Prison Guards Against Mansoor

JUBAL ON MANSOOR'S CANDIDACY
Matthew Cunningham (the writer formerly known as Jubal) over at the Red County/OC Blog provided us with an interesting little piece of information in an entry today entitled, "AD68 Watch: Prison Guard Union May Target Allan Mansoor". Why does it not surprise me that the cadre of men and women with whom he is closely associated, having been a Sheriff Deputy/jailer for going on fifteen years, have apparently not only turned their back on him but have decided to aggressively oppose his political plans? What does that tell you about the man? I mean, who knows the real man better than those who have shared his workplace for a decade and a half?

RUNNING ALREADY!
Buried in the text is a link that tells us of a fundraiser tomorrow for our young jailer (is he still a jailer?)/mayor. If you follow the link you will find the invitation includes many of the OC GOP movers and shakers plus some much lesser minions from Costa Mesa. The names of Surat Singh, Mike and Judy Berry, Jim Righeimer and Steve Mensinger are shown as members of his "host committee". Honorary co-hosts include Gary Monahan, Wendy Leece, Colin McCarthy and Jeff Matthews - the last two, along with Mensinger, are recently appointed Costa Mesa commissioners. Appointed by whom, you ask? Guess...

EILEEN OF LAGUNA RIDES AGAIN!
Even more interesting is the fact that the hosts for this Rancho Santa Margarita event are George & Eileen Riviere. Who the heck are they, you might ask? Well, perhaps you'll recognize Eileen if we tell you she's a huge Mansoor supporter who showed up at many Minuteman events on his behalf. She writes to the local newspapers defending Mansoor's biased immigration policies as "Eileen Garcia". I've referred to her frequently as "Eileen of Laguna" - which is where she and hubby, George, reside.

HOBNOBBING WITH THE HEAVY HITTERS
You can pony up a hundred bucks and go rub shoulders with those "important" people... what a thrill! Or, you can fork over $3,900 - the maximum per person per election - and help Mansoor fill his war chest for the election - which is only seventeen months away! Good grief!

SEND HIM YOUR MONEY!
So, all you well-heeled Mansoor sycophants, please, please send him your non-tax deductible contributions so he can use your bucks to lose in the Republican primary next spring to one of the well-organized, well-funded Vietnamese-American candidates for the same seat that are already circling their campaign wagons. Please spend your money on Mansoor's hopeless campaign. Heck, worst case scenario - he wins and heads for Sacramento, where he can use his limited intellect to inflict further damage on this state!

Consent Calendar Dollars And Laguna Beach Defense Bucks

FINAL 2007 MEETING
The Costa Mesa City Council will wrap up 2007 at their final meeting of the year on Tuesday, December 4th. Except for a study session scheduled for the 11th, they will not meet at an official scheduled meeting again until January 2, 2008. They will go out with a bang.

MORE SURPRISES IN STORE?
The agenda for Tuesday's meeting looks fairly routine, but with these folks you just never know. You will recall that our young jailer/mayor chose to spring his infamous plan to cross-designate all Costa Mesa police officers as immigration screeners two years ago at the final meeting of the year and ignited a firestorm that persists to this day.

THAT'S A LOT OF ASPHALT!
One thing I noticed on this agenda is the amount of money to be authorized in the Consent Calendar. The Consent Calendar is where "routine" items are placed and typically voted on in one big hunk, sometimes without any discussion at all. In addition to the usual warrants authorizing payroll and city operating expenses, this time there are eight items - numbers 7 through 14 - involving much needed street rehabilitation projects around our city. If you include item number 5, which will facilitate the completion of access roads and improvements to streets for the Home Ranch Project, and item number 6, a consulting contract to provide conceptual design and public outreach services for the proposed mulitpurpose trail at Paularino and Santa Ana Delhi Flood Control Channels, our city council may authorize the expenditure of nearly $12 million with a motion and vote that might take no more than 15 seconds! The breakdown is listed below:

Item 3 - Warrant Resolution 2189 - Payroll #723 $2,418,455.91
Payroll #722A $1,047.03
Operating Expenses $2,532.134.51
Total....$4,949,543.39

Item 4 - Warrant Resolution 2190 Operating Expenses $396,040.06

Sub-Total - Items 3 & 4....$5,345,583.45

Item 5 - Purchase of two parcels to facilitate completion $213,168.00
of improvements to Harbor Blvd. and 405
access to the Home Ranch project

Item 6 - Prof. Svcs. Contract - Multipurpose trail $92,277.00

Item 7 - Roadway Rehab. - East 19th St. $555,555.00
Santa Ana Ave. to Irvine Ave.

Item 8 - Roadway Rehab. - Baker St. $751,649.00
Fairview to Bear

Item 9 - Roadway Rehab. - Harbor Blvd. $1,430,213.98
Wilson St. to Newport Blvd.

Item 10 - Roadway Rehab. - Sunflower Ave. $1,092,387.38
Harbor Blvd. to Hyland

Item 11 - Roadway Rehab. - Hyland Ave. $859,000.00
So. Coast Dr. to MacArthur Blvd.

Item 12 - Roadway Rehab. - So. Coast Dr. $475,363.10
Harbor Blvd. - Hyland Ave.

Item 13 - Roadway Rehab. - So. Coast Dr. $842,030.00
Carmel Dr. to San Leandro Ln.

Item 14 - Parkway Concrete Repair and $374,800.00
New Sidewalk Project

Sub-Total - Items 5 - 14....$6,686,443.46

Grand Total, all items.....$12,032,026.91

Now, before you get all hot and bothered, all these items seem to be important projects and do need to be authorized, but it makes this taxpayer swallow hard when I realize that, in one quick wave of their magic wand, the City Council will agree to the expenditure of $12 million of our hard earned dollars. This is especially interesting when you consider this same group haggles over pennies during the budget discussions.

BREAKING NEWS! COST OF GARCIA'S FOLLY IN LAGUNA BEACH REPORTED!
The Orange County Register, in it's Immigration Blog, reports this morning that the City of Laguna Beach spent $75,000 defending itself in the lawsuit by Minutechick Eileen Garcia challenging their day laborer center. Combine that with the thousands of dollars being spent by the City of Costa Mesa in the Benito Acosta trials because of our young jailer/mayor's actions almost two years ago and it sure looks like those Minutemobsters really like to spend our hard-earned tax dollars on their flights of fancy. I find that amusingly curious since both Eileen of Laguna and our mayor claim to be conservatives. I guess they are good students of Minuteman Grand Pooba, Jim Gilchrist, who reportedly has had some difficulty managing money himself.

That should give you something to chew on this weekend as you stay all warm and cozy inside trying to figure out what that wet stuff is that's falling from the sky while watching the Trojans and Bruins battle for a potential Rose Bowl bid.

The Politics of Immigration

Over the past couple of days the local news media has presented us with some very interesting and thought-provoking articles to consider on the subject of illegal immigration. I'll present the following comments and the links to the individual pieces for your consideration. I think you'll find the time reading each well spent.

MINUTECHICK REBUFFED
Right off the top, a judge backed the city of Laguna Beach on the issue of their day laborer center. You will recall that our pal, Eileen of Laguna - Minutechick Eileen Garcia - and her hubby with a different last name sued the city. This link will give you the information. It looks like our young jailer/mayor's favorite Minutechick will appeal this ruling. At least it might keep her occupied and out of Costa Mesa's business for a change.

MANSOOR FIGHTS BACK - KINDA
Next, the Orange County Register produced an editorial on November 16, 2007, which can be read here, in which they addressed the Costa Mesa illegal immigration plans, and the presence of the ICE agent in our jail. On November 25, 2007 the Register ran a rebuttal to that editorial produced by our young jailer/mayor, which you can read here. Based on some of the stuff he wrote, it certainly does appear that the mayor has issues with those in authority, probably due to his under-achievement in his chosen profession.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HEALTHCARE COST INCREASES?
The Los Angeles Times provided us with an interesting story of a study that appears to refute much of the argument that illegal immigrants account for a large percentage of the use of emergency rooms for health care. This study postulates that those here illegally don't use the emergency rooms because of the need for identification - that they fear deportation more than they need health care. If true, this takes much of the wind out of the sails of some anti-illegal immigrant factions. You can read the Times article here.

ORANGE DAY LABORERS AND MINUTEMAN JIM
The City Council of the City of Orange considered the subject of day laborers in their city at their meeting Tuesday night. Among the more than a dozen speakers was the ubiquitous Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project and the man who anointed our young jailer/mayor with the mantle of Minutemanship. Old Jim certainly does like to spread the wealth, so to speak. You'll find the Register's account of that meeting here.

GREELEY, COLORADO, MAYOR OUSTED
Finally, the Los Angeles Times provided us with a most fascinating story from Tom Tancredo country in an article about the ouster of Tom Selders, the mayor of Greeley, Colorado - a city similar in size and ethnic makeup to that of Costa Mesa - apparently because he was viewed as sympathetic to illegal immigrants. The link to that article is here. Rather than try to give you a "spun" version of the article, I'll leave it to you to read it and form your own comparisons to our situation.

IMMIGRATION POLITICS - WHAT'S NEXT?
Illegal immigration, and it's impact both locally and nationally, continues to be a ripe pimple on the nose of American politics, that will undoubtedly affect local and national elections next year. There seems to be no middle ground on the issue. The most vocal, rabid anti-immigrant activists - like Gilchrist and his frothing mob and some of Costa Mesa's own self-styled "improvers" - leap at any attempt at reasoned discourse like starving pit bulls, ready to rip out the throat of those with an opposing viewpoint and label anyone who tries to present a moderate view as "illegal immigrant lovers". As we've seen locally in recent years, attempts at dialogue end up being shouting matches - or worse. This is a truly sad commentary on our times.