Rohrabacher in Emergency Mode

Well, it must be an emergency when they have to bring in Jon Voight to headline a fundraiser. Now we know that Voight is one of those spreading the word that Obama will usher in a new Socialist regime. Now, when Dana needs Deliverance from Voight, he has to know that he is in the middle of something new... a contested race.

I found out about this when I noted it being hyped around Republican circles by Ron Nehring. Now Nehring and Dana have a lot in common, especially their friendships with Jack Abramonff.

Now, if Obama is expected to answer question about William Ayers who was politically active when Obama was 8 years old, why aren't Nehring and Rohrabacher being asked to explain just how much they have changed since playing footsie with Jack. Fair is Fair.

Just when you thought it was safe...

That must be what Dana is thinking, as he contemplates his next run for Congress. It has been a very long time since he faced criticism from inside the Republican Party, as the comments from Mississippi blogger Conservative Belle laid out.

Her criticism was a mild one. It was an effort to point out just how much earmarks and their use as a campaign tool give a lie to the conservative rhetoric about controlling spending and lowering taxes. If you can not control the amount of pork that is shipped to your own district, what gives you the right to talk about controlling big government. Maybe this should have been levied at Alaska's Senator Stevens or Representative Don Young. Both abuse the system much more that Dana. But Dana is the one that opened his mouth and gave her a good target for her scorn.

Now Dana has more than an irate Mississippi Belle to worry about, he has opposition in the Republican Primary in his own district. According to the Daily Pilot, Ronald R. St.John has actually decided to challenge Rohrabacher for the Republican nomination. You can check the status of all party candidates here.

Now, I don't know much about St. John. Neither, apparently, do the folks at Red County blog where he is only a side comment in a post about Debbie Cook.

Am I beginning to see parallels between what happened to Richard Pombo in 2006 and what is happening to Rohrabacher now? Like Dana, Pombo had a safe district. Like Dana, Pombo had surprising opposition in the Republican Primary. Like Dana, Pombo had an opponent with a reasonable base. Will Dana have to actually dig into his bank account and do some real campaigning this time? It is too early to tell, but Red County bloggers found that the speed with which Debbie Cook gathered signatures on her nomination papers to be "impressive."

Here are some things to watch.

• In CA-11, Jerry McNerney was able to pull in grassroot contributions from all over the country. The average contribution to his campaign was small, but he had a lot of them.
• What will the environmental community do? McNerney had strong backing from national environmental organizations, so does Cook locally. I have not heard that any of the bid spenders (Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife) are willing yet to pour money into this campaign. It will probably take several positive polling results to make that happen.
• Will Dana face more opposition from veterans? The war issue is a Republican strength but also a weakness. Treatment of veterans will make a difference. A Tom Lash issue now.
  
• Will Dana run a smart campaign? Pombo ran a campaign from a position of over-confidence, doing all of the same old things he always did. But, the times had changed and many actions backfired. The times have changed even more now and that can not be good for doing the same old things in the same old way.

This race is beginning to have the feel that the Pombo race had in early 2006. All it needs is for Rohrabacher's opponents to start believing that they can win.

Ho-dad

I just found what purports to be the official Rohrabacher Website... or at least one that says it was paid for by the Committee to ReElect Congressman Rohrabacher. So, here is if folks: http://www.surfdana.org/ Even got a picture of someone on a surfboard. However based on his current official House of Representative web site photo, this must have been taken a while back.



Now, I talked about Dana with a surfer called "Birdlegs". Some of you from the Surfrider Foundation may know him. He called called Dana a "ho-dad". Must be something pretty bad.

Another thing I noticed is that the Surf Dana site looks pretty cheap. All three of the challenger sites look better. But, there have been rumors that the California Republican Party is having financial problems under the leadership of Ron Nehring. Could it be that Dana is having similar problems and has to rely on some middle school student volunteer to keep the site going?

Well that is about right. Ho-dad instead of surfer. Amateur web site instead of professional. Wonder how he is at being a congressman.

Blackwater Bogged Down

Even with support from Crazy Dana, it seems that Blackwater could not convince the good people of Potrero, CA from slapping them down a peg or two.

EAST COUNTY – Five members of the Potrero planning group were voted off the panel Tuesday night in a recall election that served as a symbolic referendum on a controversial training camp proposed by Blackwater Worldwide.

The five incumbents all supported the proposed facility.

As the five were ousted, five candidates on an anti-Blackwater slate were voted in to replace the incumbents on the rural town's planning group.

I wonder what group of "outsiders" Rohrabacher will blame for not supporting his friends.

OOOPS. I forgot, Rohrabacher is an outsider.

California Energy Commission vs Dana Rohrabacher.

I would love to see that in court, or even in a good debate. But then, it would hardly be fair. To paraphrase Rush, the Commission could win that debates "Half theit brain tied behind their back just to make it fair."

We all know that Dana is so certain that Global Warming comes from dinasaur flatulence. However, the Energy Commission, all but one of which were appointed by Schwarzenegger, just took the most important action against Global Warming that could be taken. In a unanimous decision, they approved a new 2007 Integrated Energy Policy Report (PDF - 301 pages).

One key element in this is that it opens the door for communities to change their current permitting and planning processes for new buildings and major renovation. In fact, the targets that the Energy Commission set are the most stringent in the nation.

I am just waiting to hear Dana and the various Chambers of Commerce cry about their being too stringent and that it will hurt growth in California. Well with our water problems now, that might not be all bad.

Now, I wonder when the Republicans down here recognize that the real dinosaur is name Dana. Dana the Dinosaur. It is just like the Republicans in Richard Pombo's district who didn't like him, thought he was out of touch, but would not take a stand against him because the didn't want to lose that district. So, they kept Pombo and the lost the district because of it.

The time will come when that is true of Rohrabacher also. Maybe this year?

A new member of the Crazy Dana Fan Club

It is not often that I post an entire segment from somewhere else. There are copyright issues and all of that, but I think that all of our readers would love these admittedly editorial observations from the Long Beach District Weekly. So, here's the full story regarding our favorite congressman and I hope I got all the bold type in the right place.

Sat | Jun 16 I’ve heard that one of the indicators of a serial killer is that they torture small animals as a child. I’ve also heard that you can tell someone is crazy when they become delusional. Torture? Delusions? This must be about Dana Rohrabacher. And yes, this is about Congressman Crazy, who today leads a rally of outraged citizens in Huntington Beach protesting the jail sentence of two immigration officers who shot a guy in the back, then tried to cover it up, and then claimed they did it because he was an illegal alien, which they didn’t know when they shot him. Okay, “rally” is a little bit of a stretch. Basically, it was a sad collection of elderly people who get pissed off listening to talk radio hunched over and holding some homemade signs that made this look like the worst church car wash ever. As for delusions, Rohrabacher says at the rally, “the President of the United States, if they want to be President of the United States, is going to . . . have to get my support,” adding that he would journey far to the land of the paisley, where he would do battle against the forces of the pale wizard and his army of rainbow-flavored minions.

Ok, tell us how you really feel. What do you expect from a guy who thinks that it is OK for the US to kidnap and torture just anyone with the same name as a possible terrorist just so that we make sure that we get the bad guy. It is like the do not fly list has a block for anyone named Robert Johnson. Hope Crazy Dana doesn't want to question all the Robert Johnson's in the world to get to the real one.

Dana has strange friends

One of the games played in Washington is that of taking every advantage of doing things that get your name mentioned in public. Dana has made an interesting decision in that regard.

Tomorrow, June 12, Dana will be speaking at the unveiling of a new monument in Washington. This one, the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, appears to be motivated by some flash of patriotic fervor. I wonder, though, what political advantages got Dana and Tom Lantos to share the speaking duty.

We all know Lantos. He is the Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Normally, Lantos often keeps his mouth shut unless it is about Israel, where some have considered him the Congressional voice of Mossad.

That must play well with Dana and his Taliban friends.

The second unusual thing is that the only organization that thought this event was newsworthy seemed to be World Net Daily. You may not be familiar with World Net Daily, but it's editor is Joseph Farah, once known as the ghost writer of Richard Pombo's only book and the man who filed the 1990's trumped up ethics charges against John Garamendi.

Actually, knowing Farah's past, I might ask what Lantos is doing in the story. I know that answer to that. He has been called the "best friend that Israel ever had."

Why then, did Dana jump in with the enemies of his friends. Well, it is all about China. Dana is a big supporter of Taiwan and this is a chance to embarrass the Communist China. And Communist China is another frequent target of Farah and his World Net Daily. Dana is also a long time supporter of helping to arm Hmong rebels to topple the Communist regime in Laos.

Oh, yes, it is all about politics and any news event is a good thing for a politician. That is especially true when you can be against something rather than having to be for anything. Maybe, if Dana and Tom can get on first name basis, they might convince Ohlmert and Abbas to try the same thing. However, I doubt that the subject will come up. Both Congressmen are to politically sophisticated to allow doing something to get in the way of a photo op.

If there is one thing you can count on tomorrow, it will be Rohrabacher's propensity to open his mouth and insert his foot. There is enough going on at this event that he will be sure to push someone's hot button. Farah said that Bush had been invited to the event. Even he isn't dumb enough to show up on that stage.

Rohrabacher should explain his vote

Dana Rohrabacher was one of only 34 Representatives to vote against HR 1700, the COPS Improvement Act of 2007. This act would enhance the funding for COPS on the BEAT programs across the nation and remove the restriction that it only apply to Cities with population over 150,000. This latter change would allow cities like Costa Mesa or Fountain Valley to apply for funding.

I am not sure what motivations Rohrabacher had, but as someone who spends so much time talking about the police problems associated with illegal aliens, this vote does not make a lot of sense. Then again, many things he does do not make a lot of sense to anyone other than Jim Gilchrist.

According to Hank Shaw, writing in the Stockton Record, the COPS program has been found to be "effective".

Critics of COPS say its effectiveness is overrated, although the federal Government Account-ability Office says otherwise. The GAO report found that from 1998 to 2000, new officers hired were responsible for stopping between 200,000 and 225,000 crimes, one third of which were violent crimes such as homicide, rape and robbery.

Who is this Democrat?

At last, OC Democratic Party Chairman, Frank Barbaro, had managed to get an Open Letter to Dana Rohrabacher into the Daily Pilot.

For someone who purports to be a champion of patriotism, nothing is so un-American as an inability to listen to different points of view. A similar stubbornness has not served President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney well over the last six years.

It is only a matter of time before the residents of your district look beyond your status as an incumbent and consider your record and leadership qualities.

It is about time, I was beginning to wonder if any Democrat was willing to speak up about Dana's Craziness. Now, all Barbaro has to do is to find a candidate who is willing to take up the challenge. We started this blog because we agree 100% with Barbaro's final statement. It is about time that someone looked past his reputation as a "libertarian troubadour" or Reagan speech writer and went through his votes, item by item, issues by issue and tried to make sense of what you find. To begin with, I have found that he talks one way and votes another, especially on the issue of supporting our servicemen who have fought Bush's silly war n Iraq. Read my earlier post on his lack of support for veterans or those who are injured in combat.

You are right on, Mr. Barbaro. Now, in you are really serious, get a real candidate going.

How deep is the Balckwater?

Thanks to a tip from an OC friend, I started to look at the connection between Dana Rohrabacher and Blackwater, the mercenary soldier of fortune organization that was founded by Erik Prince, himself once a Navy Seal. I did not have to look very long.

I have not thought very much about civilian armies. I know that the militia stories that circulated all over after Oklahoma City bombing were scary. Maybe we have all been anesthetized by the military entertainment complex churning out Rambos or Delta Force or television's 24 Hours or The Unit. But I grew up on a higher class of movie. More like The Manchurian Candidate or Dr. Srangelove.

The result of all of that is I don't always trust the government and I surely don't trust the creation of an army created precisely because they don't have to play by the rules of engagement. We have seen the results when America's forces step over the line: Abu Graib for example. Even when it was not intentional, like today's US Air Strike that hit an Iraqi school, it turns the non-committed into committed enemies. So, Blackwater's army lets us do the dirty work without taking the blame... except that everyone knows who these "contractors" are.

How difficult would it be to take that same Blackwater force and to start it operating within the US? That is where the television series would take us. We should not be hiring thugs to do what we don't want to have blamed on us. We should be wary of government officials who have anything to do with them.

It was easy to find direct connections between Blackwater and Rohrabacher. According to a story posted recently at Democracy Now, Prince once interned with Rohrabacher. There is no clear definition of exactly what he did for Dana, but there are plenty of examples of an ongoing relationship.

This is from the Democracy Now source:

But also, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater worked as an intern for Representative Dana Rohrabacher, another California Republican. In fact, when Blackwater was founded, both Dana Rohrabacher and Representative John Doolittle were brought out, at the company's expense, to be at Blackwater's grand opening. So these are deep Republican ties in California that Blackwater has.

Those deep Republican ties also includes Duncan Hunter.

This is going to be an long story. Rohrabacher has left a trail behind him that should be easy to follow. For example, did he actually account for that trip to the big show by his one-time intern? The FEC filings do not show it and the other online source of records of Congressional travel American Radio Networks, does not go back before the year 2000. There is probably another story for someone who wants to go through all of those trips. I would bet you could like a few to the Taliban photo I have heard about.

Data to back up Andrew's Comments

Andrew made an appeal to all good Democrats to come to the aid of their party, even in districts where there is not an immediate, obvious payback. I thought that I would add some data to show what is really happening in the 46th CD.

The Secretary of State's office published voter registration numbers for the state on several regular schedules. In February of odd numbered years, they publish what is called an Odd Year Report. These generally represent bed rock voters in the district as the number of registered voters will increase as we get closer to major elections, especially presidential elections like we will have in 2008.

So, let's compare voter registration number in the 46th CD in 2005 and 2007. I added 3 of the smaller parties as they really complete the profile of the district. The table below show that there was a 2% drop in both Republican and Democratic Registration and a 4% rise in the numbers who Declined to State their party connection. The only one of the smaller parties that gained in registration was the American Independent Party (AIP), an illustration of the role that the immigration issue plays in this district. The AIP is essentially a single issue party.

My conclusion is that the profile of the district is changing and that, while the Republicans are losing registration, no other party has been able to capture the voters that left. That would argue for a very low turnout in 2006, which is exactly what we had in the Congressional election. Give the voters an alternative to the same old Dana, someone with fresh ideas and enthusiasm, someone with a compelling narrative as to why they challenging to status quo, and this district will respond.

2005

Democratic	121.254
Republican	186,271
DTS	69,191
Green	2,941
Libertarian	3,040
Am. Ind. Pty	7,670

2007

Democratic	119,015
Republican	181,880
DTS	72,280
Green	2,732
Libertarian	3,043
Am. Ind. Pty	7,801

Recent Votes

The more I study this Congressman, the more I am getting confused. I thought that I could learn a lot about what Crazy Dana has been doing by looking at his Congressional web site. Right there at the top, I see a menu and it links to his recent votes. Except the most recent vote listed there was on July 28, 2005.

Now, I ask you, what has Crazy Dana been doing for all of that time since then? I don't think that he has been surfing in the Potomac, though he probably thought about it.

We know that Crazy Dana goes to capital hill. I mean even Dena Bunis in the OC Register gives a good account of his talking to an empty House Chamber as if that meant something. Isn't talking to your self a sign of a mental problem?

So, where are the votes? I guess he isn't proud enough of them to tell us what he is really doing.

We deserve better.

The 46th Congressional District is interesting. You have a mix of Long Beach and the more generally affluent Cities of Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa. However, for the last ten years, one unifying factor in the district has been the fact that it is represented in Washington by Dana Rohrabacher, a local character who has made a career out of being willing to open his mouth and say whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment and having no shame when he puts his foot in his mouth... again.

The people of this district deserve better.
Some might consider Rohrabacher colorful. We consider him dangerous. At a time when we need our government to solve problems, Rohrabacher would rather score points.

One has only to look at his Congressional Web Site, where he is using our taxpayer money to continue spinning the corporate line about Global Warming. In the face of the last two reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, both of which are very clear as to the consensus that the current rate of change in unprecedented and caused by human activity, Crazy Dana continues to spread the message of scientific doubt. The most recent report, Impacts, Adaptations and Vulnerabilty, makes it abundantly clear that Climate Change is not a future event. It is happening now and it is folly to blissfully ignore the consequences, as does Crazy Dana.

The people of this district deserve better.

We are going to use this site to point out where Congressman Rohrabacher ceases to be merely colorful and become just plain doofus.

We will enthusiastically search for a credible candidate to take on Crazy Dana and give this district the representation that it deserves.

We will consistently tell you the truth.