Steven Greenhut's Election Wish and Orange County Taxpayer's Opportunity

In the June 4, 2010 Orange County Register’s Op-Ed Steven Greenhut says that June 8th will likely not bring the much needed reform that California needs.

Greenhut writes, “Love 'em or hate 'em, these initiatives are mostly self-interested deals. They don't offer major reform – and none of them get close to touching the fundamental issues that threaten California today. And none of the candidates offers real hope for taking on the vested interests and changing our state.”

Indeed, the statewide offices, regardless of who occupies them, will have little positive affect on most of us in our daily lives. But all is not lost. Voters need only to look at their local elections to see the winds of reform blowing in. Local elections offer taxpaying voters an opportunity to hold our incumbents accountable for their misdeeds and business-as-usual politics, to say nothing of their fiscal shell games.

Whether you take issue with wasteful spending, abuses of power, or constitutional rights, you can begin reforming your local offices and agencies by making smart choices with your vote. As Tip O’Neil said, “All politics is local.”

June 8th is the beginning of the end of Orange County’s longstanding RINO establishment. November 2nd, 2010 stands to be the nail in the political coffin for those who have reaped constituents with their bad policies. All you have to do is vote.

Voting is the quickest path to reform. Elect only those candidates who are ready, willing, and able to do what’s right in the face of controversy and opposition.

An excellent source for public policy and voter information is Cal Watchdog.

Kagan's Notes Give Liberals Hope, Admits She Has No Sympathy for the 2nd Amendment!

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Pension Reform Receives Court Backing

Those interested in Orange County government accountability and pension reform won a legal battle Wednesday.

In a ruling over a petition filed in December 2009 by the California Foundation For Fiscal Responsibility vs. the Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS), the Superior Court of Orange County ordered the OCERS to disclose “…gross amount paid to the payee member, the name of the payee, and the identification of the prior public employer of the named payee and no other information contained in the records OCRES.”

The presiding judge, Hon. Luis Rodriguez, says in his ruling, “Individuals must have access to government files to hold governments accountable for their actions. Personal embarrassment is outweighed by the strong public policy supporting transparency in government and the strong public interest in knowing how it spends its money ‘to expose corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism.’”

This ruling is consistent with the premise that government can only be held accountable when there is transparency. Without transparency, corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice and favoritism cannot be identified, much less routed out. When I read those pervasive flaws outlined by the court, I immediately thought of Tom Daly, Annie Mezzacappa (covering for Sidhu), Linda Andal (covering for Sidhu), Bryn Morley (covering for Sidhu), the OC Children and Families Commission (Cunningham, et al), the OC DA Chief of Staff Susan Schroeder, appointed OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, SAPD Chief Paul Walters, and the public employee unions just to name a few. All of those people seem to fall under one of those categories (corruption, incompetence, inefficiency, prejudice, favoritism) that the court has recognized in the ruling. It is up to the public to police our government and Judge Luis Rodriguez seems to agree.

Case Number: 30-2009-00330855-CU-WM-CJC

Man released after police find he was helping victims (from the OC Register)

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Waste And Deception. So What’s New? They’re Unions. (from FFFF)

So far the Orange County public employee unions have spend over a million dollars in this year’s 4th District Supervisor’s election.

Doing what? Calling Shawn Nelson a pedophile supporter; claiming what a virtuous and honorable man Harry Sidhu is. A million bucks.

Lest anybody thinks these goons are going to give up their death grip on the taxpayers without a struggle had better think again. A million times.

Forget issues. They only care about their own selfish interests and Heaven forfend anybody suggests that a County paper shuffler shouldn’t be able to retire at 55 and enjoy most of his pay for rest of his life. Naturally these people are going to do everything they can to distract attention from the main issue of this campaign: unfunded liabilities on the taxpayers caused by public employee union greed and spineless politicians.

And so Hide and Seek Sidhu, carpetbagger and perjurer, the man who doesn’t even know what a defined benefit is suddenly a paragon of virtue; Nelson is an unspeakable monster.



There you have it. Fear and Loathing, and enough to go around.

It's Just Union Noise

As one family member put it yesterday, "the day of reckoning is upon us." 

Gilliard Blanning Reportedly Behind Deceptive and Misleading Email

A friend forwarded me an email (see below) which they were able to trace back to a Gilliard Blanning ISP!  Gilliard Blanning is Hutchens' campaign consultantant.  The firm has connections to several corruption investigations (see bottom).  Hutchens is righteously scared that she will loose this election on June 8th.  I have been hearing overwhelming support for Hunt which was appearently demonstrated at a downtown Santa Ana rally today.  I expect more of these types of emails in the days to come.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: "no-reply@votercommunication.com"
To:
Sent: Wed, June 2, 2010 11:25:54 AM
Subject: Hunt Rally Today To Defend Gang-Banger Work
Bill Hunt will Defend His Gang-Banger Defense Work at Protest Rally in Front of Santa Ana Police Department
Pivate investigator Bill Hunt will try to revive his faltering campaign for Sheriff by defending the indefensible – his work to help violent gang-bangers escape punishment. Hunt is holding a protest rally in front of the Santa Ana Police Department at 11:30 AM today to defend himself.

An interesting side note is that Gilliard Blanning has done very little for one of their other candidates, Shawn Nelson, who is running for the 4th Supervisorial District seat vacated by newly elected Chris Norby. I haven't seen any smear emails from Gilliard Blanning against Harry Sidhu. Maybe Shawn isn't paying for the Platinum Campaign Package that Hutchens is. Or maybe Shawn is paying more and getting better advice, like "don't run a negative campaign; let the independent expenditures do that."

You might recall Gilliard Blanning and Associates was visited back in February of this year by investigators from the Riverside County DA's Office as was reported HERE and HERE. Several of their clients have been named as defendants in a corruption and conspiracy case as mentioned in the Press-Enterprise article. I hope no one at Gilliard Blanning or any of their "associates" needs a defense attorney.  Surely the defense attorney will want to hire a private investigator and we can't have that!

Sidhu and Friends

Defined Contribution vs. Defined Benefit

"...All Other Pay Cash!"

I was doing some research and found this blurb from the National Institute on Retirement Security:

"Worries about retirement security abound. Families fear that they won’t have enough to support an adequate retirement income as home values and financial markets plummet. Dwindling profit margins have employers looking to cut costs.

And governments are concerned about delivering on the promises that they have made to their citizens and to their employees as tax revenues shrink amid a weakening economy. In this environment, some have proposed replacing traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions with 401(k)-type defined contribution (DC) retirement savings plans in an effort to save money.

But decision-makers would be wise to look before they leap. To deliver the same level of retirement benefits, a DB plan can do the job at almost half the cost of a DC plan. Hence, DB plans should remain an integral part of retirement income security in an increasingly uncertain world because they offer employers and employees the best bang for the buck."

Now that is some smooth writing.  I was almost convinced until I re-read it and noticed "To deliver the same level of retirement benefit..." The author isn't talking about the overall tax burden of the benefit but rather the overhead it takes to manage the benefit system.  I will surmise that the defined benefit plan would cost taxpayers far more in the long term than any overhead created in managing a two-tier system that includes a defined contribution plan.  Further, why not simply offer employees an opportunity to meet with a financial planner so that they can create an individual retirement account?  A generous employer may also choose to contribute a small percentage of the employee's gross annual salary each pay period.  Then, management of the funds becomes the responsibility of the employee and not taxpayers.

Bill Hunt on Cameron Jackon's The OC Show

Listen here.

Cameron Jackson interviewed Bill Hunt on last Friday's The OC Show. Hear from Bill Hunt about the recent attempts by the OC Register and KCAL9 to vilify Hunt's credibility.  Jackson helps put the facts on the table regarding Susan Schroeder, Paul Walters, and their connections to Bill Hunt’s opponents. Please click on the link above to hear the interview in its entirety.

Felonious cell mates George Jaramillo (left) and Mike Carona (right).