The greatest bad for the greatest number

1. CONDEMNING THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?
I recently came across a fascinating and prescient old Mother Jones article, published in January of 1998. Its full title:

“GOD'S VICE-REGENTS: the religious right has conquered the Republican Party in California--now they're bringing the same game plan to your state.”

What does this old article have to do with us? —Everything, I’m afraid.

In the article, Suzanne Herel wrote: 



A faction of right-wing Republicans who believe in governing by the Bible has already taken control of the California Republican Party. Now they're poised to duplicate that feat in 35 other states—and counting—under the banner of the new National Federation of Republican Assemblies [NFRA]. Their immediate goal: to cultivate a Reaganesque candidate who can win the presidency in 2000. Their long-term goal: an America ruled by the word of God.

George W isn't Reaganesque, but he sure is rightwinged, and religiously so. Herel continued:

The story begins a decade ago. Frustrated by the failure of Pat Robertson's 1988 presidential bid, some of his followers in Sacramento hatched a plan to take over the California Republican Party. First they packed the then-moderate California Republican Assembly (CRA), a mainstream caucus with a heavy hand in the state party's nominating process, with their Bible-minded colleagues. By 1990 they controlled the CRA, and since then the CRA's clout has helped the religious conservatives nominate and elect local candidates and—crucially—catapult true believers into state party leadership slots.


Ten years of dedication and planning later, the operation is a stunning success. Members of the Bible-waving CRA—which now bills itself as the "conservative conscience" of the state GOP—hold the top 13 elected spots in the party leadership, from state chair on down to second assistant secretary. In addition to the top posts, CRA members now make up roughly two-thirds of the California Republican Party's 1,700 voting members. That means they decide whom to nominate in the primaries—and whom to smear using their considerable resources of influence and money.

…But California was just the beginning. Flush with their success, the leaders of the CRA have exported their model of state party infiltration nationwide…Already 36 states have Republican Assemblies modeled on the CRA, and organizers expect conservative groups in the remaining 14 to organize their own affiliates by Easter. NFRA membership now stands at about 15,000, says NFRA president Stephen Frank, a former president of the CRA who advocates legislating by biblical principles…Says Frank: "Our goal is to organize grassroots support to win primaries for Constitutional conservatives, and elections for principled Republicans."

…The NFRA game plan is grassroots politicking, CRA style: "We need to win council seats, school boards, statehouse races, assembly races, and Congress, and the cumulative will be winning the presidency," Frank says. "We're doing it the old-fashioned way: community by community."


…Dominating the GOP nomination process, CRA has racked up dozens of big primary victories….CRA also claims credit for the winning ballot initiatives Prop. 187, which denied benefits to illegal immigrants, and Prop. 209, which dismantled affirmative action; and CRA now champions the English for Children initiative, which would end bilingual education, and the Payroll Protection for Unionized Workers initiative, which would abolish the automatic payroll checkoff for union dues.


…The CRA's principles support the right to bear arms, strict interpretation of the Constitution, limited government, and "fair" trade and sovereignty. They condemn the separation of church and state, abortion, affirmative action, women in combat, and homosexuality.

And members…advocate legislating by the Bible."Legislation should be biblical principles put into action," Frank says.

…[Former CRA Veep John] Stoos, in an article for the Chalcedon Report, a journal of the radical Christian Reconstructionist movement, goes so far as to call Christian politicians God's "vice-regents...those who believe in the Lordship of Christ and the dominion mandate."


The "dominion mandate," Stoos told the MoJo Wire, "is that individuals are impacted by salvation. You will want to obey God's commandments, and to the extent you do that, you start being a better person. ...If there are enough of these groups in a community, the community is different. If government has a rule of law that is biblical justice, you will have freedom and liberty."



As proof of his theory, he points to the repeal in the 1970s of laws prohibiting homosexual sex acts—biblical offenses. "The proof is in the pudding," said Stoos. "Since we lifted those laws, we've had the biggest epidemic in history."

• The chief funder of the Christian Reconstructionist movement was then—and still is—fabulously wealthy Orange Countian Howard Ahmanson, a pal of Tom Fuentes’.

• Howard Ahmanson also funds the Claremont Institute, on whose Board of Directors sits Tom Fuentes. Ahmanson’s wife and Fuentes’ boss sit on CI’s Board of Advisors.

• Once, in a column that discussed the phenomenon of firms giving campaign contributions to both Democrats and Republicans, Fuentean crony Robert Novak quoted Fuentes as saying that, in Orange County, "we" call such contributors "whores." Mr. Fuentes is known also for his low esteem of so-called RINOs, Republican in Name Only, i.e., Republicans who are too willing to abandon core conservative principles. Fuentes sees himself as unyielding re core principles.

• Trustee Donald Wagner has been affiliated with Education Alliance, an organization funded (initially) by Howard Ahmanson and which originated 1998’s payroll protection initiative (an failed attempt to weaken the political clout of teachers unions). Wagner's 1998 trustee run was supported by EA.

• Wagner is founder of the local chapter of the Federalist Society, a far-right legal organization that is dedicated to a strict interpretation of the Constitution. The FS works closely with the Bush administration--e.g., in the selection of Supreme Court Justice nominees.

• When Tom Fuentes stepped down as Chair of the local GOP in 2004, during his "farewell remarks" (Fuentes' Farewell), he said:

Now, some have asked me what is it that gives me most joy in twenty years as Chairman of this County Party. It is a little thing. It is the fact that anywhere in this county, whenever Republicans gather, we begin our time together with prayer. You may pray in your way, and I may pray in mine, but, my friends, Republicans in this county always acknowledge a power higher than ourselves as did our Founding Fathers. And, the values, principles, and ideals that flow from the acknowledgement of the divinity, guides our conservative social agenda. It gives us pause to reflect on what is really important in life and society. It motivates us to defend causes that are so critical in the cultural war that today engulfs our nation and its society. Because you have allowed me to serve as your Chairman, I have been able to enjoy the opportunity to give encouragement to countless young activists to become involved in the leadership of our party. (My emphasis)

2. THE GREATEST BAD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER

On Thursday, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) meets in Washington.

According to the EAC website, “The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan agency, is charged with disbursing payments to states for replacement of voting systems and election administration improvements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration. (My emphases.)

Elsewhere on the site, we are told that the EAC is a creature of 2002’s Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA), which seeks to, among other things, “establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems.”

It appears that HAVA came about as a result of the controversy surrounding the 2000 Presidential election. That makes sense.

As near as I can tell, however, lawmakers and those concerned with HAVA/EAC have proceeded on the assumption that improving the process of federal elections means moving toward electronic voting.

Yikes!

As you know, our own trustee Tom Fuentes is on the EAC’s Board of Advisors.

Uh-oh.

Last Thursday, the Commissioners testified before the U.S. House Committee on House Administration, saying:

Although EAC is amongst the smallest of independent Federal commissions, it may have the greatest impact on the largest number of persons. The changes that EAC has helped states and local governments make in Federal election administration will affect every voter in this country.

Maybe that's true.

At the risk of repeating myself, may I say “UH-freaking-OH!”

In a possible world

John Williams, the unionist's Best Friend

This morning, I happened upon some interesting info on some of our candidate trustees and their positions on issues.

Evidently, the OC Christian Coalition sends out questionnaires to candidates, asking predictably rightwingular questions. Insofar as candidates respond, the OC CC displays responses on a website (OC Christian Coalition Voters Guide).

About half of the candidate pool seem to blow off the questionnaire. But Nancy Padberg, who ran for Superior Court Judge, and John Williams, who ran for County Public Administrator, dutifully answered the CC’s questions.

Nancy’s responses are perhaps too predictable to mention: she’s against abortion and physician assisted suicide; she supports religious people’s right to assemble just about anywhere; she plans to plant posies; etc.

In the case of the non-judicial county offices—including Public Administrator—candidates were asked somewhat different questions. Our man John “Orlando” Williams’ responses are provided below. Pay special attention to the 4th "issue":

SUPPORTS
Requiring parental notification in cases when a minor seeks an abortion

SUPPORTS
Prohibiting the teaching of homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle in public schools

SUPPORTS
Denying protected minority status under civil rights laws to individuals based on their sexual preference

SUPPORTS
“Paycheck Protection Act” requiring signatures from members before unions can take dues for political purposes

SUPPORTS
Denying state funded benefits other than emergency medical care to illegal immigrants

SUPPORTS
Access to city/county facilities for the Boy Scouts of America

As usual, the Christian Coalition have homosexuality on the brain. They seem to view homosexuality not only as immoral but as a contagion. They are morons.

I get it, with their issue concerning the Boy Scouts, but what about Girl Scouts? If you’re gonna be a moron, you shouldn’t be sexist about it, I say.

Williams’ responses are unsurprising, if you've been paying attention to the guy. But I want to underscore his view concerning the “Paycheck Protection Act.” You see, John Boy always presents himself as the Union’s Best Friend. Just listen to the guy, if you can stand it. You'd swear he spends all his free time down at the union hall.

[Note: the SOCCCD Faculty Association has, on several occasions, and to my horror, endorsed candidate Williams. --RB, 6/16]

Perhaps you’re aware that the “Paycheck Protection Act” and similar legislation is the great Monkey Wrench that rightwingers try to throw into the “public education industry,” as they like to describe it. That is, rightwingers hope to devastate, or at least to decimate, teachers unions with this “protection,” which, if mandated, would surely shrink union coffers by a hefty percentage. They’ve been pushing this thing around the country for fifteen years, and they've met with success in some states, but, where it's passed, it has produced mixed results. (For more info, go to Fuentes' World/Prop 226; also, Google CA's Prop 75)

Indeed, such legislation (Prop 226) was the initial raison d’etre of Education Alliance, the organization that (with the financial assistance of our then-corrupt local) brought us Wagner and Padberg back in ’98.

And our man Williams is all for it. Some Union’s Best Friend, he is. With friends like this, district unionists don’t need any goddam enemies.

But they've got ‘em anyway.



P.S.:

The name "Christian Coalition" has come up more than once during the SOCCCD saga. Here's one especially memorable occasion:

5/14/98

Irvine World News
Frogue accuser feels 'set-up' by college trustee, colleagues

BY LAURA HAYES
IRVINE WORLD NEWS

A former student of college district trustee Steven Frogue who has been at the forefront of accusations that Frogue taught that the holocaust did not happen as recorded in history, said he tried to convince her she is wrong during a meeting she described as a "surreal" experience.

Pam Bustamante, 26, said she thought she was meeting with a representative of the Christian Coalition at a restaurant on March 25 to discuss Frogue and was surprised to find Frogue waiting to join the meeting. The surprise grew, she said, when college board president John Williams and public relations consultant Pam Zanelli arrived a short while later.

Bustamante said the meeting had been set up by a co-worker who told her Scott Voight of the Christian Coalition wanted to discuss the allegations she has made about Frogue's teachings when she was his student at Foothill High School. She had been told the Christian Coalition had supported Frogue in the past and was concerned about the allegations.

"I thought I was going to be meeting with a couple of people from the Christian Coalition," Bustamante said. "I get out of my car, we walk over to the restaurant and I see Mr. Frogue sitting there on a bench. I just thought, 'Oh my gosh."'

Fuentes’ type of people, mostly

It appears that, last night, Sheriff Mike Carona, the IVC Foundation’s “hometown hero” (or was he its “backdoor man”?), squeaked out a victory, garnering 51% of the vote—enough to win outright (i.e., there’ll be no runoff.)

Carona’s chief challenger (26.5%), Lieutenant Bill Hunt, head of the Sheriff’s San Clemente office, has conceded.

But guess what? When Hunt showed up for work this morning—he had taken a month off to campaign—he was told that he is under investigation!

In today’s OC Register (Hunt subject of sheriff’s inquiry), we learn that

Bill Hunt, the Orange County Sheriff's lieutenant who was highly critical of Sheriff Mike Carona in his race against his boss, was told this morning that he is the subject of an internal affairs investigation.

Hunt seems to be taking the high road: he called his boss to wish him luck. Further, he is, as they say, “philosophical”:

Hunt said he wasn't surprised by the action, given that he ran against his boss.

"I didn't know what to expect but it was certainly an option," he said. "At the end of the day, I'm a big boy. I made the decisions I made. I knew the type of people I was going up against. That's why I was doing it. This too will pass and we'll see where we are at the end."

Gee, think I’ll send Hunt a thank-you note. And money.

UPDATE, June 8:

In this morning's OC Register (Carona challenger faces probe"):

...Hunt was quickly sidelined when Carona placed him on paid leave pending an internal investigation that accuses Hunt of campaign improprieties involving what Carona's lawyer said were Hunt's "public statements, actions and accusations."

Carona's move shocked even longtime politicos, coming just hours after the sheriff squeaked by in a race that cost the incumbent $1.3million.

"Machiavelli would be a lot more subtle," Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, said, comparing Carona with the Italian politician known for his devious tactics. "This is not exactly a morale builder."

(See also Sheriff's going after Hunt looks like retribution">)


aturally, rat bastard DA Tony Rackauckas and Public Administrator John “Brownie” Williams were unopposed in their bid for reelection. Sheesh.

Williams was in Orlando and could not be reached for comment.



any seem to believe that our own Dave Lang was keenly interested in running for County Treasurer-Tax Collector and that he had the rug pulled out from under him by certain crafty colleagues. At any rate, in the end, our man Fuentes worked for candidate Chriss Street—Street, too, has been hurt by scandal; that seems to be an entrance requirement for the Fuentesphere—and he has won handily with 65% of the vote.

Have I mentioned that Orange County sucks? It’s home, but it sure does suck.


ancy Padberg ran for Judge (Office 4), and here, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news: the “winner” in this three way race appears not to have achieved 50% plus 1 (Sheila Hanson received 49.6%). I’m not sure, but I’ve been told that the failure of any candidate to achieve a majority means that there’ll be a runoff election, so this thing isn’t over yet.

The bad news: Nancy was the loser in the three way race. But not by much.

Sheila Hanson ....... 140110 votes 49.6%
Lyle J. Robertson ....... 74226 votes 26.3%
Nancy Padberg ....... 68093 votes 24.1%

So Nancy Padberg is out of the running.

Hanson, who would appear to be very qualified, is a Democrat who nevertheless had the endorsement of her boss, Rackauckas, a key member of the Fuentesphere.

(Data from Smartvoter)

Fuentes: shredded evidence?

On Sunday, Claudio Gallegos of Orange Juice (Orange Juice) made some remarkable assertions about OC Sheriff Mike Carona and his cronies:

But this man [Carona] is hardly one to claim to be the bastion of protecting children from sex offenders. In fact his office, with the advice of Schroeder and Fleischman (the folks who believe Republican activists have the fundamental right to commit crimes, including child rape), aided in covering up evidence of widespread child molestation. An acquaintance who is a survivor of priest abuse spoke to me anonymously and informed me of some shocking information. Turns out that files on linking GOP party chairman Tom Fuentes advising of abusive priests to be transferred, accidentally got shredded by the Sheriff's office, after the DA (also a Schroeder/Fleischman hack) gave it to them for "safe keeping." Carelessness was ruled as the cause of this accident, you all connect the dots. I reported, you all decide. It was either stupidity or corruption, in either of these cases any police chief would have been fired. Why should Mike Carona continue to keep his job?

Fuentes is very close to Shroeder. Schroeder is the close advisor not only of Carona, but of OC DA Tony Rackauckas.

Is there anything to what Gallegos is saying? Have any of the media reported this sort of alleged "accidental" shredding?

Does anyone have verification of this ruling of "carelessness" on the part of Carona's office? Is Gallegos correct in his description of what was allegedly shredded?

Or is Gallegos just flapping his gums (or whatever one flaps on a blog)?

Dirty joke

Check out the OC Weekly's preview of Tuesday's election (Crapshoot).

Scroll to the bottom for a fine photo of our own Nancy Padberg with apparent chum Dana Rohrabacher, who looks as though he's just been told a really great dirty joke. Maybe that's just the way the guy looks. Dunno.

With regard to the Judge race, the Weekly seems to like Sheila Hanson, owing to her qualifications. It isn't overimpressed with Nancy, who is described as a "right-wing community college trustee and GOP activist whose claims to fame include serving as a law clerk in the district attorney’s office about two decades ago."

You know how the Weekly can be.

While you're there, you might wanna check out an article, by one Cornel Bonca, concerning the "Gospel of Judas" (Judas: So Hot Right Now!).

I've been following this fascinating story, which involves a prof (translator) over at Chapman U. In case you haven't heard, this "gospel"

didn’t make the New Testament’s original cut, the way Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did, and when you read it, you have no problem seeing why it’s had a devilish reputation since old Irenaeus of Lyon trashed it as heretical way back in 180 C.E. To be brief..., the Gospel of Judas says that the God you think is God isn’t God, that Jesus did not die for your sins, and that Judas was not the worst guy who ever lived for betraying the best guy who ever lived...In fact, Judas was not The Betrayer at all, but Jesus’ best friend and confidant, who was actually in cahoots with Jesus to have him crucified because His death was the only way to get Jesus back home to heaven and the Great Spirit from whence he came.....

This is a gospel...which was originally written early in the second century of the Common Era, got translated into Coptic in what carbon dating and ink analysis determine was the fourth century, and which then disappeared until 1978, when it was rediscovered in an ancient tomb by the Nile River. Taken up by shady antique dealers eager to make a buck, the codex (archeological talk for manuscript) got buffeted about on several continents in ways no ancient decaying codex should, spending time in papyrus-decaying cold storage for a while and then 16 years in, of all places, a way too hot Citibank safe deposit box in Hicksville, New York, before falling in 2001 into the responsible scholarly hands of Switzerland’s Maecenas Foundation, which contracted National Geographic and several scholars to first restore and then translate the fragile thing into English.

TV viewers: I recommend the National Geographic special, which is often shown on the National Geographic Channel and elsewhere, I think.

Also, while you're at the OC Weekly website, you might check out Matt Coker's blog, which comments upon DtB pretty regularly: Clockwork Orange (e.g., "'Libertarian" not Libertarian on Library").

What kind of a libertarian are you, Don?

You'll recall that, at the board's January meeting, Trustee Don Wagner led the board in its action of removing the American Library Association from the list of institutional memberships. Why? Because the ALA is a group of "liberal busybodies," is why.

How so?

Wagner empasized the ALA's opposition to "porno" filters placed on Library computers by the Feds. (The ALA says they filter out some non-porno.) But another example--of the ALA's busyboddery--that he offered is the organization's opposition to aspects of the Patriot Act.

You can hear Don's actual remarks by clicking below:

(about 4 minutes)

OK, so here's the thing. Looks like the Librarians were way right to question aspects of the Patriot Act and the government's powers and actions as they concern library patrons' records. To see what I mean, check out yesterday's article in the New York Times (Four Librarians Finally Break Silence in Records Case).

Essentially, the Times story is this: after offering assurances that it would not seek patron records, the feds (aka government busybodies) did seek those records from librarians; and when they sought them, they informed librarians that they must keep mum in perpetuity. Good grief!

Some excerpts:

Four Connecticut librarians who had been barred from revealing that they had received a request for patrons' records from the federal government spoke out yesterday, expressing frustration about the sweeping powers given to law enforcement authorities by the USA Patriot Act.

The librarians took turns at the microphone at their lawyers' office and publicly identified themselves as the collective John Doe who had sued the United States attorney general after their organization received a confidential demand for patron records in a secret counterterrorism case. They had been ordered, under the threat of prosecution, not to talk about the request with anyone. The librarians, who all have leadership roles at a small consortium called Library Connection in Windsor, Conn., said they opposed allowing the government unchecked power to demand library records and were particularly incensed at having been subject to the open-ended nondisclosure order.

"I'm John Doe, and if I had told you before today that the F.B.I. was requesting library records, I could have gone to jail," said one of the four, Peter Chase, a librarian from Plainville who is on the executive committee of Library Connection's board.
…..
George Christian, Library Connection's executive director, said he was the first one to receive the confidential request from the F.B.I., something long suspected by careful readers of the court record. Before Congress revised the law in March, such requests, known as national security letters, were typically accompanied by a notification that the recipient was barred in perpetuity from revealing "to any person" that the request had been made. National security letters have become a popular law enforcement tool since the 9/11 attacks because they do not require judicial review.
…..
"The fact that the government can and is eavesdropping on patrons in libraries has a chilling effect, because they really don't know if Big Brother is looking over their shoulder," he added.
.....
Mr. Christian said that he and the other leaders of library consortiums in Connecticut had discussed hiring a lawyer to lobby against provisions of the Patriot Act but had accepted government assurances that there was little risk of federal investigators seeking library records. "We trusted them but apparently we shouldn't have," Mr. Chase said, noting that his organization would continue to resist other aspects of the government's demand. [My emphasis.]

Trustee Don seems to view himself as some sort of libertarian--you know, the kind of guy who prizes liberty and who seeks to keep government powers to a minimum in order to protect our liberties. Do Libertarians trust the government? Not so much.

You'd think a libertarian would join the librarians in "busying" themselves to defeat such absurd buttinskular powers as are revealed here to be a part of the Patriot Act.

I mean, think about it. Suppose you're a librarian, and the feds show up and tell you to hand over patron records. "Yeah, but these people trust me. They're members of my community."

"Tough shit, Library Boy! Now hand it over! --And don't even think about telling anybody about this, cuz, if you do, you're headed up the river! You got that!?"

I think this stinks. (The new and improved version of the PA is less objectionable in that it makes clear that these Junior G-Men librarians at least get to hire a lawyer, but, according to the ACLU, the relevant sections of the Patriot Act remain seriously flawed. See the NYT article.)

--I know, I know. I'm forgetting that we can and should trust the government. If the Feds tell you that information they need is important, then you can be damn sure that it is! Right Don?

At this point, only an idiot would say that and believe it.

(See Wagner contra "liberal busybodies")