Vern,

Satirical, yes. Disneyesque? The phrases and arguments used are recycled Democrat, left-wing, liberal catch-phrases. If they are exaggerated, then that came from the source.

I am simply drawing attention to a story that raises several issues (as Maynard points out), and asking where Debbie Cook stands because she has made environmentalism central to her campaign.

It seems hypocritical for a pro-environmentalist city or candidate to oppose a recycling center out of hostility towards the homeless. Does Debbie Cook, the highest elected official in HB have the political courage to stand up for the recycling center (and the homeless who would benefit economically picking up HB litter)?

Rainbow Disposal, which performs trash pickup in Huntington Beach, recycles nearly everything they get. They just got an award from the League of Conservation for their outstanding efforts at reducing the amount of waste they send to landfills. Their goal is to send nothing to landfills.

So, whatever would go to this recycling center is already being recycled anyway.

The only issues then are this: Do transients represent a threat to local residents? Should there be more of these centers at supermarkets so that low-income residents have more access? Should the city ban what essentially is an allowable use, restricting free enterprise?

HB already recycles more than any other city in the Red County, factually speaking

I couldn't agree more. My Mom and wife are both teachers and I am constantly hearing horror stories of waste and inefficiencies in their schools. Sadly, most of it is mandated from Sacramento or Washington.

I'm convinced the system is so broken that only school vouchers will ever save it. The recent trend of NCLB pushing more and more of these failing schools to charter schools may be the chance school choice advocates need to get the ball rolling. I think it will lead to a more innovative education system and result in higher pay for the large majority of the talented dedicated teachers we have.

What would be lost are the low performing teachers and a huge chunk of the worse-than-useless administration staff that provide union jobs but don't improve education. The union janitor, maintenance crew and gardener would probably be lost as well to a private company for much less.

But the CTA is not the organization to look to for education excellence. Their job is to create and protect CTA union dues paying members. You can't do that with a smaller budget, so it only makes sense that they are out pitching for another tax increase.

GENE--Look up the definition of "Act of War". There have been MANY since 1979, basically all mostly un-answered.

Hey Didacus -

Wake up son. If you believe the that Tony and company aren't manipilating the system then you're smoking something. These clowns are on a power trip. They are disenfranchising candidates; everything from manipulating access to voter slates, disinformation to blocking input from members of the Committee. The very fact that you accuately and unsolicitedly named some the other co-conspirators in this charade points to the fact you are intrically connected in said charade. (Your overzealous defence of these bozos by resorting to "thou doth protest too much" clearly tripped you up). Your just missing one player; Coronado.

Maybe yourself?

D’Raconia (oops, I mean D’Anconia!)

I have a favor to ask: can you please provide authoritative data that supports the claim of rationing you’ve described? I hear this hyperbole again and again but no one backs it up with facts. It sounds nice and scary, but I’ve yet to find a real person who required surgery in Canada or Britain who did not receive it in a reasonable time. And the surgery you say people come to the United States to receive? Might that be elective surgery (e.g., a blepheroplasty? Hair transplant?) And in terms of rationing, isn’t it reasonable to consider that hundreds of thousands of Californians are constructively rationed from receiving health care due to their financial circumstances?

You and your fellow denigrators of single-payer health care refuse to digest the basic tenet of SB840 that "Single Payer" pointed out: doctors would not work for the government! The only thing that the government replaces is the insurance companies. What is wrong with that? Efficiency would be increased because instead of having to deal with 30 different insurance companies, a doctor would only have to work with one entity. SB 840 also calls for getting rid of paper, as you suggested, and using electronic media for storage of medical information and payment for services to minimize medical errors and expedite payment for physicians. SB 840 would provide more access, more choice, more preventatiive clinics and would render intra-state health insurance bargaining moot. SB 840 also only proposes to fund health care for California residents. The only thing you’ve listed that it doesn’t address is medical tort reform. So really, Draconia, you’re just villifying a concept you’ve erroneously characterized as socialized medicine, but I'm glad to realize that when you get down to the mechanics of it, you really support the idea!

Just goes to show that once again if you are not on the ground fighting the battle you have no idea what the day to day situation of the campaign truly is.

Even in the midst of a truly stunning victory against the well known and immensely under qualified Marti Emerald it looks as if everyone is still lagging in the financial contribution department for Boling.

These are the same people that when in 4 months they finally get on board will take the credit for a win and will wash their hands of a loss and say "See, this is why we were hesitant in the first place."

Get on with it already and make with the money so we can dispose of the cantankerous liberal and her practice of loud mouth politics.

Im not really connected with the 'local gop board' other than maybe knowing a few of them but what I saw was the know it all lobbyists and other people here on the floor 'making the call' on the race real early. To tell the truth I think it was simply most everyone who thought it was over, done, in the primary. I would have bet $1,000 it was going to be Marti by 20 points. lol. shows how much i know.

Excuse me, but I am something of an anthropologist over here. Am I right to think the entire post is sarcastic? I think I am safe in assuming it is, some of the statements are so exaggerated and Disneyesque. But... is it hilarious? Was there great laughter on the red-faced blog at the expense of recycling and homeless people? I clicked on here because Debbie was in the tag line, but there is really no news here about her. This must be some kind of inside joke. I hope very much that it is funny. I'm going home now...

"War of the Worlds" all over!

hate to squeal but the whole local gop board dissed her chances the entire time. it would be nice to ask for them to drink a glass of shutup next time.

Murphy, I believe the poll was accurate. Polls tell the present not the future and there was plenty of time to make up. The fact is, Boling's team is far superior and she is much better candidate on paper and in real life than Marti. Their mail was much better than Marti's and April's ground campaign ran circles around (literally) Emerald's campaign AND labor. Combine that with Marti's policy meltdowns and you have a winning combination.

A poll could have never predicted that. What's sad IS that some in the center right doubted her team's ability to move beyond that initial poll. I don't think they will doubt in the future.

Id be much more likely to donate if the gov hadnt talked about taking a position with obama.

Slo-tur-get it:

Any idea how you plan onpaying for needed grade separation projects in OC, especially northern OC? I appreciate your comments are very knee-jerk GOP and I am with you for the most part. But do you really understand the bill or do you just take your comments from whatever GOP press release you fancy? Or do you not favor Mr.Huff? It's all good, but tell me what mitigation the bill provides for OC without looking online. If you know off the top of your head, I will eat crow.

Agree. Carless and Donahue are doing what newspaper reporters used to do in days past. It is hard to believe this went on for this long without notice. Now I work in private business, which has somewhat different rules than government, but I would think if something like this happened it would be considered theft, at best. Any decent private company would terminate her then fight to prove these were dishonest gains and seek restitution.

Another question for Will Carless, if he cares to answer on a foreign blog: can this person be sued by taxpayers (like a shareholder's suit in the real world)?

Sure they can... just ask Chula Vista Councilman Steve Castaneda. He is a Republican (although rumored to be changing to a Democrat) subject to withering attacks from the Republican Party and the Lincoln Club during the June election. He actually lost to Mayor Cox's candidate Scot Vinson, and now the two are facing off in a runoff in November.

I guess I dont understand exactly how this could have happened. Didnt the city of san diego just pay tens of millions to have a complete audit done? Isnt there actually an audit committee now?

CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN THIS? CALLING WILL CARLESS....

The downtown thought they knew what they were getting with Carl - another Falconer. Not quite. LOL. Demaio is going to tear into the corporate waste down there, just wait.

I cant even imagine the UT writing a story like this complimenting a reporter from another paper. Three cheers to the new spirit of the internet and internet news.

Rich:

While it is fair to debate the merits of the OCDA’s motivations, the dominant notion here is that in California, a defendant represented by a celebrity attorney can walk away with murder. That is, it is not in the charges levied but on the charges that stick.

Good blogging.

Looks like Omar is getting grilled in typical OC DA "rack and stack" style with 69 felonies.

Isn't this extreme? Why does this 18 year old kid need to be charged with that many felonies? When is somebody going to question these DAs and their abuse of power?

@redlandscynic: Be sure to read the whole blog posting. It is 100% accurate. You can also follow the links at the bottom to read newspaper articles on what I discuss.

Having not seen any confirmation of this story anywhere else, I'm not sure what to make of it.