Steelers 35, Cardinals 14

Update: Final score, Steelers 27, Cardinals 23. Well, I got the winning team right.

Let’s take a break from politics for a while and predict the Super Bowl.

I’m not rooting much for a team this year because I’m from Detroit and a Lions fan, so pity me.

But I guess I like the Cardinals a little bit more. My late parents spent their last 2 decades in Arizona, so I sort of followed the team. My father remembered going to a Lions game against the Cardinals, then the Chicago Cardinals, in 1934, when they played at the University of Detroit stadium. Pop said he wore a wide-brimmed hat to catch the rain, and every few minutes tilted it aside to dump the water.

But I’ve always liked the Steelers, too.

As to a prediction, this is another year with mismatched teams. Pittsburgh is the best team in the NFL, the Cardinals way down on the list. Troy Polamalu will intercept Warner, and that will decide it.

I hope it’s close just for fun, but it won’t be.

See, it was hard, but it’s possible for me to write a blog with no politics in it. I had to avoid saying … no, I won’t!

Put your prediction in the comments section.

End all limits on political speech

A judge just upheld a law that Proposition 8 contributors must have their names revealed.

Like my good friend Art Pedroza, in a post of his, I used to back reporting on campaign spending . I think that’s still the position of the Orange County Register, where I wrote editorials for 19 years. (I never have supported limits on campaign spending.)

But I’ve changed my mind recently and now support ending all limits on political speech of any kind, including reporting contributions.

The First Amendment protects all speech concerning elections. So there should be no limits, no reporting requirements, no spending limits on speech concerning elections of persons or ballot measures.

If you don’t like how much money is being raised for one side, raise more money for your own side.

After all, newspapers have no limits on their speech. They even keep their editorial writers anonymous, so you don’t know who wrote their stuff. If they are privately held companies, you can’t examine their financial data.

And nowadays, anyone can start an anonymous blog, for free, and exercise unreported political speech.

All spending limits and reporting requirements have done is make the system so complex and expensive that only rich folks and professional consultants can participate.

If we got rid of all limits on campaign speech, wouldn’t special interests “buy” an election by spending a lot?

They do it anyway. Remember Schwarzenegger’s $550 million-a-year “midnight basketball” initiative in 2002, Prop. 49, in which he financed a self-promoting waste program to give himself campaign experience before his 2003 gubernatorial run? Dumb voters passed it, and it’s now adding to the deficit.

Same thing with the stem-cell initiative (from aborted children), Prop. 71 in 2004, $6 billion that now is added to the deficit. Rich biotech companies and investors funded it. Even dumber voters passed it.

The only way to give us Jose Sixpacks even a small chance agains the rich robbers is to lift all limits on free speech for elections.

Free speech is free speech. No limits.

Shelton and Leger cartoons!

My old friends Mike Shelton and Jocelyn Leger, who left the Register when I did in 2006, have their own great site with animate cartoons. Click here to check it out.

O.C. Republicans sell out on Obama “stimulus” money

This is obscene:

WASHINGTON – An unusual new alliance of political, labor and business leaders is determined to see that Orange County gets its fair share of Obama bucks.

The leaders who sat around a table at the Orange County Business Council last week did not all agree on the wisdom of President Barack Obama’s $825 billion stimulus package. They certainly did not all pledge to go to the mat for such a massive proposal. And it’s not clear that they can influence where the money goes.

But the interests of labor in retaining jobs, educators in getting money to fix schools, transportation officials in getting road projects done and business leaders in minimizing the effects of the recession convinced them to give it a try.

“We need to speak with one voice,” said Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro, who along with his Republican counterpart, Scott Baugh, participated in the meeting. “The fear is we’re going to be bypassed. That has historically happened to us.”

It’s especially obscene that Republicans, supposedly the “small government” party, are participating in this new looting. Scott Baugh should be ashamed of himself for joining local Democratic socialist Barbaro in this vast new increase of federal power over our lives. It’s really only spreading Chicago-style corrupt politics across the country. Let’s take the arguments apart.

Where’s the money?

First, there are no “Obama bucks,” the fanciful phrase the Register writers used. Money either comes from a) ripping off taxpayers more, b) borrowing, or c) inflating the money, which means the value of money goes down. Soon, you end up like Zimbabwe, where they just printed a $100 trillion note.  Or you get Weimar Germany’s hyperinflation in the 1920s, with its murderous aftermath.

No “stimulus”

Second, this is not a “stimulus.” The only way to stimulate an economy is to remove the shackles on the private sector so it produces more. The government-sector doesn’t “produce” anything, but only consumes. Sure, they can print more inflated dollars and spend the money on building roads and schools in the wrong places.

But real economic growth only comes from the private sector inventing and making new products. We’ve stopped doing that in America as Bush — supported by Baugh and O.C.’s entire delegation in Congress — wasted $5 trillion (and 4,236 dead troops, as of today) on the Iraq War, paying for it with deficits, debt, and inflation. That vast economic disaster is the real cause of the Bush Depression

Global production shifted to Asia, whose economies today are more capitalist than ours — especially “communist” China. America’s main product today, including the “Bailout Bucks,” is debt owed to Asia.

The solution, then, is not more of the same under a new president, but ending the Iraq War, ending the deficits, ending the debt, ending the inflation.

More government…

Third, more government is more government.  Don’t Republicans understand that? If you spend more federal dollars in Orange County, that means more federal jobs here. And those folks are mostly Democrats. They’ll vote for Democrats because Democrats will increase their pay, perks, and power.

Frank Barbaro, at least, understands what’s going on. He doesn’t want to be “bypassed.” He wants those Democrat-appointed jobs to come here so they boost his party rolls.

Once again, Republicans are punching-bags for Democrats, who in the end always win.

If Republicans didn’t exist, Democrats would have to invent them.

Two more reasons to recall O.C. Sheriff Hutchens

On Monday I detailed the abuses of power mandating that Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens should be recalled. Two more reasons have come up.

First, yesterday evening, the O.C. Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to take security for their meetings away from the sheriffs and contract it out. This is a vote of no confidence in Hutchens’ performance of her job. The vote stems from the Stasi-Sheriff’s intimidation of peaceful citizens at a board meeting, spy cameras peeping at the notes of supervisors, and her refusal to turn over to the supervisors the tapes of the spying. I detailed these charges in my previous blog.

This actually was a vote of no confidence in her by the supervisors. Unfortunately, she cannot be fired by them. So a recall is necessary.

Second new reason for a recall: Assistant Sheriff Hillman

Second,  Hutchens has hired a thug for her second in command — like her, a migrant from Los Angeles, Assistant Sheriff Mike Hillman, formerly of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Can’t we get people from our own police and sheriff departments, right here in Orange County? We have 3 million people to choose from, including many police chiefs and sheriffs. Why do we have to go to L.A. for Hutchens and Hillman? L.A. is completely different from O.C. Over there, they have much bigger government, higher taxes, and more brutal cops. Remember the Ramparts Scandal?

OK, we’ve had our own problems with felon Mike Carona, just convicted on federal corruption charges. But why import trouble?

Hillman’s thuggish behavior was detailed on Orange Punch by my former Register editorial-page colleague Steven Greenhut. I’ll just quote all of it:

Is Hillman behind the police-state stuff?

Assistant Sheriff Mike Hillman offers this analysis of the widely criticized sheriff’s department security tactics at the January 13 board meeting. The best part of the analysis was this line: “No ancillary groups appeared who wished to engage in First Amendment activity outside the Board meeting.” I like how Matt Cunningham put it at OCBlog: “First Amendment activity”? It’s interesting how the clipped style of police reports can make exercising one’s free speech sound sinister.” The whole Hutchens/Hillman approach to board security seems to be epitomized by that line. They made it feel and seem sinister to attend a board meeting and actually speak out against the sheriff’s anti-CCW policies.

A number of readers have suggested that these new tactics are standard operating procedure for Hillman, the former LAPD deputy chief.

Here is a column by the Times’ Steve Lopez called, “Iron Mike Needs to Forge a New Image As Part of LAPD’s Brass.” It includes this paragraph: “A snapshot of LAPD Deputy Chief Mike Hillman has been making the rounds among brass at Parker Center. In the photograph, taken at the demonstrations on the evening of the Academy Awards, Hillman has a bullhorn in one hand and a citizen’s neck in the other.”

Maybe that can be the new photo mascot for the OC Sheriff’s Department. And maybe a quotation from Hillman, found on a public radio Web site, captures the OC Sheriff’s Department’s new approach to civil liberties. Hillman is explaining how he deals with people at protests who he thinks might be potential troublemakers because they are wearing hoodies and have a backpack with them:

“Walking over to them and saying, ‘Hi, Mike Hillman, I’m going to be here with you. Want to make sure we protect your First Amendment rights. I’ll be with you the rest of the day.’ Now, it may sound hokey. But what it does is, it tells somebody that we’re watching.”

That seems to be the exact approach the OCSD took toward those troublemakers who showed up at the board meeting to speak out about CCW permits. Ominous. At least the past ethically challenged sheriff was too busy in petty pursuits of sex, booze and toys to try this sort of police-state nonsense!

Recall Hutchens

These are yet more reasons why Sheriff Hutchens should be recalled.

Somebody, maybe gun-rights advocates, needs to start a campaign and collect signatures.

Recall Orange County Sheriff Hutchens

Under new Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, Orange County increasingly resembles East Germany under the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit  (Ministry for State Security), or Stasi.

Like the Stasi, Hutchens has violated essential rights, such as spying on supervisors, intimidating citizens, and violating the Second Amendment “right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

Her abuses demand an immediate recall.

Charges

The charges against her:

1. Intimidating citizens. As my former Register editorial page colleague Steven Greenhut wrote yesterday:

Based on a rumor that gun-rights activists would show up to protest her policies by carrying unloaded guns in holsters, the sheriff sent more than 20 deputies to the public board meeting, where they searched, watched, followed and questioned those residents who showed up to speak out against the sheriff’s new-and-not-so-improved plan to move up the expiration date of gun permits. The deputies targeted only those people who showed up wearing pro-gun-rights buttons or who appeared to be part of that group. The department told me that “only” three “subjects” (what an ironic term!) were searched or contacted, but I talked to CCW activists who said the number was higher. Many felt intimidated and monitored….

Regardless of the number of actual searches, the effect on the meeting was chilling….

I talked to a number of CCW supporters who attended the meeting, and they all felt picked on and intimidated.

As John Lott and other scholars have shown, in fact conceal-carry citizens are the most law-abiding for two reasons: 1) If you violate the law, you can’t get a conceal-carry license. 2. If you get such a license, you don’t want it taken away if you, so you don’t break the law. Hutchens’ intimidation is a police-state abuse of the first order.

Moreover, as Lott has proven, the more conceal-carry guns that are on the streets, the fewer crimes are committed because criminals don’t know which victim might be armed.

2. Violating the First Amendment “right of the people to peaceably assemble.” Harassing citizens at a public meeting is an especially egregious violation of civil rights.

3. Violating the Second Amendment “right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” As was noted by Founding Father Tench Coxe, this right was not just for hunters, or even for self protection, but for protection against a tyrannical government:

As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before
them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be
occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to
the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the next
article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, agreed with that exposition, as noted in the book I linked to.

And last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller found that this was not a collective right, but an individual right.

4. Spying on elected leaders.  Greenhut describes what happened:

Sheriff Hutchens said she was upset after learning that deputies used the board room’s security surveillance cameras – usually operated by security staff – to not only scan audience members but to focus in on and, in fact, spy on two supervisors’ notes and one’s BlackBerry-like device. She has started an internal affairs investigation into the matter. In a case of damage control, she contacted the two supervisors after someone submitted a public records act request for the surveillance tapes that showed this abuse of the security cameras.

But she still defends what Supervisor Chris Norby calls the “1984-like” approach to security by pointing to instances in other communities where violence took place at government meetings and arguing that it’s her job, in her words, to “balance” the security of the board room with First Amendment rights.

Let’s pick apart this Orwellian language. First, the First Amendment gives the public the right to speak out. Any effort by government to stifle debate and criticism by using searches and intimidation is an affront to the Constitution. It’s not the government’s job to “balance” our rights; that’s totalitarian language. Its job is to protect our natural rights to life, liberty and property. Government has been granted, by the people, certain specific authorities but that does not give it carte blanche to behave in any manner it chooses.

As of today, Jan. 26, 2008, Hutchens refused to turn over the spy tapes to the board of supervisors, the people’s elected representatives. Writes Art Pedroza:

I spoke to [Supervisor Chris] Norby about this the on Saturday night, at the Judge Jim Gray retirement party.  Norby said that Hutchens’ people (ie. Jack Anderson) would not turn over the tapes.  Apparently the excuse is that Hutchens feels the footage includes security issues.  For example, according to Anderson, you could find out what spots at the County’s Board Room could be “blind spots,” by viewing the tapes.

Norby of course was flabbergasted by this stupid excuse.  Why would he, or Supervisor Nguyen, reveal that information to anyone?  Isn’t the security system supposed to protect the Supervisors?  Why would they move to undermine it?

Norby said it was not likely he would sit through six hours of tape.  Instead a staffer would get to do that.  But Anderson, and his boss Hutchens, simply would not allow Norby to take the tape.

This is more police-state indimidation.

Hutchens really a Fed

A big part of the problem with Hutchens is that she has no previous links to Orange County, especially no inkling that this is a country that treasures liberty far more than most places. Her previous job was as chief of the L.A. Sheriffs’ Office of Homeland Security. This 2003 L.A. Sheriff’s press release explained:

As Chief of the Office of Homeland Security, Chief Hutchens is involved with all aspects of local homeland security for the County of Los Angeles and commissioner on the Los Angeles County Emergency Preparedness Commission.

Additionally, she serves as the Department’s Emergency Coordinator and is the Department’s liaison to the federal government for all matters relating to homeland security and the ongoing anti-terrorism effort.

The Department of Homeland Security was the vaguely German-Stasi sounding new bureaucracy Bush imposed when he panicked after 9/11. (Germans refer to their “Heimat,” or homeland; American patriots refer to our “country.” Notes Wikipedia: “The specific aspects of Heimat — love and attachment to homeland and the rejection of anything foreign — left the idea vulnerable to easy assimilation into the fascist ‘blood and soil’ literature of the National Socialists.”)

Imposing the Department of Heimat Security was totally unnecessary and a major step toward a police state. We already were defended by the Department of Defense, FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. The DHS also imposed federal hegemony over formerly independent local police and sheriffs, who now effectively are sub-departments of the DHS/Stasi.

Hutchens certainly has brought that mentality to her new job as O.C. Sheriff, as Greenhut explains:

This is the handiwork of a sheriff who, according to the Jan. 27 board agenda, wants to start a Homeland Security-funded Intelligence Assessment Center “to provide an integrated, multi-disciplined, information and intelligence sharing network to collect, analyze and disseminate information on all criminal risks and safety threats to law enforcement, fire, health, private sector and public stakeholders.”

Can we trust her with even more power to monitor and eavesdrop on O.C. residents? It’s a valid question that must be asked at that board meeting. But those who oppose the new center should not wear any buttons indicating their views, unless they want to be searched and harassed.

Recall Hutchens now

No, we can’t trust her.  At this point, we only can trust the people of Orange County and the recall procedure.

Last year, convicted felon Sheriff Mike Carona quit under a cloud of scandal. This year, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens must be recalled to get rid of her storm of tyranny.

In 1989, the East Germans ripped down the Berlin Wall, got rid of the Stasi, and restored freedom. In 2009, Orange County must rip down the Orange Curtain, recall Hutchens, and restore freedom.

“Feeling Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag” for Obama’s Afghan War

Top Obama foreign policy aide Richard Holbrooke believes Obama’s escalation of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan “will last a long time – longer than the United States’ longest war to date, the 14-year conflict (1961-75) in Vietnam.”

And new VP Joe Biden — a chickenhawk like Obama — says U.S. casualties in Afghanistan are going to go up.

So, it’s time to update that old anti-Vietnam War classic song, by Country Joe and the Fish (original lyrics here; YouTube audio here):

Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag (Afghan Version)

Well, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Obam needs your help again.
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Afghanistan
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Afghanistan;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

Come on Wall Street, don’t be slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go
There’s plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of its trade,
But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on a wedding throng.

And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Afghanistan.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let’s move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Now you can go out and get those beards
‘Cause the only good Afghan is the one that’s dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we’ve blown ’em all to kingdom come.

And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Afghanistan;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

Come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Afghanistan.
Come on fathers, and don’t hesitate
To send your sons off before it’s too late.
And you can be the first ones in your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Afghanistan.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

California Republicans’ nutty economic “recovery” idea

Republicans like to recall Ronald Reagan. But do they remember how Reagan brought back prosperity in the 1980s?

The latest nutty Republican scheme comes from State Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas. They…

have introduced bills that would provide tax incentives for home buyers on state and federal levels, respectively.

In each case, the tax breaks would be temporary, aimed simply at helping to restart the moribund housing industry and its associated businesses.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, guys. That’s dumb, dumb, dumb.

Superficially, it’s appealing because it’s “tax incentives,” and we all want lower taxes don’t we? Especially if we’re good Republicans?

But tax cuts are worthless if they’re temporary. People and businesses look to the long term.  They only move into a house if they think that, in the long term, they can afford it by earning decent wages to pay the mortgage.

That’s why Bush’s tax rebate “stimulus” last year backfired and actually made the crash worse.

What got us into this mess was not too little spending, but too much, especially on housing.  Bush, the California state government,  and consumers went on wild spending sprees. Even if this Dutton-Dreier idea “worked,” it only would produce another temporary housing bubble like the one that first got us into trouble this decade, then burst.

Reaganomics revisited

So, what did Reagan do?

First, look to the long term. That means biting the bullet in the short term. The ongoing and deepening Bush Depression isn’t the problem, but the cure. Encouraging irresponsible spending is not the cure, but more of the disease.

Second, inflation has to be stopped. Reagan and Fed Chairman Volcker (the only decent one we’ve had since 1971, and now, fortunately, an adviser to Obama) crushed inflation by cutting the money supply and increasing interest rates. The 1981-82 recession was tough, but necessary. The 1980s Reagan prosperity followed, and continued more or less (with two rather minor recessions) until Bush wrecked everything.

Although Reagan unfortunately never re-established the gold standard that Nixon took us off in 1971, he and Volcker established a stable value for the dollar of $350 an ounce — on average — that lasted until 2001 when Bush and Greenspan panicked after 9/11 and brought back inflation. As of today, Jan. 24, 2008, gold’s price is $899 — 157% (and rising) above the $350 average Reagan establshed.

Third, real tax cuts are permanent and encourage production. Income and capital gains taxes need to be slashed, permanently, the way Reagan did it, at the national level and in California. America’s problem is too much spending and too little producing. We only should spend more once we produce more, not — as these two GOP guys want — before we produce more.

Until Republicans shelve Bushonomics for Reaganomics, they won’t win elections, nor deserve to.

Why Bush really may have been the worst president

I don’t know if Bush was America’s worst president. We’ve had so many terrible ones. If you’re old enough, remember LBJ and Nixon?

But Bush very well may have been the worst.

That’ s because what makes America unique in the annals of human history isn’t our prosperity (gone now anyway), the Super Bowl, or rock and roll. It’s the U.S. Constitution, which protects our liberties by wrapping hoops of steel around government.

Bush, more than any president since at least FDR, ripped off those hoops of steel and made a massive assault on our liberties. After him, there’s not much left of the Constitution. In the name of “protecting” us, he shredded our real protector: the Constitution.

All the vast new totalitarian powers Bush seized, last week he bequeathed to Obama.

I’ve written about this for 8 years. But a good summary comes from Christopher Manion:

Fact: Bin Laden spent half a million on 9-11, with the audacity of hope that Bush’s response would bankrupt America. It did.

Fact: 9-11 was not the most catastrophic event of the past eight years. Nor was the politically-derived collapse of our economy.

Fact: The most catastrophic event of the past eight years was the evisceration of the U.S. Constitution by a bipartisan gang of thieves and egomaniacs who show no remorse or regret for their crimes.

Fact: Bush did everything he could to destroy the fabric of comity among nations; now his spear-carriers spurn the option of their humble, honorable exit and instead fiendishly prepare to blame Obama for the consequences of Bush’s travesties.

Fact: Obama will create enough travesties of his own, thank you.

Fact: The same bipartisan peanut gallery that propounds fear of another 9-11 actually celebrates the 600,000 unnecessary deaths of the Civil War. Like Madeline Albright cheering the deaths of half a million Iraqi children **before** 9-11, these fanatics think those 600,000 deaths were “worth it.”

Fact: Our long national nightmare is not over, because the fulcrum upon which we must rely to leverage a recovery of our liberties — the Constitution — is ignored. All that is left is schoolyard taunts and mindless legacy-building.

Obama continues his Bush impersonation

Maybe we should just elect impressionist Rich Little as president. Because all Obama is doing so far is an impression of Bush. What happened to “change we can believe in”?

Obama is continuing the ridiculous secrecy Bush imposed. Isn’t this supposed to be an open society, with an open government? The latest:

The White House press operation got off to a fumbling and stumbling start Thursday, with the day’s opening briefers insisting on being identified only as “senior administration officials,” followed swiftly by the new president’s spokesman accidently outing one of the secret aides less than two minutes into his first White House briefing.

Although President Obama swept into office pledging transparency and a new air of openness, the press hammered spokesman Robert Gibbs for nearly an hour over a slate of perceived secretive slights that have piled up quickly for the new administration.

And Obama is continuing Bush’s use of the “war on terror” phrase, even though terror is a tactic, not a country. It’s like saying “war on berms.”

No, one fights groups of people, not tactics.

But the “war on terror” is an open-ended phrase that lets the president do whatever he wants with the military, with no one — not Congress, the press, the people — being allowed to question him. Wouldn’t want to damage the “war on terror,” would you?

Again, we might as well have made Rich Little a Bush-impressionist president who would continue this secretiveness, saving the $170 million cost of the inaugural.

By the way, someone ought to give Obama a copy of “The Art of War,” by Sun Tzu. It makes von Clausewitz look like Bush.

There’s a free copy online here.