Cretin cop culture in tony Newport Beach

Have you been following that curious discrimination trial in Newport Beach? 

Neil Harvey, a 27-year veteran of the Newport Beach Police Department, alleges that he has been harassed and denied promotions because he is perceived as gay. He says he isn’t gay, but he’s got that reputation, and so he’s treated badly, he says.

Natch.

I’ve been following the trial, and it sounds like Harvey’s got a strong case.

In today’s OC Reg article about the trial (Documents: Ex-chief had religious test for Newport police), we learn that things are going from bad to worse for the reputation of the NBPD:

Sworn depositions by city police officers … depict an agency plagued over the years by homophobia, favoritism and even religious standards for employees hoping to ascend the ranks.
…
All that comes amid internal upheaval; rank-and-file officers last spring described "serious morale problems" that risked driving away seasoned personnel, although other officers called the charge baseless. In December, police management called for an investigation into the promotional process, alleging it is "not based on the actual merit of the candidates."

The worst revelations concern former Chief Bob McDonell, who left in 2007:

According to several accounts, McDonell had a religious litmus test requiring those looking to climb the department's ladder to share his "Christian values." ¶ One saying in the department suggested that "you've got to carry a Bible around or he's got to see you carrying a Bible around to get promoted," Sgt. John Hougan said in a deposition.

Apparently, under McDonell’s regime, cops in the department understood that only stable married men were promoted:

"I think there were like seven guys who got married or got engaged and all of a sudden shot to the top of the list," [Officer Kenra] Duerst said during testimony at Harvey's trial this week.

Sheesh. It turns out that McDonell was brought in in 1993 to

clean up a department tarnished by the ousting of Chief Arb Campbell and Capt. Tony Villa, who faced sexual harassment complaints from 10 female employees, including one who accused them of raping her at a party.

Natch.

See also R. Scott Moxley's comment

What is conservatism?

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.

—John Stuart Mill

Yesterday, the Contra Costa Times (Right wing to get its time at Berkeley) reported that

An anonymous donor has given $777,000 to [UC Berkeley] to establish a Center for the Comparative Study of Right-wing Movements. Researchers will study the right wing in other countries and its relationship to U.S. movements.

The CCT reporter notes that conservative movements don’t get much attention among scholars. Larry Rosenthal, a sociologist who will head the new program, notes that UC Berkeley will be studying the right wing when, if anything, such studies will be in retreat.

—And when the Republican Party is asking itself what it stands for.

Sounds good to me. Contrary to John Stuart Mill, who called conservatives the “stupid party” (strictly speaking, he said that about the Tories), I think that conservatism is rich in ideas that are worthy of study. Possibly, however, the Berkeley program will be studying movements—especially those outside the U.S.—and not so much ideas or philosophies.

Well, we’ll see, I guess.

Speaking of philosophies and stupid parties, have you been following the “war” between beltway Ditto Heads and conservative writer David Frum? On Monday, Frum wrote that

… [Rush Limbaugh, the self-appointed] leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as “losers.” With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence—exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we’re cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush’s every rancorous word—we’ll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time.
…
But do the rest of us understand what we are doing to ourselves by accepting this leadership? … [H]e cannot be allowed to be the public face of the enterprise—and we have to find ways of assuring the public that he is just one Republican voice among many, and very far from the most important.

Frum has taken quite a pounding from his "conservative" colleagues ever since. Unlike others who've challenged Rush and reaped the ditto-wind, Frum hasn't run to Rush to offer a heartfelt apology.

More recently (The Limbaugh schism), Frum explained that “What we are arguing about is the kind of party the GOP will be.” Frum thinks that Republicans seem intent on defining themselves out of government:

We are gradually shrinking from our former ambition—to govern—and taking our pleasure instead in alienation and complaint. Those journalists who cover the conservative world are surprised by how relieved and happy conservatives seem to be about having lost the 2008 election. No more irritating compromises, no more boring policy debates! We can recline into the pure assertion of conservative dogma, a job nobody does better than Rush Limbaugh himself. As Limbaugh told the CPAC crowd: We need no new policy ideas. Conservatism, he said, cannot be reshaped or reformed, and those who suggest otherwise must be “stamped out.” And who knows? That view may prevail among Republicans for some long time to come. But if it does, watch out. Just as the American left retreated from politics into the universities in the 1980s, so—if Rush has his way—will the American right retreat from politics into the airwaves in the 2000s.

These are interesting times.

See also

• Conservatives on the Titanic: blaming right-wing “carny barkers”
• Ten Conservative Principles

Republicans display cute trained monkey:

What a swell guy

Gosh, when I visited the website for UCI’s New University, I noticed something odd. The top news story was the following:

Samueli Spills His Secrets For Success
...The former CEO advised students about factors of luck and circumstance in starting a business.

That sounds pretty chirpy and upbeat.

But wait a minute! Isn’t this Samueli fella some kind of felon? Wasn’t he recently convicted of some sort of fraud? Sure he was.

I clicked on the link to the New University’s Samueli story. “Dr. Henry Samueli, co-founder of the Irvine-based Broadcom Corporation,” it says, “discussed the reasons behind the company’s success” last Thursday at the “McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium.”

McDonnell Douglas? Sheesh.

I scanned the rest of the article. It kept being positive. Samueli’s Broadcom Corp, it goes on to say, is a “global leader in wired and wireless communication …According to Samueli, the military, which was Broadcom’s major client during the company’s startup days, provided an advantage and paved the way for later success.”

Chirp, chirp, chirp. Bang, bang, bang.

Evidently, Samueli explained how he landed contracts with big companies such as Intel. Plus there was Broadcom’s “expansion into different fields.”

Gotta have good technology, said the S-man.

And you’ve gotta have good timing. Don’t be too early, don’t be too late.

Be just right.

Apparently, students in the audience asked questions. Some kid asked about “stimulus.” Samueli explained that business partnerships are “key.”

What about luck and risk? Yeah, you gotta take risks, be lucky. --And maintain rigidity. Don't forget that!

And what about those Might Ducks?!

The New University noted that, while Broadcom “has shown Samueli’s entrepreneurial growth and spirit, his philanthropy and outside interests have garnered equivalent success.”

Gosh, he sure is a swell guy.

Finally, in the last and 28th paragraph, we read that

Despite Samueli’s entrepreneurship at Broadcom, he has been suspended indefinitely by the NHL in regards to the Ducks’ operations, now helmed by Michael Schulman. This is due to his lawsuit dealing with illegal backdating of stock options last year. Additionally he stepped down from his board position at Broadcom.

Hmmm. According to Wikipedia,

On June 23, 2008, Samueli pleaded guilty for lying to SEC for $2.2 billion of backdating. Under the plea bargain, Samueli agreed to a sentence of five years probation, a $250,000 criminal fine, and a $12 million payment to the US Treasury. His sentencing is scheduled for August 18….

During the technology boom in the 2000s, Samueli and Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III awarded millions of stock options to attract and reward employees. Prosecutors alleged Samueli and Nicholas granted options to others, including some other top executives but not themselves, to avoid having to report $2.2 billion in compensation costs to shareholders.

Prosecutors focused on the fact that Samueli denied under oath any role in making options grants to high-ranking executives. As part of his plea agreement, Samueli admitted the statement was false, and admitting to being part of the options-granting process while not acknowledging that the options awards were flawed.

On September 8, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney rejected a plea deal that called for Samueli to receive probation, writing: "The court cannot accept a plea agreement that gives the impression that justice is for sale". 

Commencement speaker choice a good one

Good news! Irvine Valley College President Glenn Roquemore has announced “the selection of Dean Sharon Salinger, University of California, Irvine, as IVC’s 2009 Commencement Speaker.”

Salinger is, among other things, a noted historian. Read more about Dr. Salinger here.

Her books: Amazon.

Congratulations and kudos (or at least one kudo) to the speaker selection committee (including Rebel Girl!) and Prez Rocky.

I was resolved in my own mind to have rested this night at Southerns, but on my approach to the House it was no more than a mere Hut, full of rude mean people, and tho' some of their countenances were not quite so unpromising as those I left at Roans, they were attended with this additional discouragement to me, that they were every one, as well as the Landlord, inflamed with liquor and exceeding turbulent and noisy.

—A quotation that begins Salinger's Taverns and Drinking in Early America

Wow. Sounds like last week's CPAC meeting.

Saddleback College is still smokin'

Marla Jo Fisher of the OC Register reports (2 more O.C. colleges ban smoking) that Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College (in Orange) have now joined two other OC community colleges—namely, Fullerton and Golden West—in banning smoking on campus, except for parking lots.

Santa Ana College has gone further, banning the use of any tobacco products. The school has adopted the designation “Tobacco-free campus.”

Marla notes that, when, some time ago, Fullerton College banned smoking and eliminated ashtrays, trash-can fires started breaking out all over campus like pimples on a teen-aged face.

At the February meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees, a student addressed the board, urging support for making Saddleback College “Tobacco-free.”

Trustees stared at the kid like carps.


No doubt efforts to drag our colleges into the Twenty-First Century will continue, inspiring Trustee Tom Fuentes (at some future point) to intone that Socialism and Humanism, among other dark things, continue to menace "our Land," tempting our "good" young people into lives of gayness, vegetarianism, and unfettered teetotalitarianism.

Amen.

See also
• Abortion protestors today at Santiago Canyon College
• Chancellor Mathur blames his loutishness on hormones

How much more don’t we know?

Unbelievable!

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that

The secret legal opinions issued by Bush administration lawyers after the Sept. 11 attacks included assertions that the president could use the nation’s military within the United States to combat terrorism suspects and to conduct raids without obtaining search warrants.

That opinion was among nine that were disclosed publicly for the first time Monday by the Justice Department….

The opinions reflected a broad interpretation of presidential authority, asserting as well that the president could unilaterally abrogate foreign treaties, ignore any guidance from Congress in dealing with detainees suspected of terrorism, and conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants.
…
The opinion authorizing the military to operate domestically was dated Oct. 23, 2001, and written by John C. Yoo, at the time a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, and Robert J. Delahunty, a special counsel in the office…. (Memos Reveal Scope of Power Bush Sought in Fighting Terror) [My emphases.]

To see John Yoo’s 37-page opinion, go here (a large pdf file).

These days, Yoo teaches at Chapman University School of Law in the city of Orange (he’s on a semester-long leave from Cal). Today, the OC Reg offers an interview of the fellow. Some excerpts:

Q. Were you surprised with the student reaction at Berkeley to you being there?
A. Berkeley is sort of a magnet for hippies, protesters and left-wing activists. So I'm not surprised that being one of the few recognizable conservatives on campus that I would generate a lot of heat and friction….

Q. Have you done anything interesting since moving to Southern California?
A. I'm getting in shape, which everyone here seems to be in. I went and joined this L.A. Sports Club down in Irvine, and Kobe Bryant works out there….
...
Q. What needs to be understood with governmental decisions?
A. There are tradeoffs inherent in every question. Someone can say, "I think it's more important that other countries have a more favorable opinion of us than any intelligence we gain from interrogation." That's a benefit and a cost. That's the cost … we will get less information about the enemy.

John Yoo is Chapman’s Fletcher Jones Distinguished Vising Professor of Law. According to the university,

The Fletcher Jones Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law is selected annually from nominees and candidates who possess exceptionally outstanding credentials in legal education, and whose personal and professional lives reflect the highest ethical standards. [My emphasis.]

Today: Keith Olbermann interviews Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley re the memos:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Those perky Republicans

Williams & Cruz spending big taxpayer bucks in beauteous & delightful Sacramento

You’ll recall that Saddleback College’s new President, Tod Burnett, previously served as deputy appointments secretary for Governor Schwarzenegger. (You can see why Chancellor Mathur wanted him so badly.) 

According to a district press release, “[Burnett] advised the Governor on making appointments to hundreds of positions in state government.”

I guess Mr. Goo thinks Burnett will eventually make a few calls for 'em.  You know, open some doors. (It's all about the students, you understand.)

Burnett’s Sacramento successor (or, at any rate, the guy who has the job now) is Republican John Cruz who resides in San Clemente.

That's quite a commute.

According to OC Weekly's Matt Coker (John Cruz Snared),

John Cruz … is the appointments secretary for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The LA Times caught Cruz's hand in the state taxpayer cookie jar in the Sunday piece "California Paid for Top Officials' Free Rides."

Cruz, who earns $133,728 a year to head the staff charged with scrutinizing candidates for California's many boards and commissions, has charged taxpayers for his flights and for hotel bills of up to $382 a night on regular trips between his home and Sacramento, according to reporter Michael Rothford's examination of state disclosure records….
…
The Times reports: Cruz has spent as much as $4,196 traveling in one month; taxpayers have reimbursed him for hotel bills more than four times as high as the allowable state rate of $84 after he stayed two nights at the Hyatt in Sacramento for $383 each; and he did not obtain the required prior permission to pay that much.

Referring to Cruz and various others on the Governor's staff & cabinet, the Times reports:

State law allows employees to charge taxpayers only for activities on behalf of the public, which do not include commuting or events related to their personal lives.

"Is anybody at the wheel here?" said Michael Josephson, president of the nonprofit Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles.

"The best possible case for this, which is still not a good case, is [that] nobody is providing oversight. . . . The worst case is that you have some people who are knowingly taking advantage." (Free rides)

Gosh, this Cruz fella reminds me of someone in our midst. Hmmm.

(Near as I can tell, Tod Burnett, albeit woefully inexperienced as a college administrator, seems to be a good guy and a hard worker. Plus he seems to have an independent streak. Just maybe Raghu miscalculated this time.)

Idiot nation: carnival & spectacle & overkill

The OC Reg reports (Mayor who sent watermelon e-mail quits council, too) that Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose, who recently resigned over his unfortunate "watermelon" email, has decided to bail on his city council seat too.

"For the love of my community, and the health and well-being of my family, I am submitting my resignation as a Council Member," Grose said in a succinct statement to his council colleagues and Los Alamitos' city manager.

Supervisor John Moorlach expressed regret about Grose’s decision: "…I don't see a pattern and would not have called for his resignation from his council seat,” said Moorlach. Moorlach wished him well. 

Good for Moorlach.

The Los Alamitos city council meets tonight, and cops are being brought in for crowd control. Will Al Sharpton show up to speak as rumored? God, I hope not.

Accreditation actions for other colleges

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) met in January and took actions with regard to dozens of institutions. As you know, both Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges got essentially a clean bill of health from the Commission. 

But lots of colleges were on an ACCJC sh*t list of one kind or another. What happened to the other colleges?

Well, it's a bloody mess. I visited ACCJC’s website, which supposedly presents “the actions taken by the Commission … beginning with the most recent meeting.”

In my experience, ACCJC is slow to update this page, but it has at long last posted the results of their January meeting (see Recent Commission Actions).

According to that site, the Commission's January actions are as follows:

Reaffirmed Accreditation: 4 colleges
Removed from Warning and Reaffirmed Accreditation: 6 colleges
Removed from Warning: 1 college (Victor Valley College)
Removed from Probation and Reaffirmed Accreditation: 1 college
Removed from Probation: 1 college
Removed from Probation and Placed on Warning: 1 college
Placed on Warning: 6 colleges:

Cuesta College
El Camino College
Long Beach City College
Rio Hondo College
Santa Ana College
Santiago Canyon College

Continued on Warning: 5 colleges
Continued on Show Cause: 1 college
Placed on Probation: 3 colleges
Placed on Show Cause: 2 colleges
Accepted Midterm Report: 2 colleges
Accepted Focused Midterm Report: 6 colleges
Accepted Progress Report: 4 colleges:

Grossmont College
Heald College
Irvine Valley College
Saddleback College

Accepted Follow-Up Report: 8 colleges
Accepted Report: 1 college
Accepted Closure Report: 1 college
Accepted Show Cause/Closure Report and Terminated Accreditation effective April 3, 2009: 1 college
Rejected Follow-Up Report: 1 college

Orange Coast College:

I visited OCC’s Coast Report and found there a recent article (OCC’s fate in the mail) according to which

An updated [college accreditation] report will be sent to the [ACCJC] Thursday as Orange Coast College tries to salvage its name and get off a statewide warning list. OCC was put on warning by the group in June after failing to meet recommendations the committee made more than a year ago…. The recommendations included working on student learning outcomes, strengthening program review, creating a long term planning and budget process and distinguishing the functions of the college from the district.

…
…Despite the strides Coast has made, campus officials say they remain unsure whether OCC will be taken off warning.
“What the committee thinks is anyone’s guess,” [OCC President Bob] Dees said…. [My emphasis.]

That last recommendation sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?

I keep hearing that, since our colleges received their ACCJC seal of approval, Chancellor Mathur seems to have forgotten all about distinctions between the roles and responsibilities of the colleges (on the one hand) and the district (on the other) and the importance of maintaining them (highlighted by our recent anxiety-inducing accreditation adventure). 

For instance, apparently, the Chancellor now seems to think that it is the job of the district to initiate the two colleges' continued accreditation efforts, among other things.

Nope.

My new rug.

TigerAnn smiles and laughs on this fine day

TigerAnn plainly enjoys this fine weather. She sniffed the air and explored.

She nearly caught several lizards. Then she lounged for a while in the sun. She's a happy girl.