Wednesday, March 1, 2006
High Fives and Clooney Loonies
I can just see it now.... Our young jailer/mayor and his
cronies giving each other high-fives, dancing around and saying
things like, "Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" as they read
about the eight Latino laborers who were arrested at a Home
Depot in Orange last Friday and hauled back down to the border
for deportation when they admitted being in this country
illegally.
Despite his denials over the past three months, I wouldn't be surprised if that is precisely what our mayor has in mind for Costa Mesa once he succeeds in having members our police force cross-designated as immigration screeners. While he says he's "only concerned about getting criminals off the streets", you don't have to be a Mensa member to read his real meaning. He wants every illegal immigrant out of Costa Mesa and is willing to fabricate the rules to get it done.
Isn't it curious that, according to our police chief, John Hensley in response to a question at a recent forum, he knows of no other local law enforcement official who is interested in the least in taking the steps our mayor is trying to accomplish? I wonder why all those real law enforcement pros feel that way? Could it be that they see it as a waste of precious law enforcement assets at a time when, with our porous borders, the folks who get deported will just be back in our neighborhoods within a few days? Don't you think Chief Hensley would much prefer to have the dollars our city will have to expend to train the officers for cross-designation allocated toward more full time officers and related equipment to help them do their real job? Yeah, I do, too.
I don't see how this avalanche gets stopped now. Our young jailer/mayor has felt the hot lights of celebrity - an addiction, for sure. He's been stroked and hugged by none other than Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. He's been cheered and praised by media moguls on national television. For him, a man who spends his day job dealing with the worst among us, there is no turning back now. That, of course, is not good news for our city.
***
On a lighter note, our local newspaper of record, the Daily Pilot, published an editorial last Sunday that, tongue in cheek, addressed the rumor that actor George Clooney might be angling to purchase a home in Newport Beach. The editorial turned up the gain when it speculated that the home in question might be the former home of John Wayne. It was fun piece, almost guaranteed to rankle the few liberals in Newport Beach - one of the last bastions of conservatism left on the West Coast.
Sure enough, today the Daily Pilot published a handful of letters from a flock of disgruntled liberals, taking the editors to task for what they described variously as a "sophomoric and in bad taste", incomprehensible and arrogantly dismissive", "xenophobic", "asinine, small-minded and ignorant", and accused the editors of the Daily Pilot of "showing your true colors - the John Birch Society".
I have to say that I haven't stopped laughing yet! The Daily Pilot is owned and distributed by the Los Angeles Times, a liberal publication if there ever was one. The Daily Pilot editors do a great job of presenting our local news without political bias, even though there is occasionally a liberal slant to some of their editorials.
One thing is sure. George Clooney would be a welcome relief in Newport Beach - a liberal with a sense of humor.
3:37 pm pst
Despite his denials over the past three months, I wouldn't be surprised if that is precisely what our mayor has in mind for Costa Mesa once he succeeds in having members our police force cross-designated as immigration screeners. While he says he's "only concerned about getting criminals off the streets", you don't have to be a Mensa member to read his real meaning. He wants every illegal immigrant out of Costa Mesa and is willing to fabricate the rules to get it done.
Isn't it curious that, according to our police chief, John Hensley in response to a question at a recent forum, he knows of no other local law enforcement official who is interested in the least in taking the steps our mayor is trying to accomplish? I wonder why all those real law enforcement pros feel that way? Could it be that they see it as a waste of precious law enforcement assets at a time when, with our porous borders, the folks who get deported will just be back in our neighborhoods within a few days? Don't you think Chief Hensley would much prefer to have the dollars our city will have to expend to train the officers for cross-designation allocated toward more full time officers and related equipment to help them do their real job? Yeah, I do, too.
I don't see how this avalanche gets stopped now. Our young jailer/mayor has felt the hot lights of celebrity - an addiction, for sure. He's been stroked and hugged by none other than Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. He's been cheered and praised by media moguls on national television. For him, a man who spends his day job dealing with the worst among us, there is no turning back now. That, of course, is not good news for our city.
***
On a lighter note, our local newspaper of record, the Daily Pilot, published an editorial last Sunday that, tongue in cheek, addressed the rumor that actor George Clooney might be angling to purchase a home in Newport Beach. The editorial turned up the gain when it speculated that the home in question might be the former home of John Wayne. It was fun piece, almost guaranteed to rankle the few liberals in Newport Beach - one of the last bastions of conservatism left on the West Coast.
Sure enough, today the Daily Pilot published a handful of letters from a flock of disgruntled liberals, taking the editors to task for what they described variously as a "sophomoric and in bad taste", incomprehensible and arrogantly dismissive", "xenophobic", "asinine, small-minded and ignorant", and accused the editors of the Daily Pilot of "showing your true colors - the John Birch Society".
I have to say that I haven't stopped laughing yet! The Daily Pilot is owned and distributed by the Los Angeles Times, a liberal publication if there ever was one. The Daily Pilot editors do a great job of presenting our local news without political bias, even though there is occasionally a liberal slant to some of their editorials.
One thing is sure. George Clooney would be a welcome relief in Newport Beach - a liberal with a sense of humor.
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