Second Amendment Hero plans to be next CA Gov, despite extensive criminal record

Raw Story: One of the four gubernatorial candidates introduced to at the California Republican state party’s semi-annual convention last week spent a decade in prison for convictions for voluntary manslaughter and assault with intent to commit rape, according to the LA Times.

Speaking before hundreds of delegates and supporters, Glenn Champ, 48, did not directly address colorful history, choosing instead to explain, “In my life, I’ve been held accountable because of my stupidity. I do not want anyone else to be enslaved because of their lack of knowledge.”

Champ was one of four candidates speaking at the convention – introduced by party chairman Jim Brulte – speaking between leading GOP gubernatorial candidates, former U.S. Treasury official Neel Kashkari, and state Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County.

Champ’s criminal history is extensive. Court records show that he pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed firearm in 1992. In 1993, he was convicted of two counts of assault with intent to commit rape and was placed on the state’s sex-offender registry.

In March 1998, he accepted a plea deal on a charge of loitering to solicit a prostitute. In the same year he pleaded no contest to a voluntary manslaughter charge after hitting a man with his vehicle, and was sentenced to 12 years in state prison.

You don’t have to worry though, because he loves Jesus and that makes everything OK. He also loves him some guns and thinks that his past, combined with that love of firearms, makes him the perfect Second Amendment Hero candidate. “I know what the criminal mind thinks, and I know how it works and I know how to stop it, and that’s something [other politicians] don’t get,” he told an interviewer. See, if what want to stop criminals, you have to think like a criminal — and Champs experience in this area is exhaustive.

Let’s run a little thought experiment. Let’s say that everything about Champ was absolutely the same, except he was African-American and a Democrat. How do you think the rightwing blogosphere would respond? That’s right, he’d be a thug and a gangbanger and the worst thing ever!! Likely secretly Muslim and a terrorist sympathizer to boot.

Hell, they’d probably take up a collection to fly George Zimmerman out there to Stand His Ground against him, after chasing Champ version Two-Point-Black around the neighborhood for a while.

But this guy? Candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor and not a peep. Seems the right is fine with thugs and goons, so long as they’re not made up, are white, and are Republican.

California is why GOP are terrified of free and fair elections

Change the California GOP’s mascot from the elephant to the mastodon.

Raw Story: With only five months remaining before the primaries, the increasingly moribund California Republican Party finds itself without any viable candidates for many of the top statewide contests, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Four years after having been swept by the Democrats in all eight statewide contests, the California GOP has had trouble recruiting candidates in a state where fewer than 30 percent of voters are registered as Republican. As it stands now there are no Republican candidates for the offices of  California attorney general, lieutenant governor, treasurer, and controller.

“This is a real challenge in that we are two steps away from a nightmare scenario where the statewide ticket appears so weak that some Republicans simply give up and throw in with Jerry Brown, creating chaos for Republicans running in competitive seats around the state,” warned former chairman of the California Republican Party Ron Nehring.

"Complicating matters for the state GOP is California’s voter-approved primary system, in which the top two vote-getters regardless of party advance to the fall election, which could result in two Democrats facing each other in November," the story goes on. "This would leave the approximately 1.7 million to 1.8 million  California Republican voters without party representation on the ballot for statewide offices driving down voter participation and affecting  California US House Republicans electoral prospects."

But that’s not the only handicap that California Republicans face going into the future — if you can call leveling the playing field “handicapping.” In 2005, the state put the task of redistricting in the hands of a bipartisan board, effectively eliminating the problem of gerrymandering. In California, voters truly choose their elected officials — while in most other places in America the elected officials choose their voters, drawing district lines around the people most likely to vote for them and turning democracy into a sham.

The result of making Republicans compete on a field with no advantages? Pretty much what you’d expect for a party that only makes up 30% of the electorate: doom.

This is why Republicans everywhere resist redistricting reform and this is why they try to give themselves every advantage through voter suppression laws and gerrymandering. This is why they cheered the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act. Without the cheats, the GOP is over with.

Doubt me? At 30% GOP, hippy-dippy loony liberal California is actually more Republican than America as a whole. Recent polling by Gallup shows that only 25% of Americans identify as Republican.

In a real contest, Republicans would be ruined — which is why they try to lock Democrats’ and third party candidates’ ankles to an anvil before every race.

Stories to Watch: 2/25/12

I haven't made english muffins for a while. I've got some starter that I have to use up, so maybe that's what I'll do with it. Now here's the news...


Rick Santorum says that wanting every kid to be able to go to college makes President Obama a "snob." In addition to the absurdity of this statement, we can add a little hypocrisy. Rick's old Senate campaign website promises the candidate is "committed to ensuring the every Pennsylvanian has access to higher education." What a snob!


Liberal activist plan to use Michigan's open primary to put Santorum over the top and sink Romney. Voter mischief generally doesn't work, but this looks like it's going to be a tight one, so you never know.


The bird flu probably isn't as deadly as we first thought it was.


The LA Times plans to put up a paywall. You can read 15 free stories every 30 days, which is probably more than I read it now. People in California might feel a bit of a pinch, though.


Finally, Newt "Make the Moon a US State" Gingrich thinks Obama's reference to synthetic fuels made from algae is "weird." It's probably a bad idea from a climate standpoint, but it can be done. This is more of an example of being contrary just to cook up an issue than anything.

Related articles

• Santorum: Obama "A Snob" For Wanting All Americans To Go To College (buzzfeed.com)
• daveeza: AWOOOGAH!!! Conservatives Start To Sound The Alarm Over Rick Santorum's Extremism | TPM2012 (2012.talkingpointsmemo.com)
• The Politico Catches Rick Santorum in a Lie (themoderatevoice.com)
• No Really, Rick Santorum Can't Beat Barack Obama (usnews.com)

News Roundup for 9/9/11

A gay man does his nefarious work

-Headline of the Day-
"Opponent Of California's Gay-Ed Law: Gays Are 'Kidnapping The Brains Of The Kids.'"

Randy Thomasson of Save California wants everyone to know that the state's FAIR Education Act is the worst thing ever! What's so bad about? It requires schools to include the accomplishments of people who happen to be un-straight in teaching history to kids in schools. In other words, California schools are now required to pollute innocent young minds with the filthy liberal myth that gays exist and that they did stuff throughout history. So Randy and SA are out to repeal the law and save kids from... I don't know, knowledge, I guess.

"Any day of the week starting in January, children as young as kindergarten will be told that a homosexual, a bisexual, or even a cross-dresser or someone who has had healthy body parts in a sex-change operation cut off -- that this is a positive role model," he says. "They're not going to be told that it's unhealthy; they're not going to be told, well is this natural or is this a matter of environment. They won't be told it. So, there's no critical thinking."

"This is basically the gay activists kidnapping the brains of the kids, and the parents have no say whatsoever," he went on. Yes, by teaching kids that gays exist and that they did stuff, California schools are condoning -- nay, encouraging -- gay behavior. This must not be!

Because if there's one thing that people like Randy know, it's that it doesn't take much to make a good Christian go all homo-sexy. The mere knowledge of the existence of gays may be enough. (ThinkProgress, with video)


-In similar news, man crosses street without being hit-
When is a non-news story where nothing happens a hot news story? When it's about celebrity wingnut Sarah Palin, of course!


Click for full strip

The only difference between you and Sarah Palin is that you don't want news vans parked on your lawn 24/7. (Bad Reporter)


-Bonus HotD-
"House passes resolution to 'never forget' 9/11."

If you read the text, it's actually a declaration of never-ending war against a vague enemy until terrorism is gone forever. So, yay for that. I doubt we needed a national post-it note to remind us, anyway.

And just a reminder, get ready for a weekend of wall-to-wall 9/11 porn. (Raw Story)

News Roundup for 8/17/11

Just your normal teabagger

-Headline of the Day-
"Manhunt On For Ex-Marine Oathkeeper Accused Of Rape."

You know those rightwing extremists that it's silly to worry about? Yeah, one of them is on the run in Oklahoma, likely armed and dangerous, after not showing up to court on "one charge of possessing an unregistered grenade launcher that was registered as stolen from a military base in California, and one charge of raping a minor."

Former Marine and current militia-type Charles Dyer is a crazy SOB and believes that the whole thing is a government conspiracy to put him away. So he plans to go out with guns blazing. "I have been pushed to the limits multiple times by law enforcement and the judicial system in an attempt to cause me to take violent action against them," he said in an email sent to his attorney. "If I do, I know I will be the monster they depict me as."

Yeah, we totally shouldn't worry about guys like this. Did I mention he was a member of the Tea Party?

At least he's not a union thug. Those are the people we have to worry about. Right? (Talking Points Memo, with video)


-Man of the people-
Mittens explains that corporations are people.


Click to embiggen

And it's true. (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"Santorum: 'Huge Moral Failings' Are The 'Root Cause' Of Our Economic Problems."

Translation: the economy sucks because gay people and abortion exist. (ThinkProgress)

Stories to Watch: 1/24/11

Finally broke down and decided to try my hand at sourdough. All the instructions for starter I'd found sounded like a lot of work. And then I found this. Turns out you can force yeast into dormancy by refrigerating it. You can even freeze the starter and wake it up later when you need it. Yeast are hardy little critters. Now here's the news...


RIP Jack LaLanne.


Rahm Emanuel is ordered off the mayoral ballot in Chicago by an appellate court for not meeting the residency requirements. It's actually kind of a bullshit decision -- and that opinion comes from someone who doesn't think much of him.


President Obama's polling bounce is putting possible opponents off their game.


Republicans take credit for job numbers they had nothing to do with.


Hopelessly insane blogger and paid CNN pundit Erick Erickson says "mass bloodshed" may be necessary if something isn't done about Roe v. Wade. Funny how the religious nuts always forget the "pro-life" part of being "pro-life," isn't it?


Michele Bachmann's presidential maybe-campaign is off to a marvelous start as she declaring the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence wonderful, then going on to say "the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States." No Shelly, they didn't.


There may be a coming revolt among the 'baggers if Republicans insist screwing with Social Security. In related news, Republicans are eager to screw with Social Security.


Texas Governor Rick Perry is an empty suit.


Finally, Tim Pawlenty has released a campaign ad for his as-yet unannounced presidential bid. It goes way over the top in trying to make the boring Minnesota guy seem inspiring and winds up leaving us wondering it an asteroid is about to collide with the Earth.

Griper Blade: The Tyranny of a Short-Term Majority

A majority taken collectively is only an individual, whose opinions, and frequently whose interests, are opposed to those of another individual, who is styled a minority. If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach? Men do not change their characters by uniting with one another; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with their strength. For my own part, I cannot believe it; the power to do everything, which I should refuse to one of my equals, I will never grant to any number of them.
-Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America."

That reasoned argument against what de Tocqueville called "the tyranny of the majority" is a total crock. A bunch of hooey. Liberal claptrap from a French intellectual with no real understanding of democracy. Never mind that James Madison agreed in the Federalist Papers, warning of "the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority" -- Madison was just some loonie leftist. The majority is all-powerful. If you can get enough people to agree with you, you can do anything you want to anybody. There are no such thing as rights, only privileges that can be voted away at any time. Get enough people together and you can even take someone's First Amendment rights away -- if people don't like what you're saying, they can use the power of democracy to shut you the hell up.

So sayeth that great American patriot Kenneth Starr. Best known for an unsuccessful witch hunt against then-President Bill Clinton, Starr is the dean of Pepperdine law school -- which makes you wonder what kind of education Pepperdine law students get for their money.

At issue was California's Prop. 8 -- a ban of same sex marriage. The state Supreme Court had previously ruled that gays and lesbians had the right to marriage. Prop. 8, which passed as a referendum, would remove that right and retroactively undo the marriages that have occurred since the court's ruling.

But, since the court ruled that marriage was a right, not a privilege, Prop. 8 became a classic example of the "tyranny of the majority" -- with a simple majority vote, Californians took a right away from a minority group. The ballot measure is now in California's Supreme Court, where Ken Starr -- representing Prop. 8 supporters -- argued yesterday that there's really no such thing as "rights." At least, not if you're in the minority.

"Swallow the bitter pill and act with diligence if one is weak, enjoy all one's rights if powerful: that's my doctrine," wrote the Marquis de Sade. Starr apparently agrees... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: McCain's Legacy

Pretty nice photo, huh? That's Barack Obama at Madison's Monona Terrace Convention Center last fall. Monona Terrace was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, so it's hard to ignore the architecture when you're shooting in there. But this photo does just that -- it could've been taken anywhere. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on what's right about this photo, so let's just say the composition is pretty nice. Balanced from corner to corner, it's a great example of a photographer thinking on his feet and using the golden section.

But, of course, it's not my intention to write about what a great portrait of Barack Obama Joseph W. Jackson III took for the Wisconsin State Journal. It's the accompanying article that's the newsworthy item -- the photo just jumped out at me and I thought it was worth mentioning. The bigger news is that one of my local papers has endorsed Barack Obama.

I can't remember the last time WSJ has endorsed a Democrat -- perhaps never in my lifetime. Until recently, there were always two print papers in the city, The Capital Times and the Wisconsin State Journal -- the Journal was the conservative paper. Losing money as the evening paper, the Times ended their print edition and moved to a web-only format. WSJ's endorsement of Obama is kind of a big deal...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Poll: Most Oppose Same-Sex Marriage Ban in CA

clipped from news.yahoo.com A majority of California voters oppose a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage, though they are evenly split on the practice itself, according to a poll released Wednesday. The ballot question essentially will ask voters to prohibit the practice of same-sex marriage, which was approved this year by the California Supreme Court. A majority of likely voters, 54 percent, oppose ending gay marriage, compared with 40 percent who support it, the poll said. The result is similar to the findings of a Field Poll in July, which found that 51 percent of likely California voters opposed ending gay marriage, while 42 percent said they supported it.

This despite the polls showing that the public is split on approval of the marriages themselves -- 47%-47%. The lesson here is that you don't have to approve of a practice to recognize someone's right to do it; that's what you call yer "tolerance."

Two Large Solar Projects Planned for California

clipped from www.nytimes.com Companies will build two solar power plants in California that together will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today, the latest indication that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale. The plants will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant. A megawatt is enough power to run a large Wal-Mart store. At 800 megawatts total, the new plants will greatly exceed the scale of previous solar installations. The largest photovoltaic installation in the United States, 14 megawatts, is at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, using SunPower panels.

While I'm not extremely keen on these sort of plants -- there's no real reason to centralize solar generation like this -- it's nice to see that solar's being taken seriously. Given recent advances in photovoltaic technology, the price is coming down enough for it to be put anywhere the sun shines. In other words, there's no reason to use up huge expanses of land when you can do the same thing on rooftops.

Still, any time new generating capacity comes from green tech, it's good news.

Griper Blade: Fighting for Freedom from Reality

In a ruling certain not to rock the legal and educational worlds, a federal court in Los Angeles ruled yesterday that you can't force universities to pretend that BS is true. In terms of common sense, the ruling -- Association of Christian Schools International et al. v. Roman Stearns et al -- wasn't much of a stumper. But there are people who think you get to choose what's true for you -- as if the universe were a series of multiple choice questions with no wrong answers -- and those people aren't pleased.

The perpetually panic-stricken WorldNetDaily kicks things off by completely misrepresenting just about every fact in the case:

Arguments were heard today in a federal district court case to determine whether a state university system can dictate that private Christian schools in the state teach their college prep courses from exclusively secular, Bible- and God-free textbooks.

As WND reported earlier, the University of California system adopted a policy last year that basic science, history, and literature textbooks by major Christian book publishers wouldn't qualify for core admissions requirements because of the inclusion of Christian perspectives.

Robert Tyler, who is representing Calvary Chapel Christian School and five students in the case against the University of California, told WND that the university's discriminatory policy creates an ultimatum for Christian schools. "If you want courses to be approved in private education, so your students are qualified to attend (UC) institutions, you must teach from a secular point of view," he said.

This is typical of the strategy of whiny victimhood that the religious right has been reduced to these days. The truth is that the textbooks in question managed to accomplish the seemingly oxymoronic task of teaching ignorance...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Sheehan on the Ballot Against Pelosi

clipped from www.kcbs.com Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has qualified for the November ballot opposing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Sheehan's campaign collected the signatures needed to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for Congress. The military mom, who is well-known for the protest she staged outside President Bush's Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq, has denounced Pelosi in recent months for refusing to call for the impeachment of President Bush or call for the end of the Iraq war.

If Pelosi doesn't lose this one -- and I don't think she will -- it may damage her rep enough to get the gavel away from her. For me, that'd be good enough -- as a Speaker of the House, Pelosi is blowful.

Griper Blade: McSellout

Take a presidential candidate, add a pinch of pandering, a dash of corruption, a whole lot of money, and you've got McCain

I've been writing about John McCain a lot lately, but let's face it, John McCain's not talking about John McCain and someone has to. Lately, when the media talks about John McCain, it's to repeat some attack McCain's made on Barack Obama. Lately, with the help of a media more concerned with sensationalism than substance, McCain has been able to be a serious candidate for president who doesn't seem to stand for a whole lot.

One of the worst aspects of this whole thing is that no one's looking at the fact that McCain doesn't stand for a whole lot. Mr. Leadership generally leads by following. His opinions go where the votes are or the money is. McCain is a candidate openly for sale.

An example; in June, John McCain opposed a Constitutional amendment to make same sex marriage illegal. He didn't support marriage equality, but he took what would've once been the default Republican opinion on issues like this and said it was up to the states to decide.

But, as I said, that was once the default. That was before Bush's 2004 campaign that highlighted the Homosexual Menaces' Threat to America. McCain was behind the times; the new default was to panic over same sex marriage, foretell the destruction of the family and, with it, the end of America. Under Bush, the GOP has become the party of fear and if your reaction to an issue isn't to try to get everyone to wet their pants over it, then you aren't a real Republican.

So John McCain made a trip to see the Apostles of Republican Jesus, that they might impart their wisdom upon him and anoint him a True Republican. And, lo, so it was done...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Majority Oppose CA. Gay Marriage Ban

clipped from www.mcclatchydc.com A slight majority of California voters oppose a measure on the Nov. 4 ballot that would impose a constitutional ban on gay marriage, according to the first Field Poll on the measure. The findings released Thursday are consistent with a May poll on the issue before Proposition 8 qualified for the ballot. The issue has received heightened attention since the state Supreme Court in May struck down a law approved by voters in 2000 that banned gay marriages. This time, Californians likely to vote in the Nov. 4 election were asked specifically about Proposition 8, which would enshrine in the state constitution that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they oppose the proposed ban; 42 percent support it; and 7 percent are undecided.

The report calls this a "slight majority" and, in the strictest sense, it is. But do the math -- if the antis pick up all the undecideds, they still lose. This doesn't strike me as the sort of issue people would be squishy on -- if you've made up your mind, I don't see it changing. The antis are going to have to convert some of the pros and that's a tough order.

Still, November's a long way off. You never know.

Calls for Boycott of San Diego Hotelier

clipped from www.nytimes.com A hotel owner’s $125,000 donation to support a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in the state has become a flashpoint, with opponents calling for a boycott of two of his hotels and supporters highlighting the donation in a fund-raising letter. The hotelier, Doug Manchester, donated the money to support the collection of signatures to qualify the initiative, which would amend the state’s Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, for the November ballot. Efforts in 2006 on behalf of similar initiatives were not successful. But this year, an increase in donations from across the country helped qualify Proposition 8 in early June for the state ballot. Mr. Manchester said Wednesday: “This really is a free-speech, First Amendment issue. While I respect everyone’s choice of partner, my Catholic faith and longtime affiliation with the Catholic Church leads me to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

It seems to me that Manchester's allowing his "Catholic faith" to turn him into a bad businessman. After all, more marriages = more honeymoons = more money spent at hotels.

Besides, his Catholic faith requires a Catholic wedding -- does this mean he'd spend money to outlaw any wedding that wasn't Catholic?

In the end, it's just spin to excuse his bigotry.

Griper Blade: Played Out

Good news for marriage equality in California. At least one national Democrat isn't joining in on the irrational panic over same sex marriage there.

Associated Press:

Presidential candidate Barack Obama has come out against a ballot measure that seeks to outlaw same-sex marriage.

A club for gay Democrats in San Francisco says it solicited a statement from the Illinois senator's campaign in which he called the proposed constitutional amendment "divisive and discriminatory."

Obama also extended congratulations to gay and lesbian newlyweds who have gotten married in California over the last two weeks.

Wisconsin could've used a Barack Obama in 2006, when we foolishly amended our state constitution to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. I say "foolishly" for more than one reason, but the primary reason is because it's an amendment that's certain to be repealed in the future. American history doesn't march in the direction of intolerance, but away from it. Repealing these state amendments and laws isn't a matter of if, but when -- will it happen before or after we're all ashamed of them?...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]

Griper Blade: Just One Good Reason

Here's a question that's both timely and informative; "Do you approve or disapprove of California allowing homosexuals to marry members of their own sex?" That question was asked of 1,052 California voters and their answers may spell bad news for opponents of same sex marriage in that state. 51% approved and only 42% disapproved.

Californians are now enjoying the fruits of marriage equality in their state, after a state Supreme Court ruling found that a ban on the issuing of licenses to same sex couples was unconstitutional. Writing for Slate, Yale Law professor Kenji Yoshino manages to explain the ruling in one paragraph:

Writing for the California high court, Chief Justice Ronald M. George first found that the exclusion of gays from marriage violated their fundamental right to marry, thereby drawing strict scrutiny from the court. This meant that the state would have to produce a compelling reason to bar gays from what the court deemed "the most socially productive and individually fulfilling relationship that one can enjoy in the course of a lifetime." In a crucial move, Chief Justice George rejected the state's argument that tradition was such a reason. Allowing tradition to thus entrench itself, he said, would have allowed for laws barring interracial couples. And, as he noted, the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on interracial marriage in 1948, almost two decades before the U.S. Supreme Court did in Loving v. Virginia.

Basically, the court found that there was no reason for same sex marriage to be illegal. It's a law that serves no purpose, other than to discriminate.

Which brings us to a second timely and informative question -- why should same sex marriage be illegal?...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]