OC Blog

Raymond Chandler Quote Of The Week: February 25 - March 3, 2007

Once, long ago, it must have had a certain elegance. But no more. The memories of old cigars clung to its lobby like the dirty guilt on its ceiling and the sagging springs of its leather lounging chairs. The marble of the desk had turned a yellowish brown with age. But the floor carpet was new and had a hard look, like the room clerk. I passed him up and strolled over to the cigar counter in the corner and put down a quarter for a package of Camels. The girl behind the counter was a straw blonde with a long neck and tired eyes. She put the cigarettes in front of me, added a packet of matches, dropped my change into a slotted box marked "The Community Chest Thanks You."

"You'd want me to do that, wouldn't you," she said, smiling patiently. "You'd want to give your change to the poor little underprivileged kids with bent legs and stuff, wouldn't you?"

"Suppose I didn't," I said.

"I dig up seven cents," the girl said, "and it would be very painful." She had a low lingering voice with a sort of moist caress in it like a damp bath towel. I put a quarter after the seven cents. She gave me her big smile then. It showed more of her tonsils.

"You're nice," she said. "I can see you're nice. A lot of fellows would have come in here and made a pass at a girl. Just think. Over seven cents. A pass."

"Who's the house peeper here now?" I asked her, without taking up the option.

-- The Little Sister, 1949

Red County/OC Blog News Roundup -- February 28, 2007

Today's top stories from behind the Orange Curtain:

Janet Nguyen Must Wait -- OCR and LAT
Supervisors delay confirmation after legal challenge is filed.

Editorial: Wait A Little Longer -- OCR
Court may decide which Nguyen won.

Editorial: A Sober Option -- OCR
Breath-test device linked to auto ignition might actually do some good

Firms Treat State, Local Officials Before Transit Funding Vote -- LAT
The decision on allocating $4.5 billion will be made today.

Santa Ana School To Close -- OCR
Santa Ana Unified trustees vote to shut Grant Elementary as part $15.6 million in budget cuts.

School District Trustees Look For Ways To Cut -- LAT
Santa Ana Unified School District board members discussed how to cut $21 million in spending for the upcoming school year but hadn't completed their work during a meeting that continued late into the evening Tuesday.

Park Site Beats City Hall -- OCR and DP
Newport Beach council votes to reserve open land near library for park and build headquarters elsewhere.

Great Park Transit Routes Laid Out -- OCR
City planners and consultants envision visitors traveling around the Great Park by trolleys, buses or monorail, and have laid out plans for four options for the City Council to consider for a mass transit system.

Villa Park Decides Against Pryaer Before Council Meetings -- OCR
Majority argues invocations would be divisive and inappropriate.

Garden Grove Drops Theme Park Contract -- OCR
Garden Grove officials say there was no evidence of financial backing or progress in developing a movie studio partnership.

Irvine Bans Smoking In Parks -- OCR
A growing number of California towns snuff out the use of tobacco outdoors.

OC Wants More Road Funds -- OCR
County officials demand a share of state transportation bond money they'd consider adequate.

HB Transit Study Gains Momentum -- OCR
An idea to build a transit line stretching from Disneyland to Huntington Beach got a $250,000 boost Monday from the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Op-Ed: Newport Center Park - Keep The Promise -- DP
With all the attention given to the so-called Ficker Plan to build City Hall at Newport Center Park, I feel compelled to share a concept that the City Hall Building Committee, of which I am a member, is analyzing.

District leader Offs New Idea -- DP
Chuck Hinman, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's assistant superintendent of secondary education, pitched a new program to the school board on Monday — and he was quick to stress that it wouldn't be abandoned next year.

Teen Testifies In OC Molestation Trial -- LAT
He says a former aide to Rep. Rohrabacher acknowledged the illegality of the sex they allegedly had three times.

The Chilly Specter Of An Accused Pervert -- OC Weekly
Scott Moxely reports on the Jeff Nielsen trial.

Frank Mickadeit: Accuser In Nielsen Case Has Disability -- OCR
Frank continues reporting on the Jeff Nielsen case.

Santa Margarita High School Principal Resigns -- LAT
Brother Lawrence Monroe, placed on leave last month for not reporting concerns about a teacher's behavior, says it's time for 'a less hectic pace.'

Minuteman Court Ruling Date Is Set -- LAT
A judge weighs an argument by the group's co-founder that a vote to oust him from the board was invalid.

She Swears The Constitution Is On Her Side -- LAT
A Riverside woman, cited over foul language at John Wayne Airport, says the law is vague and stifles free speech.

Santa Ana Approves High-Rise -- OCR
The city's Planning Commission has given the green light to a proposal to lure high-rise residential development to a swath of land between two freeways on Santa Ana's eastern end.

Election Contest Against Janet Nguyen Filed In Superior Court

As expected, the Trung Nguyen campaign promised election contest lawsuit was filed about 45 minutes ago in Orange County Superior Court. Here's the lawsuit, with a Can Nguyen listed as the plaintiff and Janet Q. Nguyen as the defendant.

Martin Wiskol talked to some legal eagles about the Board of Supervisors' decision and posted their comments over at Total Buzz.

Trung Wins By One?

Jubal just posted the revised RE-certified election results for the First District Supervisorial election. As previously reported, Janet Nguyen wound up seven votes ahead of Trung Nguyen. The first Certified count, of course, had Trung winning over Janet by seven votes.

You may have also read in the Orange County Register this morning a quote attributed to Janet that "every vote matters." But, apparently, votes matter only if they are for Janet.

Janet's final total is more than she had in the first count, but SHE IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE WHO GAINED VOTES! ALL other candidates either lost votes or stayed at the same count.

In the "revised official results," Janet gained six votes. All other candidates LOST a combined 31 votes. Janet's aggressive "recount" efforts took away SEVEN votes from Trung. In fact, Janet's vote total is STILL one vote less than Trung had in the certified election results on February 9th.

I will repeat that: Janet's final tally is LESS than the previously certified total for Trung. On February 9th, Trung had 10,920 votes. Today, they say that Janet now has 10,919 votes (and Trung is left with 10,912).

So, Janet found votes in the manual recount (which is the theory behind a hand recount of manchine-counted ballots). But the aggressive challenge of votes clearly intended for Trung Nguyen cost him a net of eight votes.

Maybe the fairest thing would be to take each candidate's BEST total. That would be Trung:10,920, and Janet:10,919. The winner would be ... Trung by One!

That would truly mean that every vote matters and that every vote counts.

And that would be an election they could sing about around campfires for many years to come.

What To Do About Janet?: Video From Today's Board Meeting

Today's Board of Supervisors meeting featured a packed house to witness something I don't believe we've ever seen in Orange County: whether or not to swear in the certified winner of a supervisorial election.

As I've become a slave to this Red County cam, I was on hand to digitally capture the drama.

Board Chairman Chris Norby gavelled the meeting to order and ordered the appropriate agenda item -- #51 -- heard first, since that was why everyone was there. He then called Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley to the podium to give his report and answer some questions:

Norby then invited public comments on the matter before going to board questions, calling Trung attorney Mike Schroeder and California Republican Lawyers Association President Steve Baric to the podium:

And then it was the turns of Janet Nguyen's advocates to take to the podium, specifically Jennifer Johnson (representing the California Women's Leadership Association) and Janet Ngueyn attorney Phil Greer...

After a few more citizens spoke their piece, Supervisors Norby and Moorlach took their turns to ask questions and voice their opinions...

Supervisor Campbell's gets his turn and makes some salient, thoughtful points...

...before turning the floor over to Sup. Pat Bates, who ultimately moves to postpone consideration of declaring a winner in the special election until next week -- a motion seconded by Sup. Moorlach...

...but not before Sup. Norby gets in a few more cents...

Some more questions and comments from Supervisors Moorlach and Campbell, followed by a vote to postpone declaration of a winner.

Like Romney? Watch This.

Pardon me for interrupting the 1st District Supervisor's Blog, but OC Republicans need to see this.

If you're anything like me and you've seen Mitt Romney in action you probably think: now there's a solid guy.  I saw him a few months ago at the St. Regis in one of his first big local appearances and came away quite impressed; he is well-spoken, earnest and most of all he seemed very trustworthy. I even gave the guy a few bucks (before warning others recently not to make the same mistake).

Isn't honesty the first quality we should ask of our elected officials?  In the case of candidates, honesty in terms of what they stand for?

That night, Romney told us in no uncertain terms how he is a conservative, pro-life, Reagan Republican.  I bought it, which is what ticks me off about this video I just found from his unsuccessful Senate run vs. Ted Kennedy:

Wow.

Pro choice?  Public companies should be required to file quarterly reports on how many women are in positions of management?  "I was an independent during Reagan Bush."  What??!!!!!

It's said that in Massachusetts Romney is seen as a used car salesman, and that he didn't run for re-election as governor there because he couldn't have won.  I didn't believe it when I first heard those things, but I do now.

Mitt: please just be honest with us about who you are, is that too much to ask?

To Vietnamese Voters, Blood Is Thicker Than The Union Ties That Bind

I was chatting with OCEA General Manager Nick Berardino and OCEA General Counsel Don Drozd after the Board of Supes decision this morning. We were marvelling at the magnitude of the Vietnamese turnout in the 1st SD special election and how it caught so many of us by surprise.

Nick shared an anecdote which vividly illustrates how much the election of a Vietnamese=American candidate to the Board of Supervisors meant to the Vietnamese community.

Nick told me that in late January, they (they being the unions) started a pro-Tom Umberg Vietnamese phone bank staffed by Vietnamese union members. After about a week, the question occurred to someone: "How do we know they're really asking people to vote for Tom Umberg?"

Nick Berardino said they decided to station a Vietnamese-speaker within earshot of the phone bankers to listen to what they were saying.

"Sure enough," Nick told me, "they weren't saying anything about Umberg. They were just telling people to vote." Since Janet Nguyen and Trung Nguyen received virtually all the Vietnamese-American votes, the local public employee unions were running a de facto GOTV phone bank for GOPers Janet and Trung -- and they quickly pulled the plug on the Vietnamese election outreach.

Nick pointed out that these Vietnamese-American phone bankers are dedicated  union people. Whereas the average member might walk a single precinct and knock off by early afternoon, Nick Berardino said these folks will walk three, maybe four precincts in a day.

But even that level of dedication to the union gave way before their enthusiasm for electing one of their own as OC's first Vietnamese -American Supervisor.

1st Supervisor District Special Election: The Final Numbers -- For Now At least

ROV Neal Kelley has posted the final revised election results for the 1st Supervisor District special election following the recount -- at least they're final for now:

County Supervisor First District, Short Term

Completed Precincts: 179 of 179                                            

                                                 Vote Count                      Percentage

JANET NGUYEN                           10919                                24.1%

TRUNG NGUYEN                          10912                               24.1%

TOM UMBERG                              9725                                21.4%

CARLOS BUSTAMANTE                 7460                                16.5%

MARK ROSEN                               2181                                 4.8%

BRETT ELLIOTT FRANKLIN            1739                                 3.8%

KERMIT MARSH                            1335                                 2.9%

LARRY PHAN                                  417                                 0.9%

LUPE MORENO                               383                                 0.8%

BENNY DIAZ                                   273                                 0.6%

Mike Schroeder Meets The Press

Here's Trung Nguyen consigliere Mike Schroeder speaking to the assembled media following the Board of Supervisors decision, fielding good questions as well as stupid ones like, "How is Trung doing?":

I wasn't swift enough out of the boardroom to catch all of Phil Greer's press avail, but here's what I got:

Come on, Forbes!

In response to my last post about 10 days ago, one comment asked in part, "Who the hell is Frustrated Republican?"

Here's who:

Because their guiding economic philosophy, no matter how they try to disguise it, is socialism and because they rank the state as superior to the individual, Democratic politicians are supposed to get policy wrong.  I'm bothered when Dems propose legislation which infringes my individual liberties, but not at all surprised.

When Republicans get it wrong, however, I lose it.  Unfortunately, today far too many Republican leaders deviate from what are supposed to be our core principles... from now on, they will typically be the ones in the crosshairs of this blogger.

A great current example of such frustration comes not from an elected official, but Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes Magazine, which is supposed to "get" free market economics.  His his recent article, "How Moral is Capitalism?" is the type of thing that causes me to tear my hair out.

He seemingly starts off the article well enough, describing how capitalism "delivers the goods."  But this isn't news; over the last 30 years in particular, the fact that capitalism works has become self-evident. What we need to most effectively argue now is why free markets are right, which is because they are synonymous with individual liberty.

At the very least, I wish these "defenders" of capitalism wouldn't launch into discussions of how much government is the right amount, as Karlgaard does... in doing so, they tacitly endorse the Democrat argument that government has any role at all in certain areas of our economy.  A related real-world example is W's prescription drug plan; in creating it, he established the precedent that government belongs there in the first place; he gave HillaryCare one of the big pillars it couldn't win for itself, advanced our lurch toward European-style welfare economics and virtually assured that government will be permamnetly involved in presciption drugs because such programs never die, only expand.

This from a Republican President and a Republican Congress-- UGH!!

Well, it's not just our politicians... Forbes' Karlgaard proved that all of us on the right have some soul-searching to do, that after our November butt-kicking we're all in need of re-examining our core philosophies.