News Flash - High School Kids Are Sexual

I remember waxing psychotic in a high-school newspaper editorial about how a proposed re-wording of the Exeter sex policy, specifically the declaration that Exeter did not approve of such activity, was as idiotic as it was contrary to nature.

It's nice to see some things never change.

I need to find a copy of that article. It got me in enough trouble...

Colonel of Wisdom - Corps of Engineers v. Toll Road

Col. Magness feels obliged to point out that in fact the Army Corps of Engineers is a neutral party in the Foothill-South toll road process - which means he wasn't pressured by environmentalists or politically motivated when he pointed out the misrepresentations and lies of the Transportation Corridor Agencies. Save Trestles! Save San Onofre!

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Clinton Fishing with Dynamite

In response to Barack Obama's comment at a San Francisco fundraiser that frustrated working-class folk are capable of "antipathy to people who aren't like them," the Clinton campaign is viciously attacking the remarks while at the same time viciously stoking the antipathy of working-class folk to people who aren't like them.

The comment in question, which Obama gave here in town on Sunday April 6, related to the frustration of working-class voters with economic conditions:

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Obama has apologized if his comment was poorly phrased or caused offense, as reported in Saturday's Chronicle, but also stood by his remarks (after clarifying them):

"So I said, well you know, when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country."


After acknowledging his previous remarks in California could have been better phrased, he added: "The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us. But what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they are being listened to."

The Chron quotes former state Democratic Party chairman and current Clinton adviser Tom Hendrickson saying rural voters don't need "liberal elites" telling them what to believe.

Clinton made the following quote before factory-workers in Indianapolis:

READ THE REST ON SF WEEKLY'S NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG, THE SNITCH!

Colbert on Tibet, San Francisco

Army Tackles Toll Road - Save Trestles!

The US Army Corps of Engineers calls the Transportation Corridor Agencies on their misrepresentations of fact concerning the 241 (Foothill-South) toll road.

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Army Kills Toll Road

When supporters of the 241 (Foothill-South) toll road and its builder, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, hear opponents claim they'll stop the project, the reply is usually along the lines of, "You and what army?"

The United States Army, assholes. That's right, the Army is finally providing the necessary firepower to blow the TCA's lies clean out of the sky.

Colonel Thomas H. Magness is District Commander of the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE). You may remember their fine work on the levees in New Orleans. Colonel Magness sent a letter (Download file) dated April 7 to Thomas Street, staff attorney for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, "to clarify and augment the project's administrative record before you...." The project in question is the Foothill-South extension.

"My staff consistently endeavors to render fair and balanced decisions within the bounds of our implementing regulations and based on the best available information. For this reason, I am compelled to highlight a few areas of the public record where I have found inaccurate statements as well as inferences that misrepresent the Corps preliminary determinations within the context of our CWA and NEPA statutory responsibilities."

Would you believe it gets better?

Read the rest HERE on the OC Weekly's World Famous Staff Blog, Navel Gazing

Yet Another OC Republican Dick

Larry Dick, CEO of the La Salle Group and a member of the board of directors of the toll-road-loving OC Taxpayers' Association, is running for Assemblyman. Though according to the campaign's website's news page, no one seems to have reported this. No news outlets, anyway. Fleischreport has. No surprise, considering the number of Jon Fleischman's personal friends who are big fans of Dick.

From a campaign press release:

The Sixty [sic] Assembly District is currently held by Bob Huff who is running for State Senate. AD 60 consists of three counties: Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino.

Hot damn, but that's one big district. That's what she said...

A bit too low-brow for you? Wait, there's more. There's so much more.

Larry Dick for Assembly, Mr. Dick's campaign website, lists endorsements from local congressmen like prostitute-friendly Ken Calvert (R-Flaccid Penis-Shaped District), John Campbell (R-Bush's Boots and Ass), and of course Surfin' Dana Rohrabacher (R-Kitsch Bar). There's State Senator Dick (see?) Ackerman, Mimi Walters, OC Supervisor Pat Bates ... wait a minute ... some of these names appear multiple times. A lot of them do. It creates the illusion that there are more Republican Dick supporters than there actually are. Oh, I see, they list the sames SEPARATELY for SEPARATE civic duties one has. Or HAD. Even Ken Ryan, former mayor of Yorba Linda, is on there. There are also local civic leaders, like Dr. Jo Ellen Allen and Dale Dykema.

All of these Republicans have been united together, under a single throbbing desire. Yes, everyone on that list just can't wait to see Assemblyman Dick. They're excited by Assemblyman Dick. They're behind Assemblyman Dick. And most importantly, they're willing to help prop Dick up in whatever manner necessary to secure victory come November.

The OC Republican Party - Political Cialis. If your steadfast Conservative edifice begins to crumble or lasts longer than four decades, contact your doctor immediately.

Schwarzenegger Fragged By Lieutenant

(CROSS-POSTED ON THE WORLD FAMOUS OC WEEKLY STAFF BLOG, NAVELGAZING)

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi has just fragged Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over the 241 (Foothill-South) toll road. The road, proposed by the Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies, would cut through the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy, itself mitigation for the Talega development, and the inland portion of San Onofre State Beach, not to mention disturb a site sacred to the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians.

In Vietnam, it was not unheard of for unhappy soldiers to toss a fragmentation grenade into the tent of, or "frag," the lieutenant or commanding officer. The enemy could always be blamed, and while it did not guarantee superior leadership in the future, at least it made for a nice change of pace.

Garamendi, along with State Senate President pro tem Don Perata, Senate Natural Resources Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg and Senator Christine Kehoe, signed a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez. (Download file)They made three simple demands:

1) You reject TCA’s appeal and uphold the California Coastal Commission’s legitimate authority to deny consistency certification for the Foothill-South Toll Road; 2) Should you take up the issue, hold a public hearing in Southern California and extend the public comment period accordingly; and 3) You prohibit federal agencies from meeting or negotiating with the TCA on this matter while the appeal is pending.

The last politicians who vocally opposed the toll road, Santa Monica City Council Bobby Shriver and his former colleague on the State Parks Commission Clint Eastwood (that's right, Dirty Harry fights to protect dirt), were not asked back to their seats on the Commission. But luckily these new politicians are not the Governor's appointees, and cannot be unjustly sacked in such a fashion.

Governor Schwarzenegger remained publicly undecided about the toll road for years before sending the Coastal Commission a letter of support for the project in the run-up to their February meeting in Del Mar, at which they soundly vetoed the project to the tune of an 8-2 vote against as well as a ruthless grilling and embarrassment of the TCA's new Grand Poo-bah, Tom Margro.

Margro recently penned a Sacramento Bee editorial purported to be a response to the Bee's criticism of Schwarzenegger's replacement of Shriver and Eastwood, but in fact it amounted to little more than the same tired old lines TCA hacks have parroted for decades.

What is much more intriguing is the request that the TCA not meet or negotiate with federal agencies until this is all over. Watch for more on THAT juicy piece of meat.

(Digg this post HERE)

Robert Thornton, Professional Bitch

In a move so non-rare it could be called well-done if it weren't less crispy and more slimy, Transportation Corridor Agencies counsel Robert Thornton has resorted to erroneous presumptions and dubious assertions in a pointless attempt to prevent the Department of Commerce from holding a hearing on the Foothill-South toll road extension. Who ever thought a lawyer would be sleazy?

Let us begin not with Thornton's bitchy March 28 letter (Download file) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, written on Nossaman Gunther Knox & Elliot letterhead, but with the April 3 response Download file on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups, including Surfrider and the California State Parks Foundation, who took a pantload of umbrage at the TCA's request:

This remarkable request is not based on the absence of controversy in this project, but on the very existence of controversy. TCA claims that providing a forum to the public will “drown out” discussion of the project. In fact, it is TCA —which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money on public relations and lobbying firms in an effort to promote the project—that is seeking to drown out meaningful discussion by foreclosing an important public forum on the issues raised by its appeal.

In addition to the Coastal Commission's request for a hearing, the environmental coalition requested one as well, citing 15 C.F.R. § 930.128(d):

(d) Except in the case of appeals involving energy projects, the Secretary may hold a public hearing in response to a request or on the Secretary's own initiative.

Well, that seems pretty straightforward. A hearing has been twice-requested. You can check the law yourself but take my word for it, there's nothing about requests to deny hearings. Thus Thornton's whining seems pointless. But what may be more important to note is that his whining includes falsehoods—falsehoods reported to a governmental agency. Stick with me past the jump for more on the lies as well as an alternative to the 241 from none other than Mike Dukakis, who is not only a visiting professor of public policy at UCLA during the winter quarter, but is also actress Olympia Dukakis's cousin. And something of a politician I hear.

More at blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/241-toll-road/