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!