Leslie Eastman | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 236
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Author: Leslie Eastman

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Leslie Eastman

I am an Environmental Health and Safety Professional, as well as a science/technical writer for a variety of news and professional publications. I have been a citizen activist since 2009, and am one of the co-founders of the San Diego-based group, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.

When I voted in California's June primary, I chuckled when I turned to the "Secretary of State" race and found a familiar name: Leland Yee. Yee  did not make it to the general election (under California's rules, the top two regardless of party compete in the general election). But it's a sad commentary on the quality of California politics that Yee managed to pull nearly 10 percent of the vote! California Secretary of State Primary results 6-3-2014 Legal Insurrection fans may recall that Yee is California's former state senator who was recently charged in a federal gun-trafficking case. As I mentioned that Mexican authorities were reported to be giving former US Marine Andrew Tahmooressi the legal treatment reserved for gun-runners, I thought it was time to check up on what was happening to a potentially real one. The federal judge handling the case issued a gag order on the evidence:

Despite the fact that when half-Asian Elliot Rodger went on his murder spree, he knifed three of his victims to death, the response of progressives has been primarily focused on two topics: "White Male Privilege" and "Gun Control". Legislation to outlaw either being white or male cannot be proposed...yet.  However, one of the most progressively activist of all of California's elected representatives offers a new set of gun control rules: The "Pause for Safety Act". Fascinating, I think, that "gun" does not appear in the title of Senator Barbara Boxer's latest masterpiece. Her proposed rules would do the following:
• One, it would help ensure that families and others can go to court and seek a gun violence prevention order to temporarily stop someone close to them who poses a danger to themselves or others from purchasing a firearm. • Two, it would help ensure that families and others can also seek a gun violence prevention warrant that would allow law enforcement to take temporary possession of firearms that have already been purchased if a court determines that the individual poses a threat to themselves or others. • Three, it would help ensure that law enforcement makes full use of all existing gun registries when assessing a tip, warning or request from a concerned family member or other close associate.
According to Boxer: “We have a function here not to allow someone who is unstable or violent to get a weapon." So, how would this legislation have prevented Rodger from gaining access to knives? And, by the logic that produced this chestnut, perhaps we should regulate the distribution of hot coffee?:

The release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl  in exchange for 5 top Taliban terrorists held at Gitmo has led to some mixed and hostile reaction. Meanwhile, across the Mexican border near my home town of San Diego, another American sergeant is languishing as a prisoner. The border crossing is undergoing construction, and the warning signs that indicate you are entering Mexico are not terribly visible. So when former active-duty U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi wanted to head back home with several guns in his vehicle, he actually began a now two-month journey into the Twilight Zone of Mexican justice.
As Tahmooressi explained, out of a parking lot, "I just made one wrong turn, and then that one wrong turn that I thought was going to take me north to San Diego was actually an on-ramp that swooped around back to the south and to Mexico." ... According to Jill Tahmooressi, her son immediately disclosed to the border guards that he had weapons and requested that he be allowed to turn around, she said. "The first thing he said to the first person that stopped him was, 'I got here accidentally; please let me turn around. I have three guns in my truck,' " his mother said. A 911 tape released by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, appears to support his version of events.
FNC's Greta Van Susteren had a heart-wrenching interview with the mother, who indicates that American bureaucrats are not moving and shaking the Mexicans to get the decorated serviceman back home.
According to the reports, Tahmooressi has been subjected to punching, slapping, deprivation of food and water, and being chained to a bed with a "four-point restraint for almost a month." It appears that the Mexican officials are treating him as a gunrunner.

California Tea Party groups (CTPG) are showing that they are not only alive and kicking, but actively seeking to make a difference in Tuesday's upcoming gubernatorial primary election. "Our groups have now made an exception to their longstanding no endorsement rules," explained Dawn Wildman, long-time state coordinator and co-fonder of the SoCal Tax Revolt Coalition. "The tea party groups in CA have built consensus on so many issues and candidates that we are poised to become a big player in the upcoming elections.” As Wildman points out, since the IRS doesn't seem to be in a rush to give Tea Party groups tax exempt status, the organizers thought that it was time to take advantage of that fact.  So, they have named specific candidate preferences in this cycle, which has not been their policy before. "We still encourage everyone to do their own research," Wildman said.  "But we have had so many requests for a guide, and many of our groups are very tired of the GOP establishment hand-picking candidates, that we felt it was time to name names.  Interestingly, the leaders from California Tea Party organizations across the state came together on choices fairly quickly." Click HERE for the complete list of California Tea Party Groups' recommendations. As California's crazy often seeps over onto other states, I thought I might hit a few points of interest to Legal Insurrection fans elsewhere.  The governor's race in November is a foregone conclusion no matter which of the two leading GOP candidates (Tim Donnelly or Neel Kashkari) wins. Right now, the race between the two leading GOP contenders is a dead heat.
Republicans Tim Donnelly and Neel Kashkari are locked in a statistical dead heat in the Republican race for governor, according to a new USC/Los Angeles Times poll. Eighteen percent of likely voters support Kashkari and 13 percent support Donnelly, with 10 percent undecided, according to the poll. Both Republicans remain far behind Gov. Jerry Brown. The Democratic incumbent registered 50 percent support among likely voters.

In the wake of Tea Party's initial phases of success and media attention in 2009, progressive counterparts astroturfed their own version: The Coffee Party. For me, the most troubling aspect of development is that the organizers usurped the beverage that powers my Tea Party activities. But, I digress. Recently, many elite pundits were gleefully pronouncing that the "Tea Party is dead", once again. For example, the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin points to various Senate primaries where Tea Party candidates couldn’t raise money and couldn’t win. Nice to see such concern, Jennifer! Especially touching, as the Texas Tea Party just arranged a replacement for a 34-year-incumbent during the Republican primary runoff. As an analysis of the Tea Party's defeat of Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst pointed out: The GOP, once dominated by business interests and Beltway insiders, is now driven more by local activists far from Washington watching their members like hawks. This got me to thinking: What ever happened to "The Coffee Party?" The last time I checked in on them (in 2011), the progressive version of the Tea Party had a schism so bad, that one group split up into two different booths at an event. Legal Insurrection's archives contain a few old grinds, too: Here is the latest statement from "Coffee Party USA". Frankly, I don't see much life left:

In the annals of news I have personally covered, I have rarely been so embarrassed by some members of my own sex as I have been this week, in the wake of the spree killing that took the lives of six young students attending the University of California - Santa Barbara. Among the most egregious examples of inanity offered as sophisticated opinion on this tragedy: These pundits would like to ignore several salient points in their mad scramble to promote their toxic worldviews.  However, they seem to ignore the fact that four talented young men, guiltless of any race or gender sin these women decry, are dead. I would like to take a moment to remember them. Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="384"] [From Facebook][/caption]
Michaels-Martinez was a 20-year-old sophomore at UC Santa Barbara. His parents told the LA Times that he was planning on becoming a lawyer and would soon be going abroad to London. As well as an avid reader, Michaels-Martinez is also remembered as an impressive athlete who played soccer, football, basketball.

This year's Memorial Day weekend was filled with tragedy for Californians -- a tragedy that might have been prevent if  parents' warnings about their mentally ill son had been pursued. Six University of California Santa Barbara students were killed Friday in a spree murder.  The school has cancelled classes in mourning for the profound loss.
UC Santa Barbara canceled classes for Tuesday as the campus mourned six students killed in a rampage on Friday. The school, however, said faculty and staff will be on campus to offer support and counseling to students.
The dead students have now been identified as:
  • Veronika Weiss, 19, from Westlake, CA
  • Katherine Breann Cooper, 22, from Chino Hills, CA
  • Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, 20, from Los Osos, CA
  • Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, from San Jose, CA
  • George Chen, 19, from San Jose, CA
  • Weihan Wang, 20, from Fremont, CA
Authorities have  determined that the killer was a troubled off-and-on student at Santa Barbara City College named Elliot Rodger. Rodger shot and killed himself at the end of the shooting spree.
Authorities have identified the killer, who left various video and written manifestos saying that he was seeking to kill sorority women and others at the university as revenge for the way women had rejected him. The killer -- who subsequently shot himself -- has been identified as a student who enrolled but frequently dropped out of classes at Santa Barbara City College. Rodger posted a video on YouTube prior to the killings. In it, he outlined what he was going to do and said that the women deserved it for rejecting him. The Los Angeles Times published a transcript of the video. "On the day of retribution, I am going to enter the hottest sorority house at UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up, blond slut I see inside there. All those girls I've desired so much. They have all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance toward them, while they throw themselves at these obnoxious brutes," the video says. "I take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one, the true alpha male."
The YouTube video of one of Rodger's many disturbing dialogs is below.

Now that I am back to my normal schedule after a week's worth of blazes in San Diego County, we seem to have another kind of wildfire breaking out in the state. Over the past few months, it looks like nearly 1,500 Californians have complained to state regulators about their Obamacare coverage purchased through California's insurance exchange (Covered California).
New data reveal the biggest category of complaints centers on getting confirmation of health plan enrollment and basic issues such as getting an identification card to obtain care. Many consumers have also encountered difficulty finding a doctor who accepts their new coverage, as well as frustration with inaccurate provider lists, according to the California Department of Managed Health Care. "If you have a medical condition and can't get care that is a very serious issue," said Marta Green, spokeswoman for the managed healthcare agency. "We are still working to resolve many of these cases." Health insurers and officials at the Covered California exchange say they are working hard too to address consumers' gripes. They say some problems are inevitable from such a massive overhaul and that the number of complaints is a small fraction of the more than 1 million Californians who signed up under the Affordable Care Act.
So, let me get this straight: The problems that the 1,500 people have reported are "inevitable" and because it is a "small fraction" we shouldn't worry. When should I start worrying, then? When someone in my family dies waiting for an appointment?

Professor Jacobson just reported that a ponderous tome explaining why black Americans are entitled to reparations has just been published. In other news, hundreds of Chinese families are suing Japan for compensation related to World War II enforced labor.
As relations between China and Japan plumb a new low, the descendants of hundreds of of Chinese men forced to work in wartime Japan are taking big, modern-day Japanese corporates to court. They are seeking millions in compensation. ...In possibly the biggest class-action suit in Chinese legal history, about 700 plaintiffs lodged a case against two Japanese firms at a courthouse in eastern Shandong province in April, said Fu Qiang, a lawyer representing the families. Among the plaintiffs are several forced labourers, now in their 80s and 90s, and this might be their last chance to seek redress. The suit was filed against Mitsubishi Corp (Qingdao) Ltd, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp, and Yantai Misubishi Cement Co, a joint venture between Mitsubishi Corp and construction firm Mitsubishi Materials Corp, Fu said. The plaintiffs are each seeking 1 million yuan ($160,100) in compensation, a public apology in several prominent Chinese and Japanese newspapers, as well as the erection of a memorial and monument in remembrance of the forced labourers, Fu said, adding that they also want the companies to fund their legal expenses.
Perhaps they would settle for control of a certain set of islands called the Senkakus in Japanese (and the Diaoyu in Chinese) that both countries have been vying to control and which have become a source or regional tension?

I am experiencing de ja vu all over again with the latest  "Tea Party is dead" discussion. The numerous political class "debates" on Wednesday focused on the result of Tuesday's elections in several states, as reported in the following Politico article:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defeated his GOP challenger in Kentucky by 25 percentage points, a high-profile but low-suspense race on a critical primary day when voters cast ballots in six states. In Georgia, a Senate Republican primary headed to a runoff with the two candidates favored by GOP establishment leaders. And in Oregon, pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby fended off a more conservative challenger in her Republican primary. ...After a year of threats from conservative outside groups, no GOP incumbents lost Tuesday. Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson beat back a tea partier supported by groups such as Club for Growth, with help from the business lobby and Mitt Romney. National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden, targeted in Oregon by a national campaign called Primary My Congressman, received triple the support of his opponent with more than half the votes in. And House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster prevailed over his challenger in Pennsylvania by 18 points.Republican leaders have maneuvered to nominate candidates who they hope can avoid the kinds of foot-in-mouth mistakes that cost them winnable races last cycle in red states like Missouri and Indiana.
How quickly the Beltway opiners forget a couple of recent wins (hat-tip, Instapundit)! Tea Party Alex Mooney wins Virgina GOP House Primary:
Former Maryland GOP Chairman Alex Mooney has won the Republican primary for West Virginia’s second congressional district, according to the Associated Press, beating pharmacist Ken Reed and former U.S. International Trade Commissioner and state legislator Charlotte Lane. ...Tea party groups quickly congratulated Mooney. The Senate Conservatives Fund, a group that works to elect conservative candidates, even trying to oust incumbents in several races, put in $95,000 supporting Mooney. “Alex Mooney started out as the underdog, but won this race because he ran on conservative principles,” SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins said in a statement.
And this chestnut: Tea-party-backed Ben Sasse wins Nebraska primary for U.S. Senate:

With a little help from cooler temperatures, atmospheric moisture, and robust emergency response, San Diego's recent wildfires are well contained and a return to normal life is resuming for San Diego Residents...almost.
As we reported earlier, evacuations have been lifted for residents of Camp Pendleton military base in San Diego, though some marines have been relocated to barracks away from the fires. Lt. Ryan Finnegan told KPCC that outlook is "trending positive," with all three fires on base over 50 percent contained. "I wouldn't say it's quite back to normal," Finnegan said. "We definitely still have some road closures and power outages here on base, but all the families are back in their housing. The people who are displaced right now are the single marines who live in the barracks." Those marines have been moved further south to temporary housing.
Last week, I mentioned there were serious speculation that arson may be the cause for several of these blazes. An arrest was made in connection to one of those fires.

As surely as night follows day, a natural disaster will be followed by the assertions of environmental activists that it was caused by "man-made climate change." At this point, six of the now 11 wildfires raging through San Diego county are fully contained. And before the embers have begun to cool, California Governor Jerry Brown offered his eco-activist assessment of its cause.
On Thursday, Governor Jerry Brown asserted that it is settled that climate change is a factor in the wildfires now devastating parts of San Diego County. According to a story in the U-T San Diego, the governor opined, “Despite what you may hear in Washington, climate change is a factor… This is not about theory. It’s not about politics. This is about fires on the ground, people’s homes.” ..Brown, a staunch advocate of climate change theory, recently confirmed that Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is in danger of being overwhelmed by floods due to global warming.
Actually, it looks like some of the wildfires may, indeed, be "man-caused disasters." But not in the way Brown thinks. The Bernardo Fire was caused by a backhoe:
A backhoe in use at a housing construction project near Rancho Bernardo sparked the first large wildfire to erupt in San Diego County this week, authorities reported Friday.

Earlier this year, the chilly nation was informed that it was experiencing a "Polar Vortex." Videotapes of many wildfires raging through San Diego county focus on another meteorological event that is now "hot": Firenados.
Helicopters, military aircraft and extra crews, worked the fire, which fire officials said was only 5% contained as it burned 800 acres Thursday morning in San Marcos, home to a California State University campus and a heavily populated area. ...In broad daylight at noon, the fire blackened the skies in one San Marcos neighborhood and sent a “firenado” — a column resembling a tornado with smoke and flames shooting from it — rising and twisting into the air. The blaze forced the university to cancel this week’s commencement and other activities, officials said.
NewStationNation offers a glimpse in its video:
Air response has been very effective in battling back the blazes. And, what type of aircraft would you use against a firenado? A jumbo jet of course. The following video shows a DC-10 that has been used to pound the flames with fire retardant.

Never let it be said that Legal Insurrection doesn't have the hottest news. Yesterday, I was having a business lunch in Temecula, north of San Diego by about an hour and just off of I-15. I went with the understanding that the Bernado Fire that had burned the day before was under control. When I stepped out of the restaurant, the sky was filling with smoke from several areas in my view, which were from three of the 9 wildfires that broke out around the county yesterday.
In all, nine fires in the county had burned more than 9,000 acres, Cal Fire Capt. Dave Allen said at a briefing late Wednesday held by fire and law-enforcement officials. That number included the Bernardo fire that began Tuesday near 4S Ranch. It was 50 percent contained Thursday and had burned 1,548 acres, officials said.
Racing to get home, I was stopped along the I-15 by firefighters handling the "Highway Fire". I got an up-close and personal view of the blaze, as well as the very effective and organized response by the firefighters and emergency crews.
The worst of the fires was in the coastal community of Carlsbad.
Thousands were asked to evacuate their homes - including in Carlsbad - after the blaze erupted about 10:34 a.m. Wednesday and spread through rapidly heavy brush before jumping into residential areas. Despite a state fire report of 30 homes burned earlier in the day, Carlsbad Fire Chief Michael Davis said he knows of just three homes destroyed and about a dozen damaged, all of them in the same neighborhood. The wind-driven wildfire tossed embers onto roofs and trees, igniting them. Firefighters found themselves evacuating people and battling the blaze at the same time, Nick Schuler of Cal Fire said.
San Diego blogger Tim Daniel of LeftCoastRebel captured video of this blaze, which is now known as the "Poinsettia Fire":

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former Egyptian army chief who deposed the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, is likely to win in the upcoming presidential election at the end of this month. His popularity has increased enormously during his successful battle against Egypt's religious extremists who threatened to enact a wide array of "reforms" while they were in power, everything from enacting laws repressing religious freedom to calling for the destruction of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. Now, he offers an intriguing new plank on his presidential platform by "casting himself as a defender of religion and taking aim at the doctrinal foundations of Islamist groups the state is seeking to crush." From Reuters:
Striking a pious tone that sets him apart from former president Hosni Mubarak, Sisi also appears to be taking on the mantle of a religious reformer. He has blamed outdated "religious discourse" for holding back Egypt. "I see that the religious discourse in the entire Islamic world has cost Islam its humanity," Sisi said in an interview televised on May 5. "This requires us, and for that matter all leaders, to review their positions." With references to God and morality, Sisi may turn out to be the most outwardly pious of any of the military men to have governed Egypt since the republic was founded in 1953.
This video from WoChit General News summarizes his stance:

Per its tradition in the second week of May, America's business leaders have voted for the states with the "best" and "worst" business climates. As usual, Chief Executive Magazine places California at the top....of the naughty list!
That’s 10 years in a row — a decade of dominance. Over that same period, California saw its unemployment rate go from mirroring the national rate to having consistently among the highest rates. The Golden State is now second worst in the nation when it comes to the percentage of adults who want to work full time but can’t find such jobs.
An executive officer's comments about the results summarizes many of the points I made recently when reporting about Toyota's move to Texas.
“California could hardly do more to discourage business if that was the goal. The regulatory, tax and political environment are crushing. The only saving grace is that there are still a lot of affluent areas that drive local economic zones, but the trend line on these is not good for the mid- to long-term.”
A good example of this dynamic involves one of the most popular exports of the state, Sriracha Hot Sauce. The company that makes the sauce, Huy Fong Foods, has been embroiled in a public battle with the Irwindale City Council over complaints that fumes from its busy plant are causing neighbors to get sick. A video report summarizes the controversy.
Team Texas is eager to offer the firm another option:

Conservative dynamo Tammy Bruce recently took a look at the how the federal government is masking the realities of our very questionable economic "recovery,"  disguising  the fact that 20 percent of American families do not have a single person in the household who is employed. That...