Back To Work After A Long Weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend. My training for Mt Whitney is humming right along. On Saturday I hiked the Cougar Crest Trail up in Big Bear and yesterday I hiked the Holy Jim Trail in the Santa Ana Mountains. The Cougar Crest Trail is a six mile roundtrip hike with an elevation gain & loss of about 1350 feet. The Holy Jim Trail to the Main Divide Road is a ten mile roundtrip hike with an elevation gain & loss of 2200 feet. To get to HJ Trail, you need to travel up the mud bog that is Trabuco Road now after all the recent rain we received...only vehicles with 4x4 recommended right now. Big Bear was covered in a fresh layer of snow from all this recent weather we've been having. I can't remember when the local mountains got this much snow so late into the season. This weekend, I think I'm going to attempt either Mt Baldy or Mt San Jacinto.

Mike Carona Corruption Trial Won't Be Going Anywhere

In another blow to ex Sheriff Mike Carona's legal problems, the judge in the case Andrew Guilford has ruled against a defense motion to move the trial out of OC. The defense had argued that KFI's John & Ken had to much influence over potential jurors. Now this ruling is out of the way, there is no way in hell Carona will let this thing go to trial. I expect a plea deal before the scheduled trial date in August.

Irvine Sign Update

It's been an interesting last few days for me dealing with the city I live in regarding my political signs that I put up last week. As most know, my signs were ordered to be confiscated because in their opinion, the signs were "commercial ones". I could not disagree with them more strongly and I'm very disappointed that they are going down this road. The signs are clearly a political statement by myself & others that are protected speech by the First Amendment to the Constitution. I think Irvine's sign ordinance is ripe to be overturned.

Here is the official response I got back from the city manager Sean Joyce regarding the city's decision. If you'll notice the last part of the letter asks me to provide proof in the form of an invoice and receipt that I am the owner of the signs in question. While I don't think this was malicious in its intent, I think it's curious that they would ask me for this. Why do they want to know this information?

Stephen Smith over at The Irvine Tattler also has a wrapup of the events of the last few days.

High Commodity Prices Draw Ire Of The American people

So I'm reading an article about a hearing yesterday in DC about how Sentors and Congressmen are outraged by rising commodity prices. Duh. People are pissed off that every time they go to fill up their tank and buy groceries, prices just seem to be creeping ever higher. Unfortunately for the American people, 99% of our representatives have no clue why prices have gone up so much. They think the rise is from us "evil speculators"(people like me and my clients). The rise is due to the value of our US Dollar falling off a cliff because of the debasement of the currency. When you print/create as much money as the Federal Reserve has for the last umpteen years, this is the consequence...higher prices for all commodities. The only way out of this mess is to get back to the what the US Constitution stipulates...only gold & silver are to be used for money. It's like Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution doesn't exsist to these politicians.

OC GOP Central Committee Meeting Last Night

Last night at the OC GOP Central Committee Meeeting, I had a chance to meet Barry Goldwater Jr. I had read his father's book "Conscience of a Conservative". I wanted to meet Barry Jr who was a Congressman in his own right. when I found out he was coming to OC, I wanted to make sure I had a chance to meet him. Mr Goldwater gave a great speech about his life in politics and what it was like to grow up in the Goldwater family. He also has a new book out called Pure Goldwater which is a series of diary, personal journal entries and letters of his late father all compiled in this book. I got an autographed copy and photo w/him as well. It was also cool to talk him about his endorsement of Ron Paul for President. He served with Ron in Congress back in the 70s. He made a point to say that he was now on board in endorsing John McCain. I wouldn't go that far yet, but he did make the Ron Paul activists think last night about this decision.

City Of Irvine Confiscates My Political Signs

Things are already starting to heat up in Irvine. The past few weeks myself and a few other Irvine activists raised some money and bought some signs to be put out over the city that said "Goto www.irvinetattler.com". Within one day of putting them up, they were gone. I suspect they were ordered to be yanked out by the powers that be at Irvine City Hall(read that as The Larry Agran Cabal Inc), but I'm not certain yet. I'm going to do a lot more digging today on this issue. Stephen Smith wrote this morning on his website, Irvine Tattler, that the signs were ordered to be taken down "because the city had received some complaints about them". That has got to be one of the lamest excuses of all time. They took them down because they were starting to have a small impact. Stephen wrote that hits to his website nearly tripled after the signs were put out. I faxed over a letter this morning to City Hall that read as follows:

May 15, 2008


TO THE IRVINE CITY COUNCIL:


Over the weekend of May 10 and 11, I exercised my free speech rights under the United States Constitution and the Irvine Municipal Code by placing temporary political placards on public property open to the general public. The signs promoted IrvineTattler.com, a web site that expresses opinions about Irvine political issues. These signs were paid for and placed by me as an expression of my opinion about Irvine politics.

On the evening of May 12, I saw that the signs were missing. I placed over 100 of these signs and now I can't find them anywhere.

I carefully researched the legality of these signs. The Irvine Free Speech Ordinance says:

CHAPTER 6. FREE SPEECH RIGHTS

Sec. 4-14-601. Prohibitions.
No person shall interfere with the exercise of free speech rights by persons within areas open to the general public in shopping centers, apartment complexes and other private or public property open to the general public. As used in this section, "free speech rights" shall mean the right to freedom of speech, the right to solicit and collect signatures on petitions and the right to distribute literature or display temporary signs or placards of a political nature; provided such activities do not result in the obstruction of entrances, exits or passageways or create a threat to public safety.
(Code 1976, § IV.L-601; Ord. No. 90-3, § 1, 2-13-90)

The ordinance is quite clear that I have the right to place temporary placards of a political nature on public property open to the general public.

If you or your staff removed these signs, you are in violation of Irvine law and the First Amendment of the Constitution and I expect you to immediately return the signs to their original locations.

Please contact me immediately to explain if you know what happened to these signs. You can call me at (949) xxx-xxxx or email me at allanbartlett@gmail.com


Allan Bartlett

cc: Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times
Sean Emery, Orange County Register
R. Scott Moxley, OC Weekly
Rick Reiff, OC Business Journal

It's Not Looking Good For The Little (former)Sheriff

The last few weeks have not been kind for Team Carona's legal team. Last Friday the judge in the case ruled against defense motions to suppress secretly taped conversations of Carona & Don Haidl talking about ways to obstruct justice. These are the famous John & Ken tapes that the disc jockeys have been role playing for the last month on the KFI airwaves. It's hilarious stuff. He also ruled against dismissing other charges against the former Sheriff. There's another big ruling coming up as well on the question of moving the trial out of OC. I have a hunch it will stay right here where it belongs. The way this is playing out, I just get the feeling that Carona will have no choice but to cop a plea and start serving time like he deserves.

******************* 5/8/08 Afternoon Update **************************

The judge in the Carona case Andrew Guilford has unsealed a defense motion that among other things seeks to change venues and have KFI hosts John & Ken prosecuted and jailed until the trial starts. I'm not making this up. Apparently the Carona attorneys didn't study Constitutional Law when they went to law school. J&K's speech is protected by the First Amendment. This is going to be a ratings bonanza for the guys at KFI. They can only hope this thing goes to trial...that just means more material for them. Here's a link to the ridiculous motion.

Mt. Whitney Or Bust

I've been wanting to scale the heights of Mt Whitney for a long time. It gives me a good goal to shoot for as well as to get back into great shape. You need to apply for permit from the Forest Service through a lottery that begins on Feb 1st of each year. Last year I didn't get selected. This year however, I got lucky and got the dates of July 16th & 17th to climb the tallest mountain in the Continental US. I've been training hard for the last month and I have two and half more months of grueling workouts and training hikes scheduled for the three local Southern California peaks...San Jacinto, Baldy, & San Gorgonio. I will post pictures of my trip when I return. Here's a great Mt. Whitney forum for all those whose curiousity about climbing this mountain I may have peaked.