Huntington Beach | Orange Juice! Politics For The Rest Of Us.

December 31, 2008

O.C. Register’s Dec 31st float coverage

Posted by: Larry Gilbert : Category: Fresh Juice, Mission Viejo, anaheim, huntington beach

The Orange County Register has finally published what the Orange Juice blog has been reporting for the past four months. “Anaheim is paying for it’s $150,000 float with Convention Center funds meant to promote tourism.” I totally support that investment.

“Huntington Beach’s $200,000 was raised through donations.” If the private sector wishes to have their own float or mutually fund one for a city that’s OK with us.

“Mission Viejo spent $300,000 in city funds.” Enough said. Read more…

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November 10, 2008

O.C. Libertarian makes the front page of the Register

Posted by: Art Pedroza : Category: "The OC", Fresh Juice, huntington beach, libertarian party

(Photo courtesy of the O.C. Register)

Kudos to Libertarian Party member Norm “Firecracker” Westwell, who made the front page of the O.C. Register today in a story about what happens to political signs. Weswell was reelected this year to the Ocean View School District, in Huntington Beach, when no one ran against him.

Westwell apparently likes to collect signs and reuse them later on his own campaigns. He is planning to run for the Huntington Beach City Council in the near future. Read more…

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October 31, 2008

Debbie & Dana & Tom & Ernst, last segment: Gov’t transparency, Education, & Closing statements.

Posted by: Vern Nelson : Category: "The OC", 46th district, Education, OC GOP, War, clean elections, costa mesa, democracy, green party, huntington beach, immigration, libertarian party, technology

(Part one here) - (Part two here) - (Part three here)

Topic 6 of 8: How will you make government more TRANSPARENT?

TOM: Publicly funded elections, prohibiting corporations from giving to campaigns, Instant Runoff Voting, Proportional Representation. People’s voices aren’t being heard, or Congress wouldn’t have approved the bailout. I’m not against corporations but they shouldn’t have a voice in political campaigns.

DEBBIE: There’s an important part in our lives for both gov’t and the private sector, but we’ve spent the last 20 years trying to get gov’t out of everything. Business does not always have the public’s best interest in mind. Gov’t provides a level of transparency and accountability you cannot get from the private sector. It’s so important for gov’t to provide Americans protection from bad food, bad drugs, bad services, bad people, bad nations. We’ve lost a lot of that because we’ve privatized it, losing accountability and transparency. We’ve seen that in the military with Blackwater; we’ve seen it in the health industry, we’ve lost drug regulators, now we see so many stories of people dying from bad drugs and bad food. I agree with Tom that we need to clean up this mess of financing politics which is destroying America’s democracy. Read more…

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October 30, 2008

Debbie & Dana & Tom & Ernst, pt III: Healthcare, Iraq, and Prop. 8

Posted by: Vern Nelson : Category: "The OC", 46th district, Afghanistan, Election 2008, GLBT rights, OC GOP, Proposition 8, Water, costa mesa, gay marriage, green party, huntington beach, immigration, iraq, libertarian party, national defense, troop support, veterans

(Part one here) - (Part two here)

In today’s video snippet, Dana defends Proposition 8: “I would suggest that we do not change the definition of marriage in our society in order to make a small number of people more comfortable about themselves…”

Click “read more” for the candidates’ answers on Healthcare, Iraq, and Prop. 8.

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October 28, 2008

Ron St. John’s picks on November ballot

Posted by: Ron St. John : Category: 46th district, Animal Rights, Election 2008, Fresh Juice, Gangs, Proposition 8, Republican Party, city council races, corporate welfare, gay marriage, huntington beach, libertarian party, loretta sanchez, sarah palin

Here’s my November ballot:

President: Barr. When McCain picked Palin and became an advocate for the bailout I wanted my $100 back. The protest vote is imperfect but the best use of the vote.

Congress: Rohrabacher. Yeah, I know I ran against him and I don’t think he’s perfect either, but on spending and free enterprise issues he better represents me than would Cook, and there’s no point to a protest vote when Dana hung tough (as did Loretta Sanchez!) in opposing the bailout.

State Senate: Harmon. Gets top marks from the taxpayer watchdog groups.

State Assembly: Silva. Same as Harmon.

OC Superior Court #12: Carillo. Got top marks from OC Bar, and was least offensive in politicizing the judicial race.

Huntington Beach City Council: Help!!!! I can’t tell these guys apart.

OC Prop J: Yes. Might help stop the bleeding on the underfunded pension issue.

Prop 1A: No. Doesn’t pencil out.
Prop 2: No. Don’t like telling farmers how to run their business.
Prop 3: No. Borrowed money isn’t free.
Prop 4: No. Close call, but not everyone has Ozzie and Harriette as parents.
Prop 5: Yes. Another close call, but in the end rehab is cheaper on nonviolent offenses. Apologies to the NIMBY’s who don’t want to live next door to addicts.
Prop 6: No. Good ideas that don’t withstand close scrutiny on cost/benefit.
Prop 7: No. When even the Sierra Club dumps on a ‘green’ proposal you know it stinks.
Prop 8: No. Let’s see now, there’s personal freedom and equal rights and the separation of church and state on one side, and the hope that public school teachers will never tell kids that its OK to be homosexual on the other side. Guess I’ll err on the side of equal rights.
Prop 9: No. More good ideas that don’t withstand close scrutiny.
Prop 10: No. Snake oil being sold by profiteers in the war on oil dependence.
Prop 11: Yes. How much worse could an independent redistricting crew do?
Prop 12: No. A close call, but sometimes acting as guarantor isn’t free either. Shouldn’t we be making the same sort of offer to teachers, nurses, fire fighters, police officers, foster parents, blood donors, etc?

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October 27, 2008

Dan Kalmick’s bold vision for Huntington Beach

Posted by: Vern Nelson : Category: Dominionism, Sandra Hutchens, city council races, financial bailout, huntington beach, veterans

First you say “Dan Kalmick looks like Steve Carrell playing Maxwell Smart” as though that’s a bad thing, which it is not. Then you ask why the entire Debbie Cook team is recommending not only that you vote for this brilliant young HB City Council candidate, but that you “bullet vote” for him - meaning giving him an extra leg up by NOT using your other two votes.

If you recognize Dan’s name it’s because he had the uncommon chutzpah to run against the popular Debbie in the Democratic primary, having some minor differences with her on a few issues and emphases; but since the primary he’s been a hard-working volunteer for the Cook campaign, tirelessly walking precincts for both himself and the Mayor.

On the flip, we’ll look at Dan’s vision for our town, the issues most important to him, and why we have so much faith in this 26-year-old volunteer firefighter, computer engineer and successful small business owner, but first let’s get an idea of the “lay of the land” in this race:

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October 25, 2008

Dana, Abramoff, and the Mariana Island Abuses (by human rights heroine Wendy Doromal)

Posted by: Vern Nelson : Category: 46th district, Morals, OC GOP, Social Equality, Women, ethics, huntington beach, jack abramoff, labor

Here’s a blogger to put the rest of us little bloggers to shame: Schoolteacher Wendy Doromal, who fought for over a decade, braving death threats (as mentioned below) to bring justice to the guest workers of the Mariana Islands. Most of us have heard about the abuses these women suffered through the last few decades - the barbed-wire fences, the sexual slavery, the forced abortions; most of us know it had a lot to do with Jack Abramoff, who managed to sway enough legislators to allow the Marianas (CNMI) to sell its garments with a “Made in the USA” label while still being exempt from US labor laws; and most of us know that somehow, Abramoff’s best friend Dana Rohrabacher had a lot to do with it too. But Wendy Doromal, over at her blog Unheard No More, ties it all together with this barnburner of an expose, showing exactly how culpable her old nemesis Dana Rohrabacher (up for de-election next week) really was for all of this. READ IT ALL!
(Oh… I added a little bold - Vern)

Dana Rohrabacher: A Five Star General in Abramoff’s Army

October 23, 2008

Dana Rohrabacher is running again for a seat in the U.S. Congress. He does not deserve to serve in that esteemed body. He lacks the character, integrity and honesty required of such a position. We need to sweep out all unqualified members of Congress who promote special interests, thumb their noses at ethics laws, and work for lobbyists rather than the American people. America is crying for competent leaders of character. Leaders like Rohrabacher’s opponent, Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook.

I have had a personal battle with this congressman, at times one-on-one. However, my disdain for the congressman is a result of his actions in suppressing justice for the foreign contract workers of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). In 1995 I naively believed that human rights was a bipartisan issue that could not be refused. Jack Abramoff, Congressman Rohrabacher, and their fellow conspirators proved that, in fact, they could make human rights a partisan issue and hurt a great many innocent people in the process.

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October 24, 2008

Debbie and Dana and Tom and Ernst (pt 2)

Posted by: Vern Nelson : Category: "The OC", 46th district, OC GOP, bank takeovers, bankruptcy, costa mesa, financial bailout, green party, huntington beach, immigration, libertarian party

(Part one here)

Topic 2 of 8. The Financial Bail-Out

TOM: It’s a disaster, it doesn’t even seem to be working, it is saddling our grandkids with over a trillion of debt. Would have instead put a moratorium on home foreclosures, readjust mortgages in danger of failing, would not have “bailed out Wall Street.”

DEBBIE: (I’ll be thorough here since this response was controversial - V) The problem starts with our DEBT, which we need to get rid of. The two things most of us know very little about are energy and finance, and it’s very important for all of us to get a handle on how our gov’t finances things. I don’t think we had an option here for how we responded to this crisis. (I think I can say that is an admission that she would have reluctantly voted for it - V) We had a $66 TRILLION of CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS. They are like a house of cards. When those start to go, everything will go, and we WILL be in the Second Great Depression. So I have empathy with those who are trying to undo this mess. But I’m also as angry and frustrated as everyone. Because I’ve played by the rules, I’ve always been a massive saver and never gone into debt. Read more…

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October 24, 2008

Debbie and Dana and Tom and Ernst, pt I

Posted by: Vern Nelson : Category: "The OC", 46th district, Environment, OC GOP, california, costa mesa, democracy, energy, green party, huntington beach, immigration, libertarian party, racism, technology

The one and only debate between the contenders for California’s 46th Congressional seat took place at OCC Tuesday, with 20-year Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher and charismatic Democratic challenger Debbie Cook joined by Green candidate Tom Lash and Libertarian Ernst Gasteiger. And what a colorful and interesting debate it was! I will aim to make you feel as though you were there in the Moore Hall with the rest of the “unruly crowd” as the Reg called us. But you know what, let’s be MAVERICKS and start at the end, with Debbie’s beautiful closing statement!

More - MUCH MORE - over the flip:

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October 23, 2008

Video of Dana Rohrabacher versus Debbie Cook

Posted by: Art Pedroza : Category: "The OC", 46th district, Fresh Juice, huntington beach

This is an amazing video - kudos to the O.C. Register for making this available online. In this video you can see not only what Dana Rohrabacher and Debbie Cook have to say. You will also hear from the Green and Libertarian Party candidates, who are respectively named Ernst Gasteiger and Thomas Lash. It is a great debate!

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