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.

Oakland Airport to U.S. Marines: You're Not Worthy

This morning I received an email from the brother of a Marine in the unit referenced below.  The email speaks for itself and raises some disturbing questions.  While outside OC, it's an issue that is worth sharing.  The text below is unedited, although I have removed the name of the Marine who authored the email:

Marines and Soldiers Returning from Iraq not allowed into Oakland terminal

On September 27th 204 Marines and soldiers who were returning from Iraq were not allowed into the passenger terminal at Oakland International Airport.Instead they had to deplane about 400 yards away from the terminal where the extra baggage trailers were located.

This was the last scheduled stop for fuel and food prior to flying to Hawaii where both were based.  The trip started in Kuwait on September 26th with a rigorous search of checked and carry on baggage by US Customs. All baggage was x-rayed with a "backscatter" machine AND each bag was completely emptied and hand searched. After being searched, checked bags were marked and immediately placed in a secure container. Carry on bags were then x rayed again to ensure no contraband items were taken on the plane.  While waiting for the bus to the airport, all personnel were in quarantined in a fenced area and were not allowed to leave.

Ken Grubbs Wordsmithing For Chris Cox At SEC

Saw this item in Rick Reiff's OC Insider column in the OC Business Journal:

It's an OC reunion in DC -- Ken Grubbs, erstwhile OC Register editorial chief, has enlisted with former OC Rep. Chris Cox, now head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as his speechwriter.

Grubbs, who left the Reg in 1996, notes this is his fourth stint in Washington and "when this is up, I hope there's a place for me in south coastal OC"...

I hope so, too. It would be good to have Ken back in OC.

House Democrats To Petraeus & Crocker: We're Not Going To Believe Anything You Say

I'm watching the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Iraq Ambassador David Crocker.

Actually, they haven't begun testifying. They're sitting at their table listening to Representatives Ike Skelton
and Tom Lantos tell them, in effect, they have already made up their minds that the Iraq War is unwinnable and they are uninterested in anything Petraeus and Crocker have to say.

I wouldn't be surprised if Skelton and Lantos spend the rest of the hearing with their hands over their ears going "I'm not listening! I'm not listening! Wa-wa-wa-wa!"

Rep. Duncan Hunter and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have made an admirable and effective push-back against defeatist efforts to pre-emptively discredit Petraeus and Crockerr's testimony, which includes this despicable full-page ad MoveOn.org took out in the New York Times today.

As a (unsurprisingly) un-named Democratic Senator told Politico.com last Friday:

"'No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV,' noted one Democratic senator, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. 'The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us.'

I'd like to know what anti-war Rep. Lroetta Sanchez has to say about MoveOn.org's ad.

UPDATE (2:17 p.m.): I called Rep. Sanchez's office seeking her comment on the MoveOn.org ad, was routed to the press secretary and left a message. We'll see what happens.

FOLLOW-UP: Is Disney Putting Path to 9/11 on the Path to Nowhere?

UPDATE: Wall Street Journal Commentary - A Real 9/11 Cover-Up, By Cyrus Nowrasteh

On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93, media is abuzz with more 9/11 controversy.

Last week the LA Times ran an article in which it interviewed respected filmmaker Cyrus Nowrasteh about last year's hit television miniseries, Path to 9/11. In that interview and numerous interviews since, Nowrasteh asserts that an unnamed executive at Disney told him, "if Hillary weren't running for president, this wouldn't be a problem."

In my own interview with Nowrasteh, he expanded on his frustration that Disney refuses to release the DVD of Path to 9/11; a movie the public deserves to see. Nowrasteh asserts, "There is no rational reason for this DVD to not be out and I hope [Disney] will release it." He continued, "For all the attacks on Fahrenheit 9/11, for all of the attacks on the Reagan miniseries, both of those were released and they are both available on DVD. It's only The Path to 9/11 that has been buried."