70 Years Later...

A DAY TO REMEMBER...
I cannot let this day fade without recalling that this day, December 7, 2011, is the 70th anniversary of the attack by the Japanese Empire on our Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - the attack that launched us into World War II. That conflict, both in Europe and in the Pacific, eventually took more than 400,000 American lives during the slightly more than three and a half years of conflict.

THE WAR
Some have said that World War II unified this country to the point that it became THE dominate power in the world from the end of the war in 1945 until, barely, the present date. The late writer and commentator on "60 Minutes", Andy Rooney (he passed away November 14th) covered World War II as a writer for the Stars and Stripes and reminded us of that time in his life frequently with his commentaries and his books.

PLEASE VISIT THESE SITES...
I've written extensively about this anniversary for several years - 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. I hope you'll take the time to visit those entries to help you remember this date and what it meant to this nation - what we fought to defeat on two continents simultaneously.


THANKS TO THE "GREATEST GENERATION"
As the members of my parents generation - Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" - continue to die off I hope you will take a moment to thank those you know for their sacrifice. Every member of American society sucked it up and did their part to help win the war, not just those brave men and women in the military service. My father, for example, was ineligible for military service because of a leg injury, but he worked two full-time jobs for the duration - his regular job and then at least one defense-related job. His brother served in the SeaBees and two uncles on my mother's side served with distinction as officers in the Army. They, and their peers, returned from doing their duty in the war to help build this nation following the war.

ABOUT TO DEPLOY
In five days my grandnephew, Nathan Harrison, will deploy to Afghanistan for his first tour. He joined the Army right out of high school last year specifically to help win that conflict. In less than two week, at the age of 19, he will find himself in harm's way in a far-off land doing his duty for this country. He is the kind of young man that formed the cadre of the soldiers, sailors and airmen in World War II - ready to defend our country's interests, wherever it took them.


NEVER FORGET
Never forget the lessons of Pearl Harbor and never stop supporting our troops. They deserve it.

Dispatches From The War Zone

FEELIN' LIKE OLD ANDY
You know, sometimes trying to provide accurate, timely information on the activities in Costa Mesa feels a lot like being a war reporter - like that old curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, was in World War II. You know - "We sent 230 bombers to take out Hamburg today, but those darn Hun shot down 50 of them! Better luck next time, fellas!"

NUMBERS VS. "FACTS"
I constantly find myself trying to sort out the "real news" from the propaganda, with both sides doing their best to skew the news to their advantage. Most of the time it's pretty darn obvious, since we're dealing mostly with numbers and they are available for everyone to read and interpret. Sometimes, though, the parties engaged in this epic battle provide us with only one half of the equation and expect us to take it as gospel.

MUIR'S "WASTE WATCHER"
It has gotten almost comical lately. Last Friday the lovely Jennifer Muir of the OCEA fired off the first of her "Waste Watchers" pieces criticizing the "jewel-encrusted" badges provided to Jim Righeimer and Steve Mensinger - $175.00 a piece plus case and tax - as another example of wasteful spending. She also mentioned Bill Lobdell, the city's official mouthpiece, was making more than the Governor's mouthpiece.

"FACTCHECKS"
Over the weekend Lobdell fired back a volley in the form of a "Factcheck", explaining the "badges" and the mischaracterization of them. He didn't mention his pay.

MORE OCEA "WASTE"
Yesterday we get another waste-watcher submission from Muir, this time griping about "$7.8 million on planned cosmetic repairs at City Hall." I've not seen any reply from Lobdell yet.

SPINNING CONTINUES
In the meantime, the OCEA-sponsored Repair Costa Mesa ads continue to run on cable TV and continue to infest virtually every web page I open up with misleading and inaccurate "facts" and the OC GOP-guided (or misguided if you choose) minions of Righeimer - Colin McCarthy and Ethan Temianka - continue to spew their own version of faulty "facts" at their meetings of the Costa Mesa Taxpayer's Association meetings.

INVEST A HALF HOUR
You can view a 33 minute video clip of the last such meeting, HERE, hearing McCarthy and Temianka as they toss red meat to the rabid few - maybe 20 people - who attended. You'll have to bear with it because the quality of the video is pretty terrible, not to mention the "facts" presented. You'll hear "some of the usual suspects" on the tape - Mike and Judi Berry and Jeff Mathews, for example, as they gobble-up the slop being tossed in the trough.

THE "SILLY STUFF"
At 29:00 on the counter you'll hear McCarthy say, "The real issue on the outsourcing, just so that everybody knows, that what gets my neighbors so fired up about it isn't outsourcing fire or police or any of that stuff, it's outsourcing just some of the silly stuff that we don't even know that we have at City Hall. The Print Shop. The guy that gets the pension, benefits and great salary for photocopying when Kinkos could do that. Or the oil change. The guy that maintains the vehicles and changes the oil that gets a salary and benefits and a pension. Couldn't Jiffy Lube do that for a fraction of the price?"

MARKING TIME FOR THE REAL BATTLE
At 31:20 you'll hear Temianka, Righeimer's young associate, get to the nut of the issue when he says, " Outsourcing a few of these departments isn't the end all be all. But, what it's going to do, hopefully, in the next few years is get come of these ridiculous pensions off our backs basically. And if we can even do that and save maybe a million or two a year an get by until those other contracts expire then we have a lot more negotiation power when they come up."

STUDY SESSION TODAY
So, this afternoon when I attend the most recent City Council Study Session in council chambers beginning at 4:30, I'll continue to try to sort the wheat from the chaff and try to decide whether Jennifer Muir is actually our "Tokyo Rose" and if Jim Righeimer and his OC GOP buddies view Costa Mesa as the Sudetenland - to be taken over in the first strike of this war.

FOUR TOPICS OF DISCUSSION
Today we will learn about 1) The Budget Update - plans are for the draft budget to be presented to the council on the 17th.
2) Retiree Medical Benefit Program.
3) Marketing and Communication Initiatives Update - we assume this is the Lobdell/Dan Joyce arena.
4) Consultants updates - could be a long presentation since we have so many of them these days.

KHANH NGUYEN REPLACES BRANDT, MAYBE
Also, this week it was announced that Khanh Nguyen, formerly the Building Official will act as the Interim Development Services Director, replacing Kimberly Brandt who departs on May 13th and moves on to greener pastures in Newport Beach as of May 23rd.