"It may have cost me my career in the short term, but I'm standing before you tonight and the other guy is heading to jail."  Obviously a reference to disgraced and convicted former Sheriff Mike Carona.

Lastly we had Sheriff Joe batting clean up....and boy did he deliver.  This is one of the most down to earth people I have ever met.  Lynn and I had a chance to meet Joe before the event.  He noticed that Lynn has a striking resemblence to Sarah Palin, LOL.  I told him it would be our pleasure to have Lynn come out to any event he has in Arizona when he needs a Palin stand in.  Done deal.  The speech itself was awesome.  I didn't get the sense that Sheriff Joe does many of these events, but the guy turns out to be a comedian.  He had the crowd rolling with laughter.  He are some excepts of the speech(H/T to Matt Coker of the OC Weekly)....

1) "I apologize for the protesters outside. They go wherever I go, If you know a good Mexican restaurant, go and tell them where it is. I know in Phoenix I can't go to a Mexican restaurant. When I walk in, most of the workers run out the back door or spit in my food."

2) "[Hunt] and I come from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We are probably the only two Republicans who came from there. We're both out west now. I'm older than he is. When I retire, I'll ride off into the sunset, but I don't ride a horse. I'll use a convertible."

3) "I'm a senior citizen. Sometimes I pick up a lot of votes because of that, especially in Sun City. When I talk in Sun City, I always tell them my age. In Scottsdale, which is snotty, kind of like Orange County, I tell them I'm 45."

4) "When I first ran for sheriff, I made a mistake. I've been married for 53 years. That's not the mistake. I never see my wife. The mistake I made was I said the sheriff should be appointed, not elected. If I had been appointed, I would have been fired 17 years ago. There would be no tents, no underwear, no nothing."

5) [Looking around for Hunt while talking about the candidate] "Where's Bill? Is he trying to get votes outside? I hope he speaks Spanish."

6) "We got Army tents from New Mexico. We made a midnight requisition. We set them up at a waste disposal plant. A half million people have gone through the tents. We only put the convicted people there. The 8,000 innocent people are in jail."

7) "We went to the Supreme Court. I got sued because I took away [inmates'] porno. They sued me, and I won that case. They try to sue me all the time. They can sue my toilet."

8) [After being informed Bill Campbell was the member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors who'd recently visited his tents] "Why isn't he here? I'm here. Your sheriff [Sandra Hutchens] did not come. A captain did. I told the captain, 'Why are you here? Where is the sheriff?' He said, 'I dunno.'"

9) "I'm tough on animal abuse. If you abuse a dog, cat or horse, you are put in pink handcuffs. You go directly to jail. I don't care who it is. We just arrested a 61-year-old lady. She had all these animals. I had a nice jail that was empty and air conditioned because the inmates are in tents. So that's where we put the animals. But I put my foot in my mouth. I said we paid more to feed the dogs than the inmates."

10) "We have 300 dogs. They'll spend 20 years behind bars, then we'll euthanize them. We have a special area for the cats. Someone called it Sheriff Joe's Cathouse."

11) "I'm opposed to house arrest. You get to go have a drink, do porno."

12) "I do get celebrities. My friend [Glen] Campbell did 10 days in jail. I had him do a little concert for me. Mike Tyson had to be isolated a little in the tent. He likes biting ears. Can you imagine the lawsuits if he bit other inmates' ears?"

13) "I spent 25 years in drug enforcement. I'm one of the people who knows what a border is. Most politicians wouldn't know where to find it."

14) "Nine [federal] attorneys came after me, investigated me, because I enforce all of the laws. Sad, very sad. So I kicked them all out. I gave the FBI director pink underwear. They got very quiet."

15) "These guys outside have signs of me with Hitler, Nazis. They brought some of their signs. They hold them in front of my office in Maricopa County. I could pay them to do it every day. I had Al Sharpton come out [to protest]. I raised a lot of money from that. I should have paid for a first-class ticket for him."

16) "I've been sheriff for five terms. . . . I could be governor, but I don't want to be governor. I want to be sheriff. I get more press in one day than the governor does. And, two: I can lock up the governor."

17) "I've stopped human smugglers heading for California. You people should thank me. Why doesn't The Terminator call?"

18) "If they don't like me, don't insult the uniform. That's what they do: insult the uniform. One thing they know is I'm elected, they can't get rid of me. That's why I'm running again. I have a book titled America's Toughest Sheriff. My next one is going to be America's Oldest Sheriff."

All in all, it was a great night in OC.  The campaign probably raised in the neighborhood of $50k when all is said and done and Sheriff Joe said it would be his pleasure to make a return appearance in a few months when the campaign starts heating up.

Here's the Register story about the event.

 

Great Cartoon

This a funny cartoon dovetailing off of the story of the Northwest airline pilots who flew right past their destination 150 miles last week.

West Coast Movie Premiere of "For Liberty"

Tomorrow mid morning down at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach, the Orange County chapter of Campaign For Liberty is hosting the West Coast premiere of the movie "For Liberty, How the Ron Paul Revolution Watered the Withered Tree of Liberty".  We have a great lineup of local elected officials and candidates that are also going to be down there.  A few of the confirmed guests include:

Allan Mansoor...Costa Mesa City Councilman and candidate for the 68th AD,  Bill Hunt....candidate for Orange County Sheriff,  Chris Norby....OC Supervisor and candidate for the 72nd AD,  Don Wagner....South Orange County Community College Trustee and candidate for the 70th AD and potentially a few more as well that are not confirmed as of yet.  here are the details:

WHEN: Saturday morning, October 24 ---10am

LOCATION:

Regency’s Historic Lido Theatre

3459 Via Lido

Newport Beach, 92663

(949) 613-8351

You can purchase tickets at the box office starting today for $10 each, or you can go to this link – http://forlibertymovie.eventsbot.com for more details and to purchase tickets in advance.

 

 HERE IS THE SCOOP ON THE MOVIE:

As the 2007-08 presidential campaign cycle offered up the usual slate of Washington insiders, Ron Paul, an obscure Congressman from Texas brought an alternative voice that challenged the political establishment. Advocating a philosophy of sound money, a non-interventionist foreign policy, strict Constitutionalism, and individual liberty, Dr. Paul inspired a unique grassroots movement unmatched in American history – the repercussions of which continue to reverberate today and into the future of the American psyche.

For Liberty: How the Ron Paul Revolution Watered the Withered Tree of Liberty follows this historic campaign from the perspective of grassroots activists, and showcases the unique, often bizarre, yet groundbreaking projects they undertook as they brushed aside traditional campaign methodology. For Liberty features an all star cast of grassroots leaders, organizers, activists, authors, talk show hosts, musicians, media experts, historians, artists, and more.

OC GOP Central Committee Roundup

What a meeting tonight.  I've come to expect some type of excitement and drama at Central Committee meetings, but this one will be etched in my memory bank for a long time.  First things first.  It was announced tonight by chairman Baugh that an ethics complaint was lodged by Linda Ackerman against her main GOP opponent for the 72nd AD seat, Chris Norby.  This is scheduled to be heard Wednesday night at a special meeting of the Ethics Subcommittee.  I can also inform the readers that a cross complaint will be lodged by Supervisor Norby against Linda Ackerman.  Fun stuff.  I had to recuse myself along with Deborah Pauley and Mary Young from participating in the Ethics Sub-Committee meeting to avoid any conflicts of interest. 

A lot has been made of the fact that the GOP has lost their way recently.  Chairman Baugh gave a fiery speech tonight that it is not going to be business as usual anymore for the OC GOP Party.  The speech came at a critical juncture in time.  He announced tonight that no longer will incumbent Republicans be given safe quarter for their re-election if they have strayed to far off the reservation.  He made it clear that he is not looking for ideological purity per se, but Republicans in the mold of Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain & George W Bush for example are not going to be allowed to ruin the party's economic and fiscal credibility anymore.  When GW Bush took office the percentage of debt to GDP was at 23%.  When he left office, that percentage had climbed to over 28% of GDP.  This year alone the percentage of debt to GDP will be over 43%.  Clearly this is an unsustainable path we are on and our elected GOP leaders in DC and Sacramento have been part of the problem.  So tonight he announced a contract with the OC GOP voters. It's not going to be good enough just to have an "R" by your name if you are a candidate or elected official.  The "R" has got to mean something.  He says we've swung way to far over to the middle of the political spectrum and a rebalancing is in order to get back our brand believability.  Amen to that. 

Lastly we had Irvine Mayoral candidate Megan Barth speak to the committee for about ten minutes.  She introduced herself to everyone there since most have probably not met her in person yet, even though many know her work of organizing some of the biggest Tea Parties on the West Coast and back in DC.  Things were flowing smoothly enough and then she brought up a subject that I knew was going to rear its ugly head sooner or later....our BOE member Michelle Steel.  I had no idea Megan was going to go down this road, but she did and now that the issue is out in the open, I want to add some background and paraphrase what Megan said.

It had come to my attention a few weeks ago that BOE member Steel was at a big fundraiser up in Los Angeles for Irvine Mayor and liberal Dem Sukhee Kang.  Not only was she at this fundraiser, she is in a picture with a "re-elect Sukhee Kang 2010" poster and she was quoted by the Korean journalist there as strongly encouraging her fellow Korean donors to give money to liberal Dem Irvine Mayor, Sukhee Kang.  A couple of things.  I understand that blood is thicker than politics for many in the Korean community.  I get the ethnic angle.  They want to support a person of similar culture and background.  Michelle told me flat out that she has not and will not endorse Sukhee Kang.  The problem is that everyone in Irvine is finding out about this picture and Michelle's words encouraging her donors to also give to Sukhee.  A picture says a thousand words.  It is what it is.  She may not have "technically" endorsed Sukhee, but functionally she has done the same thing.  It's hard to spin.  Michelle naively thinks this picture that she is in is not going to be used against the Republican candidates in the next election.  That is a false assumption knowing the kind of politician Larry Agran is.  Irvine Republicans feel they have been stabbed in the back by a high ranking Republican elected official and they are letting people know they are not happy about it and are not going to tolerate it.  Yes we know Michelle has been good for the party most of the time, but we feel offended in Irvine at what has transpired here.  It's hard enough to go against the Agran machine in Irvine and it's even harder when you get sabotaged  by someone in your own party.  Scott's prior speech about it not being business as usual anymore dove tailed nicely with Megan's speech and she received a standing ovation from the members and guests.  Here's the picture I was referring to:

Western CPAC Drama & Other Thoughts

I headed over to the Western CPAC (BTW, you can follow all the tweets coming out of Western CPAC by typing in #wcpac on Twitter) new media/social media panel this afternoon.  Apparently I missed all the drama earlier in the day.  Former KFI talk show host John Ziegler was conducting an interview with American Conservative Union President David Keene.  At some point in the interview, Mr Keene didn't like Zig's line of questions and ended the interview.  Zig was asking some questions about Keene's lobbying activity, his recently uncovered pay to play, his unholy alliance with Arlen Specter, and why Mr Keene has been hating on Sarah Palin and calling her anti-intellectual.  I find it disturbing that someone who leads a group named the American Conservative Union would be friendly with a turncoat like Arlen Specter, but that's just me I guess.  I'm neutral on Sarah Palin.  I'm not a big fan nor am I a big detractor.  Zig wanted to continue the interview and got up and started following Keene around the hotel in a similiar fashion that those reporters were chasing after  Mike Duvall in the halls of the state capital.  It was quite a scene I was told.

After this event happened, Ziegler got up at the end of the luncheon and grabbed the microphone and starting going off on some other stuff.  At this point either hotel security or the Newport Beach Police were told to escort him off the hotel property and he didn't appear on the 2:30pm panel he was supposed to be on.  Here's video that Gateway Pundit did interviewing Zig about what happened. 

There was also a little chippy-ness on the new media panel at 4pm.  One of the show's sponsors, Floyd Brown has called for Obama's impeachment.  Ed Morrissey of the blog Hot Air disagreed with him and wrote up a blog blasting the idea of impeaching Obama.  So then another blog panelist who was sitting next to Ed BTW, called him out for being rude by criticizing one of the hosts of the convention!  I guess dissent is not allowed at these types of events....who knew!  I'm not for impeaching Obama just for the record.  I don't think Ed was out of line criticizing the idea of impeaching Obama.  So while 99.9% of the people here do not like Obama, leave it to a convention like this to have many differing thoughts on how to move forward. 

AD70 Election Watch: Re:OC Taxpayers Assc. Tax OC Amante Endorsement

I saw that Matt posted earlier a press release from Team Amante that he has been endorsed by the OC Taxpayers Association.  What a joke.  This is the same organization that sold out their group's namesake and endorsed the recent massive tax hiking Proposition 1A.  Whatever credibility they had being on the taxpayers side was pissed away with this endorsement...and now they are endorsing Jerry Amante, LOL! 

Memo to team Amante: You may gain some money off of this endorsement, but it is really worth it to associate your name with a group that sold out on such a hugely important Proposition?  I mean three fourths of OC voters and two thirds of state voters rejected this huge tax increase just a few short months ago.  Do you think you can really lay claim to being "the conservative choice" when you get into bed with this turncoat tax hiking group?  You already are way behind the eight ball when it comes to grassroots support.  The whisper campaign amongst the true conservative activists is only going to get much louder now after this. 

AD72 Special Election Watch: Desperation Time For Ackerman Campaign

We are barely a week past the filing deadline and already the slime storm from Linda Ackerman has started.  Granted we knew this was coming, but that doesn't mean we can't question the ethics of a flier like this.  This is a desperate flier from a desperate campaign.  The absentee ballots are getting mailed out in a few days.  This election will be decided most likely by the first week in November with turnout expected to be IMO 75% absentee versus 25% poll votes.  Obviously her campaign has made the calculation that they are not going to talk about the issues that matter to 72nd district voters and instead are going for a scorched earth campaign.  I believe this flier and others that are sure to get mailed will have blowback to them.  Voters are so turned off right now about the Legislature that they're apt to blame Linda Ackerman for being part of the problem. 

So again I get that this campaign was going to be the mother of all negative campaigns recently here in OC, but I hope that it backfires big time on Linda Ackerman.  I am proud to stand with Tom McClintock and Chris Norby in this battle for who will represent us up in Sacramento.

OC Sheriff Race Watch: "Sheriff Joe" Arpaio Headlining Bill Hunt Fundraiser

Everyone knows Sheriff Joe Arpaio as the no BS Sheriff of Maricopa County Arizona.  He is coming out to Orange County along with other nationally reknown Sheriff Richard Mack to headline a large fundraiser for Bill Hunt.  Sheriff Mack gained fame as the Sheriff who sued the federal government in the mid 1990s over the constitutionality of the Brady Bill.  The law was eventually overturned by a 5 to 4 Supreme Court decision.  And of course everyone knows Joe Arpaio as the Sheriff who makes inmates where pink overalls, tough on crime, tough on illegal immigration, and is one of the most pro constitution Sheriffs in the nation.  Here are the details of the event:

This November 5th

“America’s Toughest Sheriff's” Joe Arpaio

and

Sheriff Richard Mack

Modern Law Enforcement Leaders fighting crime, cutting costs and defending your rights!

a reception supporting

Bill Hunt for Orange County Sheriff

Thursday, November 5, 2009

LOCATION TBD

5:30-7:30 P.M.

5:30 – 6:00 Sponsor and VIP Reception

6:00 – 7:00 Program

7:00 – 7:30 Photo Opportunities $50

Dana T. Parker living historian James Maidson

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Pink Underwear, Tent City: “The Vacancy Sign is Always on at the Arpaio Inn.” Sheriff Joe is known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” a title he has earned as head of Maricopa County Arizona’s Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Joe is a law enforcement innovator who earned national recognition for his cost saving solutions to the problems facing modern Departments.

Sheriff Richard Mack: challenged the constitutionality of the Brady Bill against the Clinton Administration and won in the US Supreme Court

$99 Posse Supporter (Arrive at 6:00) (1 ticket to Reception and Program)

$150 Marshall Supporter (Arrive at 6:00) (1 ticket to Reception and Program, and 1 Photo with Sheriff Arpaio)

$1,000 Ranger Sponsor (5:30 show up time includes VIP recpetion)

(10 tickets to Reception and premier seating for Program, and 2 photos with Sheriff Arpaio)

Location to be annouced soon due to the high response of requests we are making sure we have a premier location in Orange County

 

 

The Economics Class You Never Had

I can't recommend this video by Peter Schiff any higher. Everyone who clicks on my blog from time to time needs to sit down, grab a drink and a snack and watch this You Tube in its entirety. This is Peter Schiff from Nov 2006 speaking a mortgage bankers conference in Las Vegas. Not only did he correctly call the coming bubble bursting in real estate(like I did on this blog a few years ago) but he correctly points out all the correct reasoning why it collapsed. Austrian Economics rock!

AD72 Special Election Watch: About That Residency Requirement....

I know I'm probably splitting hairs here and I'm definately not an election law lawyer, but I read an interesting article this morning in the Los Angeles Times about State Senator Rod Wright.  Apparently, the Los Angeles DA is investigating him for false statements he put down on his voter registration card.  The reason this article caught my attention though is this little nugget half way through the article...

 "Article 4, Section 2(c) of the state Constitution says that a person "is ineligible to be a member of the Legislature unless the person . . . has been a resident of the legislative district for one year . . . immediately preceding the election."

Again I'm not an election law attorney, but it seems pretty clear from that language in our State Constitution that one must live in the legislative district for one full year before you are eligible to run for office in that district.  I'm wondering if Linda Ackerman's campaign staff realizes this yet?  It seems to this blogger that she is ineligible to run for the 72nd AD becaue she currently lives in the 70th AD.  BTW, she would meet the residency requirement to run for the 70th AD since she's lived in a "secret gated community" in Irvine for the past few years.  I realize that it might be asking a lot for the State Constitution to be followed, but I'm funny like that.  This race might be over before it actually begins.

Just for kicks, here's the entire Article 4 Section 2 language in our State Constitution...

 (a) The Senate has a membership of 40 Senators elected for 4-year terms, 20 to begin every 2 years. No Senator may serve more than 2 terms. The Assembly has a membership of 80 members elected for 2-year terms. No member of the Assembly may serve more than 3 terms. Their terms shall commence on the first Monday in December next following their election.

(b) Election of members of the Assembly shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of even-numbered years unless otherwise prescribed by the Legislature. Senators shall be elected at the same time and places as members of the Assembly.

(c) A person is ineligible to be a member of the Legislature unless the person is an elector and has been a resident of the legislative district for one year, and a citizen of the United States and a resident of California for 3 years, immediately preceding the election.

(d) When a vacancy occurs in the Legislature the Governor immediately shall call an election to fill the vacancy.

AD 72 Special Election Watch: Infamous Video Of The Ackerman's "Secret Gated Community" & Other Thoughts

Once again the Powder Blue Report must be activated for content to hot to handle over at Red County. Gotta love the drama in the local blogosphere. I put up a post late last night on Red County that drew attention to a video that Jon Fleischman of Flashreport had made back around Christmas 2007. It was the talk of the local blogosphere the day before. In the video which BTW is quite funny, Jon is whispering into the camera and driving to the Ackerman's "secret gated community" deep in the heart of Irvine. Well, I woke up this morning and the video and my post on Red County had already been deleted. Evidently, Jon had taken down the video from his You Tube and Art Pedroza of Orange Juice had saved it onto his You Tube site. He ordered Art to remove the video from his site. Jon expressed to me this morning that he didn't want a video that he had done in good jest two years ago to be used against Linda Ackerman and felt bad it about the video now. It is his property and his right to do this. However the issue of the Ackerman's living in a "secret gated Irvine community" in the 70th AD is public knowledge. It's obvious that they would prefer the voters in the 72nd AD where she is running for Assembly to not know this fact. Fair is fair. If the Ackerman's are going to hammer Chris Norby for non proven allegations of sexual harassment, it's certainly fair to draw attention the Ackermans living in a "secret gated Irvine community".

McConnell & Cornyn In OC Today

The Powder Blue Report is coming out of hibernation to post this important story that apparently is to hot to handle over at Red County. GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and NRSC Chairman John Cornyn were in socal today meeting with local party leaders and high dollar donors(i.e Lincoln Club). Apparently I'm not high enough on the food chain yet. I didn't even know they were gonna be in town. It's probably for the best that I wasn't there because I would have had words with the the two Senators. My friend Chip Hanlon over at Red County has a fascinating post up about the details of the meeting. Chip is a former Executive Board member of the Lincoln Club. Anyway, the meeting was supposedly off the record because comments of mine outing the unnamed persons on Chip's post that he refers to were deleted. I have it on excellent authority that said GOP leaders McConnell and Cornyn were at this meeting because Chairman Baugh announced at the Central Committee Meeting that the leaders were in town today. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to make this connection. Anyway, the leaders haven't learned a damn thing about the party's staggering loses the last two election cycles. They think we lost only because of the unpopular Iraq War and W's unpopularity...LOL! They cite unnamed internal polls as their evidence. I'm glad Chip asked the tough questions, but our leaders in DC have learned nothing from the loses. This is very disheartening, but not surprising.

I'm Still Here

I guess this is as good a chance as any to let readers know I am still here. It felt good to take a nice a long break. I am doing some blogging over at Red County as well. A lot has been happening to me in my business career. I decided to leave the Commodities firm where I was at to start my own company up. Needless to say this was a big decision for me, but I have been wanting to have my own Introducing Broker(Commodity lingo) office for a long time and the timing was finally right to make the move. I'll write some more this and other things shortly.

OC GOP Votes To Rebuke Sheriff Hutchens's CCW Policy

It's late but I just wanted to post the results of what happened about the resolution tonight. A slightly modified version passed by a vote of 41 to 14. Instead of using the committee language of "no confidence" in her CCW policy, the committee of the whole decided to amend the language to "we oppose her CCW policy". All the other stuff stayed in. Some notable NO votes among the ex officio's came from Cong. John Campbell's alternate Lou Penrose, State Sen. Mimi Walter's alternate Kat Vermeil, and Cong Ken Calvert's alternate Ann Rommel.

The good news is that the county party is now on record as opposing Sheriff Hutchens's anti-freedom CCW policy.

Quote Of The Day

"Our fractional reserve financial system is just a gigantic Ponzi scheme. It can only survive as long as it expands, which is to say, as long as new debt is flushed through the system to finance old debt. But like all Ponzi schemes, the larger it grows the more unstable it becomes. Eventually, it collapses of its own weight."

James Sinclair.

"No Confidence" In Sheriff Hutchens CCW Policy

This past Saturday the OC GOP Resolutions Committee held a meeting to discuss and debate a resolution submitted by Central Committee member Bruce Whitaker dealing with Sheriff Hutchens CCW Policy. The end result was that the committee voted 7 to 0 to recommend that the full body adopt this resolution of "no confidence" in the Sheriff's concealed carry weapons policy. We also added language that we support AB 357 that would make CA the 41st state to become a "shall issue" state.

How did we get to this point? The hearing lasted well over three hours. I'm not sure what the previous precedents have been for Resolution Committee meetings, but I'm guessing this was one of the longest ones. The committee heard from the maker of the resolution, Bruce Whitaker. We then heard from Sheriff Hutchens herself. I had said at the outset of the meeting that I wanted the speakers to try to limit their time to ten minutes. I ended up giving the Sheriff all the time she needed to make her case and answer questions from committee members and members of the full body that attended. I believe I was more than fair. She was asked twice what she thought about AB 357. It's a very simple bill to understand. She dodged the questions both times with answers of..."I would have to take a look at the specific language of the bill". Tim Whitacre asked her the second time after she declined to answer the first time if "she as a Republican, would conceptually support the bill not having read it". Again she took a pass from answering this. I believe this sheds a lot of light why she has implemented her restrictive CCW policy. She is the one person in the county who has sole discretion over one of our most sacred constitutional rights(2nd Amendment) in the area of CCWs and it is my belief that the burden should be on the government why someone should not get a CCW permit, not the other way around. I'm interested in our party taking the most freedom friendly stance possible.

The next speaker was Mr William Prentice from Ordinary California Citizens Concerned With Safety or OCCCWS. Bill gave a great presentation on the statistics behind the success of the states that have become shall issue. He cited the research that John Lott Jr has done on this issue...more guns equal less crime overall.

Our next speaker was Assistant Sheriff Jack Anderson. Jack gave all committee members a nice booklet that covered the Sheriff's policy and papers to back her position up. Included in the booklet was the infamous 1977 Attorney General letter by Evelle Younger or "Evil Younger" as committee member Marcia Gilchrist referred to him as regarding what his opinion was of what constituted "good cause". We all had a good laugh about Marcia's reference. This letter is not a legal published opinion and is basically a private letter that has no force of law.

The next speaker was Mr Richard Gilbert also of OCCCWS. I'll let his post over at Cal CCW forum speak for itself.

Lastly we had former CRP Chairman Mike Schroeder as a speaker. Mike spoke about the Sheriff's CCW permit revocations. He thinks they are illegal and gave evidence to back up his claim.

Overall it was a great meeting. It was my first time chairing it. We gave every invited speaker a chance to make their best case for their position on the resolution. As I stated in the beginning of the post, we voted 7 to 0 for no confidence in the Sheriff's CCW policy. I will post the language of the resolution hopefully later today. It is still being typed up as I write.

Tom McClintock's Speech Saturday Night

Here is CA Rep Tom McClintock's speech from Saturday night at the CRP Convention up in Sacramento.

February 21, 2009

When the Virginia Legislature invited Churchill to address them, he said, “Do you not think you are running some risk (by) inviting me to give you my faithful counsel on this occasion? … I might easily, for instance, blurt out a lot of things, which people know in their hearts are true, but are a bit shy of saying in public, and this might cause a regular commotion and get you all into trouble.”

I apologize in advance for serving up some cold and bitter truths with tonight’s dinner, but the events in Sacramento of the last few days simply cannot be ignored.

This is not a small or inconsequential matter. This is the biggest tax increase in our state’s history – in the worst economy in a generation – one that is aimed directly at the middle-class voters who have been the core of our support for 40 years – engineered by Republican legislative leaders and a Republican governor. It is a huge chunk – about $1,200 on average – out of the discretionary income of every family in this state just as they are struggling to make ends meet.

If the government has run out of money in these difficult times, what makes them think the people haven’t run out of money also?

We have to discuss this outrage as a party because until we address and redress it, our party will have no credibility to speak on this issue for a decade or more to come. It is this issue more than any other that has defined the binding principle that holds our party together. We may differ on many ancillary issues, but the one thing we have all agreed on is that our government is too big, too inefficient and it costs too much.

Take this proposition away, then what exactly does our party stand for?

Abraham Lincoln reminded the Illinois Republican State Convention in 1858 that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

So it is with political parties.

A political party cannot stand for two opposite principles at the same time.

A party cannot stand for taxpaying families while its leaders impose crushing new taxes on those families.

A party cannot stand for freedom of enterprise when its leaders impose increasingly draconian restrictions on enterprise.

A party cannot stand for fiscal responsibility when its leaders spend and borrow and tax with reckless abandon.

When our party promises one thing and our leaders deliver exactly the opposite, we lose all credibility with the voters – and rightly so.

When candidates claim our name, and enjoy our organizational, financial and volunteer resources, we have a right as a party to insist that those candidates abide by certain fundamental defining principles. We have a responsibility to remove them from office when they wantonly violate those principles and sully our name.

Fourteen years ago, this party recalled two sitting Republican legislators because they had voted for Willie Brown for Assembly Speaker, an act that didn’t directly affect a single individual in this state.

Fourteen years later, are we going to turn a blind eye to Republican legislators who broke signed promises and voted to hammer California families with an average of more than $1,200 of additional taxes in the midst of the worst recession in a generation?

The Democrats never promised not to raise taxes. We did. And our leaders broke that promise.

The concept of the big tent has always been that however we might disagree over issues such as the right to life, the right to self-defense, degrees of business or environmental, we at least all united in defense of families against the burdens of big government. We were the party of the taxpayers.

Now, in California, we are the anti-taxpayer party – so defined by the actions of our own leaders. To consent to those actions by silence is suicide.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Having spent a few months now in Washington, D.C., I can tell you that our Congressional leaders understand this reality. They understand that when our leaders abandoned our principles, our voters abandoned our party.

The Republican Congressional leadership is bound and determined to win back the trust of American voters by returning to our Republican principles.

We saw that leadership in action last week when every single Republican in the House of Representatives stood against the most reckless spending bill in the history of our nation. They rallied behind a Republican alternative that would have lifted the tax burdens on productivity and created twice the jobs at only half the cost of the Democrats’ spending plan.

In Washington, at least, the Republicans are again acting as the taxpayers’ party.

And it is working. Last fall, Rasmussen reported that a generic Democratic candidate for Congress had a 16-point advantage over the generic Republican candidate.

Last week, after Congressional Republicans stood firm, the same poll reported that this gap had narrowed to within a single percentage point.

Don’t we have a right to insist on the same fidelity among our elected leaders in California?

And don’t we have an obligation to enforce that insistence at the ballot box?

Ladies and gentlemen, there is an ebb and flow to politics that we’ve all seen and felt. Some people call it the political pendulum.

The new Administration in Washington is flush with victory, it is riding high in the opinion polls, and yet Americans are already taking a long, hard look at the policies they are pursuing and are already showing signs of having grave misgivings.

We’ve seen this before. Those who remember the administration of Jimmy Carter remember these same policies – and what four years of them did to our nation. We had to endure double-digit unemployment and inflation, interest rates over 20 percent, mile-long lines around gas stations, American embassies seized with impunity.

It was hell to go through. But the American people awoke and four years of Jimmy Carter gave us eight years of Ronald Reagan. Looking back, that wasn’t such a bad trade, was it?

It was Reagan who then said that, "Our people look for a cause to believe in.” He called for “a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors, which make it unmistakably clear where we stand…”

Lincoln said that if the voters get their backsides too close to the fire, they’ll just have to sit on the blisters a while. Our nation has some very painful blisters it is going to have to sit on, but in the next election, our people will indeed be looking for a new and revitalized second party.

But before we can restore our majority, we are going to have to make it unmistakably clear where we stand.

Great parties are built upon great principles – and they are judged by their devotion to those principles.

The defining principle of the Republican party has always been summarized in one word: FREEDOM. The closer we have hewn to that principle, the better we have done; and the farther we have strayed from that principle, the worse we have done.

The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is newly re-dedicated to that principle, and the American people are already responding.

Tonight, the people of California are reeling at the news that the party that had promised to protect them from higher taxes has now socked them with a tax increase so great that it will be felt keenly around every kitchen table from Eureka to San Diego.

They are looking to this, the State Convention of the California Republican Party, for an explanation.

The very first answer we owe them, and the very first step in that long and painful road to Republican redemption must be to repudiate the decidedly anti-Republican policies that have been enacted by our leaders in our name.

And now my fellow Republicans, I leave you with this question: What are YOU prepared to do about it?

What's Your Tax Bite If Sacramento Politicians Raise Your Taxes?

The Sacramento Bee has a site that calculates your increased tax burden. Click here

No Confidence Motion In Sheriff Hutchens CCW Policy

Last night at the OC GOP Central Committee was set to be a quick meeting because cherry pie was awaiting over at Antonellos for the pre Flag Day sale. As the meeting was getting set to wrap up, Bruce Whitaker rose to make a motion to suspend the rules to debate a no confidence motion in Sheriff Hutchens anti-gun CCW policy. Normally these types of motions go through a Resolutions Committee where they are summarily killed. I've also been told that these types of resolutions are usually not offered that criticize elected officials. I don't understand this. This is good opportunity to show the voters we care about this issue. So last night Bruce asked me to second his motion and I was happy to do so. I've seen and read enough lately about Sheriff Hutchens CCW policy to know that she is not a friend to gun owners and people that would like the opportunity to be issued a concealed weapons permit. A lot of Central Committee members were absent. The vote came down 24 to 14....a couple votes short of a 2/3 majority needed to debate the resolution. A couple of natural 2nd Amendment supporters told me afterwards that had this gone through the committee and been vetted before that they will most likely support it next month. So I encourage Mr Whitaker to submit it to the Resolutions Committee and see what happens. We can then invite the Sheriff to come down and defend her policy and let the chips fall where they may.

Quote Of The Day

The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it.

H.L Mencken

Why Are Young Voters Not Voting Republican?

So I fire opened the Sunday Register and right there on the front page of the front section was a big story about why younger voters are fleeing the Republican Party. I'll go over the reasons in a second, but I loved this quote from our Chairman Scott Baugh...

"It is clear the youth (in 2008) were not buying what the Republican Party was advocating," said Scott Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party. "Whether it was the message or the image is not clear, but the message needs to change and the messengers need to be young dynamic Republicans," Baugh said

First of all, it would be great if our messengers were young and dynamic, but I seem to remember an older very dynamic President by the name of Ronald Reagan that was greatly appealing to a lot of the younger voters back in the day. He is the reason I am a Republican today. So I disagree that the messenger has to be young. I do agree that the younger voters were not buying the GOP brand of George Bush. Hell most Republicans at the end of Bush's term were not buying what George Bush was hocking, namely endless wars, skyrocketing deficits, huge spending, assaults on our liberties, etc. I mean the list is so long. I know one Republican that was running for President that had huge support from the younger generation. Anyone take a guess who that guy could have been? That's right, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. He captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of young voters who were tired of eight dark years of George Bush.

Change Is Coming To The OC GOP Endorsement Process

There is change in the air for the Orange County Republican Party endorsement process. After numerous botched endorsements the last few years, the Chairman of the party Scott Baugh has temporarily deep sixed the Endorsement Committee of the party and has created an Ad Hoc committee made up of myself, Craig Alexander, Nancy Padberg, Deborah Pauly, Valerie Dickerson, Linda Ackerman, and chaired by Mark Bucher. Our mission is to come up with with suggested changes to improve the process. One of the blaring reasons for change in my opinion was the endorsement of former Sheriff and now convicted felon Mike Carona. This kind of thing has to change. More recently was the endorsement last year of San Juan Capistrano Mayor Joe Soto. There were many good reasons not to endorse this guy before this story came out the other day that he is now being accused of over billing the county for landscaping services rendered the last few years. Diane Harkey was adamant that he be endorsed. I was leading the charge to stop the endorsement even though I wasn't a member yet of the Central Committee. I was then accused by some Harkey people of "trying to pick a fight with Diane". That's the furthest thing from the truth. I didn't want the party to endorse someone like Soto who had bad policies and as it turns out now is accused of being a crook. The voters obviously didn't like Joe Soto either because they voted to kick him out of office despite the backing from the party. Maybe it was all the illegal alien coddling or helping to keep the city a de-facto sanctuary city. Who knows. Anyone driven through SJC lately?

How do we then fix the process or can it even be repaired? There is a good argument to be made to just get rid of the beast altogether. A lot of the local elected officials that ask for the party's endorsement haven't done much to promote the party anyways from what I can tell. They just come around during election time hoping to be able to use the GOP brand in their mailers and then are never from again until their next election. I would love to hear from others what their thoughts are about this.

So How Would A 21st Century Gold Standard Work?

Ron Paul was on Fox Business yesterday and talked about how some type of gold standard would work today.

Quote Of The Day

"If the American People ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied. The issuing of money should be taken from all banks and restored to Congress and the People to Whom it belongs!”

Thomas Jefferson

The Allan Bartlett 30 Day Action Plan(if I ever became President)

This would be my 30 day action plan to turn the country around if I was elected President. Apologies to Lew Rockwell who first came up with this list over 20 years ago. It's just as good of a plan today as it was back in 1991.

DAY ONE: The federal income tax is abolished and April 15th is declared a national holiday. The 40% reduction in federal revenues is matched by a 40% cut in spending. The budget is still almost twice as big as Jimmy Carter's.

DAY TWO: All other federal taxes are abolished, including the corporate income tax, the capital gains tax, the gasoline tax, "sin" taxes, excise taxes, etc. Businesses boom, and the few legitimate federal functions are funded with an inexpensive head tax. People who choose not to vote need not pay it. (Note: this was a mainstream view in the 19th century.)

DAY THREE: The federal government sells all its land, freeing up tens of millions of acres for development, mining, farming, forestry, oil drilling, private parks, etc. The government uses the revenue to pay off the national debt and other liabilities.

DAY FOUR: The minimum wage is reduced to zero, creating jobs for ex-federal bureaucrats at their market wage. All pro-union laws and regulations are scrapped. The jobless rate falls dramatically.

DAY FIVE: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, like the rest of the Labor Department, is sent to that big hiring hall in the sky. Without detailed economic statistics, future economic planners will be blind and deaf.

DAY SIX: The Department of Commerce is abolished. Big business has to make its own way in the world, without subsidies and privileges at the expense of its competitors and customers.

DAY SEVEN: The plug is pulled on the Department of Energy. Oil and gas prices plummet.

DAY EIGHT: All regulatory agencies, from the Interstate Commerce Commission to the Federal Trade Commission, are deep-sixed. Competition is legalized.

DAY NINE: HUD is squashed like a bug. There's a building boom in cheap, private, apartments.

DAY TEN: The interstate highways reopen as private businesses. Road entrepreneurs price travel according to consumer demand. Using modern technology, drivers get bills once a month. Credit risks – and drunks and dangerous drivers – aren't allowed on the road. Non-drivers no longer subsidize car owners.

DAY ELEVEN: Government welfare is wiped out. Bums work or starve. The deserving poor find a cornucopia of private services designed to make them independent. Private charity explodes, as the American people, already the most generous in the world, find their incomes almost doubled, thanks to the tax cuts.

DAY TWELVE: The Federal Reserve closes its open-market operations and stops protecting the banking industry from competition. But banks can now engage in all the non-bank financial activities previously forbidden to them. The business cycle, which is caused by monetary expansion through the credit markets, is liquidated.

DAY THIRTEEN: Federal deposit insurance is scrapped. All insured deposits are redeemed from federal assets, which include the personal assets of high-level government employees. The threat of bank runs forces banks to keep 100% reserves for their demand deposits, and prudent reserves on all other accounts. There are no more inherently bankrupt banks propped up by the government, at taxpayer expense, and no more bail-outs.

DAY FOURTEEN: The shaky fiat dollar is defined in terms of gold, with the ratio determined by dividing the government's gold stock by all existing dollars on that day.

DAY FIFTEEN: The federal government sells National and Dulles airports to the highest bidder, and stops all subsidies to other socialist airports around the country. All constraints on airline prices and service cease. It costs more to fly during peak hours than off-peak, but overall, air travel drops in price.

DAY SIXTEEN: All government regulations that create and sustain cartels are abolished, including those for the post office, telephones, television, radio, and cable TV. Prices plummet, and a host of new and unforeseen services becomes available.

DAY SEVENTEEN: Centrally planned agriculture, as imposed by Hoover and Roosevelt, is repealed: there are no more subsidies, payments-in-kind, marketing orders, low-interest loans, etc. Farm prices drop. Entrepreneurial farmers get rich. Welfare farmers go into another line of work. The poor eat like kings.

DAY EIGHTEEN: The Justice Department shutters its anti-trust division. Companies, big and small, are free to merge – up, down, or sideways. Stockholders can buy any other company, or sell their stock to anyone else. Marginal producers can no longer battle their competitors with bureaucratic weapons.

DAY NINETEEN: The Department of Education flunks the constitutionality test, and is kicked out. Private charities set up remedial reading and writing programs for the former bureaucrats. Federally subsidized sex education and other anti-family programs go out of business. Local school districts become responsive to parents or close, pressured by a fast-growing private school sector (which many more parents can now afford).

DAY TWENTY: All federal monuments are sold, in some cases to non-profit groups based on the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association, which owns and runs George Washington's home. The VFW buys the Vietnam memorial. There is much bidding for the Jefferson and Washington monuments. Nobody wants FDR's, so it's torn down and the land sold to a farmer. (With the federal government cut back to its constitutional size, much of Washington reverts to productive uses like agriculture, as in late 18th century.)

DAY TWENTY-ONE: The computerized financial and political dossier maintained by the government on every American is erased. The public wanders through the federal offices to make sure, in a reprise of the East Berliners' visits to Stasi headquarters.

DAY TWENTY-TWO: Equal rights are granted to all Americans, even members of non-victim groups. There is no affirmative action, no quotas, no set-asides, no public accommodations laws. Private property and freedom of association are fully restored.

DAY TWENTY-THREE: The EPA is cleaned out, with all "clean air" and similar big-government laws repealed. Ten thousand lawyers leap from their balconies. Private property is established in air and water. Americans harmed by pollution are free to sue the polluters, who are no longer protected by the federal government.

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: Americans are given complete freedom of contract, restoring rationality to malpractice and product liability law.

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: Government scrambles for more assets to sell (i.e., the National Zoo, also known as Washington, D.C.) to pay off the liabilities of the privatized Social Security system.

DAY TWENTY-SIX: Porno artists have to earn their own livings, as the National Endowment for the Arts tries to raise its budget through sidewalk painting sales.

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Foreign aid is outlawed as unconstitutional, unjust, and un-economic. Foreign politicians have to steal their own money. The World Bank, IMF, and United Nations close their super-luxurious doors.

DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: The American people are given the unrestricted right to keep and bear arms.

DAY TWENTY-NINE: The Defense Department is reoriented towards defense. American troops come home from all around the world. We adopt a policy of armed neutrality, remembering the Founding Fathers' teaching that we could not have an empire abroad and a constitutional republic at home.

DAY THIRTY: All tariffs, quotas, and trade agreements are put through the shredder. Americans can trade with anyone in the world, without barriers or subsidies. Japanese car prices drop an immediate 25%.

In just 30 exhilarating days, we have established the outlines of free market. Radical? Maybe so. Me, I can't wait until Month Two.

A Mixed Bag Of Verdicts

The Mike Carona jury has spoken. He was found not guilty on counts one through five which consisted of conspiracy and mail fraud charges. He was convicted of the sixth count of witness tampering. There's really not much to celebrate here except the fact that Mike Carona is now a convicted felon and his political career is over. How the jury could not convict on the other charges is baffling. Once again I will never try to think I know what will happen in a given trial. It's just way to unpredictable. It remains to be seen if Carona will even receive any jail time.

Standby For Carona Verdict at 11:45am This Morning!!!!!

OC GOP Central Committee Officer Races Taking Shape

Over the last few days I have been receiving emails & calls from prospective candidates for First Vice Chair and Assistant Treasurer for the Executive Committee of the Orange County Republican Central Committee. As a newly elected member, I will have a chance to cast my vote in these elections. Fred Whitaker is the incumbent First Vice Chair and he is running for re-election. He is being challenged by former Cypress Mayor Mike McGill. The other race is for Assistant Treasurer. Capistrano School Trustee Anna Bryson is running for re-election and she is being challenged by Zonya Townsend. I have decided that having some competent fresh faces would be a good thing and much needed on the Executive Committee. Therefore I have decided to support Mike McGill & Zonya Townsend.

I have no illusions about what lies ahead for our party. It is going to be a tough road to get the party back to its core message of freedom & smaller limited government. There's also the matter of the party going to the mat for former disgraced Sheriff Mike Carona. Again it was one of the main reasons why I ran for the seat. Most of the current officers on the board supported that endorsement despite a mountain of evidence that said we shouldn't have waded into that race, yet they still rammed through the endorsement. It is going to be an interesting evening next Monday at the Hyatt Irvine. All guests are welcome to attend.

Carona Verdict Could Happen Today

The trial of former sheriff Mike Carona is about to come to a final conclusion. The jury is back deliberating today after a weekend break. The best place to get the news first of the verdict is by following the Twitter feed of OC Crimescene from the OC Register. All signs point to a guilty verdict, but I'm gonna wait to hear what they say before I start celebrating.

Quote Of The Day

"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to state this or that or the other, but it is 'not done'... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness." …

George Orwell

Irvine Status Quo Election

Nothing is going to change in Irvine as far as the makeup of the new incoming City Council. There are still a few votes left to count, but I doubt it will affect the races from here on out. Sukhee Kang edged out Christina Shea for Mayor. Beth Krom, Steven Choi, and Larry Agran were all re-elected. Krom and Choi grabbed the two full four year seats and poor Larry Agran got stuck with the two year seat. Knowing Larry, this must have really pissed him off that Steven Choi finished ahead of him. He's not crying to much though. He will still have control of the Council for another two years, but he has been wounded. Hopefully the Team Irvine slate can get their act together for 2010 and finally put Larry into early retirement. The planning has to start today guys. Find some candidates, raise the money, and then get out the vote. 2010 will also most likely be a kinder environment for Republicans to run in.

I do want to publicly thank Pat Rodgers, Eric Johnson, and Margie Wakeham. You guys were again way out spent by the corrupt Agran Machine, but managed to make it close. It's not easy running for public office knowing you are going to be slimed with thousands of dollars by Larry Agran.

Neil Cavuto Interviews Ron Paul On The Horrible Economy

Where Do The Republican Go From Here?

Anyone in my party who did not see what was coming this past Tuesday should get out a piece a paper and start taking some notes. The first thing that has to change is for Republicans to reacquaint themselves with the US Constitution. You know, it's that rulebook that must be followed when you're elected to office. Once again the perceived peace candidate, Obama won the election. I don't think our foreign policy will actually change, but the perception that it will really helped Obama. BTW, Bush W won in 2000 because he was the peace candidate that wanted us to have a more humble foreign policy after the all misadventures by the Clinton Administration in Bosnia & Somalia and Nixon won in 1968 because he was going to get us out of Vietnam. You get the point. We have to get back to a non-interventionist foreign policy. Our party has to start understanding that you can't just give lip service to personal liberties and a humble foreign policy. Our message became very stale. We have to start rebuilding credibility with people otherwise it's gonna be a long trip through the wilderness.

A Bit To High Expectations For Obama???

I think this You Tube is so sad. It has gone viral and has been seen by over a million people. I'm posting it to show people who haven't seen it yet. It's sad because this poor woman actually thinks Obama is going to send her a check to pay for her mortgage and her gas bills. This mentality scares the hell out of me. I don't think it ever occured to this woman that someone else had to produce the income to be taxed and then ultimately redistributed to her through the heavy hand of government.

John McCain Post Mortem Re: Illegal Immigration

It was pointed out to me by a friend this morning that John McCain is only getting about 13% of the hispanic vote according to the latest polling. What does that say about McCain's & George Bush's vaunted strategy of going all out for amnesty? Boy that is really paying some big dividends there. A whole 13% of the vote. Those pro amnesty hispanic voters have decided to eat steak[voting for Obama] rather than eat hamburger[vote for McCain]. Hope it was all worth it. Thanks for nothing.

PHOENIX (Reuters) – In the final stretch to the presidential election, more than three quarters of likely Hispanic voters say they support Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain, a study found.The Univision/Reuters/Zogby poll released on Tuesday said that 78 percent of a sample of 1,016 Latino likely voters favored Sen. Obama, with 13 percent supporting McCain, an Arizona senator.The poll, which was conducted between October 30 and November 2, found that 54 percent of respondents said the economy and jobs were the most important issue in deciding who to vote for, followed by health care and immigration, with 12 percent and 11 percent respectively