Another clueless local Tea Partier; Irvine 11 plead "not guilty"; pissed students occupy Admin bldg.

     R. Scott Moxley reports on yet another clever local Republican with a love of racist humor:

Racist Orange County Republican Email: President Obama and His Parents Are Apes

     The Weekly has obtained a copy of an email sent to fellow conservatives this week by Marilyn Davenport, a Southern California Tea Party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County Republican Party.
     Under the words, "Now you know why no birth certificate," there's an Obama family portrait showing them as apes.
     Here's the image attached to the email:

     Reached by telephone and asked if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, "Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black…."

'Irvine 11' plead not guilty to disrupting UCI speech (OC Reg)

     Eleven current and former university students pleaded not guilty Friday to misdemeanor charges for disrupting the speech of an Israeli diplomat at UC Irvine last year.
     Seven of the so-called "Irvine 11" defendants were present for the arraignment, and each answered "Not guilty, your honor," to the charges. The other four entered their pleas through their defense attorneys.
     Last month, the defendants filed a motion asking Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson to remove the Orange County District Attorney's Office from the case, saying prosecutors illegally issued subpoenas and referred to the case internally as the "UCI Muslim Case," a term they say is evidence of "religious bias" against them.
     Prosecutors say the defendants have failed, among other things, to support their motion with affidavits from witnesses competent to testify to its facts, and must demonstrate that the "conflict is so severe that it is unlikely" they will receive fair treatment. They add that the defendants' claims of prosecutorial misconduct are unsubstantiated and untrue….

Sacramento State U. Students Occupy Administration Building (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     Roughly 20 students have been camped out at California State University at Sacramento’s administration building for the past two days, demanding pay cuts for administrators and an end to raises in tuition, the Sacramento Bee reported. College officials are worried about health and sanitation issues in the building, a spokeswoman told the newspaper. The action started on Wednesday as part of a larger protest at all 23 Cal State campuses.

SEE ALSO
• Former college president fined by FPPC (OC Reg)
• Despite rhetoric, data show taxes at historic low (OC Reg)
• Language at risk of dying out – the last two speakers aren't talking (Guardian)

"Jesus and the American soldier"

South Orange County Community College District Prayer Lawsuit Settled (Matt Coker; Naval Gazing)

     The South Orange County Community College District has settled a suit brought by some of its teachers and one former student over the practice of opening prayers at various official district events.
     The plaintiffs in Westphal v. Wagner—which references Karla Westphal, a Saddleback professor who was one of the plaintiffs, and Donald Wagner, the former SOCCCD board president who is now a state assemblyman—sought a complete ban on prayers at the chancellor's opening session and scholarship ceremonies at the district's campuses, Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.
     Under the pact the district made with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Washington, D.C.-based group that represented the plaintiffs, commencement ceremonies will continue to include either a moment of silence or non-sectarian prayer. [Actually, no: each college will have the power to decide whether or not to include a moment of silence or prayer.]
     Last May, federal district Judge R. Gary Klausner denied a preliminary injunction against SOCCCD invocations at graduations, leading to an appeal before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
     Justices Harry Pregerson, 87, who was appointed by then-President Lyndon Johnson; and George W. Bush appointees Carlos T. Bea, 76; and Richard R. Clifton, 60, were to this week hear a request for a permanent injunction. The settlement canceled that.
     At a hearing on a preliminary injunction in December, questioning seemed to indicated some justices had no problem with prayers on the public campus per se, with one noting, "There is a long line of ceremonial invocations that have been upheld as constitutional."
     But at least a couple jurists were alarmed over the evangelical invocation Wagner made at one district function and the screening of a video that ended with the phrase, "Only two people died for you" before melting into the words: "Jesus and the American soldier."
     The justices also wondered who was left to receive relief from the case, since Wagner went to the Assembly, fellow defendant Raghu Mathur resigned as chancellor, trustee John Williams was in the process of resigning and the student plaintiff had transferred to UC Berkeley.
     "Only the professors are left," one justice mused. [Well, no: two non-faculty were still among plaintiffs; the district pressed hard to force anonymous student plaintiffs to reveal their names--nice, eh? And that may have scared one or two of them off.]

Don gets carried away sometimes