CM PRESS # 363

SOCIALISTIC THINKING CAN'T SOLVE THE GANG PROBLEM

Summary of Main Article

Zero tolerance for gangs and removing the gang habitats is the only way to solve Costa Mesa's gang problem.

It is up to our elected officials to take the actions necessary to thin out and remove slum buildings that are serving as habitats for gangs and to stop funding and supporting charities that reward gang members and make them feel comfortable here.

Main Article

At today's City Council Study Session, the CMPD will make yet another presentation on gang suppression that will "include enforcement and prevention/intervention strategies." LINK

Note that word "intervention." That's where the problem lies.

The last time the CMPD made such a report, it was written, at least in part, by a Return to Reason cop who tried very hard to defeat the present majority on the City Council.

And, in that report, there were recommendations to give a pile of your money to the NMUSD which was going to use your money to help fund some Return to Reason connected charities that would have taken some NMUSD students for after school intervention.

Some of these same Return to Reason charities have been at it for years and have nothing to really show for all the money that has been pumped into them, except that the charity bosses have had nice jobs all these years and have been able, because of their secure charity jobs, to use some of their leisure time in trying to elect fellow travellers to the City Council.

In the discussion of gangs in Costa Mesa in the earlier CMPD report, there was no use of the terms "Latino" or "Hispanic" to be found, even though in other reports the CMPD has admitted that the gangs causing problems in Costa Mesa are Latino--almost exclusively.

But, the report did mention one racial group and tried to falsely link that racial group, in reader's minds, to the problems we have.

It said that while we don't have a White gang problem, we may have some White gang members living in Costa Mesa. So, if Whites are not the problem in our city, why did the report single them out? Why were Whites the only racial/ethnic group mentioned in the report by race or ethnicity? You know why.

Okay, the CM PRESS is getting blue in the face, but we'll say it again.

To solve a problem, you have to correctly define the problem and know all its characteristics. You can't let your prejudices and PCitis cause you to pretend certain characteristics don't exist and still hope to solve the problem.

It is important to state and understand that Costa Mesa's gang problem is a Latino gang problem and not try to hide that fact.

Now, knowing that the gangs are Latino tells you some other things:

1. Latino gangs are territorial. They are "habitat" oriented. They come into existence as neighborhood groups with a specific geographic area where they feel comfortable. They need those neighborhoods in order to exist.

2. Most gang neighborhoods have low rents and dense housing.

3. Latino gangs exist in neighborhoods full of illegal aliens and have a very strong connection to illegal aliens.

So, with that information, how can Costa Mesa get rid of gangs and gang members?

The same way you get rid of alligators in a swamp.

YOU GET RID OF THEIR HABITAT AND THEY'LL LEAVE ALL ON THEIR OWN.

Remove the swamp, and the alligators will soon be gone. Without the swamp, you wouldn't even be able to bribe them to come back.

Without the dense barracks style apartments in Costa Mesa, the gangs will be gone and you won't even be able to bribe them to come back.

Why would the above "remove the habitat" strategy work in Costa Mesa?

It would work because all living things gravitate to where they are comfortable and avoid places where they are not comfortable.

Remove the swamp and the alligators will leave and move to another swamp--call that other swamp, er, Santa Ana or Anaheim or Stanton or.... Who the hell cares? We need to take care of Costa Mesa and Costa Mesa citizens.

We need a little enlightened self-interest in Costa Mesa and we need to look out for our citizens first and foremost. Let other cities do the same for their citizens. That's why we have cities in the first place: to take care of the citizens who live there.

The way our American society works is that we're all supposed to do the best we can for ourselves. Yes, that sounds a little selfish, but in balance, a little selfishness is good when everybody else also tries to do the best for themselves.

That's the way things improve for individuals--don't you try to get the best job you can find? It also works for families--don't you try to do the best for your family and get the most comfortable home? And, it works for neighborhoods--don't you want your neighborhood to be the best it can be? And, it works for cities, states, and nations. This is the reverse of a socialist system. Remember all the hippy communes based on socialistic thinking? They didn't work. And, the reason they didn't work is because they weren't based on the way humans really are.

Yes, we should be compassionate and help others but, and I repeat, we need a little enlightened self-interest. In the long run, this will help others the most. It's the rising tide raises all boats way of looking at things.

THE PIGEON EXAMPLE

If you have a problem in your town square or local park with flocks of pigeons and want the pigeons gone, the first thing you do is locate the pigeon lady who has been feeding them and stop her from doing that. And, there will always be a pigeon lady in the picture. Count on it.

The wrong thing to do is tax citizens to give the pigeon lady more bird seed or to treat the pigeons as your new best friends.

And, you don't make a report to the City Council about the pigeon problem and never mention pigeons, but do mention robins even though the robins aren't the problem.

What we've been seeing in Costa Mesa is that citizens who actually live here and who have their kids in schools, and who shop in our stores and who have their lives and property at risk from gangs, are being told by some "experts" who often don't live here, and/or who have liberal/socialistic tendencies or political agendas, that the citizens need to pony up more money to make the gangs feel comfortable and that somehow that policy, that has never worked, will somehow now work.
# # #
GASOLINE BREATH

The CM PRESS noticed a number of cars with their gas doors ajar, jimmied or missing this morning in the north part of Costa Mesa. Siphoners? If you got hit, call the CMPD (714) 754-5252. They may have an intervention plan for gas siphoners that will send them to some Return to Reason-friendly charities.
# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 362

COSTA MESA NEEDS TO UPDATE ITS ANTI-SOLICITATION ORDINANCE

(Generic photo)

Costa Mesa's anti-solicitation ordinance 10-354 needs to be reviewed and rewritten in order to be effective. LINK

One ordinance that should be looked at in any such rewrite is the one now in effect in Orange.LINK

Especially note Section 9.37.040.

If Costa Mesa had a similar provision, day workers seeking work from a private parking lot such as the convenience market at the corner of Victoria and Placentia could only do so with the permission of the owner of the property.

But, if the owner gives such permission, he must apply for a permit to operate a job center on his property.

# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 361

JUST RIGHT PORRIDGE

Cities are works in progress. They are being shaped and re-shaped all the time. The shaping may be intentional and planned or it may be unintentional and unplanned; but the shaping and re-shaping don't stop.

Some cities, Irvine comes to mind, are intentionally shaped and planned to the nth degree. To some, this seems a good way to do things. Everything is in place and every blade of grass is cut just right.

To others, including the CM PRESS, that's too much shaping and planning. We see Irvine as being too plastic, too artificial, and too antiseptic. Sort of like living in a Disneyland without the rides. It lacks authentic life and spontaneity. But, that's just our personal taste in things. There is no right and wrong about it. It comes down to what one likes.

By contrast, some other cities have too little shaping and planning and they have slums and gangs and many problems that most people would rather not have in their city.

Most Improvers think that there should be a middle ground between being overly planned and not being planned at all. They believe there must be a way to balance things and come up with the just right porridge of a city.

Costa Mesa

We at the CM PRESS have long felt that Costa Mesa has the potential to be the just right porridge city.

Things in our dynamic universe are never static. Something that is just right is always balanced between not being just right and being just right. Take that porridge. If cooked slightly less, it would not be just right. If cooked slightly more, it would not be just right. The trick is to get it just right.

What is just right for Costa Mesa? That's the question that Improvers have been asking for years and why they became active in the city.

To the CM PRESS, "just right" means a number of things, and we are advocates for what we think is right. Others may disagree and we expect to hear their logical arguments in this regard. It's up to them to advocate for what they think is just right.

And, that's what elections are about. Ultimately, and in the best of all worlds, intelligent voters will hear the various arguments and make an informed choice about which candidates will help make the city what the most voters think is best.

Improvers have been getting many improvement minded, or at least improvement talking, people elected to the the City Council over the past few years, because many voters agree with what the Improvers are saying about making Costa Mesa nicer.

Unfortunately, instead of logical arguments from the other side, we are now hearing from a small group of extremist haters, brown racists, bigots, assorted neurotics, and special interests who have crawled out out from under their rocks and who try to confuse the public with red herrings.

For example...

When Improvers say we need to allow homes on the Westside Bluffs to attract upwardly mobile people back to our city, we don't hear logical arguments on the other side.

Instead, we hear haters and bigots, who are often acting as the unpaid shills for rich out of town industrial interests, saying that we're just trying to chase Latinos out of the city.

When we say we need to reduce the number of barracks style apartment buildings and replace them with modern low income housing, we hear the same nonsense about trying to chase Latinos out of the city.

When the CM PRESS complained about a dangerous situation where cars were double and triple parked with motors running on Presidio Way behind Davis School, and little kids were running between these cars, we heard that we were trying to make it uncomfortable for Latinos.

When we joined with others and complained about dangerous conditions at Paularino Park, we heard that we were trying to bar Latinos from the park. We even saw this nonsense repeated in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot by a liberal editor who lives in Fullerton.

When we say that non-profits in Costa Mesa shouldn't receive our tax money if they are discriminating based on race, the kooks say we're trying to harm Latinos.

Of course, it's just nonsense. All of the improvement suggestions are race neutral. Improvers are simply saying: "We want a pleasant and safe city with good schools where we can raise our families." See anything about race in that?

A COUPLE OF SPECIFICS ABOUT WHERE WE THINK WE NEED IMPROVEMENT

Let's look at just two of the things that we think are unbalanced and which need to be put into balance in order for Costa Mesa to improve.

Industrial--too much and in the wrong place

Today, Costa Mesa has a whopping 14% of our land zoned for industrial uses and much of it is on the best land in our city--the Westside Bluffs.

By contrast, Newport Beach only has 2% of its land zoned that way. We think Costa Mesa has too much industrial zoning and that it should be reduced by about half and that most of this reduction should be on the Westside Bluffs.

Does it make sense to have 60 acres of industrial buildings upwind of most of the homes in the city? Not to the CM PRESS, it doesn't. All the pollution is blown over all the homes. Costa Mesa is designed backwards. It needs a redesign.

Slums

Costa Mesa has too many barracks style apartment buildings that are functionally obsolete.

"Functionally obsolete" means they can't be fixed. The problem with them is not in a lack of upkeep--or that they need new paint or flowers planted out front, the way Katrina Foley did with some of the slums in her Mesa del Mar neighborhood--the problem is in their design.

A healthy balance of renter occupied to owner occupied residences in a city is 30% to 40% renters vs. 70% to 60% owner occupied. In Costa Mesa, we have 60% renter occupied vs. 40% owner occupied. This is just the reverse of what it should be.

Making sense of claims and counter claims

To avoid confusing he said/she said arguments about improving Costa Mesa, the CM PRESS long ago started comparing our city to the five cities that surround Costa Mesa and which touch some part of our land.

This gives us a look at the vital signs and establishes base lines. So, we compare Costa Mesa with Newport Beach, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Santa Ana.

What we usually find in looking at the statistics is that Newport Beach is at the top in most good things and Santa Ana is at the bottom.

We believe that Costa Mesa's rightful place should be second to Newport Beach in most good things.

Instead, we find that Costa Mesa is often at the bottom just above Santa Ana.

We think this is absurd and that it is not our natural place given our traditional closeness to Newport Beach.

We want to change things. That's what Improvement is about.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 360

NUTS ON THE NET--OUR START ON A BESTIARY FOR THE COMPUTER AGE

In the past, nuts were limited to writing their nutty thoughts in letters to newspapers. Most of the nuttier ones were caught by editors and never saw the light of day.

Now, however, every nut with even a chimp's level of intelligence can reveal his or her nuttiness via the Internet. And, they do. Today, mountains of opinions come our way unedited by a third party who, in the past, would have filtered and weighed everything before putting it into print.

And, from blog entries and counter blog entries that we sometimes see, it seems that many people are having trouble distinguishing reasonable and intelligent opinions based on facts and reality from the baseless opinions of nuts and those with agendas.

Not all opinions are equal and not all opinions are worth reading.

THE STALKER

Mr. A--Mr. A. is middle aged. Physically, he is shorter than average and unattractive. Mr. A has a marked oily appearance which may be the result of over active sebaceous glands and too much of the female hormone estrogen. His manner and speech are effeminate. He has a psychotic borderline personality and low self-esteem born of deep seated feelings of inadequacy. He blames his lack of respect in the community on his victim(s). His intelligence is below normal, but not markedly so.

Mr. A fits the profile of a psychotic stalker. Some, but not all, of the characteristics of such a person with this mental disorder are shown below:

Motivation
(a) Wants to frighten and distress his victim.
(b) Stalks his victim to get revenge against someone who has upset him.
(c) Views his victim as being similar to those who have oppressed and humiliated him in the past.
(d) May view himself as a victim striking back against an oppressor.

Personality
(a) Is often irrationally paranoid.
(b) Has an inflated but irrational sense of self-worth as a defense mechanism for his deep seated feelings of inadequacy.

Victim Characteristics
(a) Stalks victims that may have upset him directly or are representative of a group at which he is upset.
(b) May stalk someone he knows or a complete stranger.
(c) Stalker feels inferior to the victim and tries to overcome these feelings by harming the victim.

Stalking Behaviors
(a) Is obsessed with and fixated on his victim such that he thinks of little else.
(b) Is likely to verbally threaten his victim.
(c) Is likely to send anonymous threatening letters, make middle of the night hang-up phone calls, use victim's name to sign victim up for magazine subscriptions, etc.

Long term
(a) If threats and actions against the victim have little result, the stalker often becomes frustrated and increases his actions against the victim. The stalker wants to be noticed--to be someone important--but he also wants the safety of being anonymous. The stalker irrationally believes that his victim stands in the way of the stalker becoming a fully realized human being.

(b) The stalker wants desperately to overcome his life long feelings of inadequacy and will sometimes be an overachiever to prove to himself that he has self-worth. When others do not recognize his "importance," he becomes even more frustrated.

THE INADEQUATE PERSONALITY

Mr. B--Physically, Mr. B is of average height and weight. His muscles are flaccid and his skin appears overly soft and "plump,"possibly due to a lack of testosterone. He has small "man" breasts. His physical appearance is not inconsistent with what is seen in eunuchs. The possible lack of testosterone may explain both Mr. B's physical characteristics and why Mr. B. is childless.

After spending his working life in a dead end job, Mr. B is now confronting his own mortality and is growing increasingly bitter as he looks back and realizes that he has accomplished little in his life.

Mr. B appears to have average or slightly below average intelligence. This is reflected in what Mr. B writes, which is usually mundane and unoriginal. Mr. B, in order to appear more intelligent than he is, will often adopt words and phrases of more intelligent people.

# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 359

DAY LABORER PROBLEM IN COSTA MESA
(stock generic photo)

The problem we have with day laborers in Costa Mesa is directly linked to the fact that we have failed to improve our city in meaningful ways.

We have become Santa Ana light instead of being our traditional Newport Beach light.

How to start solving some of Costa Mesa's problems with day laborers, crime, etc:

1. Immediately enact a day laborer ordinance based on the one used in Orange.

2. Immediately start improving our city as citizens demanded during the WROC and CRAC meetings.

3. Re-think government spending priorities so that the city can buy up slum buildings one here and one there on the open market at fair market prices and tear them down to put in more open space. This will thin out the slums, make the neighborhoods less crowded and will result in lower crime in those areas.

4. Call a meeting with the NMUSD and request that the district stop allowing the over concentration of charities at Rea School.

Right now, the NMUSD gives a buck a year rent to several charities in that school. The purpose of a school is education, not being the home of charities. With all the charity services at Rea School, the neighborhood around the school, including the area up to Victoria and Placentia, can't get out from under slum conditions.

Article in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot today

In an article in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot [LINK] today by Return to Reason family member Alan Blank we read the following:

The notion that day laborers are creating a huge, uncontrolled problem in our city is contrived, according to [Costa Mesa Police Chief] Shawkey. He shared a complaint he received last month in which a person submitted a picture to prove that rowdy laborers congregated outside of a local Circle K market. Shawkey realized it was fake because a sign in the photo listed the price of gas as $2.18 per gallon. “People are out there trying to generate issues that aren’t even there,” Shawkey said.

It sounds to us as though someone may have mistakenly sent an old photo to the chief instead of a current one that would show pretty much the same thing.

[Note to CM PRESS readers, if you have the time, please check out the locations shown below and take some current photos with your cell phones or cameras, and email those to the chief at: PDADJUTANT@ci.costa-mesa.ca.us and to the City Council at:EBEVER@ci.costa-mesa.ca.us --If these email addresses aren't live, just go to the City's Website and send your photos from there: http://www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us/contact/email.htm
or http://www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us/]

And, if you receive the CM PRESS via email, please send us copies at our email address that you already have.

Here's the list of where most of the day workers seem to congregate from about 7 am to 10 am (plus or minus) every weekday:

1. The corner of Victoria and Placentia
2. The corner of Hamilton and Placentia
3. West 17th Street near the former job center--both sides of Placentia
4. The Dunn-Edwards Paint store at 19th and Harbor
5. The Dunn-Edwards Paint store at Baker and Bristol

# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
# # #

This issue is being sent to email subscribers. Not all issues are sent this way. If you are an email subscriber and want to read every exciting issue of the CM PRESS, please bookmark our address and visit often. http://cmpress.blogspot.com/
-30-

CM PRESS # 358

SOME ICE STATS FOR COSTA MESA

Percentage of arrestees interviewed by ICE-- Jan-April 2007

Jan--38%; Feb-- 62%; Mar-- 55%; Apr-- 61%

180 people were put on ICE holds for being in the country illegally during this period.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Percentage of arrestees interviewed by ICE Jan-April 2008

Jan--7%; Feb--0%; Mar--5%; Apr--16%

65 people were put on ICE holds for being in the country illegally during this period.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The CMPD advises that the lower percentages and overall lower numbers so far in 2008 are caused by the construction at the Costa Mesa police station and the closing of the jail for more than a month.

Most of the construction is apparently finished and the jail is open for business again, so we may see an increase in the numbers starting with the May 2008 report which will be out in early June.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 357

THE MESSENGER

I awoke. I hadn't known I was asleep. I hadn't even known I existed. I had been unaware.

Now, I was aware. I knew I was alive. Now, I had a dim memory of swirling galaxies and of a flow and a spinning and a turning of everything in existence.

I didn't know where I was. Suddenly, I became aware that I wasn't alone. There were others like me. Many others. Millions of others. We were all part of the cosmic flow. Even so, a cosmic loneliness filled me.

Then, I remembered. We were messengers being sent into the unknown with a very important message. It was a matter of life or death that the message be delivered. That's why there were so many of us carrying it. One of us had to succeed.

What was the message? I didn't know. Who was I supposed to deliver it to? I had no idea. I only knew that I had to struggle to deliver the message. Somehow I also knew that I would be rewarded if I were the messenger who got the message through the incredible odds against me.

I also was aware that each messenger had the same general message, but it was just coded a little differently for each. We were the hope of the one who was sending us forth. His destiny was linked to our destiny as our destiny was linked to his. We were part of him, yet we were separate from him.

I didn't choose to be a messenger. It was just my fate. It was the way things are, and I was part of the way things are as are all other things in existence. My duty, my purpose, and my responsibility--my mission--was to deliver the message. I must leave my home and go to the unknown. The mission was everything.

All the others also wanted to reach the same goal. I now realized that I must struggle against all the others. There was no hatred about this. There was no love. There was just the struggle. The great indifferent and eternal struggle.

So it came to pass that we were sent forth on our sacred mission.

Some of the others were weak and they quickly fell away. I moved on. My destiny, whatever it was to be, was in front of me. I got tired and it would have been easy to stop struggling, maybe just rest for a while, but this wasn't my way. I was relentless. Then I saw it far away in the distance; a gigantic orb shining like a star. That was where I had to go. I just knew it. I sensed. it. I felt it.

I moved ever onward through a vast emptiness that was not truly empty. And, the orb grew larger and larger. It was there. It was huge. It was beautiful. It hung there in the distance but was getting closer. Suddenly, stunningly, the orb vibrated and...it sang to me! It was a lonely, plaintive, and sparse song. Then without thinking, I sang back and was shocked because I didn't know I could sing and I didn't even know the song. It just came out of me.

The orb was shining and glorious. It's music was thin but it called out, siren like, urging all of us to move on. Great waves of joy filled me as I got closer. This was my goal. This was my destiny. I felt exhilarated as I got closer. All around me, other messengers were dying, but I moved on. Now I was bathed in a glorious light as I moved ever closer. All my will and all my might were focused on the goal to get to the orb. I was going to struggle until I could struggle no more.

I got even closer and feared that I would burn up but the heat was just a warmth. Suddenly, I realized that I was the only messenger there. I was all alone. But I moved onward. The orb got within touching distance. Suddenly, I heard a voice from out of the far places booming out to me in a deep rumbling tone and the voice said, YOU ARE THE MESSENGER.

With my last ounce of strength I propelled myself forward into the orb and the wall of the orb let me pass through into the inner light. Once I was inside, it was as though I had thrown a switch to turn the orb on because suddenly everything got very bright and everything started moving all around me as though a clockwork had started. Like a swirling kaleidoscope, things moved all about me and through me and I was one with them and I was part of it. I could see everything, including me, changing. It was as though I was outside myself looking at myself. Parts of me joined with parts of the orb.

I was becoming one with the orb and the orb was becoming one with me and we were now being joined as one. And, I saw it all and I was being transformed and I felt it and I was becoming something new, something whole, something complete and the great spinning continued and it was beautiful as it ordered everything.

Parts of me linked up with parts of the orb. Clang, clang, clang, clang...23 times it happened. All the parts lined up and locked into place and the spinning became a spiral full of different colored lights and it spun around like a candy cane. And suddenly the singing that I had heard before, turned into a chorus and the sound was beautiful and full. Where before it had been as a single instrument, now it was as a full orchestra. It was complete and it was exultant and it was joyous. And, the One who knows, was there in the center of the spinning.

Suddenly I knew the truth.

I was the messenger, but I was also the message.

And, then I knew what my purpose was. Then I understood the way of existence. Then did I achieve the consciousness of the orb and of the One. Then did I finally understand. And the voice said, "Against all odds you have been chosen because you chose yourself. Forty million started the journey with you, but you alone succeeded. The forty million are now gone forever and they shall be no more. You alone shall go on. That is your reward. In time, you shall send forth your own messengers.

Nine months later I was born. The struggle continues. The message goes on.
# # #

There are approximately 40 million spermatozoa in an ejaculate, but only one gets to fertilize the ovum. A human spermatozoa carries 23 chromosomes from the male which join with the 23 chromosomes in the ovum of the female to produce a human being. Each chromosome is a long strand of DNA containing approximately 30,000 genes. DNA is made up of the four nucleotides, adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine which are usually abbreviated A,T,C and G. These four chemicals join together two at a time to create "rungs" on the ladder of our DNA. There are 3 billion rungs on our DNA ladder.

The message being carried by the spermatozoa to the ovum is in these things. It is the blueprint of life. If the message does not reach the ovum, there is no life.
# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 356

POLITICS AS USUAL AND THE CITY GOES DOWN HILL

The Bell Curve is a manure heap, dear friends, and it pulls to the middle where it stinks the most. Entropy in politics, as in all of existence, is difficult to avoid, and one has to understand it to avoid being pulled in.

First, you cut your ponytail, then you wear a suit, then you lick the boots of the GOP bigs and your new best friends. Little by little you change and you tell yourself that it's just the way things are done because that's the way the big boys do things.

Soon, you're not in office to improve the city; you're in office just to stay in office. Soon, you've become one of them.

Soon, you're saying, "I think I'll just lie down in the snow here and take a little rest. I'm so tired."

# # #

ERIC (CHRIS STEEL) BEVER

Back before he ran for office, Mayor Eric Bever sported a long ponytail. We liked that, because we thought it showed a non-conformist bent and reflected an inner quality of one who wouldn't be easily co-opted by the establishment. True, ponytails on men weren't all that rare, still...well, maybe we just read into the ponytail thing.

Bever talked a pretty good talk about wanting to improve the Westside and that's something we were already involved in doing, so we listened and watched and he pretty much did keep saying the right things.

Then, when he ran for office, he cut off his ponytail. "Maybe, he did that just to show that he was serious about running to improve the Westside," we thought to ourselves. Again, it may be that we were reading our own hopes into things.

Unfortunately, since Bever's been on the Council, he's done very few major things to improve the Westside or any part of Costa Mesa. Oh, he's done some small things and we've praised him for them, but the things he's done are to our city what hors d' oeuvres are to a banquet. And, we keep waiting for the real meal to begin, but we tire...and we begin to think that this host has nothing but hors d' oeuvres, and that maybe we've crashed the wrong wedding.

At last night's no-City Council meeting, the CM PRESS told the no-Council that we think Councilmembers should be more assertive in getting things done. (We were being kind, and chose as mild a word as we could think of to say "Get off your fat asses and do something.")

We cited the 55 Freeway mess, the ever expanding John Wayne Airport, Banning Ranch and the Westside.

Bever's reply from the dais was essentially that things were being done behind the scenes and that these things involve politics and networking, blah, blah, blah. Read, Bever knows best and the subtleties of what's going on behind closed doors are beyond the ken of the hoi polloi.

Baloney.

The public has a right to know what's going on and we have a right to participate in meaningful ways, not in set-stage little community meetings like the City holds that are just for PR effect; but as active participants.

Then, City Manager Allan Roeder said that the issue of Banning Ranch was very early, and that Newport Beach doesn't yet own the land, etc.

Well, with all due respect to Mr. Roeder, who we admire as a very able administrator, these things take on a life of their own and once the train starts down a certain track it's hard to stop.

The train of Banning Ranch becoming part of Newport Beach and having 1, 375 homes and a 75 room hotel and 75,000 square feet of shops and with four roads leading out of it with three of them being right through Costa Mesa (16th St., 17th St., and 18th St.) is starting to leave the station and gain speed.

And, Costa Mesans are going to be left standing at the station, once again saying "How did that happen?"

Same thing with John Wayne Airport. While Katrina Foley and her fou fou liberal pals are gnoshing over wine and cheese and tightening the sleeves of their sweaters tied around their necks and wearing the latest galoshes from Land's End while clucking their tongues about the planes overhead, John Wayne will expand. Count on it.

That is, it will expand, unless an alternate location for a very large international airport can be found to replace John Wayne. Folks, the way things are going right now, we're all going to be living on the tarmac here in Costa Mesa. NO ONE, except the CM PRESS seems to be talking about the real solution that makes perfect sense: Build a large international airport on a tiny portion of massive Camp Pendleton. If you're the mayor of Costa Mesa, and if you're half-smart, you'd be on the phone to Dana Rohrabacher and others and getting them on board with this idea. Forget that maglev train to the desert, folks. It makes no sense. It's a Triangle Square idea.

One local dimwit who blogs on all things that he knows nothing about, and that includes just about everything, and who seems to have an IQ on a par with the wattage of the light bulb in your refrigerator, says that Pendleton is no good because it has hills, blah, blah. Oh, good grief!

Of course, this same imbecile keeps writing that Bever is doing all he should do to improve the Westside. And, the buzz is that this guy is one of Bever's pals. That's the trouble with the internet, dopes who would have been limited to writing their stupid ideas on bathroom stalls down at the Greyhound Station, are now doing it on the internet.

You know folks, it may be a myth, but it is said that you can stop a train if you put a penny in front of its wheels before it starts moving. Myth or not, the point is still valid.

We can't wait until the train starts moving. We need to act now on the 55, JWA, Banning Ranch, and the Westside (Remember the Westside? Remember that's what got Bever, Mansoor and Leece elected?)

Costa Mesans deserve a better, a smarter, and a stronger City Council.

Our City is at a turning point. There are lots of very important issues that are hitting us all at once, and the present weak no-City Council can't do the job. If we were an Indian tribe, we'd throw the bums out and elect a War Council--one that is more suited to the real problems of this city.

If you doubt what we're saying here, please tell us what Bever, Mansoor and Leece have done to improve the Westside. Talk is cheap and that's about all these three are doing.

Improving the Westside was the one small job that these three were elected to do and all they've done is put some flowers in the middle of W. 19th Street. Improvers delegated to these three, and the job is not being done.

The gangs, the crime, the slums, the massive industrial area are all untouched, and there is still no supermarket on the Westside.

Where are the homes on the Westside Bluffs full of upwardly mobile citizens contributing to our city? Right, there are still no homes on the Westside Bluffs. What's changed on the Westside since Bever, Mansoor and Leece took office? Nothing, except that Mansoor has moved out of the Westside.

These three have done nothing meaningful. They show up at City Council meetings and rubber stamp whatever is put in front of them, and collect their pay. Then, one or two of them will smile and mumble something about attending the latest PTA level conference.

And, folks, it's not just the CM PRESS that is concerned. We have feelers out to many other improvement activists and while they may not be as direct as we are in saying these things, they are concerned.

The problem for those who want a nicer city is that we don't have any good candidates who are jumping into the fray.

So far, there appear to be only five people who are running for the City Council this year: Eric Bever, Chris Bunyan, Jim Fisler, Gary Monahan and Katrina Foley.

(Chris Bunyan, who has filed papers, told the Council last night that he's not running, but left the door open and said if he did run it'd be solely on the Banning Ranch issue. Katrina Foley, who is running, according to her Web site, has not yet filed papers.)

Jim Fisler has always been good on illegal immigration, but that's about it. No one knows where he stands on anything else. And, the buzz among Improvers is that he doesn't seem to have the drive to really run a campaign. Geez, you have to actually appear in public and get name recognition. Except for Fisler showing up to collect his pay as a no-Planning Commissioner, he's usually AWOL. Fisler was reportedly put on the no-Planning Commission to groom him for a run for the Council, but he's pretty much blown it.

Gary Monahan will probably win on name recognition, but when he was on the Council before, his votes seemed to be all over the place and seemed to lack any cogent overall long range plan to improve Costa Mesa. It was as though every vote was in a vacuum and not connected to the whole.

And, this metaphor of being in a vacuum is not chosen lightly. It seems that the same thing applies to all the other members of the Council.

We wonder sometimes if we're seeing some sort of mental defect in our politicians. Why can't these people think strategically? Can't they see how it's all connected? Don't they realize that if you vote for A, that it will affect B, C, D, E, right down the line; maybe a couple of years in the future, but that there is a trajectory to what we do?

Can't they extrapolate from A to at least, oh, B? Look, we're not asking for geniuses on the Council, but can we at least have people who are able to factor in more than what is just on the surface of what comes before them?

If you shoot an arrow into the air, you can pretty much predict where it will land based on wind speed and direction, force of the pull, weight of the arrow, etc. and you can have a pretty good idea of what the effect of its landing will be.

But, it seems the City Council members don't get it. They shoot an arrow into the air and don't seem to have a clue where it will land or even if it ever will land. To them, it's as though that arrow exists in a vacuum.

That's a lousy way to run a City. That's why we often refer to the City Council as the no-City Council and the Planning Commission as the no-Planning Commission.
# # #
IS THE CITY IN VIOLATION OF TITLE VI OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964?

The City denies it, but the CM PRESS believes that the no-City Council is not doing all it should do to prevent racial discrimination in the awarding of HUD CDBG funds and that it is trying to avoid looking at the situation. LINK

In fact, as we pointed out to the deaf ears of the no-City Council last night, for the umpteenth time, the packet of information they receive from City staff to decide on who gets HUD CDBG funds, is missing one very important document that is collected by City staff: the quarterly HUD reports showing the racial composition of all the charities to whom the City Council gives OUR money.

Why doesn't the no-City Council want to see that document? Why did they look at us with blank stares as though there were no brains behind their eyes when we told them that it was missing from their packets?

Could it be because that document shows that some charities that receive our money don't look anything like Costa Mesa? Could it be that a responsible City Council would start asking questions about why these charities don't look like Costa Mesa? Why no red flags in the minds of the City Councilmembers? Hmmmm?

And, to make it look even worse for this gang of five nitwits on the Council, the Council is on actual notice that one charity was found to be discriminating and was taken to the woodshed by the Feds, as we've reported many times, and as we told the Council last night, also for the umpteenth time.
# # #
BREAKING NEWS

From his Rolls Royce parked at his mansion on the tony bluffs in Newport Beach--bluffs that are full of expensive homes and not industrial buildings--a rich industrialist who makes his living off keeping the Westside Bluffs of Costa Mesa full of industrial buildings and no homes, places a call to Bever Election Central and with a well disguised voice says:"Hello, this is little Susy, and I'm six years old and if you allow homes to be built on the Westside Bluffs, my mommie and me will be thrown out into the streets."

And, Bever responds: "Don't worry little Susy, I'll help keep the Westside Bluffs fully industralized, cough, cough, cough--excuse me, I live on the Westside and I forgot to close my window and the polluti...ah....don't worry, little Susy. You can count on Bever to keep things just the way they are. Say, how do you like those flowers in the middle of 19th Street? Now, that's what I call real improvement."
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 355

FREE MONEY NIGHT AT THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT!

Yes, dear friends, your City Council--the people who work for you--will be handing out more of YOUR money to charities tonight at the City Council meeting. LINK
Alternate LINK.

Of Course, if you're a White U.S. citizen you may not be able to get any return on your money because some of the charities don't want to serve you.

That's because you're the WRONG COLOR! And, you're a citizen of THE WRONG COUNTRY! Go to the back of the bus. Use that separate drinking fountain. Comprende?

Here are a few facts:

1. This money that is given to the non-profits belongs to the citizens. It is your money!

2. The 3R committee that makes recommendations on giving your money away has a fiduciary responsibility to make sure the money is spent in the proper ways and for the benefit of the citizens of this city. Some (but not all) members of the 3R Committee seem to act more like lap dogs than junk yard dogs in protecting our money.

3. Many of the non-profits just expect a rubber stamp approval of their requests.

4. Some of the non-profit leaders make more than $ 200,000 per year. They have a vested interest in growing their charity businesses by bringing in more and more people to use their services. Illegal aliens often fill the bill very nicely.

5. Many of the non-profits do not look like Costa Mesa but appear, statistically, to racially/ethnically discriminate against White citizens. At least one non-profit usually shows that 100% of its "clients" are Hispanic, in a city that is only about 30% Hispanic. Several others show that more than 95% of their clients are Hispanic.

John F. Kennedy nailed it when he said "Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination."

Some of the non-profits violate this principal, so well stated by JFK, and seem to be engaging in practices that do, in fact, encourage, entrench, and subsidize such discrimination, yet the City Council keeps giving these non-profits our money year in and year out.

We have in our files (and we've repeatedly offered copies to the Return to Reason Daily Pilot--but they didn't take us up on our offers), a copy of a Federal Consent Decree against a non-profit in Costa Mesa that actually told a young teen White girl that she was the wrong color to use their services and that they only wanted to serve Latinas [including, presumably, illegal alien Latinas]. They then denied this girl services paid for by taxpaying U.S. citizens.

This particular non-profit apparently thought it was clever in the way it discriminated. It said that everyone of every race/ethnicity could submit applications for their services. The problem was that they wouldn't accept anyone except Latinas. They got caught because they sent an email telling the White girl that she was the wrong color. They apparently thought that would cause her to just go away silently. Big mistake.

A Federal Consent Decree is a very serious document. If an organization receiving public funds is shown to be discriminating (as was the case of the non-profit mentioned above) and refuses to sign the Consent Decree which has a list of steps the organization must take to end the discrimination, the next step is serious legal action and possible Civil Rights law suits.

Year after year, the CM PRESS has been asking the City Council to adopt JFK's dictum on non-discrimination in the use of YOUR money and year after year the City Council just ignores us.

In the information given out to the public tonight about this cash giveaway, you probably won't see the required HUD reports giving the breakdown of race and ethnicity of the charities.

Folks, these HUD reports are required by the feds to root out sneaky racial and ethnic discrimination, yet the City of Costa Mesa tries to hide this data from the citizens of this city. This is public information and you have a right to see it. Why is it being hidden from you? Hmmmmm?

Why isn't the City of Costa Mesa insisting that charities that receive your money, serve people who look just like you?

If you want to end racial discrimination in Costa Mesa, let the City Council know your feelings. If you can't attend the meeting tonight, you can email your comments to the City Council at: CAgenda@ci.costa-mesa.ca.us Here's the link to the City's website for live email addresses:http://www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us/contact/email.htm

# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 354

THE COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

A person calling himself/herself usradar posted the following on the OC REGISTER blog. LINK

We thought readers might like to save this because of the extensive links.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cisorg/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. http://www.cisorg/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare and Social Services by the American taxpayers. http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. http://transcripts..cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two-and-a-half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border, also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report. http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

13. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States". http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml


Total cost is a whooping... $338.3 BILLION A YEAR!!!


pes is provided for doubters:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

# # #
Note to readers who receive the CM PRESS via email--please keep downloading and saving posts, letters, blogs, etc. from the individual in question. We may already have them, but backups are appreciated. Anything new, please email us at the email address you've received, or talk to us in person.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 353

Anaheim resident and Return to Reason Daily Pilot director of news and online Tony Dodero has a self-serving column in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot today in which Tony tells readers that it doesn't much matter if those who are reporting on Costa Mesa actually live here or far away. LINK

Tony is apparently responding to the CM PRESS's columns about Fullerton resident and Return to Reason Daily Pilot managing editor Brady Rhoades' stupid comments about Paularino Park (located not in Anaheim or Fullerton, but in Costa Mesa).

Well, Tony, here's why it matters.

If one actually lives in the city that one is reporting on, one is less likely to make the kind of stupid mistakes that Rhoades made in his recent blog about Paularino Park.

Instead of knowing the facts about the park, Rhoades just seemed to parrot the comments from another guy who has an agenda and whose comments are wrong. Here's the LINK to CM PRESS # 351 about this.

And, Tony, you say that it's more important that the employees of the Return to Reason Daily Pilot have "connections" than where they live.

So, who over there is connected to what's really going on? The paper is full of Return to Reason members and sympathizers and illegal alien friendly lefties whose biases seem to blind them to reality and causes them to think in something less than a straight line. You think they have connections?

Their connections are to the charities and other lefties. They just hear the same psycho-babble and kumbaya all the time at whine and jeez meets.

The Return to Reason Daily Pilot has been trying to use its connections to elect its fellow travellers to the Costa Mesa City Council for years and has expressed corporate surprise each time the Improvers elect candidates.

"Oh, my gosh, how did that happen?!" seems to be the response we've been seeing from the Return to Reason Daily Pilot after the last several elections.

First, the Improvers helped Chris Steel get elected when all you connected folks said he was unelectable. Then they helped Allan Mansoor get elected. Then Eric Bever. Then Wendy Leece.

The Return to Reason Daily Pilot can't have too many connections if it couldn't see those wins coming down the pike. Or, maybe it's just a brain deficit over there.

If you had been reading the CM PRESS, you would have had a clue.

Some might say that the Improvers always seem to be ten steps ahead of you folks at the Return to Reason Daily Pilot. Maybe it's because they actually live in Costa Mesa.

By the way, Tony, why didn't you mention that you live in Anaheim in your column?

And, Tony, when several people were shot in drive-by shootings in Costa Mesa last year, in separate incidents, the CM PRESS was there in each incident--before the ambulances arrived. We interviewed people on the scene and learned what was really going on, unfiltered by others. You were probably in Anaheim.

You see, Tony, lots of things go on in Costa Mesa when the Return to Reason Daily Pilot closes for the day and while you and Rhoades are back in your homes in faraway Anaheim and Fullerton.

Tony also tells readers in his column today that it doesn't matter that new reporter Alan Blank comes from a family of Return to Reasoners. Why, Blank is unbiased, says Tony. Sure he is. So, why did Blank write a puff piece about Humberto Caspa and his new book?

According to an email I received from Yvette Cabrera at the OC REGISTER, Caspa wrote the following nonsence in his book:

"Since most users of Paularino Park were ethnic minorities, and because Millard is known for having deep-seated prejudices against anyone who is not White, he asked for a mandatory prohibition that would have virtually denied access to the
park for Latinos and U.S. Latinos (sic)."

The above statement makes three different and separate false assertions of fact and attempts to establish, in a reader's mind, a motive based on views I do not have.

Let me diagram it for you:

1. "Since most users of Paularino Park were ethnic minorities"---False. Caspa doesn't live in the Mesa North neighborhood where Paularino Park is located and neither the city nor anyone else, that I am aware of, keeps a count of who uses the park either as a function of just the raw number of people, or broken down by race/ethnicity. However, since I live near the park and see it several times a day (and have for many years), I'm confident in saying that, based on my on-the-ground observations, most users were not, and still are not, ethnic minorities. However, ethnic minorities do use the park.

2. "and because Millard is known for having deep-seated prejudices against anyone who is not white"---False. I do not have deep-seated prejudices against anyone who is not white. Anyone who thinks this, is either misinformed or has an agenda or both. I know what's in my mind. In fact, I'm the one that asked that the City adopt JFK's dictum about not using tax money in ways that discriminate based on race or ethnicity.

3. "he asked for a mandatory prohibition that would have virtually denied access to the park for Latinos and U.S. Latinos (sic)."---False. I was one of many in the neighborhood who asked that the City of Costa Mesa name Paularino Park a passive park to make the park safe for all users.

Soccer was specifically named as a problem by most of the residents because it was the only team sport that was then being played in the park and which endangered toddlers and others in the park. However, the neighborhood asked the city to ban all similar sports--baseball, football, etc., from the park. The neighborhood's request first went before the Parks and Recreation Commission where it received a unanimous vote to make the park passive. It then went to the City Council and received a majority vote to make it passive.

The request by the Mesa North community, and the subsequent action by the City of Costa Mesa, was based on health and safety concerns and related to actions that were dangerous in this small park, and had nothing at all to do with race or ethnicity. The park remains open to people of all races and ethnicities.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.