OC Blog

Religion & The Left

Much is made of the influence of religious conservatives in the Republican Party. The mainstream media has been fairly obsessed with the topic for a generation.

Arthur Brooks wrote this article for National Review Online on the influence of secular Americans on the Left in general and the Democratic Party in particular. Here's an excerpt:

Secular liberals, and especially those who are explicitly nonbelievers, have become a major force on the political left. Researchers have found, for example, that delegates to the Democratic National Convention — the politically-active folks who nominate the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency — are more than twice as likely to be completely secular as the population-at-large.

John Murtha: The Surge Is Working

Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, who this summer characterize hope for the surge's success as "delusional," is back from a visit to Iraq.

And he says the surge is working.

Of course, the Democrats already pirouetted away from their earlier "the surge won't work" line to "It doesn't matter if the surge works" -- a line they can take refuge in no matter what happens in Iraq.

But it's still heart-warming to hear the lion of the anti-war Left come back and recognize reality.

Republican Govenors Association In Town

The Republican Governors Association is having its annual conference in Orange County starting tomorrow and running through Friday at the posh St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach.

There are 22* Republican governors in the U.S.  Among the topics in their breakout sessions:

Topic 1: “Covering America: The Future of Property Casualty Insurance”

Topic 2: “Preparing America: Staying Ahead of the Next Disaster”

Topic 4: “Connecting America: The Future of Telecom/Cable”

Topic 5: “Teaching America: The Technological Revolution in Education”

* includes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Congressional Approval Sinks To 20%

Generally speaking, I'm not one for posting polls-as-news. But my Left blogger friend Dan Chmielewski of TheLiberalOC is an inveterate poll poster, so I thought I'd present this latest Gallup poll in a gesture of imitation:

Congress’ Approval Rating at 20%; Bush’s Approval at 32%

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's latest poll finds only one in five Americans approving of the job Congress is doing at this time. The public's rating of Congress had shown slight improvements in recent months, but the current rating is down again and is among the lowest that Gallup has ever measured dating back to 1974. Americans' assessment of the job President George W. Bush is doing is also quite negative and has shown little change over the past two months, with about one in three Americans expressing approval of him.

Congressional Job Approval
According to the Nov. 11-14, 2007, poll, 20% of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job, while 69% disapprove. Congressional job approval ratings tied their historical low point -- an 18% reading in 1992 -- in August of this year. Americans' ratings of Congress showed some improvement in the following months, reaching 29% in mid-October before falling back again this month.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Rick Reiff In DC: Cox Unlikely To Ever Re-Enter Politics

OC Business Journal Executive Editor Rick Reiff penned this column for the current edition of OCBJ, containing observations from his recent trip to the nation's capital:

Finding OC In D.C.

Washington, D.C., is a political amusement park—visual, bustling, entertaining. These days it’s transitioning, from Bushland to, it is widely presumed, Hillary Adventure.

A war rages and the economy teeters, but the government is on autopilot. What Congress debates—funding for “children,” a resolution condemning Armenian genocide, a censure of Rush Limbaugh—is prelude to next year’s main event, the presidential election.

Some other observations from my recent visit to the nation’s capital:

Bobby Jindal to be the next Governor of Louisiana

This is not exactly Orange County related, but I think it is worth mentioning on this blog to highlight the ongoing effort of the GOP to recruit and promote minority candidates within our party.  This is one of the few successes:

The result just came in with 92% of ballots counted, Congressman Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American Republican is carrying 53% of the vote against 11 other candidates - enough to win outright and avoid a runoff in November.  Democrat Kathleen Blanco, the incumbent governor, opted not to run for re-election after her disastrous handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

This is certainly an impressive win for Jindal as he demonstrated his ability to attract votes from different segments of the state, instead of relying on one ethnic bloc of voters, not that Louisiana is known to have a large Indo-American community anyway.

When Congressman Jindal takes office in January, he will become America's youngest governor in office, at the age of 36.  He will also be Louisiana's first non-white governor since Reconstruction.

Update From Oakland Airport: Port of Oakland Finallly Apologizes

H/T: Michelle Malkin

The Oakland Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle have reported that officials from Oakland International Airport have apologized for their actions in delaying the troops on the tarmac for several hours.

Earlier today Malkin talked about the incident in an interview with Fox News.

Update from Oakland Airport: Hill Top Aviation Official: "You Remember the Guy from My Lai?"

Later today, I was able to get a hold of an official at Hill Top Aviation, a tenant of Oakland Airport. He told me that his company stationed military passengers 400 yards away from the terminal at the directive of operations officials at the Oakland Airport. However, he also told me that it was his company who communicated to the Airport the inability to get a definitive answer from Airlift Command and the chartered Airline whether the personnel were properly screened per TSA regulations.  Now, it’s also important to note that he could have contacted TSA directly whether they had met these conditions, but from the conversations we had he indicated that he didn't.

He also said that earlier on that same day a smaller group of troops were able to enter a sterile area.

Update from Oakland Airport: TSA Spokesman: "Absolutely No Reasons why they couldn't enter Airport."

Update: I just got off the phone with TSA spokesman Christopher White who called to tell  me the following:

There are absolutely no reasons why those military personnel couldn't enter the Airport, as they met all of the TSA screening requirements. He also reiterated that as a former member of the military he is appalled by what happened at Oakland Airport.

He then sent me the following statement:

On Thursday, September 27, 2007 North American Airlines flight #1777 carrying soldiers and marines landed at Oakland International Airport from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) where passengers were screened by U.S. Customs upon landing from overseas.

At no time were service men and women prohibited from entering the sterile area of Oakland International Airport by TSA personnel or regulations. Airport officials, the airline and ground handling company coordinated the arrival and all services associated with this flight, including refueling, refreshing supplies on the aircraft, maintenance checks and all passenger services.

TSA personnel across the country have worked closely with airports to ensure the utmost care when handling flights involving our troops and will continue to facilitate their movement to the greatest extent possible while ensuring a high level of security for all travelers.

Christopher White

Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs

Transportation Security Administration

Update from Oakland Airport: TSA and Port Authority Culpable of Marine Mistreatment

According to press release issued Sunday by representatives at Oakland Airport,  the fault in the mistreatment of the Marines falls with the ground handling company, responsible for taking care of the needs of passengers. Doing some investigating of my own, I was told that this company is named Hilltop Aviation, a tenant of Oakland Airport contracted from a chartered North American Airlines Flight. I was also told that unlike other military chartered flights earlier in the day, Hilltop bungled the communication process with Airport officials and ultimately came to the determination that they didn't meet TSA screening requirements, forcing a 3-hour lay-over because the passengers had weapons on board. Like earlier flights, they allege, had military personnel been TSA screened they would be brought to a public area where they could rest and meet with friends and family.

I remain a skeptic of this story because the original email contends that the passengers on board surpassed TSA requirements when they were screened by US Customs, removed the bolts from their firearms, and were given a re-boarding pass after they were allowed to stay in JFK's terminal.