Rohrabacher: OC's senior, career politician

Dana Rohrabacher--Orange County's senior, career politician--is engaging in a Twitter dialogue about marriage equality with Brian O'Leary Bennett, a conservative Republican, public relations expert and gay activist who once served as chief of staff for Congressman Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove).

Bennett launched the discussion by applauding Rohrabacher--whose stances often abruptly shift between Phyllis-Schlafly-cold-war-conservatism and bong-hit-libertarianism--for opposing federal government intervention into state and local stances on medical marijuana distribution.

The former Southern California Edison spokesman then asked the congressman to "B consistent" and "B fair" when it comes to supporting gay marriage.

But Rohrabacher, who has always been barely one bus stop ahead of his own scandalous past, declined to accept the comparison.

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Mansoor

Will ex-Costa Mesa mayor and current California State Assemblyman Allan Mansoor challenge Michelle Steel--a fellow but less-experienced Republican officeholder--for a soon-to-be open seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors?

That's the energetic buzz this week in Republican circles, in which Steel is the only formally announced candidate to replace outgoing Supervisor John Moorlach in June 2014.

Steel--vice chairperson of the California State Board of Equalization who only recently moved to Orange County and is thus open to a carpet-bagging attack--has garnered favor from many local Republican Party establishment players, including Scott Baugh and Michael J. Schroeder, a former state party boss.

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David Le

May Day comes at the perfect time as Long Beach City College's administration is crumbling under its own ego.

Last week, student trustee Jason Troia anhiliated LBCC's Board of Trustees for their incredibly shady behavior surrounding the school's program discontinuence. Tomorrow, Troia, LBCC students, faculty, and trade organizations will march to protest against the inanities.
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At least you can say this about Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach): He's no Ken Calvert, the House Republican out of Riverside who says he might consider some kind of legal status for members of the undocumented class who jump through hoops, but not full citizenship. Rohrabacher, meanwhile, is among House hardliners reacting to the Senate's 844-page, "Gang of Eight" immigration-reform bill with one of their own that would force people in this country illegally to plead guilty to a crime before applying for citizenship.

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Jason Troia

Jason Troia is the Long Beach City College administration's worst nightmare. "I just really like doing research," the student trustee says with a little laugh that accompanies most stories when he talks about LBCC. Troia began poring over reams of documents he's compiled in the months since hearing that 11 of the school's vocational programs had been cut due to budget problems: Auto Body, Aviation, Audio Production, Interior Design, Welding, Automotive Technology, Real Estate, Photography, Air Conditioning/Refrigeration/Heating, Diesel Mechanics, and Carpentry. These are programs that have an incredibly high success rate compared to other non-vocational programs at LBCC--and programs the trustees axed with little regret.

"If there's anywhere that really needs trade programs - it's Long Beach," Troia says, "It's always been a blue collar town, and the jobs are here."

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See the update at the end of this post about the other GOP assemblyman, state senator and "Surfin' Congressman" attending Sunday's beach bonfire. Also, the original post has been corrected to reflect the panel the AQMD board chairman resigned from and the date of the AQMD hearing on fire rings.

If you see shirtless people with their arms in the air, dancing around blazing Huntington Beach fire rings Sunday afternoon, that's probably not a native ritual that involves burning virgins or forked-tongue pale faces.

It'll be Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Nanny State) and his merry band of followers demonstrating their love of blazing pits, just as the Orange County Board of Supervisors did in Santa Ana Tuesday.

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The American public must be let in on what's going on behind closed doors regarding the federal government's attempts to preserve the full force of its controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, a UC Irvine law professor argues.

"There's a public right to know about issues surrounding pending legislation," Jessica Karp, an adjunct faculty member at UCI, has reportedly said of "secret" meetings on "S-Comm."

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The Obama White House knew Fisker Automotive was sputtering financially in 2010, a year before a half-billion dollar government loan to the Anaheim-based electric car maker was frozen, the Associated Press reports today. Since the plug-in hybrid Fisker Karma roll out at the 2008 North American International Auto Show, the company has experienced production delays, vehicle recalls, cash-flow problems, Hurricane Sandy wiping out 300 new cars, founder Henrik Fisker's resignation, nearly all its workforce being pink slipped and a looming bankruptcy filing.

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A Los Angeles County law requiring the use of condoms in porn shoots is being blamed/credited for a migration of adult productions elsewhere--although not, apparently, to adjacent Orange County.

Ventura County, where new development foes have moaned about not wanting to become the next (nearly built out) Orange County, is now reportedly dealing with the deafening moans and groans of porn stars.

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Sharpton: sharing information is racist

Liberal talk show hosts are going nuts today because members of the mainstream media reported that law enforcement sources said a "dark-skinned" person was a subject of interest in the terrorist attack at this week's Boston Marathon.
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