**Breaking News** Van Tran Stands Down

I'm going with this story that Steve Greenhut just posted over at Orange Punch. Van has just confirmed to Steve that he will not stand for election in the 34th SD. This is huge OC political news. I guess he will now run for re election in the 68th AD which is going to create the reverse domino effect of stiff arming Jim Righeimer's and Janet Nguyen fleeting hopes of claiming the seat for themselves. This leaves the battle between Lynn Daucher and Minutewoman Lupe Moreno. Gee I wonder who I will support, LOL. The OC political blogs will be swarming tonight, tomorrow, and the next few days with this news.

On a side note, I changed my timestamp on my blog to read 9:59 PM as you can see. Therefore I reported the story first, LOL(this is a crackback on Flash for changing his timestamp on his Van post from 10:30PM to 10:03PM). Isn't this fun?

CRP Winners & Losers

-Lets start with my winners list:

- It was obvious to most who attended, that this convention ended up being stagecrafted very nicely by Arnold's handlers/consultants/hacks. Arnold swooped into the Fairmont Hotel late in the afternoon on Friday and was gone later that night. He is a winner because his people were able to convince enough delegates to defeat most of the damning resolutions on his policies that lay before the CRP conventioneers save for one about appointing more Republican judges which passed. His dinner speech Friday night was very average as I said in my analysis right after I witnessed it. So although Arnold is a winner in the sense that he avoided most of the strife & conflict going on behind the scenes, there is going to be a Chernobyl-like meltdown from conservatives if he doesn't close the deal with voters in November.

-My next winner is Tom McClintock. Tom is a conservative's conservative. I regret the fact that I did not vote for him in the recall. He has the right ideas that will move California ahead in the right direction. I question the Faustian bargain he made with Arnold's people for the sake of party unity, but I will give Tom the benefit of the doubt until the votes get counted in November. One quick funny story about Tom that shows he has a sense of humor....I asked him as he was autographing my Arnold/Tom 06' teeshirt if he would cross off Arnold's name for me. He gave me a sly grin & chuckle and said, "no no no" as he was laughing. I wished him well in the upcoming campaign.

-The next winner is Tony Strickland. He outclassed & outmanuevered his opponent Abel Maldanaldo at almost every turn during the convention. You couldn't walk anywhere in the hotel Friday afternoon without hearing from his college republican true believers that Abel is taking food out the mouths of citizens by his actions to try to increase the minimum wage. It was great stuff. Tony then held a press conference where he denounced Rob Reiner and called on the governor to "terminate" him from the first five commission. Saturday morning he came to see us lowly bloggers at our blogger's "coffee with the candidates" and spelled out his vision for what he wants to do when he assumes office as the new State Controller. Finally his hospitality suite/party/concert was epic Saturday night. He had Jimmy Camp's band jamming until the wee hours and the room was packed out...always a good sign of strong campaign.

-The next winner was the Flashreport panel on Saturday afternoon. It was nice to get to meet some new faces and reaquaint with old ones. All the FR bloggers had excellent talks at their turn with the mic. I also of course want to credit the "Godfather" himself Mr. Jon Fleischman for putting together such a fine website/blog. Now if we could just get Darrell Issa to come out of his shell a little more, LOL.

-Speaking of Darrell Issa, it pains me a little to put him in the winner category as well since he has a jihad out on good guys like Jim Gilchrist and Tom Tancredo, but Darrell walks the walk when it comes to wanting Republicans to win. I think he gets a little over zealous sometimes and his ego is immense, but at the end of the day he is there for the conservative causes. He cracked back on me pretty hard for supporting Jim Gilchrist, but I cracked back on him too so I'm not complaining. I can honestly say that when CRP conventions roll around, he's one of the few sitting members of the CA Congressional delegation that always shows up to woo the grassroots activists like myself. For that, I give him a lot of credit. You never see the likes of guys like David Dreier at these conventions. Just my observation.

-My last winner of the convention are the bloggers. There were not a lot of us there, but I can tell you that the MSM media guys and campaigns know we are growing in importance by the treatment that I and other bloggers received at the convention. A quick anecdote to illustrate my point....I was live blogging Arnold's speech on Friday night with Steve Greenhut of the OC Register. An AP reporter was sitting next to me and as we were introducing ourselves, she told me that she was out here from DC doing a story on Congressman John Doolittle. Once she knew I was a blogger, she asked if I had seen Roseville Conservative himself, Mr. Aaron Park around. Aaron has been covering that race like a glove and evidently his blog has drown the attention of the AP for his coverage. I gave her Aaron's email and webpage link and another MSM gal was happy. Good job Aaron. I also want to give props to Tom Del Beccaro of Political Vanguard who organized our blogger coffee Saturday morning. We had seven candidates/speakers as a captive audience to field our questions about themselves and how there campaigns were doing. It was good stuff.

Now for the losers:

-The biggest loser IMO at the convention was Abel Maldanaldo. He was getting outclassed at every turn by Tony Strickland. He had a very weak defense of why he was carrying a bill to raise the minimum wage during our blogger coffee. He is going to lose by a landslide in the primary.

-Steve Poizner is my next loser. I give him credit for coming before the bloggers at our coffee event, but I was not satisfied about his answers of his and his wife's past support of recent Democratic candidates(Al Gore). Something about that always raises a red flag in my mind. It reminded me of the 70th Assembly District primary last cycle where Chuck DeVore's opponent Christy Christich endorsed and held fundraisers for President Clinton and spent over $2 million to try to burnish her non existent GOP credentials. It's one thing if you used to be a democrat and never gave money but you were just misinformed a little, but it is another thing entirely to actively raise money for them in the recent past. I guess the only good thing Mr. Poizner has going for him is that he is facing the La Raza candidate himself Cruz BustaMecha err monte.

So that is my list so far. I may think of more stuff, but that is it for now.

More San Jose CRP Random Thoughts & Observations

I am finally home tonight from a very interesting confab of California Republicans. Trying to blog and go to as many functions as possible from these conventions is a major challenge. I will have to be better organized for the next one in Los Angeles at the end of August. I have so many mini stories and observations that I think I could write about it for the next week. For now one of the things that stood out for me was the Flashreport gathering at 4pm yesterday. I finally had a chance to meet some people that heretofore I have only known from the internet. As the meeting started I ran into Cameron Smythe who is running for Assembly up in the Santa Clarita area(not sure which district it is). He saw my Deputy David March badge I was wearing when he walked in and introduced himself to me. He is also a friend of the March family. We talked for a few minutes about how happy we were that deputy March's killer was finally apprehended a few days ago. Here's to hoping that Cameron wins his race. Next I had a chance to meet FR blogger and pollster extraordinaire Adam Probolsky. After initial pleasantries were exchanged, he asked if Lynn and I would sign Linda Ackerman's nomination papers for one of the 70th Assembly Central Committee seats. I was happy to(coincidentily I ran into the Ackermans at San Jose airport today. We were on the same Southwest flight back into the OC. I told Linda that Lynn and I signed her nomination papers for Central Committee and that we hopefully put her over the top!). Next I want to give a shout out to FR blogger/Issa District Director, Mr. Phil Paule. Phil was nice enough to recognize my blog during his time at the microphone. I introduced him also to my lovely wife Lynn. As the show went on, it became clear that it was fast becoming the Darrell Issa show at the Flashreport gathering. This leads to one of my many cogent observations of the convention. Jon Fleischman was talking about/handicapping the race for the 50th CD and he got to the subject of Howard Kaloogian's chances. Jon mentioned that for a little guy in stature, his head would fill the entire ballroom with his ego. This begged the question: if Howard has a big ego then Darrell Issa's head would fill the entire hotel! I remember Darrell from his humble beginnings of running against Matt Fong back in 98. I think being in DC has done a number on him. After the FR meeting was over I got to speaking with Darrell about the recent 48th CD race. The floodgates were released! Darrell proceeded to rip me a new one for having the gall to support a guy like Jim Gilchrist. He lamented that the party had to spend over a million dollars that they could have used on other races, but I gave him as good as I received. I was not intimidated. In the end, I know Darrell has a job to do. I just hope the Reps don't cave on this issue.

Blogger Breakfast Roundup From This Morning

After a late night last night of schmoozing and meetings, I was up at the crack of dawn to head over to the Bear Flag blogger's roundtable. This list of bloggers there were as follows:

Tom Del Baccaro of Political Vanguard(meeting organizer)
Jon Fleischman of Flashreport
Scott Schmidt of Boi From Troy
Steve Frank of CA Political News
Sacto Dan of Sacto Dan Blog
Aaron Park of Roseville Conservative
Socal Pundit
Joel Strom
and yours truly of Powder Blue Report

My goal for this gathering was to ask the candidates for office who came before us what their stance was on illegal immigration...the number one issue in the state by a wide margin. This issue is having a negative effect on all facets of life in California and any politician who doesn't see this doesn't deserve to be elected in my opinion.

The order of candidates to stop by our meeting was as follows:

Michelle Steel....running for Board of Equalization
Pierre Prosper....running for Attorney General
Tony Strickland....running for State Controller
Chuck Poochigian....running for Attorney General
Steve Poizner....running for Insurance Commissioner
Frank Luntz....political consultant par excellence
Abel Maldonaldo....running for State controller

So first up was Michelle Steel. She gave us a quick rundown of her background...Japanese immigrant, came to the US for the opportunity. She is running for BOE because of run ins with state beaucrats over the years over tax questions. She related the story of how her mother i think it was, was levied taxes against her that she didn't owe, but because of the language barrier, her mother didn't fight the assessment. As far as the political dynamics of this race, her main competition is Assemblyman Ray Haynes. Michelle says that she has raised over $600k for this race so far. That is a nice chunck of change for an office no one really knows much about. The last I looked, Mr. Haynes has only a fraction of Michelle's money as cash on hand, but he has good name ID in the district and he gets a lot of free earmed media on shows like John & Ken. I'd call this race a toss up at this point.

The next candidate to grace us with his presence was Pierre Prosper. He is the son of Haitian immigrants and grew up in New York. He has a great pedigree to run for this office. He has worked for the Los Angeles DA's office prosecuting gangs, federal prosecutor who went after war crimes in Rhawanda back in the 90's, and he's worked in the DOJ on the war on terror. Jon Fleischman asked him about the political dynamics of the race. He wanted to know why people should vote for him in light of his seemingly quick jump into the AG race recently. It seemed to be a slam on him for being a Johnny come lately to the California political scene. I asked him about what he would do about our runaway illegal immigration problem. He wants to be very aggressive in enforcing the law in this area...very good answer. He also supports cities like Costa Mesa in starting to crackdown on this issue. Lastly he disagees with the President on the latest issue of the ports flap. This was another good answer IMO. I really like this guy.

Tony Strickland was the next candidate to answer our questions. He gave us a rundown of his achievements while in office. He told of how he decided to sue Gray Davis over the energy contracts Gumby(Gray Davis) locked the state into. He told us how a lot of his colleagues said he was making a mistake by taking the governor on this issue and that he would get all of his legislation vetoed because of it. He said he didn't get elected to cave in. The first thing he wants to do if elected as Controller is audit the LAUSD. He says there is so much waste and fraud in LAUSD right now. I would agree. He is also going to refuse to sign checks for the appointed members of various state commissions that receive upwards of $100/year for going to one meeting a month. I like that idea as well. He said that he asked Arnold this morning to remove Rob "Meathead" Reiner from the first five commission because of recent revelations of Meathead using taxpayer funds for those recent annoying preschool ads on radio. He wants Steve Westly to start doing his job he was elected to do. Lastly he said he wants to see the LAUSD broken up. Great interview I thought.

Thought's On Arnold's Speech Last Night

I first want to apologize for neglecting my posting duties. Last night's speech by Arnold did not set the world or the CRP Convention on fire. In fact it was a very average speech. The biggest appause during the whole speech was when he introduced Senator Tom McClintock. That spoke volumes of who the hard core activists really support. Those were my initial impressions and after speaking with other bloggers and party members, that seems to be the consensus. No one is thrilled about voting for Arnold, but it is the only choice Republicans have.

The speech itself started out by Arnold thanking Duf Sunheim, Senator Ackerman, and Kevin McCarthy. He said he was grateful for their friendship. He then went over the special election results and said that "we fought the good fight for reform". After hearing Frank Luntz this morning, Frank thinks that the election would have been sucessful had the language and presentation of the reforms been tweeked on paycheck protection. I think Mr. Luntz happens to be right about that. Oh well, what's done is done is done. We can't unring that bell. Anyways, Arnold then went on to share a quote about "there is no shame in losing, but shame in not trying". He says he is committed to fiscal discipline for the state. He talked about how bad things were before the recall two years ago. He got a big cheer for repealing the illegal alien drivers license bill. He says "we did not raise taxes the first two years"...that is a minumum benchmark for Republicans Arnold. Duh. You better not raise taxes or sign any illeagl alien drivers license bill or you will officially have no GOP principles! The next thing he talked about was fixing the workers comp system. For that I will give him a lot of credit. The burden on employers has definately gone down a little with these reforms and hence the business climate enhanced. He bragged about creating 500k jobs since he took office. That's debatable, whatever. He wants Jessica's law passed. Now we start getting to the real meat of his "vision" for his next term. I can sum it up in a few words....Bond, Arnold Bond. He wants to fix the infrastructure of the state with a massive $220 billion bond proposal. The scope of it is breathtaking. We conservatives know who will stuck holding the bag though on these bonds when the economy sours....the taxpayers. Wall Street financiers will not underwrite 220 billion in bonds without some sort of tax incorporated in the bonds. That is the dirty little secret that Arnold doesn't want citizens to know about. The rest of the speech was sort of anti-climactic. He spoke of his overall vision for the state some more. He wants to reform some more things, renew the party and the state. With that, this average speech came to a close.

Friday Night CRP Banquet

I'm sitting here in the corner of the main ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel tucked away in a little "blogger" section with Steven Greenhut of the OC Register and few other statewide bloggers. The room is packed and everyone is eating dinner right now. Arnold is supposed to speak at 8:45 tonight. Everyone I've spoken with so far are apprehensive about the speech. Will the olive branch come out for conservatives? What is going to be the tone of the speech? Stay tuned here for details of the speech.

More Thoughts On David March

I have arrived in San Jose and made it to my hotel. I just got done listening to KFI's stream of John & Ken talking to John & Barbara March the past hour. This is a very happy day for them. They are not concerned that Armando Garcia will not be receiving the death penalty. Let's face it, we really don't have a death penalty anyways in California anymore. Appeals last for over 25 years and a lot of condemned men die of old age before their exection date. They are just glad that he is off the streets and will not be killing anymore police officers or people. They want the border shut down so that this tragedy doesn't happen to other families. I couldn't agree more.

The first question I will be asking the elected politicians and candidates up here in San Jose this weekend is where they stand on illegal immigration. If they get this question wrong then the interview will pretty much be over. I will write them off in my mind. Stay tuned for updates this weekend on where the prospective candidates for state and federal offices stand. I'm off to the Fairmont now to join the convention.

Look Out San Jose

The Powder Blue Report is taking a road trip this weekend with my wife up to nocal for the bi-annual California Republican Party Convention. I even managed to secure a blogging credential. Don't they do background checks??? Just kidding. I always like going to these conventions. You get to meet and mingle with all the movers and shakers that make our party what it is. Tonight Arnold will be giving the keynote speech. I'm not sure what my response will be. He needs desperately to get back to what got him elected in the first place. I'll have a lot more to say about him in the next few days.

**HUGE BREAKING NEWS** Armando Garcia Is Finally Caught In Mexico

I just heard about this on John Zieglar's show on the way home from the gym tonight. The cold blooded killer of Deputy David March has finally been nabbed down in Mexico. Here is the AP story. I am so happy for John & Barbara March tonight. Hopefully this will bring some closure for them. Of course they still have to have a trial, but for all intents and purposes, this guy ain't going anywhere except to rot in hell.

The announcement was made by, of all people, David Dreier. As if he has had anything to do with helping the March's put pressure on Mexico. That scumbag Congressman actually voted against cutting off foreign aid to countries that harbor cop killers, i.e Mexico. As far as I'm concerned, David Dreier is still public enemy #1 when it comes to the illegal immigration issue. Enough about that guy. I'm apt to blow a gasket if I continue about him. I'll have a lot more to say about Dreier in the next few weeks and months as the trial gets started. This moment belongs to the March family.

I have to also give huge props to Los Angeles DA Steve Cooley. He and his staff have worked their asses off on this and other cases like it. So even though the death penalty is not an option here because of the treaty with Mexico, I want to publicly thank Mr. Cooley again for all he has done on this case.

Book by Minuteman founder & "Unfit for Command" author to target illegal immigration

This is a press release from Jim Gilchrist and the Minuteman Project.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22 February 2006

CONTACT: Tim Bueler
(530) 401-3285


BOOK BY MINUTEMAN FOUNDER & "UNFIT FOR COMMAND" AUTHOR TO TARGET ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Minuteman Founder Jim Gilchrist teams with NYT bestselling author Jerome Corsi on explosive new account of danger, drugs, and death on America's border. Will this book do to the GOP what "Unfit for Command" did to John Kerry?


Los Angeles, CA -- Despite being the former governor of a border state in the throes of an immigration crisis, President George W. Bush has been reluctant to address the issue of illegal immigration, preferring instead to maintain warm ties with Mexican President Vicente Fox. That may change later this year, though, in the wake of a forthcoming book that promises to make security along America's borders the most hotly-debated subject going into this fall's elections--and one that Republicans ignore at their own peril.

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, and Jerome Corsi, Harvard Ph.D. and co-author of the New York Times #1 bestseller "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," have teamed up to write a shocking account of the endless flow of drugs, terrorists, and economic refugees at America's borders--and to expose the Mexican government's open complicity in this full-fledged crisis. The to-be-titled book will be published by World Ahead Publishing and available in bookstores nationwide this July.

The Minuteman Project is a volunteer-based organization that gained national prominence last year for organizing a citizen watch along the nation's southwestern border to report suspicious activity to authorities. Although denounced by politicians in the nation's capital--including President Bush--Minuteman Project volunteers have been praised by overworked Border Patrol agents for their efforts.

"Illegal immigration is bankrupting states along the border, but this is about more than economics--we're placing our national security at risk," said Gilchrist, who along with other Minuteman Project volunteers has come under fire while on patrol and carrying nothing more than binoculars and cell phones.

Gilchrist continued, "Drug lords and violent gangs like MS-13 are streaming into the U.S. from Mexico. Terrorists are also walking in unopposed. Our southwestern border is littered with Arabic papers and Islamic prayer rugs."

"Politicians who believe that illegal immigration can be ignored must realize that Mexicans and others are dying every day along our nation's borders," added Corsi, whose book "Unfit for Command" played a key role in convincing the American people to reject John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. "These economic refugees are often abandoned and left to die by the human traffickers and Mexican soldiers who smuggle them across the border. It's nothing less than a tragedy."

While the GOP has made America's security a winning issue in recent elections, Gilchrist and Corsi's forthcoming book promises to reframe border control in just those terms--as a matter of national security, and one that President Bush and the Republican leadership can no longer brush aside.

This is excellent. Maybe Jim Gilchrist and the Minutemen can shame President Bush and the Congress into finally do the right thing.

"Jobs Americans Won't Do"

How many times have we heard that phrase uttered in the last few years on the illegal immigration debate? I'm frankly getting sick and tired of hearing it myself. Here's a great article from the LA Times today that describes the conundrum both parties are facing on this issue. Black contractors from South Central Los Angeles are up in arms over Bush's amnesty/guest worker proposal. They have seen their wages undercut for the last few decades by hoardes of illegals taking good paying construction jobs away from them. The illegals don't just pick strawberries anymore.

Drexell Johnson of South Central Inc. is fed up and had this to say...

"Hell, no, don't bring no one in from nowhere," said Johnson, a 47-year-old Mississippi native who founded his consortium of 35 minority contractors a decade ago. "Train the people here. Give the people here the same opportunity you're willing to give someone out of this country."

You go Drexell! What's next, are they going to put "guest workers" in charge of border security. Yikes.

Bush Is Tone Deaf On UAE Port Deal

Why would the Bush administration let a country with known terrorist ties take over six important ports on the east coast? All I can think of is that they care more about the almighty dollar than national security. Just go down the list. It's been four years since 9/11 and our southern border is still wide open because they are more concerned about getting cheap labor to their big dollar business donors. This development with the port deal is just the latest outrage. At some point though, all the chickens are going to come home to roost. When Al Qaeda sneeks a nuke across our southern border or in a container, the responsibility will lay squarely on President Bush. He talks a good game on protection/national security, but at the end of the day, he always makes sure that the almighty dollar rules the day. That's sad.

Peter Gadiel of 9/11 Families For A Secure America says

"I'm a lifelong Republican and I think the President's gone insane".

I'll be glad to associate myself with those comments.

******************Tuesday Afternoon Update 12:45PM*************
President Bush has just issued a veto threat if Congress passes legislation stopping the deal. This is just great. The President is more worried about pleasing the business lobby than making sure our ports stay safe. I really I'm at a loss on this one. I hope if he does veto it, the Congress will saddle up and override it.

Polling Is Active In 35th SD Race

Last night I was called by the Tarrance Group for my opinions on the upcoming special election in the 35th Senate District. It lasted about ten minutes by my guess. A number of questions were asked of me. There were negative questions about both GOP candidates, but on balance, I would say that this was more of a hit poll against Diane Harkey. I love how they phrase the questions..."did you know that Diane Harkey had over $100k in tax liens from her past business dealings? Will that make you more or less likely to vote for her?....did you know that Diane Harkey supported higher fees and taxes for homeowners in Dana Point?...do you think someone with one year of political experience should try to move up to the State Senate?...then this question about Tom Harmon..."did you know that Tom Harmon has been in the State Assembly for six years and before that was a Huntington Beach city councilman". A couple of others were..."did you know that Diane Harkey paid for her co sponsership of the California Border Police Initiative"..."Tom Harmon is 100% pro choice" blah blah blah...."Tom Harmon has accepted money from labor unions, but has a great voting record supporting businesses" or something like that. Nice try Duane. It's not going to work.

The Hits Keep On Coming From Arnold

You wanna talk about a crash and burn mission right now. Our wet index finger in the political wind governor is at it again today taking another hard left turn. According to this SF Gate article, he wants to raise the taxes on gasoline to cut down on greenhouse gases and global warming. I'm sure another tax won't kill any more jobs(snark). Steven Greenhut of the OC Punch Blog wants the CA GOP to revive Michael Schroeder's resolution to revoke our endorsement of the governor. I agree wholeheartetly with that idea. This is getting ridiculous. How can Arnold be for cutting the car tax and then support one of the most regressive taxes of all on the consumption of gasoline. I guess maybe he thinks we aren't paying enough at the pumps. All I know is that the inner liberal Kennedy in Arnold is alive and well to the detriment of the people that voted him into office. What else are we Republicans going to be forced into accepting from him until we say enough is enough? I'm open for suggestions.

Irvine Republican Council Roundup From Tonight

Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions only and don't necessarily represent the views of the IRC or the OC Republican party.

Our meeting tonight was a dual IRC meeting/ Devore Harkey fundraiser. We had one of our best showing of people since our group's inception. I guess it helps when you have people like Chuck DeVore and Diane Harkey as the guests of honor. Chuck gave us his Sacramento update which is biting and incisive as always. Diane told us of her goals when she gets up to Sacramento. It was good stuff for conservatives. The biggest news of the night however and I guess I'll go ahead and break some news, was all the whispering amongst members about a potential recall effort against our unethical/under suspicion/dictator/lawbreaker extraordinaire city councilman Larry Agran. Everyone in Irvine now knows about the Grand Jury investigations and recent revelations of all of Larry's past and present illegal activities. All I can say is that it's about time. There still needs to be some leg work done, but if I had to guess, I would say that this recall against him is going to move forward. The grassroots support is very strong for it. Councilmember Steven Choi was at our meeting also and he gave us some sobering news of what has been going on behind the scenes by Agran Inc. lately. Christina Shea's assistant Anthony Kuo has been forced to resign as of yesterday because of the new so called "ethics" ordinance. Mr. Choi also informed us that Larry is giving the power to hire and fire council aides to the city manager Sean Joyce who out of fear for his own job has said he will do whatever Larry tells him to do. It really is sickening what is happening. Larry is also unhappy that one of Councilmember Choi's current aides, used to be one of Chris Mears aides. He therefore assumes that said aide probably has a lot of political info that can and has been used against Larry. I guess he can't stand that so now aides to the councilmembers will be appointed by the city manager who gets his marching orders from, you guessed it, Larry Agran. Stay tuned for more details in the days and weeks ahead.

Jubal from OC Blog has just linked to this post. As always, he's on top of everything in this county. We are lucky he's so dedicated to keeping all us hacks/bloggers/citizens informed.

Tiger Woods Learning Center

This post is dedicated to my sister Amy Bartlett. She works closely with Tiger Woods on the marketing for his his golf video game that her company Electronic Arts puts out. This is a quote from an email that she sent me today..."What about a blog entry about the good Tiger is doing for the underprivileged kids in the OC? Sounds good to me, then without further ado...Last Friday was the grand opening of the brand new Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anaheim at the Dad Miller Golf Course. I think it's great that Tiger is able to give back to his community at such a young age. Heck, 99.999999% of us youngsters are usually just getting started making some decent money in life. Tiger's net worth is already above the 100 million mark according to Fortune Magazine which ranks the highest paid athletes and entertainers. I aspire to be where Tiger is at financially someday. I have to shoot for something, right? So congrats to Tiger on a very well played opening for his new center. I'll leave everyone with a picture of my sister with Tiger on one of his New York whirlwind business trips from the cover of Golf Digest.

First Post With New Computer

I just spent the better part of my night setting up my settings on a new Dell Inspiron 6000. This thing kicks ass, pardon my French. I needed a laptop for business and of course not to mention all my blogging that I do. I am now officially mobile. I'm out.

Lupe Moreno Is In For The 34th Senate District Race

Things just got a whole lot more interesting in the race for the Republican nomination for the 34th Senate District. Van Tran already had his hands full against Lynn Daucher and the Ackerman GOP machine. Now he has to make sure that he doesn't get outflanked on illegal immigration/abortion by Lupe Moreno. That will be hard because Lupe walks the walk when it comes to being an activist against illegal immigration. Her story is well documented so I won't get into it here, but she is going to be a force in this race. Do I think like Lurk from OC Blog and a few others that she would have been better off to run against Loretta Sanchez? The answer to that is absolutely, but she has made her decision and what's done is done. I obviously am a huge Van Tran fan, but I like Lupe's message also for obvious reasons. This puts me in quite a quandry. I really have to think about this race now.

Guess Who's Coming To Irvine Meadows In April?

So I'm surfing the web tonight and listening to some Jimmy Buffet CDs and guess who is coming to Verizon Wireless(Irvine Meadows) on April 20th and 22nd....that's right, Jimmy Buffet. Besides Bruce Springteen or U2, this is one of the best concerts of all time. The tailgate parties are legendary. So who's in. I think it would be fun to organize a trip of political hacks or the like to attend the concert. Email me or leave a comment below to let me know your interest level.

VP Cheney Is A Crack Shot...On Other Hunters!!

I saw this Drudge headline blaring and I just had to laugh. Cheney needs to take Hillary out hunting or Michael Moore(damn that's one big target). In all seriousness, I think Dick needs a remedial course in hunter saftey. You never swing on a bird unless you know you have a clear line of shot. That's basic. He's extremely lucky that it was just a glancing blow from some bird load shot(many little beebes). I wonder what would have happened if he woulda greased that guy. As it is, I'm sure that dude's lawyers have already got their case ready and will be running down to the courthouse first thing tomorrow morning. I'd still rather go hunting with Cheney though than drive across a bridge with Ted Kennedy at the wheel.

Hello to all the Mydd and Kos folks. They linked to this post here. I still don't know what a wingnut is though or where that phrase came from. Maybe they can educate me on it. I bet you guys wished that Mr. Wittingham died from his wounds. You would have been able to make even more hay out of this non story story right? It was an accident. Get over it.

Diane Harkey Precinct Walk & Barbeque

I had a chance to make over to Deerfield Park here in Irvine for Diane Harkey's precinct walk/barbeque. I finally got a chance to see the Harkey for State Senate RV or urban assault vehicle(movies buffs will remember that as the tagline for a heavily armored RV from one of my all time favorite movies "Stripes" with Bill Murray). You can't miss it as you drive up. So we arrived around noon and met up with team Harkey. It was also nice seeing my Assemblyman Chuck DeVore there with his wife Diane. After a few minutes of chitchat, we hit the road to go walk a precinct. Not many people were home today, but Diane got a good reception from most of the folks that I spoke with. I spoke with the candidate herself for a few minutes about various topics. I asked her if she was ready for the rough & tumble of Sacramento. She says she's ready. She only wants to serve for this term and the next one after that and then she wants to go back home to Dana Point to hopefully play with some grandchildren she said. I like that. A true citizen politician. She's not going up there to get entrenched in power.

We headed back to the park after walking for some burgers and refreshments. As I was sitting there eating, I was trying to think if I've heard or seen anything about Tom Harmon's campaign. I couldn't think of anything. He has no signs up, no mail yet, and most importantly no presence at all on the blogs, save for an occasional Duane Dichara comment(his consultant) on OC Blog. He has been the invisible man in this campaign so far. He certainly won't show his face up at the CRP convention in two weeks. He might actually have to speak with some Republicans if he goes up there! Lynn and I have our plane tickets and hotel reservations already for San Jose. We'll see everyone up there.

John March On John & Ken Yesterday

I was going to post about this yesterday but I got sidetracked doing something else. Anyway, John March was on with John & Ken yesterday. He was talking about a conversation that he had with David Dreier last week about how the Congressman planned to vote on the immigration bill if it comes back with any kind of amnesty in it. Mr Dreier hemmed and hawed and John March pinned him down and Dreier says that he won't vote for any kind of amnesty. Color me very skeptical. BTW, you can insert John Campbell's name in there too. If either of them vote for amnesty, it is going to get ugly. I will make it my personal mission to do all I can to see those guys defeated if they vote for amnesty.

A Must Read From Rep Ron Paul

A Real Washington Scandal


February 6, 2006

Supreme Court nominations, congressional ethics scandals, and insider politics dominated the Washington headlines in recent weeks. But perhaps the most important story, in terms of its impact on average Americans, has gone virtually unreported.

Later this month our Treasury once again will hit the "debt ceiling," a figure based on federal law that limits the amount of money the federal government can borrow. The total amount of federal debt as of this month is a staggering $8.2 trillion, a number that is almost incomprehensible. The effects of this debt, however, will be felt by all of us in the form of inflation, higher interest rates, and a weakened U.S. economy.

New Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke faces a difficult dilemma. Our overseas creditors, particularly Asian central banks, already hold billions of U.S. dollars and are losing their appetite for lending us more money. They are wary of our enormous federal deficits and reckless economic policies. Ask yourself a simple question: would you loan the U.S. government money, given its spending habits? It's clear we can't go on borrowing $1.8 billion every day to finance the government!

The simplest way for the Fed to overcome these fears and maintain worldwide enthusiasm for the dollar is to raise interest rates and stop putting new dollars into circulation. But the Greenspan "boom" was based on the opposite approach. By cutting interest rates to the bone and vastly increasing the money supply, Greenspan made Americans feel rich-- first with the stock market bubble of the 1990s, and later with the housing bubble that is only now starting to burst. Greenspan was brilliant at making debt feel like wealth, but Mr. Bernanke inherits a very difficult situation. To maintain the value of the dollar, he must put the brakes on the money supply and raise the cost of borrowing. Such tough action is unlikely, however, given Mr. Bernanke's troubling public statements about the benefits of government printing presses.

For years the Federal Reserve Bank and Congress have maintained a cozy relationship. The Fed, by pumping more and more money into the economy, has allowed Congress to spend wildly beyond the amount collected each year by the Treasury. Congress loves deficit spending, because new programs are always politically popular and tax hikes are always unpopular. In return, Congress has maintained a completely hands-off approach toward the Fed system, allowing Mr. Greenspan free reign to "run the economy" with tremendous deference from both the public and the press.

The results are not pretty. True inflation, correctly measured by the amount of money and credit available, has skyrocketed in the last 15 years. At the same time, federal deficits have exploded. Congress is addicted to spending, and the Fed is happy to supply the fix by providing easy money.

As economist Addison Wiggin states, however, "The Grand Experiment with paper money is running its inevitable course. Bernanke's biggest challenge is the challenge of central banking itself: You can control some things, but not everything. In the Fed's case, it can control the quantity of money or the quality of it, but not both at the same time."

All of these factors make it likely the U.S. dollar will continue to decline in value, perhaps precipitously, in the coming decade. Will it take an economic depression before the American public finally holds the political class accountable for its reckless borrowing, spending, and counterfeiting?

Why aren't there more Congressmen like Ron Paul. This guy gets it. New Fed Chair Mr Bernanke is in a huge "conundrum" to coin a phrase from Alan Greenspan right now. I wrote about this issue a few weeks ago(click here). The Fed is getting rid of their M3 money supply figure and we are bumping up against the debt ceiling. We're not looking at very many good options right now. The time to pay the piper for all this cheap money is coming. All I can say is please own some gold and silver.

Bush Budget Is a Loser

I guess President Bush and DC Republicans have given up trying to balance the budget. Bush and the GOP Congress have increased spending by 33% in the last five years. Put simply, the GOP is not the party of smaller government anymore. At a time when our reps need to take a meat axe to cut spending, they instead keep stoking the fires, growing the budget year after year. Big government is alive and well. In fact, it is thriving at the hands of the Republicans. Bush's new 2006 budget is a $2.77 trillion monstrosity with a deficit of over $400 billion dollars. This doesn't even account for all the supplemental war spending that will go on also. The OC Register has an editorial this morning basically saying the same thing. Click here to read it.

Weekend Roundup

What a weekend. I'm finally home after two days of political and Superbowl parties. Last night Lynn and I went up to a party with some Los Angeles county GOPers up in Palos Verdes. I had a chance to meet and speak with Janet Nguyen about her upcoming race against Jim Righeimer. She has already raised a nice chunk of money and the race has barely just started. She is going to be a formidable opponent. She told me about her efforts to lead the Garden Grove City Council on the issue of illegal immigration. Isn't it funny how one man, Jim Gilchrist, has brought attention and lit political fires under a couple of local municipalities already with more waiting to start in the wings on the issue of illegal immigration. It is a testament to the power of this issue. I saw this morning how our Sheriff, Barney Fife Carona is even joining this runaway bandwagon. It's to bad that he's to tainted as a candidate to do much good about it. He's going to be having his problems going forward as the Jaramillo trial and FBI/Grand Jury investigations move forward.

Speaking of Mike "Barney Fife" Carona, his opponent Bill Hunt was also at the party working the room for signatures in lieu and donations. It was interesting talking to these LA County GOPers, even they know that Mike Carona has gotten himself into hot water recently.

Also at the party was none other than man himself Mr. Gilchrist. Jim and some of the Minutemen are heading back to DC this week to meet with Congressmen and Senators about the upcoming debate in the Senate on the immigration bill pending before the body. I spoke to Jim about his future and what it may hold for him. He hasn't made any decisions yet on what if any office he intends to run for. He wants to concentrate right now on growing the Minutemen and holding our Reps accountable. I couldn't agree more.

I spent the balance of my weekend up at a buddies house in Long Beach today watching the Steelers win their fifth Superbowl. It wasn't the most entertaining game I've ever watched, but it's the Superbowl. I wouldn't miss it. I have to give props to Madison Avenue for some outstanding commercials too. The last few years has been pretty bad for them, but this year they stepped it up a few notches. Most of the Budweiser ones were hilarious. You had the baby horse thinking he was pulling the coach, the guys on the roof watching the game, click here to view them all. The Career Builders.com office scene with all the monkeys and donkeys was hilarious. The Nationwide Insurance onewith Fabio steering the gondola and then morphing into an old man was classic. You had a few bad ones as usual also. The one with the Cadillac Escalade appearing out the water was stupid.

Carona Fundraiser Protest

I along with about 50 other people with issues about our Sheriff showed up outside the ritzy St Regis hotel yesterday to welcome the governor and Mike Carona with a bullhorn telling all his guest that he is a corrupt Sheriff. Mission accomplished. I think I'm morphing into an OC version of John Kobylt! The media showed up as well. I ended up speaking with Dave Lopez of Channel 2, Jean Pasco of the LA Times, and Martin Wisckol of the OC register. I don't care how much money that the Sheriff raises. When he's indicted, it really won't make much of a difference. All the people who lent their support and money to this man will have sold out their integrity for all mighty power. That makes me sad. It makes me sad that politicians put absolute power over principles and integrity. I'll leave everyone with this last little tidbit: The Register reporter(Martin Wisckol) was invited into the event and Jean Pasco of the Times was not. Draw your own conclusions.

John Boehner Is The New Majority Leader

Great, just great. I tip my hat to John Boehner for becoming the new ML in the House of Representatives. He was last seen handing out checks from tobacco companies on the House floor as party favors/thank yous. I'm happy that Blunt didn't win, but Boehner is tainted also. I don't know what to think except this is huge missed opportunity for the GOP caucus. Special note to Phil Paule who's Darrell Issa's District Director...HA HA HA. I told you Blunt would get screwed over by the secret balloting. Do you have any more press releases telling me and others how Blunt has the votes locked up? Blunt's arrogance did him in. I hope your boss Issa can count better than Blunt if he wins. Lastly to my new rep John Campbell, it looks as though that in your run to embrace the GOP establishment corruption, you sprained your ankle. Let that be a lesson.

***************UPDATE 12:40PM**********************

Darrell Issa lost the race for Policy Chairman to Adam Putnam of Florida. I don't have the vote total. I hope he doesn't break down and cry like when he withdrew from the governor's race.

The Race For Majority Leader

The voting has begun in the race for Majority Leader. Here's a link from Townhall that is updating the vote from sources in the caucus.

GO SHADEGG!!!!

Two Big Local Stories Today

Scott Moxley of the OC Weekly has nailed Larry Agran again this morning. He has produced physical evidence in the form of a letter with handwriten notes on them that Larry did indeed orchestrate his now notorious Hometown Voter Guide(HVG). That is a felony. There is also proof that Larry put Earl Zucht on the ballot as a straw candidate to pull votes away from conservative and Republican voters. That is another felony. It is now time for DA Anthony Rackauckas to get off his ass and prosecute this slam dunk case.

Today is also the day that Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to town for a big Mike Carona fundraiser. Coincidentily there is an article out today in this mornings Register that says the FBI has subpoened Grand Jury records from Mike Carona's testimony about his former top aid's bribery case. It's about time. The walls are starting to close in on Mr. Carona. His aids and the county GOP establishment have circled the wagons hoping against hope that they can control a situation that is spinning out of their control. It's hilarious and sad watching people in the local party compromise their own integrity and values by continuing to back this man. We now know that power is the only thing that matters to these people. I and lots of other activists will down in Dana Point this afternoon calling for the Sheriff to resign. I will also be there to tell the governor how unhappy conservatives are of his pick for COS Susan Kennedy.

State Of The Union And Other Wednesday Thoughts

I had a chance to catch most of Bush's SOTU address last night. It wasn't one of his better efforts. In fact it was pretty mediocre. The best part of it for me was watching the newly minted Supreme Court Justices Sam Alito and John Roberts walk down the aisle with big grins on their faces. That was priceless. It's nice to know that we now have four solid conservative votes on the Supreme Court. We just need one more to solidify a long lasting conservative majority.

Bush addressed the coming immigration debate in the Senate. He used his standard boilerplate language that "immigrants come here to do the jobs Americans won't do" line a few times. He says we need "immigrants" to continue coming here for jobs, but what he really meant was that he wants to leave the border wide open for illegal immigration to continue unabated. It's so obvious. He did not use the term "illegal immigration" because he knows he'll get smacked down for that by the open border lobby.

In other news, tomorrow is the big fundraiser for Mike Carona down at the St. Regis with the governator himself. I will be down there asking for Sheriff Carona to resign along with a bunch of other activists. It's time for some accountability and Mr. Carona should resign.