Friday, February 29, 2008

Here's a Pre-Cautionary Tale

Yes, yes, I know that the City of Newport Beach is not in the same condition as the City of Vallejo.
  • 80% of our budget does not go to our Police and Fire Department's salaries AND benefits.
  • Our Sales Tax revenue has not been dropping
  • We haven't lost our economic engine (a shipyard in Vallejo's case)
  • A major source of tax revenue (property tax) hasn't been affected by the housing crises, since Newport's homes aren't losing as much value as our neighbors, and
  • Our budget is balanced.
And for that, we should be very thankful to the City Council and their predecessors for doing their best.

However, one would never think that a City should, or be in a situation, where it would have to file for Bankruptcy, and if it weren't for a deal with their Police and Fire Union, the City of Vallejo would have to do just that.

Ironic, considering that it was probably their City Council's contracts with the Police and Fire Union which helped put them in that situation.

Nevertheless, I mention this because of what Newport Beach potentially faces in the next 10 years, in no particular order:
  • Our Rehab/Sober Living Home Ordinance lawsuits - Win or lose, we will have to pay lots of money to keep the further institutionalization of our Residential neighborhoods.
  • Our new White Elephant - although costs are a "major concern," the simple fact is that we will have to borrow money to build it, which is predicated on the hope that we'll have ample money in the future to pay it.
  • Our own City Employee Unions are very Politically active and are consistently able to increase the number of City Employees, as well as their own Wages & Pensions - This sets us up for that dreaded "Unfunded Pension Liability Issue," which is also dependent on the hope that we have ample money in the future to continue to fund it. Remember we have more City Employees to Residents than any of our Coastal neighbors.
  • The necessary dredging of the Back Bay and the potential lack of Federal dollars to help pay for it.
  • Our property values do not start to nosedive, like our neighbors have, and
  • That the City of Newport Beach is able to work with Irvine, Costa Mesa, and the rest of our affected neighbors to make sure that the John Wayne - OC International Airport does not happen. If that happens, then you'd better believe that our Economic Engine and Property values will disappear.
But, like I say above, the City of Newport Beach is very financially healthy and fiscally fortunate, and our City Council are made up 86% by Republicans, who are always fiscally conservative...

I just wanted to "play" the John Moorlach-circa-1994 role in warning our City Council to start considering a more fiscally conservative role.
READ MORE - Here's a Pre-Cautionary Tale

Judge John Adams at Principle over Politics Meeting

Saw this in the OCGOP's calendar:



Saturday, 3/15/08

9:00 AM

Special Event


Guest: Judge John Adams

Where: Balboa Bay Club, Newport Beach

Choosing judges in an election seems to be a hit or miss proposition. Should it be the one at the top of the list? The one with the most interesting name? Most people have little knowledge about judicial candidates.. Principles Over Politics's monthly breakfast on March 15, will host local Judge John Adams at the Balboa Bay Club, Newport Beach at 9:00am. Because we have several judicial elections coming up in various Orange County courts, POP wanted to give locals the opportunity to better understand this often little known group of offices. Judge Adams will discuss the significance of choosing the right judges and how to evaluate judicial candidates. He will also talk about the growing movement to strip voters of any choice at all in the selection of judges. Cost of the event is $25 plus parking. Make reservations at 949 644-7094 or email inbalboa@roadrunner.com.



Judge Adams is a very, very interesting guy, so his speech should be very, very entertaining.



But keep two things in mind when listening to what he has to say...



1. He has already endorsed some judicial candidates, so when he speaks about evaluating and choosing the right judges, he has already done so and will definitely (and probably very obviously) be leaning toward certain candidates.



2. He's a very, very interesting guy.



But he's also a great guy and a real asset up on the bench (except that he once told me that if I ever showed up in his courtroom, he's throw the book at me, just to make sure people know that he doesn't give any special favors to his Republican friends...and to make an example out of me...)



Spend the $25 (plus parking) and go see him speak.

READ MORE - Judge John Adams at Principle over Politics Meeting

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Leslie Daigle: Raising Rates One Vote At A Time

Perhaps Mayor Pro-Tem Leslie Daigle, and the Republican Party of Orange County's Deputy Chairwoman for Newport Beach, was at the wrong place at the wrong time, but as Newport Beach's Councilman Don Webb's alternate to the Orange County Sanitation District, Leslie Daigle voted in favor OF INCREASING THE SEWER FEES BY 61.5% OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS.

And while the fee itself isn't a tax, since it isn't based on the value of the property, the fee is assessed on the Property Tax bills.

The Daily Pilot covered this in this article:

"Sewer fees to increase."

The article mentions that a super majority of the Sanitation Board was needed to pass this:

"only after one board member changed their abstention to a “yes” vote, prompting some disappointed groans by those in attendance."

And according to the article, there were many in attendance opposed to the fee hike.

But the Daily Pilot article also conveniently leaves out how Newport Beach's representative Leslie Daigle voted, nor did they ask her why she voted in favor of the fee increase.

The Newport Beach/Costa Mesa centric newspaper instead interviewed Buena Park's representative, Cypress' rep, and Fullerton's rep.

Maybe they didn't notice her there?

Maybe she hightailed it out of there after voting?

Fortunately, OCBlog.net has a couple of great posts:

The first "thanking" La Habra mayor Rose Espinoza for changing her abstention vote to the yes vote, thus giving the increase the necessary 2/3 needed for approval,

and

the second post with how each Sanitation board member voted.

So the next time you pay your increased Sanitation fee, please make sure to thank Leslie Daigle (by email, phone, or just under your breath) for voting for you to pay more.
READ MORE - Leslie Daigle: Raising Rates One Vote At A Time

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Give Supervisor John Moorlach a Chance First.

Everyone regarding John Wayne Airport is touchy. We can see that.

Newport Beach (understandably so) is very touchy in regards to the potential/pending expansion of John Wayne Airport.

And Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach is very touchy (also understandably so) about any claims that he's not working on Newport Beach's side regarding the potential/pending expansion of John Wayne Airport.

But calling the Daily Pilot, Joseph Bell, and the Newport Beach residents who took the time to write letters to the Daily Pilot regarding the potential/pending expansion of John Wayne airport "clueless?"

Well...that's a bit rough.

We just don't want John Wayne Airport to expand.

And we are nervous about it (unlike our City Manager)...

With that said, I think we should let Supervisor Moorlach a chance to fight for Newport Beach (and Costa Mesa) in regards to limiting the Airport expansion once the settlement agreement expires in 2011 (since he'll still be on the Board) before knocking on him about it.

And Supervisor Moorlach should give the residents (who voice their concerns via letters to the Daily Pilot editors) some leeway regarding the potential expansion of a city killer (larger John Wayne airport) before calling them "clueless."

We just don't want John Wayne Airport to expand.

Anyway, here's Supervisor's response to this Daily Pilot article.

Last night I spoke to the annual meeting of the Airport Working Group. Of late the Daily Pilot has been printing articles and letters that give the term “clueless” a whole new meaning. I’ve already forwarded to you Joseph N. Bell’s column. Even as recently as Sunday, the Daily Pilot’s lead editorial stated that “[Newport Beach] officials must keep the pressure on county and airport officials to curb growth.” In their Saturday issue, a letter writer stated there were “backroom plans by the county and people who run the airport” regarding “the addition of runways, flights and passengers.” Give me a break. What backroom deals? With whom? Why? When I have a thirteen-year record of transparency and of opposing any haywire proposal that some have tried to perpetrate on the taxpayers of the OC? Give me a break.

To wrap up, I stated that I’m not the enemy that Newport Beach needs to get all worked up about. There are individuals in South County that still believe that JWA OC should be expanded. Not me. Focus a message to rebut these individuals. Develop a good PR strategy. Stay cool, calm and collected. The settlement agreement can not be legally renegotiated until 2011. Newport Beach residents have to quit chasing nonexistent issues, like name changes, the back-nine holes that never would have happened anyway, or debating terms such as “expansion” versus “remodel/improvement.” They need to focus their time and resources on a message that resonates with the entire County, such as the need for all County residents to work together to develop a regional ground transportation system that moves passengers to airports whose communities support expansion.

I did not name names, but the crowd sure did. So today’s Daily Pilot article opens with the conclusion of my remarks. I prefer not having reporters at my speeches so I feel less inhibited. This way I can communicate a message to a targeted audience and deal with the real issues. But, even with two or more present, I decided to let loose anyway. It was great to have my Chief of Staff, Professor Mario Mainero, present to work with one reporter while I was responding to individual questions from attendees at the conclusion of the event.

READ MORE - Give Supervisor John Moorlach a Chance First.

What Do You Think Mayor Ed?

Do you think former Mayor Rosansky would have been more popular if he did this before the Mayor of Arlington, Oregon had?

Racy photo costs mayor her job

Here's an article (for those who like to read more than watch videos) and here's where you can buy the picture on eBay.

What do you think Mayor Selich? Wanna make a few extra bucks? She's getting $15 for a signed photo...

Too funny.
READ MORE - What Do You Think Mayor Ed?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Living Off Of Bad Meat in Newport Beach?

By now, you've all heard about the tainted beef coming out of a Chino Slaughterhouse.

We've also all seen the video of the abuse (DO NOT click on the link if you are faint of heart. I only saw 1/2 second myself before clicking it off.)

Well...I guess Newport Beach resident Steven Mendell owns the place responsible.

Lucky for the Newport Mesa Unified school district, because they won't have to go too far to get their $15,000 back.

Is saying sorry enough?
READ MORE - Living Off Of Bad Meat in Newport Beach?

Who Said Death and Taxes Were the Only Certainties?

As expected, the City of Newport Beach is being sued by Sober Living by the Sea for its Rehab Home ordinance.

Surprise, surprise, surprise (in your best Gomer Pyle voice).

I wonder what the odds were in Vegas on this?
READ MORE - Who Said Death and Taxes Were the Only Certainties?

Comprehensive Restaurant Closure Reports

I must say that the OCRegister has done a great job in their latest series of articles regarding restaurant closures.

Those who read this blog know my obsession with the County of Orange's Restaurant Closure list.

And those who go out to eat on a regular basis need to be VERY aware of what restaurants get closed down and for what reason.

And while I've been focusing on Newport Beach restaurants, I thought it would be nice to also start focusing on Orange County restaurants.

Being involved in the restaurant business for many years, I know first hand how difficult it is to get a temporary Health permit suspended.

So having their Health permit suspended...well...the cockroach literally has to walk up to the inspector and say Hi.

Anyway, here's the

O.C. restaurants with most permit suspensions.

and

O.C. restaurants with highest number of major violations

Fortunately, not too many Newport Beach restaurants on either list.

and

Cleanest O.C. restaurants

Take notice that the Arches is at the top of that Cleanest OC Restaurants list (someone at the Register must really like Dan Marcheano...but then again...who doesn't)

Here's the original article from the OC Register.

Very interesting stuff.
READ MORE - Comprehensive Restaurant Closure Reports

Saturday, February 23, 2008

"The Searchers".....vs. "The OC"?

Saturday, February 23, 2008 by Ron & Anna Winship

Bureaucrats are a lonely bunch. They spend endless days in study
sessions, dealing with irate citizens, lobbyists and elected egos
"gone wild"! It is a terrible job for longevity...if you really
wanted to get anything done! Even if you come up with a great idea
...it takes months, years and sometimes decades to reach anything
called fruition. Today, with the advent of the internet....the
processes would seem to be easily accelerated. But that is just
what it is: Perception! The realities are sadly similar to the
1960's. "Is the process open to the public?", "Will the developers
and moneyed people buy off?", "Can we get the public to vote for
some stupid boondoggle....that will take 20 years to get started
and ensure that the bureaucrats retire with a higher pay grade?".
An ugly process to be sure! Nothing straight-forward, nothing
obvious, nothing efficient, nothing that doesn't cost an arm and
a leg to accomplish - Welcome to Government!

So, when these little baby policy issues pop up, you have to
kind of "feel their pain!" Like, let's just change the name of
our County! Let's make it "Apple Butter County"...rather than
Orange County for example! Hey, maybe Smuckers or one of those
big jam and jelly companies will pay for another Stadium in our
county, if all we have to do is just: "Change the name!" The
scary part of this process is....that they may not even have to
ask for a vote of the people to get that done! These guys can
retire in 15 years and say: "Hey, we changed the name of Orange
County to "Apple Butter County" way back in 2008! All it took
was a quick vote of five Supervisors who were just following
the suggestion of perhaps an array of County professional
bureaucrats! The Supervisors can claim that it wasn't even
"their idea", but once brought to them - "What could they do?"

Well, fast forward to John Wayne Airport, Orange County Airport,
Santa Ana Airport, Tom Reilly Terminal and the fact that the
true name should have been: Eddie Martin Airport! People forget
sometimes the roots...of things....like the fact that in the
1950's Eddie Martin had to rent out a runway on Sundays to Drag
Racers..just to make ends meet! Hey, Test Pilot Paul Mantz died
in a homemade plane built for "Flight of the Phoenix" with James
Stewart. Orange County Airport was designated such..because it
was surrounded by Orange Trees...if you can believe it. The FAA
(Federal Aviation Administration) was pretty flexible about names
in those days. There was even a Tustin Blimp Hanger Base....now
a shopping center called "The District". Odd name for those of
us that thought they should have called it "The Blimp Hangers"!
Rich people and electeds all around the county have spent years
erecting pieces of metal and cement which adds their names and
tells people: "I was there way back then - and we did that!" A
little too self aggrandizing for the average person to relate
to! But those bureaucrats know how to "pander to the electeds"
and get them all excited. It starts with those basic "Citizen
Proclamations"...and goes downhill from there!

So, what do they want to call our beloved John Wayne Airport
...that should have been Eddie Martin Airport? Oh, "The OC"?
Aren't we then supposed to have some health drink called
"The OC" first? Something that is a combo or Red Bull and Orange
Juice? Aren't we supposed to have a variety of T-Shirts that say:
"I'd rather be in the OC!" (They already have those in the SNA
Gift Shop!) before we run out in the heat of the day and start
changing major FAA transportation designations? Who knows? But
to now take away the John Wayne Statue...which was our first
clue....and now to completely blot the name of John Wayne from
the Orange County lexicon.....is sort of unseemly! The concept
is that "John Wayne Aiport" is yesterday's news! We need a
Mischa Barton, or an Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton Airport
.....more up to date get it? Actually, we think the expansion
should be tied to that of Christina Aguilera instead. Much more
fitting...with all the additions of parking and added gates and
Customs area...ya think?

It is nice that John Wayne's relatives...Ethan in particular!)
have stepped up to the plate and are letting people know: "This
is wrong!" We agree: totally! We think Pilar, Patrick, Aissa,
Marisa, Michael, Toni and Melinda should all let people know
what they think! We also believe we need to give credit to
those Supervisors and non-elected bureaucrats that want to
demean John Wayne's memory..let them step up and be counted,
if they dare!!!!

Some things are just best left alone - and John Wayne Airport
is one them!
READ MORE - "The Searchers".....vs. "The OC"?

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Public Vomiting is Suspicious?

Doing my basic headline scanning during my morning routine, I came across a gem of a headline:

"Public vomiting tips off undercover police."

So many thoughts going through my head...

I guess times have changed since the Roman Empire when Vomitoriums where not just common, but accepted.

and I suppose that if people were puking in the parking lot of a restaurant, not just the Police Department would be tipped off but also the Health Department?

and find me any bar, on any Friday or Saturday night, that someone isn't puking in the alley behind it.

I mean, my buddy who used to live behind an alley shared by a Restaurant and a Bar would see someone vomiting in the bushes, on the street, or on his parked car every weekend.

Since when did it become suspicious?

It's actually expected on the weekends around the Balboa Peninsula bars.

Anyway, I'm sure the Daily Pilot article has be leaving stuff out because having the Police watch people do illegal and non-illegal activities in a parking lot is a bit interesting...since when is the Restaurant/Bar really responsible for what people do in their parking lot AFTER they leave their establishment?

An undercover Police Officer saw a bunch a dudes "ingesting a narcotic substance" in the parking lot.

Ok...they weren't doing it in the restaurant right?

Is someone working in the Restaurant selling the narcotic substance? Now that would be a story right?

And were those guys arrested by the undercover Officer, or was the Use Permit investigation more important?

Anyway, when did the Police Department start sending out Undercover Police Officers to restaurants suspected of violating their Use Permits?

I thought the Police is for investigating crimes? Real crimes.

If I start doing lines in Von's/Pavilions parking lot after I go shopping, I guess by that logic, Von's should be responsible for my actions? I mean, that Von's parking is pretty big.

I guess the only thing the restaurant should do differently is post a security guard in their parking lot, sort of like the one Rudy's Pub and Grille had to do to stop the public vomiting and urination in the alley behind it.

I suppose if public parking lot urination and vomiting helps restaurants lose their use permits, then EVERY restaurant in America better build more restrooms, which themselves would need to remain open for hours after the restaurants close, as to prevent people, who still have to pee or vomit, from doing so in their parking lots.
READ MORE - Public Vomiting is Suspicious?

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Blut und Boden

So. I've got a new disease. Or condition. It's rare, only five people per million are diagnosed with it annually. I think "people" might mean Americans, or rather, US residents--because "Americans" includes people from the Arctic Archipelago to Tierra del Fuego. But I'm dancing around the point. Attentive readers of this blog will recall that I have too many platelets in my blood (AKA essential thrombocythemia). I've found out I also have too many red blood cells. The official term is polycythemia vera . I have the non-hereditary gene mutation, JAK2, which is found in 95 percent of the people who have this. My hematologist (you know you're in trouble when you have a hematologist) told me yesterday I probably had it, and she looked at my blood results today and confirmed it. I make too many things, I said to the hematologist yesterday--starting with cancer, which is the production of too many cells in an uncontrolled way. She said, Yes, you make too many things. The first-line treatment for this, she told me, comes from the 13th century. Leeches? I asked, because I'd seen an article in the New Yorker about their use but hadn't read the piece yet. Not leeches, she said, but you get a phlebotomy. You go to LifeSource and get a pint taken out. You can't donate this pint because it's filled with too-thick blood. Where does it go? I asked. Probably into a biohazard bag and then to a landfill, she said. I thought of my blood seeping into the earth. Blut und Boden.

It seems a shame to waste this blood. To spill it. If Venus flytraps snap up hamburger meat, couldn't they sup on some blood? Could blood be used as plant food? (Alas, I am finding through the 'net that flytraps feed on bugs, not hamburger meat.) Believe it or not, someone else has thought to ask about feeding blood to the flytraps. Unfortunately, you can't tell if the answers have merit.

So the plan is to give a pint on Tuesday (the first time I could get an appointment) and then two weeks later, then go to Fancy Hospital to get my blood tested, talk to the doctor, and probably have two more sessions two weeks apart. From there I would probably get my "prophylactic phlebotomy" every one, two or three months.

I need to rid myself of this thick blood because otherwise it maybe maybe maybe could cause blood clots, stroke, heart attack. I am a funny person to have this disease because it most often strikes men over 60. I have learned what the signs of a blood clot are and that you can get an ultrasound to show if you have one. If this "venesection," as the Brits call it, doesn't work, then there's Plan B, which involves chemotherapy. Mild. In the form of a pill called hydroxyurea.

There are other funny (strange, not ha-ha) things. My hematologist asked if I had itching. I said, mostly after taking a shower, and she said that's a symptom. It's funny because it's a phenomenon I had noticed but I hadn't thought it meant anything. I also had noticed that my gums were bleeding after flossing, and that's a symptom, too. I also have hot flashes, which is not news to attentive blog readers or anyone who has been in a room with me lately. While flashing, my face and ears turn red. The doctor said that the phlebotomy might help with the redness and sweating. So that's good news. (I keep thinking "lobotomy" and have to remind myself that one is brain and one is blood. No ice picks for Cancer Bitch.)

In case you want a leech of your own, click here. Note that leeches are non-returnable.
READ MORE - Blut und Boden

Newport Harbor Republican Women February Meeting

Newport Harbor Republican Women
proudly invite you to meet
Dr. Barbara S. Stone
Emeritus Professor of Political Science
Cal State University, Fullerton
Author, Speaker, & Political Pundit- well liked and respected by All!

Thursday, February 28, 2008
11:30 AM

Five Crowns Restaurant
PCH & Poppy, Corona Del Mar
Please wear RED to the Meeting- We will be Videotaping for YouTube for all our Marines to know "our HEARTS are with You"!

Reservations, $25.00 per person- payable to NHRW, to Sue Bennitt, 901 Cercis Place, Newport Beach, Ca. 92260- Questions- call Sue @ 949.644.0539

READ MORE - Newport Harbor Republican Women February Meeting

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Councilwoman Nancy Gardner's February Newsletter

Here's Councilwoman Gardner's February newsletter.

Forgot to post it up when I received it last week...
READ MORE - Councilwoman Nancy Gardner's February Newsletter

Friday, February 15, 2008

The Daily "I Love Debbie Cook" Pilot?

I clicked on the Daily Pilot today and went down the headlines and saw:

"Huntington mayor wants to get rep. talking"

and did a double take...

Was I reading the Huntington Beach Independent, the Pilot's Huntington Beach counterpart?

No...the Daily Pilot is just reprinting the same article in both papers... (here and here).

I guess they just can't love Debbie Cook enough huh?

At least the Daily Pilot's version didn't include the picture of Debbie with Huntington Beach spelled incorrectly in the caption...unless of course Huntignton Beach is a new part of Huntington Beach...

Let's see...Congressman Rohrabacher's 46 District doesn't include Newport Beach anymore, so I shouldn't be writing about it, but when our local (and Costa Mesa's local) newspape
r decides it wants to write about her four times in February (here, here, here and here), I can't help but put in my two cents...

I bet Congressman Campbell's Democrat opponent Steve Young wishes he had that kind of Newport Beach coverage.

Anyway, everything I hear about Mayor Cook is good, she seems like a great person and a great Democrat, the main issue (actually two):

1. Party Registration - Mayor Cook might do well if every Democrat and every Decline to State voter in the entire District voted for her.

Republicans: 132,902 46.5%
Democrats: 83,285 29.2%
Decline-to-State: 56,160 19.7%

but that leads to the second issue.

2. Huntington Beach isn't the only City in the District - in addition to HB; Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Avalon, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Palos Verdes Estates and Rolling Hills Estates as well as portions of Long Beach, Westminster, Santa Ana and San Pedro are in the 46 CD.

This means she's going to have to raise very big dollars to get her name into those other cities on such a familiar level with Dana's.

Is there big money to be raised? If the registration gap was a bit more narrow, perhaps.

But with a such a large spread...maybe not. Ask Steve Young how easy it is to raise money in a very Republican district. And I don't know how much the Democrat Party will be willing to pour into this race either, since there might be more contested seats to go after.

Anyway, Congressman Rohrabacher is not going to take anything for granted and will run a very strong campaign against a formidable opponent.

But, the Daily Pilot (and the LA Times and the Huntington Beach Independent) should just endorse Mayor Cook already...either that or at least pretend like they like Steve Young half as much...

Updated 3:11 pm - Two more thoughts (you'll have to excuse my late thoughts, I've been blindingly sick this week).

1. I'm not too sure Mayor Cook thinks she can win according to this excerpt from the Daily Pilot article,

"
Cook called the run worthwhile even if she loses."

She's already looking for the bright side if she loses? The Daily Pilot has only written 4 articles...all positive.

and

2. If it were possible for a very popular Democrat Mayor of a major City within a very Republican Congressional District to take on an incumbent, don't you think the perennial Directly-Elected (Huntington Beach, like Newport Beach, rotates their Mayors) Emperor of Irvine, who also was a 1992 Democratic candidate for President of the United States, Larry Agran would have made it a go by now?

But he knows that the numbers (registration) were never there.

Perhaps Mayor Cook is getting her name out there in anticipation of a Democratic-leaning redistricting in 2011?

Ok...end of thought.
READ MORE - The Daily "I Love Debbie Cook" Pilot?

Monday, February 11, 2008

Haidl Wore A Wire? Say It's Not So...

If you are a web head like me, you've probably already read this...but just in case you haven't.

"Surprisingly," to reduce some of his own sentence for tax evasion, former Sheriff Mike Carona confidant Don Haidl wore a wire and got his "buddy" to admit to taking cash and gifts from him, while trying to get their stories straight...if asked by anyone.

This has been a point of conversation in the "circles."

All the rest of the charges against former-Sheriff Carona, his wife and his "mistress" seemed a bit hokey and reaching at times, considering that the two main witnesses against him ARE convicted felons.

But the real unknown was what was on that tape?

Whatever was on that tape would sink him or save him.

Well...now we know.

And as OCBlog.net's Scott Graves said,

"No point in trying to analyze this. Just download and read the transcript yourself. "

Just read it yourself.

READ MORE - Haidl Wore A Wire? Say It's Not So...

Friday, February 8, 2008

Another City Council Shooting

Back in October, I wrote about one in Tennessee.

This time, however, a shooter in Kirkwood, Missouri got a couple of police officers, the Public Works Director and TWO City Council members before getting gunned down himself.

From the Cnn.com article:

A friend of (Charles Lee) Thornton's, Ron Hodges, told The Associated Press the city had ticketed Thornton's demolition and asphalt business for parking his commercial vehicles illegally. Thornton said he had received 150 tickets, Hodges told the AP, and the tickets were "eating at him."

Eating at him soo much that he "went to war tonight with the people that were of the Government" and opened fire.

"An eyewitness to the shootings said Thornton had disrupted City Council meetings frequently in the past.

"He would make inappropriate noises, heehawing like a donkey. He would make derogatory comments towards the director of public works, the city attorney and the mayor," Alan Hopefl said Friday. "None of it seemed to make any sense as far as him trying to make a point, as far as why he was really there and what his major complaints were."

and

"In his lawsuit (against the City for after he was arrested twice for disorderly conduct for speaking about his alleged harassment by city officials instead of specific topics during public comments at two City Council meetings in 2006), Thornton said his First Amendment rights had been violated. But in a January 28 ruling, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry said that the public-comment portion of a meeting could be reserved for certain groups and topics of discussion."


All this sound kinda familiar?

During the Rehab fight between the City Council (specifically former Mayor Steve Rosansky) and the Anti-Rehab activists, Freedom of Speech issues and City Councilmen and City Staff related accusations were commonplace during the Public Comments sections, with a few speakers getting pushed off the microphone by the then-Mayor with threats of Police involvement (including one particular instance involving former Councilman Dick Nichols).

Fortunately, no arrests were ever made (unlike what Costa Mesa has dealt with) and Newport's new Mayor has been a bit more liberal with the time permitted than his predecessor (but to be fair, no one has been attacking the new Mayor as much as the old Mayor was getting attacked...regularly...), so the Public Comments section has cooled down a bit.

And fortunately, Newport's angry public comment speakers have taken the lawsuit route instead...

Anyway, another sad instance of how people's lives are affected by every level of Government, including even the local City Council...

......and perhaps our City Council should take note of how important the Public Comments section is to some Residents.
READ MORE - Another City Council Shooting

February Newport Beach - Centric GOP Events

Taken from the Republican Party of OC's calendar:

Saturday, 2/16/08
9:00 AM
Special Event

Guest: Best Selling Author Lt. Col Buzz Patterson

Where: Balboa Bay Club

Best selling author Lt. Col Buzz Patterson (retired) will be the featured speaker at Principles Over Politics on Saturday February 16th at 9:00am. The event will take place at the Balboa Bay Club. Cost is $25 per person. Reservations can be made at 949 644-7094 at inbalboa@roadrunner.com or by mail to POP at PO Box 5666, Balboa Island, CA 92662. Col Patterson is the author of Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security, Reckless Disregard: How Liberal Democrats Undercut Our Military, Endanger our Soldiers, and Jeopardize Our Security, and the recently released War Crimes. From l996-l998, Colonel Patterson was the Senior Military Aide to President Bill Clinton. During that time he was responsible for trhe President's Emergency Satchel, otherwise known as the "Nuclear Football", the black bag with the nation's nuclear capability that accompanies the president at all times.

Maybe he can give some insight on how crazy Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is, since he was probably around her a bit during his two years with President Bill Clinton...

Wednesday, 2/20/08
5:00 PM
Special Event

With Special Guest US Senator Jeff Sessions

Where: Balboa Bay Club, Newport Beach

Please join Congressman Ed Royce with Special Guest US Senator Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 from 5pm to 7pm at the Balboa Bay Club, Newport Beach. Please RSVP by leaving a message at 714/634-2340 or email: sara@edroyce.com. Complimentary for Congressional Club Members. Light Hors d’oeuvres and drinks. Business attire.

Good to see Congressman Royce knows where to raise REAL money...welcome to Newport Beach. What, no fancy places in his district?

and finally,

Thursday, 2/21/08
6:00 PM
Special Event

Guest Speakers: Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Dr. Fred Balitzer

Where: The Pacific Club, Newport Beach

Prior to his first election to Congress in 1988, Dana served as Special Assistant to President Reagan. For seven years he was one of the President’s senior speechwriters. Dr. Fred Balitzer served as Director of the Republican National Committee and in President Reagan’s Office of Public Affairs. Price: $150.00 per person, $250.00 per couple. Contact: (714) 368-0260 or RSVP@Atlaspac.org.

As I have mentioned before, the Atlas PAC is a great group with some heavy hitters on their Board of Advisors, including State Senator Marian Bergeson, Assemblymembers Van Tran and Mimi Walters, and Newport Beach's own Christine Iger. This should be a great event.
READ MORE - February Newport Beach - Centric GOP Events

Thursday, February 7, 2008

About the Bitches

I thought Susan Sontag showed everyone that our personality defects don't cause our cancer. Now we have the lovely bestselling Skinny Bitches telling us the opposite, and I would bet that more people have heard of them than the late Sontag. The authors of Skinny Bitch: A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous are counseling those savvy girls to go vegan and organic. Nothing wrong with that, except some of their science seems a bit loose. And then we get to page 189, where the Bitches praise, quote and paraphrase case studies from Dr. Carolyn Myss' book, Anatomy of the Spirit. To wit: "It is no coincidence that Julie was diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer, reflecting her lack of self-love....'Joanna' was married to a man who had multiple affairs, which she knew about but tried to live with. Not surprisingly, she developed breast cancer." But then she confronted her husband, left the marriage--and recovered! Of course!

The authors do say that they're not saying that "everyone suffering from a disease has brought it upon him or herself." But that it's possible. Thank you so much, Skinny Bitches, for blaming us. You can keep your book and your damned soy beans and soy milk and tofu, which I don't eat any more because they act like weak estrogens.

I can't take this book back to the store because I didn't buy it. A co-worker of L's did. She had a lumpectomy and I guess is trying to clean up her act. We are all trying to. But the Skinny Bitches aren't the ones who should be directing us.
READ MORE - About the Bitches

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Party like a Democrat?

Yes, I know, the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis will probably get the same bad rap and articles, but...

Here's a fun article from the the Rocky Mountain News regarding the Democrat National Convention, titled:

"DNC boost for sex biz"

with a tag line of

"Denver can expect prostitution spike during convention."

Interesting thing about the article is this picture with the caption:

"Jay Watson, 25, of Aurora, expects to be busy during the Democratic National Convention in August. He promises an unforgettable milk bath massage for $125 an hour. "I'm cute, I'm sexy and I deliver it all," he says."

Hmm...that kind of caught me off guard.

I guess I kinda assumed that the sex biz only involved "ladies" of the night.

Gee...who says that there is no such thing as bad press...
READ MORE - Party like a Democrat?

Congratulations Bill Ficker and Jack Croul

Well folks, we lost. The dreaded Measure "B" forces nailed
us big time. We were pummeled...we were not blasted...but
we were beaten by over 5 points and that is sizable. What
that means is.....we didn't get our message out there into
the hinterland. What it means is that we can wax reminiscent
about the lost park...and the lost message.

Well Captain America....scored the winning tack and was going
downwind to the entire finish. What can be said about it?
We will stand down at this point and try to grasp how large
the new City Hall in Fashion Island will be. We will watch
as Steve Rosansky, Don Webb and Leslie Daigle.....tell the
assembled......what a wonderful thing has happened to Newport
Beach. OK, we can "cry in our beer" as we ask ourselves what
we could have done differently.

In any event, there was a good side to this election. People
came out and got involved. People came out and voted for a
variety of issues....that normally they might pass on. It was
a great example of the system at work. Disappointing!!!!
READ MORE - Congratulations Bill Ficker and Jack Croul

Newport Beach Election Observation

As if you all haven't read enough Election analysis...here's another.

I predicted a Measure B (City Hall in the Park) victory 65% to 35%, and was a bit too optimistic for them, with the final tally being a bit closer at 52.8 % to 47.2%. I'm actually a bit surprised that it was that close, especially with the fund raising dollar spread between the two groups.

I also predicted a low voter turnout for this, and depending on how you tilt your head at this, it was kinda low, all things considered (but not all the mail-in ballots have been tallied).

A total of 26351 folks voted on Measure B, which is approximately a 44% turnout (out of the close to 60,000 registered voters in Newport Beach).

For a Presidential primary, is that good?

Countywide, Orange County had a 40% turnout, so Newport Beach did a bit better.

But lets take a comparison against some previous Newport Beach Measures, which were voted on during the General Election.

Measure V - General Plan had 29384 votes

Measure X - Greenlight 2 had 29469 votes

Both were done in the General Election, but not during a Presidential cycle in 2006

Measure L - Marina Park had 44795 votes during the General Election during the Presidential cycle in 2004

Measure S - Greenlight 1 had 33820 votes during the Presidential election of 2000.

So what does all that mean?

Less people came out to vote for the City Hall than any of the other important issues which Newport Beach has faced this decade.

But am I'm comparing Apples to Apples, since this was done during the Primary, and the others were during the General Election, when more people typically come out to vote?

Maybe...maybe not.

Conventional wisdom tells us that people usually don't come to vote during Non-Presidential cycles as compared as during Presidential cycles, yet in 2006 (when most of the City Council seats were up for election) more people showed up to vote on the General Plan (which isn't the easiest thing to understand, and less money was spent promoting it) than the City Hall in the Park.

Will the mail bring in tons and tons more mailed-in ballots (not included in that 26351 figure)?

Maybe not tons, but it should add to the total voter turnout number.

But I think the lower turnout, especially during Super Tuesday where we got to vote on who gets a chance to represents the Democrat and Republican Party in the fall, might show that people cared more about Marina Park (way more), the General Plan, and Greenlight 1 and 2 than they do about where to put a new fancy White Elephant.

But I'll wait until the final mailed-in vote numbers come in before making that final judgment...
READ MORE - Newport Beach Election Observation

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Elections Results Page

For those who are counting the seconds until 8pm (and won't be going to any fancy election night parties...like me), here's where you can click to see what's won and who's won and what's lost and who's lost...

The State of California site

and

The County of Orange site.

Start your refresh buttons...
READ MORE - Elections Results Page

The Stumbling Elephant!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008 by Ron & Anna Winship

Here it is....Super Tuesday! Our beloved New England Patriots
have fallen victim to the curse of the Mannings! The Super
Bowl is over and now the Super Bowl of Presidential Candidates.
Who will survive? Who will finally fold their tents and wind
their way back to where they had come from?

Whatever happens, we know that we love Obama and have nothing
lovely to say about the dreaded Hillary & Bill! Win or lose...
they are just completely awful. At least Obama is intelligent
and likable.

But that's not what this blogisphere article is all about.
This is about the fall of the Republican Party. Here we sit,
members of a Party that should have just folded its tent and
gone home. That is what the stealth message of major media is
trying to tell us. It is disarming to learn that all those
traditional "Conservative Voices" on both Radio Talk and on
TV Cable Blab....are all a flux with many different points of
view. Rush says McCain is worse than Hillary, Anne Coulter
says she would vote for Hillary rather than vote for McCain.
We dare not add to the list of various voices...that even
includes the "Kinky Friedman....of Texas".

So what will be resolved by this Super Tuesday, February 5th,
2008? Not much, we think! As traditional Conservatives...we
now have no dog in this race! Not the well funded Ron Paul...
who should be sent packing back to the 18th Century! Nor the
phony flip flopper that can't find his way to the outhouse
without a compass! Not the well spoken Preacher from Hope -
who is pals with the Clinton's, either!

So, what will happen? What if Hillary soundly beats Obama
and takes most of the delegates? What happens if Obama splits
half the votes with Hillary and Bill? What if Obama actually
beats Hillary and Bill outright? Well, this is our tale...
which no one has to agree with, but we will not be voting
for a President in the November election. That is, unless
Obama heads the Democratic ticket! Even if he somehow winds
up as the second banana on the Democratic ticket....we still
will not vote for President.

What happened to our Republican Party? We had one viable
candidate that could have beaten the Democrats in November.
That candidate has had to add his name to McCain supporters.
Sorry dear Rudy, we do love you but we are not voting simply
because you support anyone. We would rather vote for Bernard
Kerick than vote for McCain! Now, saying all this....probably
foretells what? Can we believe that somehow, someway, John
McCain will pull off a miracle finish and win the Presidency
in November....we don't think so, but then we thought that
the Patriots were going to blow out those nasty Giants!

In the meantime, what's a Republican? Those pink shoes on
the old GOP Grey elephant....have us flummoxed! Go Obama!

Finally, this should be a big wake up call for Republicans
around the nation..to get out there and find "real candidates"
and take up to the next eight years...if necessary...to do it!

Don't forget to vote NO on Measure "B" too!
Time to send a good local message too!
READ MORE - The Stumbling Elephant!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Newport Beach Republicans

Wikipedia tells us that Republicans (in the United States) believe that:

"The Republican Party is the more socially conservative and economically libertarian of the two major parties. The party generally supports lower taxes and limited government in most economic areas allowing for more economic freedom."

and that

"In his 1981 inaugural address, Republican President Ronald Reagan summed up his belief in limited government when he said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

Ok. That's why I'm a Republican, because, in addition to my socially conservative beliefs, I'm fiscally conservative, believing in limited government.

With that said, it doesn't take too much effort to find out that Newport Beach is a predominately Republican town, in registration.

We have lots of Republican donors, of all levels of contributions.

We have lots of Republican activists, of all levels of involvement.

We have 6 out of our 7 City Councilmembers as Registered Republicans.

So technically, one would think, since Social issues don't affect the City and the City Council as much as Fiscal ones, that our City and our elected representatives would be fiscally conservative.

But sometimes, they don't act that way.

Take in point the new City Hall.

The new City Hall will allow for more employee growth, thus increasing the size of the Employee Pension Liability, and building it will increase the City's debt service (in the forms of Certificates of Participation).

In short, a new City Hall will INCREASE the size of Government (by allowing for future employee growth), not limiting it.

It will also increase the amount of our Annual budget goes to paying off debt (in the form of the building loans and with the Employee Pension Liabilities).

This is great when our Economy is great, but...it's not always great. And if you believe the press, our Economy is not great right now.

In all the City Council discussions, I haven't heard any arguments by the 6 "Republicans" discussing being Fiscally conservative when it comes to the New City Hall.

With all the Residents, I don't see any arguments discussing this either.

I only hear arguments about where to put it.

All the Republicans in Newport Beach, at least the vocal ones, don't care that building a New City Hall goes against the most basic premise of keeping Government small.

Keeping Government limited.

Instead, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent fighting over where it should be put.

I must be missing something here...
READ MORE - Newport Beach Republicans

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Book Review: Cancer and the Environment

Cancer Bitch is in NJ, recovering from being away from the Internet for a few days. I'll report back soon. In the meantime, here's an important piece.
TIMES ( U.K. ) Online

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3277880.ece

January 30, 2008
Theories of cancer
How paradigms shift and culprits change in the fight against the disease, and what concerned citizens can do about it
Sandra Steingraber
Devra DavisSECRET HISTORY OF THE WAR ON CANCER505pp. Basic Books. £16.99.978 0 465 01566 5
Phil BrownTOXIC EXPOSURESContested illnesses and the environmental health movement 356pp. New York : Columbia University Press. £19 (US $29.50).978 0 231 12948 0
One advantage of being a long-time cancer survivor – besides the obvious – is that it provides a front-row seat in the auditorium of ideas about the disease’s causation. Theories go in and out of fashion over the years, paradigms shift this way and that, and the patient is viewed differently by the medical community depending on which idea is currently on top.
I was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1979, when I was twenty years old and just at the beginning of my career as a biologist. At that time, US newspaper headlines featured Love Canal , the upstate New York community whose residents had been evacuated a year earlier when 20,000 tons of industrial chemicals were discovered buried under their basements. Toxic-waste activism in the United States was in the ascendant, the newly formed US Environmental Protection Agency was committed and passionate, and major environmental legislation had been recently enacted by Congress to defend clean air and clean water in the name of human health.
After breaking the bad news from the pathology lab, my urologist asked me about tyres: automobile tyres. Had I ever vulcanized tyres? His second question was about textile dyes. Any exposure to the colour yellow? And had I ever worked in the aluminium industry?
Back at the university, I began to research the causes of bladder cancer. Indeed, there were data on dyes and bladder cancer going back to the nineteenth century. In fact, there was absolute proof that certain textile dyes caused bladder cancer in humans. And yet, mysteriously, this evidence had not resulted in the abolition of these chemicals from the economy. Other suspected bladder carcinogens, for which the evidence was highly troubling, if not outright damning, were produced and used by the industries in my home town. The National Cancer Institute was generating maps of cancer mortality in an attempt to unveil other possible environmental carcinogens that could explain rising rates of cancer.
And then Ronald Reagan was elected President, and everything changed. No one asked me any more about my possible environmental exposures. In fact, by the mid-1980s, I was hard-pressed to find the word “carcinogen” in any pamphlet on cancer that I collected from my doctors’ various offices. Meanwhile, in the medical literature, the search for cancer clusters that might point towards environmental contributors became a disparaged practice. The new focus of the National Cancer Institute was on “lifestyle” explanations for cancer.
As a young adult I hadn’t really had enough time to develop bad habits. In fact, I was a vegetarian who ran four miles a day. Thus there was no explanation for my situation. “Some kind of fluke”, said one of my doctors. Wherever I lived, I dutifully submitted to cancer check-ups. By the 1990s, the new explanation for cancer was genetic, and I started receiving lots of questions from young intake doctors about my family history. I had fun with this. I would describe in detail my mother, diagnosed with breast cancer, my various uncles with prostate and colon cancers, and – the crowning point – my aunt who died of the same kind of bladder cancer that I had. The young doctors took furious notes. I would always pause a few beats before adding, “Oh yeah. And I’m adopted”. (There is no evidence for a hereditary link to bladder cancer. And there never has been.)
Today, I’m a forty-eight-year-old professor in Ithaca , New York , and during my last renal ultrasound, the technician asked me casually if I’d ever worked with textile dyes. I suppose Al Gore should get the credit: the environment is once again on the collective radar screen.
Two new books expose and explicate the ongoing social contest that is at the heart of our shifting understanding about cancer. They are both important and deserve to be read together. Devra Davis’s book examines the historical forces at work when doubt is cast on the environmental evidence. Phil Brown’s book explores the opposing social movements that are struggling to rescue this evidence and to bring about public health policy change based on it.
Devra Davis’s Secret History of the War on Cancer is a big, sprawling book whose argument is more implicit than it should be. Her autobiographical style – which served her so well in her earlier treatise on public health, When Smoke Ran Like Water – often gets in the way of her analysis here. Nevertheless, Davis, who directs the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is an epidemiologist and public-health scientist at the top of her game. In her new book, she reveals what she knows about the interlocking structures of government and corporate interests, and how these relationships have affected the social construction of knowledge about cancer. Davis deserves to be taken seriously as a former adviser to the World Health Organization, a public-health servant in both the Carter and the Clinton Administrations, and the founding director of the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology in the National Academy of Sciences.
The basic thesis of this book is that 1.5 million lives have been lost, because Americans failed to act on existing knowledge about the environmental causes of cancer. This failure has been created by at least eight different factors, both acting together and independently of each other. The first is the cowardice of research scientists, who publish thoroughly referenced reports but pull their punches at the end, by claiming that more research needs to be done before action can be taken. Statements like these are then exploited by those who profit from the status quo. Like the cigarette industry during the 1960s, the chemical industry has learned how to buy time and create wholesale public doubt from small data gaps and remaining scientific uncertainties.
Meanwhile, Davis argues, regulatory agencies have become unresponsive to new scientific evidence altogether. Hamstrung by small-government-is-better reforms of the Reagan Administration, environmental and public agencies shrank even as the science began pointing to the need for more regulation. As for the government agencies and charities whose mission it is to eradicate cancer, these institutions, too, have had meaningful work on cancer prevention compromised by corporate interests. Throughout the 1980s, for example, the chief executive officer of Occidental Petroleum served as the chair of the National Cancer Institute’s advisory board. Ultimately, the so-called War on Cancer is not really a war at all, argues Davis , but a cunning re-enactment.
The evolutionary history of epidemiology itself has also played a role in muffling the evidence for environmental harm. With its necessary focus on workers – who are exposed to the highest amounts of suspected carcinogens – epidemiologists require access to industry. The price for access, too often, is the promise of secrecy. Having struck a Faustian bargain, occupational epidemiologists can have – and have had – their funds withdrawn if they go public with their results.
A further factor involves the court system. Davis shows brilliantly the ways in which various kinds of scientific evidence – such as animal research – have been gradually declared inadmissible in legal cases, thanks to clever lawyering. “Basically”, says Davis, “before you can collect damages, you must get cancer or some other awful disease, show that someone else already got it from the same things you did, prove that you had specific exposures to a particular agent, find the firm that caused your harm and can now pay for it, and prove that they knew the exposure was harmful.”
The last two factors involve outright harassment of researchers, including Davis herself, and plain old terrible timing, which has occurred at least twice in the last century, as when major treatises on the environmental contributors to cancer were released, first on the brink of the First World War, and then again right before the Second World War. Indeed, Davis’s crowning achievement with this book is her resuscitation of old publications, along with secret memos and various other original manuscripts, which show how much we used to know about the role that chemical exposures play in the burden of cancer. Some of these were subsequently doctored to serve particular purposes.
The Secret History of the War on Cancer is a remarkable piece of sleuthing from one of our most brave and knowledgeable scientists, on a topic that affects millions. Having closed Davis ’s book, one should immediately open Phil Brown’s Toxic Exposures, which focuses on the ways in which environmental- health activists and their advocates in science are challenging the carcinogen-deniers that Davis writes about. Like Devra Davis, Brown, a medical sociologist at Brown University , has been a researcher in the field of environmental health for several decades, beginning with his groundbreaking work on the Woburn cancer cluster, made famous in the Hollywood movie A Civil Action. His new book represents many years of work. Toxic Exposures can be read as a guidebook for those wishing to understand the environmental-health movement, which, according to Brown, is the Civil Rights movement of our times. As he demonstrates, almost all cases of cancer clusters and contaminated communities, from Love Canal onwards, have been discovered by citizen activists – not by scientists, nor government agencies. This is because no governmental agency or scientific body engages in routine surveillance that would uncover sentinel health events. It is also because cancer registries, which could function as early-warning systems, publish their results in obscure almanacs and do not actively investigate communities where cancer rates are elevated. Often, as Brown notes, these communities are never even informed that their cancer rates are statistically excessive.
But, in the cases where citizens have engaged in their own lay epidemiology and have become environmental detectives in their own communities, new avenues of scientific research have been made possible, which, in turn, have spurred on better environmental decisions. When sympathetic scientists work hand in hand with these activists, new forms of knowledge are created that challenge the lifestyle and hereditary foci of conventional epidemiology.
In one my favourite examples from the book, Brown describes how science alone failed to produce regulations sufficient to reduce lead poisoning among children. It was only the efforts of black and Latino rights groups – most notably the Black Panthers and the Young Lords – in the 1960s that finally led to the social changes necessary to get lead away from children’s brains. Once that happened, science had the human experiment it needed to prove that exposures to an environmental toxicant at levels once considered acceptable and unavoidable were not safe or necessary after all.
Brown’s book systematically examines citizen-science alliances in three disease areas: breast cancer, asthma and Gulf War Syndrome as reported by US veterans of the first Iraq war. While individual readers who are not sociologists will no doubt be drawn, by personal experience, to one of the three, all offer important lessons about the construction of scientific knowledge. It was fascinating to learn, for example, how environmental -justice activists working on asthma clusters in urban areas are now forcing scientists to investigate the health effects of very fine particles, which are not yet regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
In the end, Phil Brown’s analysis of contested illnesses makes a strong case for better health tracking to monitor diseases, and better chemicals tracking to monitor the flow of hazardous substances in consumer goods, in the jet stream, in our groundwater, and in our tuna-fish sandwiches. Toxic Exposures also makes clear that neither will happen without citizen participation in the scientific process.

Sandra Steingraber is the author of Living Downstream: An ecologist looks at cancer and the environment, 1997, and Having Faith: An ecologist's journey to motherhood, 2001.
READ MORE - Book Review: Cancer and the Environment

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Greedy Rotten Scoundrels!!

The world is a funny place...and as Gordon Gecko said in
the movie "Wall Street" - "Greed is good!" That 1987 film
sort of set the stage for what was to be. Ken Lay - Enron,
Bernie Ebbers - World Com and a list as long as your arm of
Hedge Fund and Derivative dealers...literally making millions
and millions a year, just in brokerage fees.

Oh, it's easy to say....that those of us here in the hinterland
are nothing but jealous twits that don't understand how business
in America and the world works! Perhaps, those observations are
correct - but we do understand that Wal-Mart, Costco, Target,
and all the other "Big Box Stores"...have changed our lives by
a huge margin. The day of the Mom and Pop Stores are quickly
approaching extinction. What seems amazing is how landowners
and landlords are so quick to assist in accelerating their
demise.

Case in point: Sandpiper on Balboa Island. The store was first
founded in 1938. Sandpiper, Hershey's Market and the Village Inn
are the last remaining original use facilities left on Balboa
Island. The Daily Pilot reported today...that Gail Hammerschmidt,
the very responsible proprietor of the Sandpiper for the last five
years...is up against a nasty new owner..that wants to raise her
rent 22% this year. We guess the new owner, neither understands
the value of the Sandpiper to the community or the current state of
the economy. In either regard, pushing Gail out with an egregious
rent increase is certainly not "Community Friendly"! For those
who don't know Gail.....this is one of the most efficient, caring
and customer responsive shop owners we have ever had the pleasure
to do business with. We are not alone! Literally, everyone that
lives on Balboa Island, Corona Del Mar and the rest of Newport
Beach...knows the Sandpiper is a special place to get those very
cute and unique items..you can't get at Costco, Target or Wal-Mart.

OK, we are prejudiced, because we appreciate all the hard work that
Gail has put into the Sandpiper. In fact, we might say...the love
that she has provided both her shop and those that have visited and
bought from her throughout the last five years. One thing is certain,
Sandpiper now...is better than it has ever been. We are hoping
upon hope that the Greedy, Rotten Scoundrel (new owner)...that
wants Gail out and isn't willing to work with her will see the
error of his ways....or sell the property to someone who will.

A couple of years ago, we fought this same battle over the Omelet
Parlor in Costa Mesa on 17th Street. Finally, that Property Manager
saw the light and Omelet Parlor was saved for the time being. We
believe that a community effort needs to be made to save Sandpiper.
If you know the owner of this property...or are willing to find out
who it is....please contact him and explain that there are many
senior citizens on Balboa Island that do not drive and rely on Gail
for gifts to their grand kids! Some things have a price, others
are priceless! We implore Mayor Ed Selich..who serves as both
Councilman and Mayor for Gail...to step up to the plate and give
her a personal hand in saving the Sandpiper for the citizens of
Newport Beach and Balboa Island!
READ MORE - Greedy Rotten Scoundrels!!

Measure B - White Elephant in the Park

Ok...here we go...

In addition to being Super Tuesday, where we get to find out which Republican, and Democrat, go head to head in the fall, and when we get to find out if the casinos get more slots, and whether the Termed-Out Assemblyman and State Senators get "Grandfathered" into another 12 years in office, we, in Newport Beach, get to vote on putting a White Elephant (City Hall, for those new to my blog) in a Park.

For my typical "In-Depth" Analysis on the State-Wide Ballot measures, go here.

Anyway, if you look at the poll on the left you'll see that my 17 readers (down from 30) voted and were 64% to 35% (?), 11 to 6, against putting a City Hall in the Park.

I'll write about my opinion first, and then I'll predict what will really happen second.

First, after running into Former-Mayor Rosansky the other night, who is firmly in favor of Measure B, I decided that I am against Measure B.

Here's why -

1. I'm a small government guy. I believe that our City Government should be much smaller. According to my research (crack research, I tell ya), we have more City Employees to Residents than any of our neighbors. Anyway you look at it, anyway that Councilman Keith Curry tried to explain it to me, anyway you try to justify it, we have too many City Employees on the Payroll. So having those mobile homes on the lawn at our old City Hall aren't necessary. What's necessary is to try and pare down that +/- $107k/year average salary. What's necessary is to fit into our current City Hall and not design a New City Hall which will accommodate for FUTURE EMPLOYEE GROWTH. What's necessary is to get as much of the taxpayers dollars BACK to the taxpayers and not into the Employee Pension Liability funds.

The argument that our current City Hall is susceptible to Tsunami is hooey, primarily because if there was a Tsunami coming (which in itself is a crazy statement), don't you think we would be more concerned with all the little kids who go to school at Newport Beach Elementary first, before worrying about a bunch a civil servants?

2. Let's say that City Hall does move from it's current location. What happens to the current site? It'll probably go to the highest bidder (so the City can try and save up money to pay off/defend the numerous Rehab-related lawsuits...) who will then put a Park there? Right...

Condos and/or businesses will go into that already bottlenecked Newport Blvd. You think traffic was fun going onto the Peninsula during the summer months already...

So notwithstanding any other argument about having a Centrally located City Hall, or this or that, I don't even think we should move City Hall, which would then automatically make me vote No on B.

Now, reality...

Measure B is democracy at it's best. Newport Beach residents get to vote on where to put City Hall.

A Yes vote = City Hall in the Park.

A No vote = City Hall Not in the Park.

Easy as pie.

The voters cannot say that the City Council wasn't acting in the best interest of the Residents because Measure B takes the City Council right out of the equation.

Now that money part...

Jack Croul has put in lots of money in Yes on B for his friend Bill Ficker.

That's very nice of him. But let's take him and Audrey Burnand out of the equation right now to get a better look at the real money raised.

As of the January 19, Yes on B raised a total of $36,680 (without the Croul dough) and No on B raised $19,090 (without the Burnand contributions).

And this is without contribution limits.

To put it into comparison, WITH contribution limits of $500, both Councilwoman Leslie Daigle and Councilman Mike Henn raised more than double what Yes on B raised.

What does this tell me?

Either the community doesn't care enough to put their money behind the mouths (likely), or

Neither side decided to try and raise their own money because of their main benefactors (unlikely).

If people donate money to you, then they'll usually vote for you.

What would you rather have? 1000 people donating $100 to you, or one person donating $100,000 to you. That one person is just one vote.

Throwing money at the issue/candidate helps because it helps get your message out, but it's not always the reason one wins (Former Mayor Heffernan raised less money than challenger Bob Wynn and Former Councilman Dick Nichols raised less money than challenger Bernie Svalstad, both won.)

I think most of the residents actually don't care about where a new City Hall goes.

Ask 10 of your neighbors if they've ever been to City Hall. I bet you only 2 (if that) have.

Then ask them if they'll go to the new Fancy City Hall. I bet you only 1 will.

But with all that said...my guess?

Measure B passes 65% to 35%.

Low voter turnout (% of registered Newport Beach voters) on Measure B compared to the Presidential primary.

Basis behind my prediction?

I don't know...gut feeling.
READ MORE - Measure B - White Elephant in the Park

Friday, February 1, 2008

I can see clearly now....maybe Catalina!

February 5th, 2008 will be here and gone before we know it.
We already voted....and found out two days ago that our choice
for President had decided to bail out and support someone that
we could never give our vote.

The funny Measure B campaign....designating a specific location
for a new City Hall...continues....with three different YES on
B Campaign signs. All, we might add....that can't be read easily
in the day or the night. We of course anguished over whether to
vote for the Governor's four Indian Gaming Initiatives. Finally,
we just thought....go for the devil you know vs. going for the
devils we don't know. YES on 94, 95, 96 & 97!

OK, back to Measure B....see, if you were a city worker...wouldn't
you like to tell your family, friends and aquaintances...that you
worked in Fashion Island? Hey, maybe have a great City Attorney
Office that overlooks the ocean and Catalina. You wouldn't even
have to go to the Cheese Cake Factory or P.J.Changs....to get that
million dollar view. Just sort of lean back and tap the mouse
of your computer and wax poetic. Hey, we are jealous of course!
Getting a big bluewater view...usually costs millions and millions
..with lots of upkeep charges every month!

The more we hear about the locations in Fashion Island for a new
City Hall, the more we think..that we might possibly just go back
to block one..and rebuild on the current sight..on the Penninsula!
Maybe we should just spend the next 15 years rebuilding each of
the buildings we presently have.....and just add trailers for the
City Workers to use...while all the building goes on. We don't
suggest that however, because, we are not that cruel or bothered
by any choice that is yet to be made.

At any rate, we encourage all involved to vote down Measure "B"..
and throw the whole mess back on the backs of our current City
Council. They just love blaming the public....blaming the State
...or blaming anyone that gets into their eye line! Since we
already voted 4 times in favor of a park at the location suggested
in Measure "B".....the least we can do...is vote the 5th time...
either UP or DOWN!

What do you think?
READ MORE - I can see clearly now....maybe Catalina!