The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT —
"[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
Gazing as usual at his navel, the OC Weekly's Matt Coker reminds us that the Western Conservative Political Action Conference will be held in tony Newport Beach this weekend (Friday and Saturday) at the Radisson.
Among the participants: Andrew Breitbart, Jim Lacy, Tom Fuentes, Bruce Herschesohn, Sir Eldon Griffiths, Governor Tim Pawlenty, Meg Whitman, Chuck DeVore, Jeff Miller, Ralph Reed, Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce, Steve Poizner, Barry Goldwater, Jr., Gary Kreep, Don Wagner, John Ziegler, John Eastman, Michelle Steel, Matt/Jubal Cunningham and Jon Fleischman.
If there's a God, this dark assemblage will attract thunder and lightning and miasmic vortices. Imagine all of their dismal deeds momentarily projected onto the hideous, dark clouds above Fashion Island. Imagine the fire, the sulphur, the Fuentes.
The world will surely pop.
Former Mike "the racist" Carona appointee Jon "the dolt" Fleishman "coos"( Matt's word) that someone named Andrew Breitbart will be giving the opening comments for a panel Fleishman will be on. According to Matt, Breitbart, a former Drudge Report staffer, once described himself as "Matt Drudge's bitch."
The "bitch" of a bastard? How unseemly.
This Breitbart fellow is shopping for a publisher of his new book, which "shows conservatives a new way to fight back at the three big pillars of liberalism: academia, media and Hollywood."
We at the community colleges form the widest part of that first pillar, you know.
Matt Cunningham of Red County informs us that Don Wagner’s campaign has announced:
Today, the Atlas PAC, a conservative free-market advocacy organization, announced its support of Don Wagner's bid for the 70th Assembly District.
"The problems we are facing in our state and national economies, are not problems that can be solved with government intervention. Only free-markets can correct inequities in our financial structure but that must be coupled with a strong commitment to fiscal prudence in our governance. Reckless spending to satisfy special interests mitigates the impact of the market's ability to correct," said Lee Lowery, chairman of Atlas PAC. "Don understands how pro-growth policies will improve California's competitiveness while improving the lives of its citizens."
"I am honored to be endorsed by the Atlas Pac," said Wagner. "The Atlas PAC has always been on the frontlines fighting for free-market principles. I share their vision and look forward to fighting with them against needless government intervention in our economy."
The Atlas PAC Endorsements Committee examines a candidate's dedication to advancing a fiscally conservative, pro-business agenda—minimizing government regulation and taxation of individuals and businesses, eliminating inappropriate and wasteful government spending, and allowing the free market to reward initiative and entrepreneurship.
Don Wagner and his wife, Megan, and their three children live in Irvine. He is a graduate of UCLA and the University of California, Hastings College of Law. Don has been elected to three consecutive terms on the Board of Trustees of the South Orange County Community College District, and currently serves as the Board's president. Don was a founder of the Orange County chapter of the Federalist Society, a nationwide organization of 40,000 conservative lawyers, law students, and scholars dedicated to preserving the rule of law from activist courts.
Above: at an Atlas PAC event (Newport Harbor Cruise), Larry Dick carouses with Tom Fuentes. See other photos at Atlas PAC.
…As part of a plan to plug UC's battered budget, the regents may vote as early as next month on the controversial, tradition-breaking proposal to require engineering undergraduates, along with those studying business, to pay $900 more a year than the rest of the student body. That would be in addition to the $2,514 systemwide fee increase all students are likely to see by next fall.
Revenue-hungry UC officials say the two fields were chosen because salaries for their faculty members are significantly higher than the rest and because students majoring in those subjects tend to land well-paid jobs after graduation….
Evidently, this sort of thing is fairly common in other states.
Michael Moore:putting “heart before head every time”
Sheesh, as I often remind my students, we live in a very special time, what with the economy tanking, people freaking, greed disappointing, bastards hiding, demagogues rising, etc.
Naturally, in the middle of this comes Michael Moore, a guy who’s all heart and no head, more or less, with a really big ass besides. I thought it might be fun to peruse some recent reviews of his Capitalism: a Love Story.
…The problem with Capitalism is that its weakest moments are in its dénouement. It's still a great film, don't get me wrong. But I felt really ambivalent at the end, even Moore himself sounds tired, a little withdrawn. The film very effectively communicates that blood is on both Republican and Democratic hands when it comes to our nation's economic collapse.…
Moore seems to want to convince that there's a light at the end of the tunnel but this time I just don't believe him—even though I want to. His argument that the victory of the Republic Windows and Doors workers coupled with Obama's election represent a rebellion against capitalism just don't hold up. And let's face it, his other films' warnings were not heeded….
…Forget greedy borrowers, napping regulators or global economic imbalances. The recession is entirely the fault of Wall Street’s robber-barons ….
As in “Fahrenheit 9/11”, … Mr Moore sees conspiracies everywhere. The $700 billion bail-out after Lehman’s collapse was no genuine attempt to stave off depression, but a financial coup d’état, staged by big banks. Like nefarious screen villains, the bankers “had a simple plan: to remake America to serve them”….
… Moore hasn't become this country's most successful documentary filmmaker because of his formal elegance or philosophical density. Instead, he's perfected technique that puts heart before head every time, combining a scattershot, even sloppy narrative structure with riveting human stories and wry sarcasm….
…As it happens, the most galvanizing words in the movie come not from the current president but from Roosevelt, who in 1944 called for a “second bill of rights,” asserting that “true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.” The image of this visibly frail president, who died the next year, appealing to our collective conscience — and mapping out an American future that remains elusive — is moving beyond words. And chilling: “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” It’s a brilliant moment of cinema both for the man delivering the speech and for Mr. Moore, who smartly realized that he’d found one other voice that needed to be as loud as his own.
Capitalism: A Love Story is by turns crude and sentimental, impassioned and invigorating. It posits a simple moral universe inhabited by good little guys and evil big ones, yet the basic thrust of its argument proves hard to resist.
Crucially, Moore (or at least his researchers) has done a fine job in ferreting out the human stories behind the headlines….
Moore's conclusion? That capitalism is both un-Christian and un-American, an evil that deserves not regulation but elimination. No doubt he had concluded all this anyway, well in advance of making the film, but no matter. There is something energising – even moving – about the sight of him setting out to prove it all over again. Like some shambling Columbo, he amasses the evidence, takes witness statements from the victims and then starts doorstepping the guilty parties.
In a sense, "Capitalism" comes by its wide-ranging, scattershot approach naturally. After all, this is a heck of a big subject….
That said, Moore's scattershot is a lot more interesting than some filmmakers' focus, and many of those individual parts are classic. For one thing, Moore retains the instincts of a shrewd stand-up comedian – the astonished, baffled looks he often wears are a case in point, as is his decision to include under the rubric of "When did Jesus become a capitalist?" the dubbing of a section of a biblical epic with free-market platitudes.
…
The main point Moore wants to make, the thing that drives him craziest, is his notion that capitalism, far from being a system that rewards excellence, is a scheme set up to make a profit on absolutely anything. He fears it has in recent decades turned American society into a culture that says money is the only value, and he has a number of cases he wants to use to make his point….
…
…While another documentary, Leslie Cockburn's "American Casino," does a better job with the questions surrounding massive housing foreclosures, Moore's film, aided by strong statements from Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), raises questions about the nature of the multibillion-dollar government bailout.
At the end of the day, perhaps the most startling thing about "Capitalism" is that Moore stands revealed not as some pointy-headed socialist but as an unreconstructed New Deal Democrat who admires Franklin D. Roosevelt, believes in increased democracy and opportunity, and feels that the decades-long weakening of unions has fatally weakened America. The fact that this will be a controversial stance says as much about today's political culture as it does about Moore's place in it.
Although administrators at Saddleback College have continuously displayed expertise in strategic planning, preparations are underway for an inevitable harsh year financially in 2010-2011. In order to make the college become as resourceful as possible, the Saddleback College Proposed Efficiencies was released and revisions are now being made through various heated discussions made by the Academic Senate….
WRITTEN BY CHUNK WHEELER - posted by Rebel Girl.
