Friday's Headlines & Surprises: Why Did the Mayor Quote Mein Kampf at South Coast Plaza?
Categories: Moxley, News Roundups
Look! Up in the Sky! It's SuperFascist! Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor jumped into a phone booth, ripped off his Orange County Sheriff greens and donned something that would make him, at least outwardly, a man of substance: a fine suit, tie and shiny shoes. Yep, yesterday at a ceremony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of South Coast Plaza, Mansoor stood at a podium and began reading passages from Mein Kampf. No? All right. According to Michael Miller’s version in the Daily Pilot, Mansoor deemed Henry Segerstrom’s shopping mall “visionary.” Quick, somebody take a helicopter tour of the place to check for secret swastika designs.
Rush Limbaugh’s Gonna Need More Street Junk: The Associated Press in Olso, Norway, reports this morning that Al Gore and a United Nations committee nabbed a Nobel Peace Prize for exposing the threat of global warming. Drudge Report ran screaming headlines of the news, including this allegation: “White House ‘happy’ for win.” Yeah, right. Drudge also quotes Democratic strategist James Carville saying there’s only a 25 percent chance Gore will now run for president in 2008. Can’t wait to hear Hugh Hewitt go off today on the international conspiracy aiming to wreck America.
The Rise of John Campbell? This week, syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak gave Orange County Congressman John Campbell ink in the Washington Post for his “daring” tax-reform idea. Campbell and two other Republicans, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Jeb Hensarling of Texas, are pushing a “radically simplified, flatter tax for an estimated 90 to 95 percent of income-tax filers,” notes Novak, known in D.C. as the Prince of Darkness. Novak explains:
In place of deductions and credits, every taxpayer would get a generous standard exemption ($39,000 for a family of four). Presumably, nearly everybody would take this opportunity to escape the scrutiny and invasiveness of the Internal Revenue Service. A taxpayer could switch back to the old system only once in a lifetime (with an exception for such life-changing events as death, marriage or divorce).
Democrats and the Dubya White House don’t like the idea, but Novak says, “Ryan, Hensarling and Campbell pose a gut check for the Republican Party.”
Hold Carona & the Sheriff's Department in Contempt: Larry Welborn and Peggy Lowe at the Reg report on the third day of a work slowdown by Orange County Sheriff’s deputies who refuse to bring inmates to court for trials as a union-contract-negotiating ploy. Have you seen our judges? They often see themselves as gods and view public courtrooms as their own personal living spaces. Defy them on anything—quietly chew gum or check Blackberry for text messages—and you risk angry centure.
But when it comes to deputies defying official court orders to do their jobs, our judges have become collective wusses. The Reg story notes that Judge WIlliam R. Froeberg (pictured above), the inspiration for Montgomery Burns (pictured right) on The Simpsons, stood by “for hours,” waiting on the deputies. The real victims: jurors, whose entire day was wasted again.
Feisty OC Progressives on the Attack: In the days before theliberaloc.com, Orange County Republicans went unchallenged on about 90 percent of their eyebrow-raising utterances. No more, thanks to Mike Lawson, Andrew Davey, Susan Freeze, Chris Prevatt, Mike Lovey, Dan Chmielewski, Ed Velasquez and, simply, Gila. For example, consider the almost daily work of an unapologetically progressive Chmielewski. His favorite target is Republican Chuck DeVore. (To his credit, DeVore is a good sport willing to engage in dialogue with his critics.) Today, Chmielewski slams the Irvine state assemblyman for “again touting his Ozzie and Harriet crowd voting record on family and social issues.” It’s so 1951. “What I have always loved about liberals is that they define 'family' in a much different way,” he writes.
Nixon Corpse Triple Flipped: The new regime running the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda has invited Carl Bernstein, half of the Washington Post investigative duo who exposed the Watergate scandal, to speak on Oct. 22. Apparently, it doesn't matter that the only group Nixon hated more than reporters was "the Jews." Tim Naftali, the first non-Nixon stooge running the library, tells Michael Mello at the Reg that he’s excited. “It's going to be a lot of fun,” Naftali said. “I have a feeling quite a few people are going to show up,” He apparently hasn’t yet learned there is a chunk of people in OC who still believe Woodward and Bernstein are communists worthy of execution. It's true. Go to any Newport Beach watering hole around 4 p.m.
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