Jerry Brown - The Butcher of Sacramento

Posted By CotoBloggzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - Governor Brown is using Weapons of Mass Disinformation (WMD) to promote his you can Deal With This (DWT), or you can Deal With That approach to solving California's budget crisis, while ignoring the Elephant in the Room - worse - while feeding the Elephant in the room.

flickr photo credit: daleeast

The Governor is using a boneheaded either/or approach:  Either you deal with painful cuts to the vulnerable, or you agree to increase taxes.

Analogous to your butcher offering you a great deal:  Buy the cow at a low price, then he trims the prime rib, sirloin and the choice parts and throwing them all to the garbage can, while leaving all the fat in, then telling you, I made painful cuts, but what is left is good for you

The problem is that while he is promoting this largely imprudent approach, he is feeding the parasitic bureaucracies by creating yet another commission to oversee the CALPARS boondoggle, for example, but largely ignoring the fact that the fiscal tsunami at the local, state and national level is largely due to organized labor in the public sector - one of the stools in  California's Triple Threat: 1) Public Unions, 2) Lobbyists, and 3) Parasitic Bureaucracies.

While we keep asserting that Brown should dissolve and or merge 80% of the bureaucracies, he instead is increasing the size of government, while making real cuts to the real vulnerable - is this not an example of the use of WMD?

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COMMENTS

BROWN IS AN ASS

Submitted by SHERMAN TANK on Fri, 2011-03-25 10:26.

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Interesting!  Brown had NO CONFUSION when he enlisted Gloria Alred to f* everything up during the election. Brown should not be governor.

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The Butcher of Sacramento

Submitted by cotobuzz on Fri, 2011-03-25 10:56.

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Tank - we prefer to call Governor Brown, the Butcher of Sacramento 

OF course JB is using

Submitted by TheMarshallPlan on Sat, 2011-03-26 21:17.

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OF course JB is using confusion, just like his cohorts in the media. All the headlines about the alleged cuts to the budget include the phrase; poor, sick, and elderly. Also, look at how JB and the media are attacking Republicans; If Republicans do not allow a vote of extending taxes, there will be more budget cuts to the sick, eldery, and poor, the people who can't afford it, or they will be forced to cut education spending. They are already ramping up the scare campaign.

Most importantly, they are suggesting that the budget cuts will come only if there isn't a vote of continuing the tax extensions, when in reality, even if they are put to a vote, they of course could be rejected, like the last time. However, the media and JB are already attempting to scare the public into voting for them by correlating the tax  extensions proposition being on the ballot with voting for said propositions.

Memo to GOP

Submitted by cotobuzz on Sun, 2011-03-27 11:33.

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The implications from what you suggest is that the GOP should be trying to get the upper hand in the PR wars - instead, the GOP-% seem to be making deals in a smoke-filled back rooms, sort of like where Stupack sold his soul.....to pass ObamaCare.

Brown's use of WMD to Promote his DWT or DWT Budget:

Posted By CotoBloggzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - Governor Brown is using Weapons of Mass Disinformation (WMD) to promote his you can Deal With This (DWT), or you can Deal With That approach to solving California's budget crisis, while ignoring the Elephant in the Room - worse - while feeding the Elephant in the room.

The Governor is using a boneheaded either/or approach:  Either you deal with painful cuts to the vulnerable, or you agree to increase taxes.

Analogous to your butcher offering you a great deal:  Buy the cow at a low price, then he trims the prime rib, sirloin and the choice parts and throwing them all to the garbage can, while leaving all the fat in, then telling you, I made painful cuts, but what is left is good for you

The problem is that while he is promoting this largely imprudent approach, he is feeding the parasitic bureaucracies by creating yet another commission to oversee the CALPARS boondoggle, for example, but largely ignoring the fact that the fiscal tsunami at the local, state and national level is largely due to organized labor in the public sector - one of the stools in  California's Triple Threat: 1) Public Unions, 2) Lobbyists, and 3) Parasitic Bureaucracies.

While we keep asserting that Brown should dissolve and or merge 80% of the bureaucracies, he instead is increasing the size of government, while making real cuts to the real vulnerable - is this not an example of the use of WMD?

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LA City Council Boldly Goes to where the bold-less go

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - The Los Angeles City Council in a boldless move, voted yesterday on a three month hiring freeze of new police officers to reduce the budget gap for this fiscal year from $46.8 million to about $4.1 million.

Neither the Mayor nor Police Chief Charlie Beck like the boldless move.

According to Gerald Chaleff, special assistant to Beck, the boldless  move will affect at least one Police Academy class of about 50 officers and will reduce the total number of sworn officers to about 9,890 (98.89% of the Mayor’s figure) , which is lower than Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign pledge to maintain a force of 10,000 officers and short of the minimum of 9,963 (99.63% of the Mayor’s figure) officers that Beck has said is necessary to avoid compromising public safety.

The elephant in the room of course, is that the move is boldless, unlike Wisconsin’s governor Walker.  The real issue is organized public labor.  Worse when it comes to public safety.

Consider the  The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has begun termination proceedings against six deputies who allegedly assaulted two fellow deputies at a Christmas party last year.  The operative word is began.  Although reportedly the deputies in question behaved like gangsters, flashed signs like gangsters may have been under the influence of steroids and were supposed to guard gangsters, they are represented by the union and there is not much management can do.

Now, we continue to assert that whether a city is the safest city in the county -  the state or the nation -  or not, is primarily a function of residents and local governance, not law enforcement.

A real bold move would be for the LA City Council to face up to the elephant in the room and look to pension reform.  File as many Freedom of Information Act and or Public Records Act  request as you wish.  The fact is that public safety union will consistently avoid using any sort of independently verifiable metrics to hold employees accountable with predictable results as in the case of the LASD unterminated deputies.  May also explain why the safest city in the county, may just be next to the least safe right next door, with the same management team and the same union.

Applications for RSM City Council Due Tomorrow

Posted By CotoBlogzz Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - If you are considering applying for the Rancho Santa Margarita city council position left vacant as a result of the recently tendered Gary Thompson's resignation, tomorrow is the last day to submit you application to the city, as reportedly, not late applications will be accepted.

As predicted, the recent election of councilman Jesse Petrilla is having an impact on the local political calculus, also referred to as the Good Old’ Boy’s Network. Consider that when Lt. Jesse Petrilla's was called for 115 days of training at Fort Knox, KY. and while Petrilla and Steve Baric, asked Tony Beall, Gary Thompson and Jerry Holloway – the three-member part of the good-old-boy network, they jumped at the opportunity to get rid of the pest - or so they figured, as they voted February 23 to oust Petrilla using the boneheaded argument that the council needed a replacement to break an implausible hypothetical 2-2 tie.  

The Rest of the Story – now we know Petrilla stays, Thompson goes: Petrilla=2, Old-boys-Network=0 In order to be considered for appointment by the City Council, all applications and supplemental information must be filed no later than noon on Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Late applications will not be accepted.


Click here for notice.
Click here for application.



Comments

The real scoop

Submitted by Clear thinking on Tue, 2011-03-22 11:07.

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The scoop is Jesse has done nothing but politic and cause discord in RSM. It is time for him to govern and put the interest of the community he serves above all else or he will be voted out in the next 4 years.
Campaign is over time for the new guys to show some leadership, they have big shoes to fill. RSM is a well run city with very happy residents as well as a strong financial foundation.

Clear as Mud

Submitted by cotobuzz on Tue, 2011-03-22 18:39.

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Le's see - is the "politicking" sort of like "it depends on what is, is" - in other words, is the attempt to get rid of Petrilla even though there was not reasonable argument to do so, politicking, or not?

Time To stop politicking and

Submitted by Clear thinking on Tue, 2011-03-22 11:26.

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Time To stop politicking and start to govern or the voters will toss the new guys in the next election.

Campaign is over time to prove you can lead.

Figures dont' lie - Liars hide the figures

Submitted by cotobuzz on Tue, 2011-03-22 13:52.

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I like to say that if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.

Very interesting statement about happy residents.  How is it that you come to the conclusion that RSM residents are happy? - is this analogous to "happy cows come from California"?

Regarding the well run city comment  - do you know that RSM paid the County in 2009 more than 8+ million for OCSD services, yet non one is able too figure out how that money was spent?  The state is supposed to conduct audits - no such audits done since RSM's inception, by the way

Now the 2010 report from the Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey results shows RSM to be the most expensive city in the county for businesses.  The RSMBA has indicated that  Kosmont-Rose made a " gross error and are issuing an addendum to the report." - we followed up with both RSMBA and Kosmont-Rose to get a copy of the press release, but have yet to hear from either.

The point is that if you have verifiable evidence to back up your claims, we would be more than thrilled to write about it.

Vote NO on Changes to CZ Masters Association CC&Rs

Coto de Caza, CA- Just when you think that the CZ Masters Association board of directors cannot possibly come up with another boneheaded idea, BAM!, there it is This time the CZ Masters Association’s is spending your hard earned money “to save you money” – or so it says.  The board is proposing to amend the Master Declaration to extend the term of elected delegates from one year to two years and authorize the board members to  call as special meeting of any district.  The argument is that you, CZ dues-paying residents unnecessarily pay  $6000 per district in connection with each district meeting for election of delegates, or roughly $300,000/year.  Why unnecessary you ask?

Shameless Union Politicizing and Media Misrepresentation of Costa Mesa Suicide

Posted By CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - On the one hand, the President of the United States lectured the nation about not jumping to conclusions about Nidal Malik Hasan’s  connections to radical Islam and the Ft. Hood Massacre.  Never mind at the time it was widely reported that  Hasan was anti war, praised suicide bombers, yelled ALLAH AKBAR before going on his shooting spree, and in 2003 said  “Muslims should rise up and kill the aggressors." And let us now go into the Beer Summit or what the NY Post called  the Ft Hood massacre report,  gutless and shameful

Then there is the Dupnik: Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's claim that Arizona has become a 'Mecca for prejudice and bigotry', and that political 'vitirol' may have pushed deranged Jared Loughner  over the edge, and on  a terrifying rampage in Arizona, killing six people and wounding a dozen others. 

And as if that is not enough, yesterday, general manager of the Orange County Employees Association,   Nick Berardino, was not only cursing at city Costa Mesa CEO Tom Hatch in the lobby of City Hall  but also lecturing him saying something along the lines of “ You cannot give out notices wholesale like that in this economy, that's what's going to happen.”  This of course referring to a city maintenance worker, Huy Pham, who jumped off the roof of the Costa Mesa civic center just before 3:30 p.m. yesterday and pronounced dead at the scene.

Helen Nenadal, Pham's supervisor and a member of the Costa Mesa Employees Association, echoed Berardino’s charges saying. "You can't do this so fast and think that there's not going to be repercussions, she said.

Reading mainstream media accounts of yesterday’s fatal incident, you have to agree with Berardino and Nenadal:  You lay off a member of public union and he or she is likely to go postal.

On the other hand, using the union leaders’ aforementioned argument, what about the millions of private sector workers who have yet to find a job, who by most accounts have not committed suicide?  In case anyone commits suicide, is it the public union which has blood on its hand?  After all, the union is front and center of the fiscal tsunami facing the nation.

Better yet, a contrarian view might be that perhaps it is in the best interest of the union and the city if  Berardino and Nenadal look into the mental and emotional state of its members, including their own?

Where does that leave mainstream media’s sensationalizing the tragedy in support of the union

In our case, we continue to think that President Reagan was right:  Public sector organized labor is an anachronism in the 21^st century, and unfortunately is part and parcel of California’s fiscal tsunami.

March Presidential Madness

 Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - It has been a very busy week for the President of the United States, starting with his Saturday radio address, which he used as a weapon of mass disinformation to argue that the inequality in the number of US women going into math and sciences is a gender inequality issue, as opposed to what it is – a cultural issue.  And the latter not in the United States but in the Western World, for example.

Then there are his  golf outings, culminating with his March Madness bracket submittal to ESPN, the contents of which are supposed to be a well guarded secret.

Not much time for much else.  Not much time to address the Middle East crisis, much less the National Debt.

However, not to be taken by surprise, we have filled out our preliminary Presidential March Madness bracket, which will be submitted to this forum

The stakes could be higher, as the outcome dictates what the world will look like in the near future – if it has a future.

Although the competition is formidable in all of the brackets, the results of some contests are already obvious.  In the end however, it is everybody against Israel as the US chokes – that is, it implodes.

We are anxious to see if our bracket is anything like the one the President submitted to ESPN, or whether we are even playing in the same league.

Presidential Psychosis – Gender equality Vs Global Meltdown

Posted by CotoBlozz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA _ While the world  continues to blow up- literally, the President of the United States he decides to use his weekly radio address Saturday to fight for gender equality.  Although women are more likely than men to graduate from college today, they tend to earn less on average, face a greater chance of living in poverty and are outnumbered in critical subjects such as math and science, he said in his weekly radio and online address Saturday.  "Achieving equality and opportunity for women isn't just important to me as president. It's something I care about deeply as the father of two daughters who wants to see his girls grow up in a world where there are no limits to what they can achieve," he said in his address.

While the President makes an excellent point about gender inequality, there his argumentation is flawed:  While it is true about gender inequality:  The math and science issue is a choice:

For instance, women keep their personal lives and business lives very separate when it comes to social media, according to the 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage, and Compass Partners. While women consider blogs great sources of information, especially regarding purchases, the vast majority of women use social networks solely for keeping in touch with family and friends.

Over half  of the women surveyed said they participate in some kind of blog activity (publishing, posting comments, reading), and 53% use social networks. However, women use social networks as designed:  75% use them to keep in touch with friends and family, and not so much as information sources or for making purchase decisions. That's a major insight considering this is the half of population making 85% of purchase decisions in the US.

Stay with me.  Now, consider during the National Center for Women in Information Technology meeting at the Googeplex last year, Vivian Lagesen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology presented her study of Malaysia  showing 52% of  all computer science undergraduates majors are female. Their view is that the field is very much in the tradition of the female role, since it is safe and mostly indoors, not unlike cooking, for example.
On the other hand, Maria Charles of the university of California Santa Barbara reported that the problem surrounding gender inequality has its roots in the belief that genders are different but equal.  Differences in attitudes about math and science between men and women  are greater in the developed world, than in the developing world, where women and men see math about the same.
The conclusion is that in the developed word,  women make career choices as a form of self-expression - mostly on misguided pre-conceptions, opting out of sciences, technology engineering and mathematics.  Charles suggests that forcing all students to take match and science classes would give them the opportunity to discover their interests and aptitude for those fields - a form of ridding the person of self-bounded rationality, for example.  Perhaps this is what the President is arguing for:  Pro-choice on legal murder, but against choice anent math and science.
But wait, there is more.  More importantly that Mr. Obama’s misleading rhetoric, is that while the President played golf and fought for gender equality, the recently-forced-to-resign _PJ Crawley appeared prophetic as Libyan rebels are loosing ground to its dictator.

And the Japanese catastrophe?  Fine – thanks for asking – that is, the President used weapons of mass disinformation to further his agenda, while neglecting to abide by Drs. Juran and Pareto:  Their First Law of Effective Leadership, known as the Pareto Rule and in the vernacular as the 80-20 Rule:  Focus on the vital few as opposed to the trivial many.

Don’t Mess with The OC – Top This Top Gun

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – Despite claims from a DUI defense law firm to provide potential clients  arrested and charged with DUI anywhere in Southern California with “aggressive legal representation they can count on,” it is fair to say that  if such charges are filed by the Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) office, the promises may be just that.

Consider that over 100 law enforcement agencies within Orange County forward some 170,000 complaints per year to the OCDA,  including misdemeanor and felony cases.  Once the cases are reviewed, the OCDA rejects an average of 16% of the  total cases for a number of reasons, including shoddy work.  Turns out that about 30% of Orange County Sheriff Department (OCSD) forensics and 20% of  OCSD  cases forward to the OCDA are rejected - the highest reject rate of all cases forwarded to the OCDA by  all of  the law enforcement  agencies.

Further, nine OCDA attorney’s were honored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) during  MADD’s  24th Annual Law Enforcement and Prosecutor Recognition Luncheon held  yesterday March 10, 2011 at the Richard Nixon Library, to honor Orange County prosecutors and police officers for their outstanding contributions to the prosecution of DUI cases.

At the luncheon, nine Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) prosecutors were recognized for their assistance providing support to victims and their families and diligent efforts in criminal prosecution. Each was nominated by their OCDA supervisor or a MADD victim advocate.

Cases prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorneys Steve McGreevey and Robin Park, and Deputy District Attorneys Michael Carroll, Patrick Moss, Cliff Page, Rebecca Reed, and Daniel Varon included  charges ranging from felony driving under the influence causing great bodily injury to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated with prior convictions. The efforts of the prosecution resulted in the defendants' convictions with sentences as high as 15 years to life in state prison. 

Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price and Deputy District Attorney Jason Baez were each given the Heart of MADD Award for their excellent prosecution of DUI cases.

MADD is a nationwide, non-profit organization that works to stop drunken driving, support victims, survivors, and families affected by drunken driving, and prevent underage drinking. The Orange County Chapter of MADD was formed in 1981 and offers services and education to the local community, including youth programs, victim services, and special events. MADD works closely with Orange County law enforcement agencies to support the prosecution and apprehension of those who put the public at risk by driving under the influence of alcohol.

The message is clear, don’t drink and drive in the OC, even if you think you can count on getting aggressive legal representation.  The best you can hope for is for the OCSD to forward your case to the OCDA’s office.


Comments

Go Figure...Literally!

Submitted by Tom Scalisi on Thu, 2011-03-17 08:14.

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Dear JL "Buzz" Aguirre,

In reference to the following from your second paragraph:  "Consider that over 100 law enforcement agencies within Orange County...," there is nowhere near 100 law enforcement agencies within OC. There are about 21 city police departments, the sheriff, 2 university police departments, CHP, and maybe Fish & Game might reel a duce in once in a while. 

Reference the DA's rejection rate, how many of those are due to prosecutorial inability? All too often DDA's will reject a case because they cannot win it, not because the suspect is innocent.

When DDA's lose cases, they invariably search for excuses they hope will shift blame to others rather than cite their own ineptitude. Marcia Clark's excuses for arranging OJ's playing golf outside of Pelican Bay were specious at best. Johnnie Cochran did not set OJ free. In fact, Johnnie Cochrane was a moron. Gil Garcetti, Marcia Clark and Chris Darden lost it. They were bigger morons. But for their gross ineptitude, OJ would be swinging an imagined golf club inside a Pelican Bay cell.

While I will not deny that at times cops will submit "shoddy" work (You try working 5 midnight shifts in a row with a few overtime shifts thrown in while unable to remember the last time you slept more than a few hours.), it is also true that DDA's will perform shoddily. And unless you have actual proof that "shoddy" law enforcement work products were causal of declined DUI prosecutions, you're assuming. 

Law enforcement's responsibility is to determine whether probable cause exists to believe a crime was committed and that the arrestee committed it. It is the DA's responsibility to convict. Evidence necessary to convict is not a component of probable cause to arrest. Hence, a prosecutor's opinion to not proceed against an arrestee does not infer innocence, nor does it implicate "shoddy" work. 

DUI conviction rates are not so much a function of prosecutorial ability as it is due to our legislature's removing every conceivable defense to that crime, as it should be. A DUI arrest is about as close to slam dunk as it gets. It's so easy even a caveman can win one.

Buzz, I admire prosecutors who take cases to trials in which suspects are guilty but where proving them is extremely difficult. It's not impressive that a prosecutor wins a slam dunk case.  

BTW, Debra Oberlin, former president of MADD, and Candy Lightner, its founder, were both arrested for DUI. 

Figures dont' lie - Liars hide the figures

Submitted by cotobuzz on Thu, 2011-03-17 23:48.

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Tom

You bring up excellent issues – some of which can be resolved through a closed-loop corrective action system, while others require an extreme culture make over, including pension reform.

With a closed-loop corrective action system, a taxpayer should be able to follow a paper trail of an incident report from inception through disposition, including whether it gets forwarded to the DA or not.  Why we have been encouraging OC law enforcement to  use what we call the eDistrictAttorney:  At least in this case, we can follow the transition of the cases from law enforcement to the OCDAs office.  We understand that the use of electronic filing is voluntary. 

The closed loop corrective action system does not explain why in the City lf Laguna Woods an investigator is assigned weeks before an incident is documented, then that incident is closed, and repeated requests to management seeking answers obfuscates matters further.  Or why there is such a discrepancy between the safest city in the county and the least safe – after all, it is the same management and the same union.

You are right that some law enforcement agencies do not submit that many cases – there are more than 40 agencies that submit more than 100 cases per year.  The point is that whether a law enforcement agency submits one case or 6000, all of the cases need to be accounted for.

You are right that there are many reasons why cases get rejected.   We continue to research the question and eDistrioctAttorney should help. However,  consider that certain agencies consistently  post relative lower rejection rates than the OCSD –  3Q2010 figures shown below including total cases and rejection rate

SANTA ANA POLICE DEPT.            6012            10%

HUNTINGTON BEACH POLICE DEPT.   4575            8%

GARDEN GROVE POLICE DEPT.            3589            6%

COSTA MESA POLICE DEPT.            3538            6%

FULLERTON POLICE DEPT.            3336            6%

As to the association fallacy, may I offer some of the same, as in:  Laguna Nigel's OCSD Deputy Waters, Arrested on Multiple DUI related crashes,  Pople Vs. Hibbs’ case, Sheriff Carona and myriad of other indictments and or convictions?

Or as Mr. Connely ,the OCSD’s  Executive Director of Independent Review,  says about OCSD accountability “Accountability means different things to different people”. We asked Mr. Connely if he was aware of tools and or metrics used by management in the department to make sure there was some sort of accountability - he knew of none.  We also asked Mr. Connely if in his tenure to date, if  he had developed a dashboard to determine actionable times that could be used for these purposes.  He had not.