Shaking the dusty bits out

Let me first say sorry! Following the election, I’ve spent most of my time working more directly in my local government and papers. But, lets blow the dust out of the keyboard and get back to work (me, not you, I’m the bad one after all)!

The Ratchet

We are now less than one week away from possibly the most dramatic election in living memory, if not the century. Republicans, and more importantly Conservatives, are poised to make historic gains in both the House and Senate. Yet despite the all-but-certain victories about to sweep the nation, if you look at current California polls, you get the impression that the revival in California is lagging behind its sister states.

Some of this season’s political candidates are far from the Conservative superstars many California Republicans and Libertarians were hoping for. One some issues or many, they are frustratingly Moderate or even Liberal, especially when we compare them to Marco Rubio in Florida or Chris Christie in New Jersey. There are many mumblings from the “die-hards” that are refusing to cast their votes for candidates that don’t live up to the standards they expect. I understand this frustration over principles, but I urge caution to those who would cast our lot in 2010 as an “all or nothing” shot at restoring California and the nation. Their short-sighted stubbornness is dangerous and will only guarantee Liberal dominance in this election and those in the future.

A smarter man once said that political victory is like a ratchet. It must be won fight by fight; taking every win we can get, and losing as few as possible along the way. Towards that end, it is not important that Meg Whitman is to the right of Ronald Reagan; all that is important is that she is more Conservative than Arnold Schwarzenegger or her opponent Jerry Brown. When viewed from this perspective, the choice before us is much easier. We must guarantee the victory of the best candidate we have, and in the days following we hold their feet to the fire. And if we can get a better candidate for the next election, we continue to take ground. If we get to the point where Meg Whitman is the most Liberal politician on the ballot, I will be dancing in the streets. But until that time, we must be pragmatic, and we must be persistent!

This fight requires lasting power. While things are more hopeful for our friends on the other side of the Sierra Nevadas, they must remember this principle as well. Win or lose on the morning after, we cannot wash our hands and get back to life as it used to be. It took them 100 years to dismantle many of our Constitutional safeguards and liberties, it will be a fight at least that long to get them back. So get off your butt and go vote for the best candidate on the ballot. And do it again in 2012, and again in 2014, for as long as it will take to restore our Republic.

Why We Fight

I just got back from my second trip this month into the Central Valley, this time for the Central Valley Tea Party’s ”Remember November” rally in Fresno. I’m active in my own local tea party, but our traditional corner protests are starting to stall out, and with November looming, we need to not only do your standard GOTV, but also transition the group into an effective watchman over our newly elected officials. I’ve been branching across the state, trying to see how other groups, especially the highly effective Central Valley Tea Party, have assembled themselves. All the leaders and members have been very helpful, and I’ve been able to glean a lot from their examples. 

But one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from my trips through the Central Valley is perspective about the reality of what we face – not only as Americans fighting to save our Constitutional Republic, but as Californians facing the consequences of running head-long ahead of the rest of the country down our current dangerous course. California’s situation is dire, though in our picturesque little corner of the state it’s easy to get complacent. For our brothers and sisters across the mountains, they are living with the consequences of Sacramento’s agenda. 

Dust bowl near Lemoore, CA. Due to policies protecting a single sub-species of smelt, the pumps used to push water from the Sacramento Delta to farmlands throughout the San Joaquin Valley have been turned off - resulting in high unemployment and rising food prices.

I don’t mean to belittle the effects of the hard economy on anyone, but we only think we have it tough here in Santa Barbara County. In August (the most current unemployment report), the state posted an average unemployment of 12.4%. By comparison, SB County is weathering this storm well with a rate just under 9%. By comparison, Fresno County is burdened by a rate approaching double our own at 15.4% – that is 1 in 6 Fresno residents without a job. (Source: California LaborMarketInfo) Some places, like the small town of Mendota, have rates nearer 40%, are experiencing an economic and social calamity to an extent that only some of our grandparents have any memory of. 

It’s very easy to get shut in our little coastal community and keep to ourselves – most never venture outside the county in any direction but south to L.A. It’s comparable to Tolkien’s Hobbit-homeland, the Shire, with a people that barely concern themself with the troubles of others. Our easier lifestyles make us ignorant to the real suffering caused by the environmental policies many locals actually embrace as a badge of trendiness. But just as the Shire was eventually drawn into Middle-Earth’s war, we are not going to stay immune from the consequences plaguing our farmers in the San Joaquin Valley – in fact the enemy is already within our borders. 

To first understand what is coming our way, we have to know what befell the Central Valley farmers. The crisis over the mountains started with a 2007 ruling by a Federal District Judge to divert billions of gallons of water a year from the Sacramento Delta out to the Pacific Ocean, to help protect the Delta Smelt, a 3-inch “endangered” fish (only endangered because of how far down they drilled the sub-species), who was reportedly being sucked into the pumps used to divert the water from the delta into our Central Valley farmlands. Despite the fact there is no proof the changes have benefited the smelt, the pumps remain shut. As a result, half-a-million acres of farmland have been reduced to weeds. Beyond the unemployment crisis, that once fertile farmland is no longer producing the fruits and vegetables that feed our State, Nation, and World, and food prices are slowly starting to rise. More facts here. 

Why aren’t we immune? Because instead of learning from the man-made disaster they caused, the radical environmental lobby and their willing accomplices in government are pushing a new agenda in our region that would have a similar effect – if by opposite means. While they parch our brethren, they plan to hold our heads under the water. The Central Coast Water Quality Control Board wants to push through an Agricultural Order that would further regulate the run-off from farm fields in the Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Monterey Counties. The new requirements being sought are so extreme that they will force run-off from farmland to surpass drinking water standards. As ag uses drip-irrigation almost exclusively in most cases, on a normal basis, farmland is actually in compliance, as there is no run-off. But if it rains, those farmers are still liable for that water quality, even if that water is “polluted” from the dust on the drive into their homes. The only answer would be to require them to trap all the water during a rain storm, and that essentially means farming within retaining basins.  I’m no farmer – but unless we plan on turning our vineyards into rice-paddies, crops don’t grow in puddles. 

This is why we fight, and why all of us must fight harder than we have to date. These problems are more than just ugly numbers to be discussed over the water-cooler, but are human tragedies that are literally tearing at the fabric of these communities and threaten to do the same to our own. But fortunately for us, the advanced stage of decay in the valley has resulted in a very active and potent tea party movement already seeing success in correcting their problems. They are leading the way; now we must follow their lead and start moving now to keep our county from going through the pain they have been put through. We need to first focus on the elections, but the real work begins on November 3rd. Then we need to devote ourselves to ensuring that our desired course correction actually happens!

Schwarzenegger v. EMA: Will the Constitution “pwn” the Nanny-State?

One of the most important decisions in the future of the video game industry is about to be heard in the Supreme Court. Schwarzenegger v. EMA & ESA is an appeal of the California 9th District Court of Appeals ruling declaring a California Law placing new regulations upon retailers selling violent video games. Retailers could be fined $1000 for every infraction, and face further litigation for purchases of violent video games by a minor. The law, intentionally vague, was intended to create a punitive environment so severe that retailers would simply stop selling the content.

This ruling could affect the production of any game depicting violence, from Kane and Lynch to Halo, and is the continuation of a long and embarrassing attempts in our 1st amendment society to prohibit the publication of different media based upon popular outrage – most ignorant in nature but fed upon by politicians eager to gain some notoriety and power. From the attempts in the 1920′s to ban Ulysses to the Comic Book Code of 1954, this California law was fueled on pure ignorance and bad science. Violent games have long been under assault from Jack Thompson (go ahead and hiss fellow gamers), a long time anti-video game advocate. His numerous lawsuits were filled with numerous mis-statements and libelous charges, and it eventually resulted in his disbarment. Senators Clinton, Lieberman, Johnson and Bayh tried in 2005 to create a Federal law mandating the enforcement of the ESRB system, with violations punishable by strong fines. Thank God in those days it was a Republican Senate, and it never made out of the committee it was referred to. The only major law actually put on the books was created by California Assemblyman Leland Yee in 2004, who cited a case in England where a youth stabbed another to death, and accused a game called Manhunt for inspiring the incident. Despite this charge being refuted by the British law enforcement themselves, he pushed through a law that was redundant to existing voluntary ESRB and industry ratings systems, and further regulated sellers to a regulatory environment more akin to the world of pornography, and tried (but failed fortunately) to make violations a felony punishable by prison. This was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, but fortunately was not the end of the battle.

In a rare moment favoring the Constitution, the California 9th Circuit of Appeals ruled the law a violation of the 1st and 14th amendments, forcing the State of California to seek an appeal. This decision, long fought now rests in the highest court of the land. Despite its Conservative-leaning tendencies, this court’s recent history of interpreting rights (see Boumediene v. Bush or Kelo v. City of New London) does not necessarily promote confidence in a ruling favoring free speech. We do have several good factors leaning towards an upholding of the 9th circuit decision:

• The court could have sent the case back to San Fransisco to re-rule based on new case precedents, but chose to review the case.
• A recent ruling in U.S. v. Stevens held that all free speech, no matter how offensive, is protected speech – and that precedent will be hard to get around.
• The case was strong enough that the 9th Circus of all courts still found it unconstitutional.
• Despite some staggeringly Constitutionally-obtuse rulings in recent memory, SCOTUS is coming off a fairly strong line of cases reversing many infringements on civil liberties.

So how will they rule? I guess we will all have to stay tuned.

More importantly, how is this case starting to change the gamer community?

Enviro-Hate, Anti-Humanism, and some old school gaming

Those who believe in nothing will not stop until they achieve it.

Eco-mentalism is one of the greatest threats to liberty. Its leaders are no different than the tyrants of old, and in modern times they are the disciples of Communism. The political-class love of weapons like Global Warming, Deforestation, and the Ozone Layer as tools of state. They know the pressure of their “higher moral calling” is effective at forcing free people to surrender their freedoms, permanently guaranteeing their status as the rulers over the masses.

But what of the followers? They gain no power or political capital, and many admit it will reduce their prosperity. Some obviously think they’ll worm themselves into the many bureaucracies that will reign over society, but that’s not whom I’m talking about. I’m talking about the true-believers like James Lee, who this week was willing to die to force the Discovery Channel to change its channel line-up in order to save the Planet. I’m not disputing his insanity nor his clarity in choosing targets (Discovery being as complicit in the Eco-Mentalism movement as any), but there’s a devotion there that surpasses fanaticism, and he’s not alone. Modern day Eco-mentalism is evolving into Anti-Humanism, and its devout followers are growing increasingly hostile to society. The “Anti-Humanism” movement is growing, from women willingly sterilizing themselves, to Enviro-Terrorism, to groups advocating voluntary population-winter, they all think the same way. To them, Mankind is a foreign contagion upon a pristine world, and many of them are willing to prove their convictions by removing themselves and others from the gene-pool by any means necessary.

"Life After People" is a series from the History Channel, featuring a sick fascination with how the world would benefit from the premature extinction of Mankind.

Obviously, there are some crazies that are just that: crazy. But not all of these believers are nut-jobs hiding in dark basements writing in crayon on the walls. Some are considered our best and brightest, and some hold very high positions of power. Not least on this list, Obama’s Science-Czar John Holdren, openly advocated for the mass sterilization of populations as a way to stem the human tide, which then was being fore-warned as the “Population Bomb”. Others seek to reign us in by forcing our abandonment of technology and energy production. Others yet want to force populations into urban centers, essentially corralling humans into regulatable communes to protect the surrounding landscape from our evil strip malls and Burger Kings. Many at least have a grim obsession about our extinction. Look no further than now main-stream programs like “Life after People” or “Zombieland” to see how far this fascination with our premature end has influenced the culture.

Anti-humanism is a relatively modern concept, its horrific intentions derived from the Nietzsche philosophies. Essentially, they believe that man is not part of his environment and his movement through the landscape is alien and destructive to the pristine natural Earth. It is a bizarre contradiction, especially when you consider most are strong Atheists and believe man evolved through the animal kingdoms to his current state. We “God-Thumping Troglodytes” ironically see ourselves as perfectly at home in nature, despite our “uninformed belief” in Creation. This makes it hard for us understand them, let alone cope with their extreme aberrant behavior. But we must understand the root of it, if only to understand the dire results if we let them to continue to dominate our philosophy and policy arenas. They will force our “atonement” if they have the means.

So, how do they justify this strange contradiction? When did we stop being part of the planet and became an infestation consuming the life-force of Gaia? An obvious answer can be with man’s discovery of tools, but I think this is still leaves them in a conundrum, as many animals have learned how to use tools, and Earth Liberation Front has yet to declare war on the chimps or beavers. So when then? What critical moment in our crawl from the swamps to the stars did we turn into the antagonists?

The answer: fire.

Many Eco-Mentalists believe that when Man discovered fire, he stopped being part of Nature, to being its greatest threat.

The Japanese bought hook-line-and-sinker for Eco-Mentalism long ago, and have long illustrated through pop-culture that man is a foreign body to nature. From Princess Mononoke, to Final Fantasy VII, themes of man’s alienation to his environment and the devastation of our encroachment on it permeate both film and digital media. One game franchise in particular, Chrono Cross, gives a good illustration of the Anti-Humanistic views of human evolution. According the plot, Lavos (fire) crashed down on to the earth from the Stars, a malevolent force that consumes the life-force of the planet it contacts. When it came to our world, our ancestors came in contact with Lavos, and through our worship of it, we gained technology, and turned on nature and did Lavos’s work for him. Of course, the game gives the player the opportunity to ”right the course of history” by destroying the advanced society derived by Lavos and returning man to its peaceful tribal societies, once again part of the planet.

Back to reality, that is the extent to which many Eco-mentalists (and do not fool yourself with the notion that it is only a small number of lunatics) feel our societies would have to regress to in order to rejoin their “harmony of nature”. Manipulation of Ffre of course, is the first moment man rose above the ranks of base animals, and began the rise in human standard of living. They however look upon it as a scourge, a destructive force, as it enabled our creation of future technology to master the wilds.

That is the extent to which the regressive roll-back of human society would have to regress to fully achieve the goals of Eco-mentalism.  James Lee died for this belief system, and many more are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure the end of the Reign of Man. It’s a terrifying reality, that deserves more attention than it gets, as it makes them as dangerous as any agent of Al Qaida, only more so as they have no rules. We may be afraid of the encroachment of Sharia Law, but Envir0-Radicalism has already seeped into the highest levels of our governments, and we must expose and rout it out. Society will always reject such shocking dogma, but if we are not careful, we may find they have signed our fate for us.

Celebrating “Pamela Gorman Day” in the “Year of the Conservative Woman”

The last year has seen a dramatic shift in the power roles in the Republican Party. Without their consent, the aged brahmin of the GOP have surrendered their leadership to those, ironically, with more “cojones”. Over the last year, we’ve watched proudly as the best advocates for our Conservative principles rose from obscurity to lead a movement unlike anything in American history. It was barely two years ago that a spark was ignited when an unknown governor appeared from an even more obscure state in the far off hinterlands. Sarah Palin breathed life into a campaign that started dead on arrival. While it wasn’t enough to save a candidate determined to defeat himself, it started a quiet revolution that has come into its own in the year 2010.

We welcome in the “Year of the Conservative Woman”, heralded by a whole new class of politicians and community leaders. From Congresswoman Michele Bachmann spearheading Tea Party principles on the floor of the House of Representatives, to women like Jenny Beth Martin, who in no small part is responsible for the continued existence of the Tea Party itself. Whether by devotion to their children’s and grandchildren’s future, or by simple but no less powerful dedication to the principles of the Constitution, many have taken to the public stage to the first time to organize their neighbors and nurture a movement through its critical growing pains to become leaders of the largest and fastest movement of our time. It matters little if they hold the spotlight of national politics, or cheer and wave at passing cars at a local rally, we love them all. They personify everything good and great about America, and in their hearts we trust our nation’s future.

The patriots at “From the Right Radio“ have dubbed August 5th, 2010 “Pamela Gorman Day”. There is no better candidate to personify the first holiday of this exciting season than Pamela Gorman. In a primary packed with 10 candidates, Pamela not only rises to the top as the best candidate running in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, she’s exactly the kind of leader we need in all corners of the United States. Driven by love of country, not a desire for power, she’s stood strong for Conservative principles, even bucking her own party’s state leadership in the process. In the Arizona State Senate, as majority whip she fought tax increases being forced upon Arizonan’s by her own Republican leadership and Governor Brewer. She is also co-sponsor of a bill continuing to have ripple-effects throughout the country – SB 1070. From that first viral YouTube moment proving her bonafides with the 2nd Amendment, to her established career standing abreast political expediency to hold the line for limited government and personal liberty, she’s captured the attention of many across America. Hopefully now she has captured yours.

You may or may not have heard of Pamela Gorman before today. If you haven’t, please spend some time and visit her website. If you have more time, log in to your Twitter account, and show your support by replacing your avatar with one of Pamela (follow @PamelaGorman and #pamelagormanday while your at it!). Get onto Facebook and  tell your friends about her, encourage them to get involved as well!

But reading and spreading the word is not enough. If we are to win the day, every one of us must be willing to put our money and effort where our mouth is. If you have it, please donate $10 today to her campaign (you can easily donate online). The left has proven the power of grassroots fundraising. Using the power of the internet, $10 from thousands is more effective than the traditional $1000/plate dinner in an old ballroom. You don’t have to break yourself to make a difference. It sounds cheesy, but for what you would spend for a cup of coffee and a lunch at McDonalds, you can join thousands in giving our principles form.

It’s pedal to the metal time. The success or failure of liberty requires the transition from arm-chair referee to player on the field. Are you a “sunshine patriot”? By investment in candidates devoted to securing our freedoms, followed by pounding the pavement or phone banks to get them elected, we will win.

Get to work.

Republicans Rippling the Waters

For anyone not in the Santa Barbara County area, the phrase “Measure S” wouldn’t get more than a puzzled look. For we SB’ers, it will spark a controversy to match the hotly debated PXP contracts.

In brief, like most of the rest of California, hell, most of the country, Santa Barbara County is broke, and the natural reaction of local government is to cut public safety, schools, you know, the stuff that make voters sympathetic to new taxes. The end result of their policies has been rampant pork in the good years, combined with a slowly building noose of regulations, which given the mass drop in land values in 2008, knocked the floor out of property taxes and promptly hung their funding.

Let me step backwards another couple decades. Santa Barbara county was growing (why not, its pretty here), but the budgeting for local law enforcement, especially incarceration was not. The county jail was overcrowding, been renovated in ackward bits, and given a few critical court opinions that passed laws restricting conditions by which inmated could be housed. A new jail was needed, but the funding was not available. Skip forward the timeline. When times were good, the Board of Supervisors ignored the issue. When times got tight, the further cut the budget for local law enforcement. Multiple unsuccessful attempts were made, normally through tax increases of one form or another – every time struck down by the voters, unwilling to surrender more of their hard-earned income to an already irresponsible government.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown

Now my crazy time maching brings us back to 2010. Sherriff Bill Brown over the last few years has been coordinating a blue-ribbon panel (every body has one now, it’s the new Prius) to develop an action plan. Then began the rockstar tour of the county to push their new proposal, which after being accepted by the Board of Supervisors became known as Measure S, or more infamously, the “Jail-Tax”. It is essentially a county-wide 0.5 cent sales tax hoping to take in $30 Million per year for 14 years. To get as large a net of support as possible, they tied not only the construction of a new jail, but its future funding, as well as existing “boots-on-the-ground” law enforcement, recitivism programs, and even fire protection into it’s recipient list. They even successfully recieved a promise of matching funds from the state government.

Why the rush? Well, the answer is what started throwing up flags. Those here wistfully remember the days of only a 7.75 cents taxed for every dollar spent here as recently as 2008. In April 2009 the state raised the California-wide sales tax rate by an entire 1 cent. It’s now about to finally die, and our local government wants to hide our new tax increase behind it, because as far as the average citizen will be aware, they will still see a half-cent reduction! Tricky, tricky.

After the Measure was finalized for this November’s ballot, Bill Brown wasted no time blitzing the political and professional county organizations to garner their support. With past failures feeding the necessity and the looming sunsets crunching the timeline, he devoted extensive resources to lobby each group, most successfully, to support the decision.

He eventually made it before the local gathering of the county’s Republican Central Committee. He showed slides, promo videos, brought supporters, and answered as many questions as possible. It started to turn ugly when people started to ask about alternatives. Biggest of all, our public pensions, a story familiar to many local/state governments, still looms as an impending disaster which could derail all plans. No alternatives would be heard, it was a Measure S or nothing decision. To try and drive the point home, Brown eventually turned to threats. Promises of public safety collapse, resulting in bedlam in the streets, began being inserted into dialogue of funding, and overall the threat if the Republicans didn’t endorse the Measure and it failed, the blame would fall squarely on the shoulders of the board.

Santa Barbara County Republican Chairman Gregory Gandrud

The mood remained disconcerted from then on, but little time was granted to resolve any reservations. Rapid emails flew between members, but overall, a sense that support of such a measure would betray Republican principles of fiscal responsibility. In an emergency teleconference, minutes before deadline, the Santa Barbara County Republicans, by overwhelming majority, drew a line in the sand. Not only would they not support the legislation, they would oppose it, and immediately filed the arguement for the November ballot. Within 2 days, the two local papers, the Santa Barbara Independent and The Daily Sound (Part 2), went berserk. The Independent took to the personal attack route, focusing all fire upon chairman of the Republicans, Gregory Gandrud. Trying to divide Greg from his fellow Republicans by disgusting attacks on Gandrud’s public lifestyle choices, they tried to turn Greg into a pariah. The Sound tried the top-down approach, trying to diminish the role of the Republican Central Committee by lowering its caste setting within overall county leadership. Maybe the most effective, a true wedge has been driven between the elected ruling-class and the more volatile, but no less elected Committee.

Carpinteria City Councilman Joe Armendariz

The first volleys have started already. The Sound included commentary local establishment Republican Joe Armendariz, a long term figure in Republican activism. A supposed “advocate for the taxpayers”, Armendariz as a Goleta City Councilman has apparently settled comfortably into is elected position, and has forgotten his promise to stand for fiscally responsible policies. He turned his venom upon Gandrud, belittling him for his several unsuccessful bids for local office, most recently County Treasurer. Brown, vacationing in Boston, was obviously not pleased.

The Republicans need to hold firm it seems against even their own elected officials. This bill at best merely postpones the inevitable. At worst, it sets up the Police and Fire to be tied to funding dependent on an economy ready to fall off the cliff come January. It also puts us in the hands where the majority of the funding is coming from an already bankrupt state government. What happens to our precious new jail when the worst we know is coming happens?

To be fair, there is a genuine need for reinforcement of the budget for local safety. Per capita funding has not kept up with the explosive growth of the county over the last two decades, and existing infrastructure is aging and in need of repair. The blame falls squarely feet of the Board of Supervisors. This bill would probably get us a jail built, but at what cost? Our county, state, and country are floundering! Taxation policies are directly tied to the ability to recover from an economy. Even a liberal tries to hide tax increases from sight when times are tough.

This matter comes down to pragmatism over principle. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.” Any Republican supporting this bill violates Reagan’s Legacy in his own backyard. They are violating the ONE principle supposedly all Republicans could unite behind, no new taxes. The lines are drawn, and we can see where the politicians now lie; supporting policies that push hard decisions onto the people, or postponing the judgement day onto generations oblivious to the debt their elders are steeping them in.

But have heart, Republican Central Committee, for there is good news! There is a large disquiet over the countryside, and the mood of the people is in your camp! You are right, we are taxed enough. We are over-regulated. Our local government is bloated beyond sustainablity. But the most important societal change has already occured – we are finally tired of it. Your decision to hold the beachhead will be met with support where it matters – the voters. When they attack you, they attack us, and we are now watching their every move very carefully. They better start getting the hint, or methinks none of them, Republican or Democrat, will be long for office.

Image Sources:
County Courthouse - SB Courthouse History
Sheriff Bill Brown – SB County Sheriff Website
Gregory Gandrud – Santa Barbara Independent
Joe Armendariz – Noozhawk.com