Month: April 2015

I sent one to Arizona Senate President Andy Biggs for the Seattle Summit.  In addition to being the foremost opponent of Article V, Andy’s a photographer, and a very good one, indeed.  A true pro.  He’s holding a workshop in Oregon on August 6th.  I believe this is how he makes a living.  He probably is getting the state to pay for his trip to NCSL, and is doing a little business in the Great Northwest on the side while he’s there.  That’s completely legitimate.  Everybody does it.

Andy wrote a book, “The Con Of the Con-Con.”  I suppose I should read it, and probably will, at some point.  I just don’t want to buy it.  I think Hal Wick got a copy.  I’ll borrow his.  I read a couple of reviews on Amazon, which included a couple pull quotes.  One reads, “It isn’t the process that will produce a run-away convention, but it is the personnel attending the gathering.”  Clumsy prose, but point well taken.  He’s right, and I told him so.  I told Andy I wanted him to meet the personnel who will be attending, and controlling, the 2016 Amendment Convention.  They’ll be gathered in Seattle.  Politically, they’re his brothers and sisters.  He’s one of them.  He has nothing to fear.  He just needs to get to know these people.  Hell, they all need to get to know each other.  That’s the point of the Summit.

Another quote from Andy’s book: “When we start electing people who are committed to individual freedom, we will know that the time is soon coming when it is safe to convene an Article V convention.”  As I told Andy, that time has come.  That time is now.  We have 31 red states, and seven purple.  This is about as good as it gets for our side.  I am convinced that the legislative leadership of the 31 red states is, collectively, more committed to individual freedom than any other body of political leaders in the country.  If not now, when?

I’ve got a road map of the USA on my office wall.  I spend a lot of time looking at it, and thinking of the individual states, and the legislative leadership in each of them.  I’d say I’ve got a pretty good feel for who they are, and what their politics are, in about 40.  I’m learning all the time.  As they say at Faber College, Knowledge is good.  The more I know the more I like.  These are good people.  Most of them are patriots.  I personally know only a dozen or so, but that number is going up all the time.  I can work with these people.  Actually, I consider myself one of them, albeit retired.  But I’m on the Wall of Honor.  My vote was, in part, responsible for the State of Alaska calling for an Article V BBA Convention in 1984.  Right now I’d guess there are around 3,000  names on the Wall of Honor.  We need around 1,000 more.

The reason my name is there is because of Bob Ziegler of Ketchikan.  He was a blue dog Democrat, and we were both in the Senate Minority.  The Democratic Senate leadership was so corrupt that Bob refused to be part of the majority.  They had eight Democrats and four Republicans.  We had six Republicans and two Democrats.  To do some kinds of business you wanted fourteen, or 2/3.  Bob agreed to give them his vote on procedural questions.  I thought he was being too accommodating.  I really didn’t like these guys, especially Senate President Jalmar Kerttula, a socialist Finn.  But Bob knew what he was doing.  Because he accommodated them, they let him bring the BBA to the floor, and he got the votes.  I think it was 11-9, but I’m not sure.

Bob and I were friends.  Good friends.  He was Sweet Old Bob.  When he’d get an insulting letter from a constituent (he knew them all, practically) he’d write back, telling them that some asshole was sending him letters using their name.  He’d sign it Sweet Old Bob.

I have a lot of memories of Bob.

The feds own 45% of California, over 40 million acres, an area larger than the state of Florida.  Under the Reagan Initiative title to this land (excluding parks, Indian reservations, and active military installations) would be transferred to the State, with the feds retaining a beneficial interest to a portion of the proceeds of its eventual development, if any.

The Democratic Party of California is controlled by environmental extremists, the coastal elites.  Under their rule, very little development will take place on this land.  The political leadership of Mexican-American Californians(Chicanos) are indispensable to the Democrats.  They provide the votes.  If Chicanos defected to the Republicans, the Democrats are in the minority.

A Chicano-Republican alliance is possible.  Politicians like George Radanovich, Devin Nunes and David Valadao have proven it.  Under their leadership, a new statewide majority coalition can be formed.  Republicans and Chicanos want economic expansion.  Speaking as a blanco Republican, I want Chicanos to make $30 an hour, or more.  I want them to prosper.  They do the work, and they should get paid a living wage.

If it could be formed, this alliance could develop California’s resources, producing enough wealth to make everybody happy.  The potential is there.  There is a very long list.  Where to begin?

Oil.  L.A. was built on it.  Before oil, L.A. had a population of 8,000.  Development of the Los Angeles field in the early 1890’s, along with fields in Ventura and the San Joaquin, resulted in California producing 22% of the world’s oil by 1910.  This oil is a feature of one of the largest hydrocarbon deposits in North America, the Monterey Shale formation.  It’s an extremely complicated geological structure.   It’s unclear if the tight oil contained there can be extracted economically.  Fracking makes it theoretically possible.  You have to turn the oil guys loose, and let them figure it out.  It’s possible a different kind of fracking, using chemicals alone, might do the trick.  A Republican-Chicano political alliance would allow this to happen.  If it worked, a whole lot of Chicanos would be making more money than they ever thought possible.  In case you haven’t noticed, there’s big money in oil.

There’s lot of other wealth on that 40 million acres.  Logging, mining, real estate development and agriculture for openers.  That wealth will provide the money for a massive, and long overdue, expansion in California’s infrastructure: dams, highways, ports  — the list goes on and on.  Expanding and improving the infrastructure will mean jobs, lots and lots of good paying jobs  — and Chicanos will get their full share.

That’s the vision.  Politics is all that prevents it from happening.  And California is blessed with leaders like Radanovich, Nunes and Valadao who understand the politics of this state.  These men know Chicanos far better than I do.  And they are trusted.  They can tell this story to the Chicanos, in their own language, and be believed.  They’ve proven that.

When I moved back to California fourteen years ago I tried to figure out the politics here.  It looked pretty hopeless.  We were a deep blue one party state, and no Republican had a prayer.  I don’t believe demography is destiny, but I couldn’t come up with any ideas to counter the obvious demographic trends.  I gave up on California, and didn’t think about it.  Besides, I was an Alaskan, not a Californian.  Es no mi problemo.

I was wrong, flat wrong.  I enjoy working on the Reagan Project a great deal.  But, for fun, there’s nothing like working on a political campaign.  Nunes for Senate, Radanovich for Governor.

I’ve got a lot to look forward to.

When the most bad ass of the Mountain Men, Jedediah Smith, crossed the Sierra Nevada in 1828 it was only a matter of time before some intrepid settlers would follow.  California called.  The Bartleson-Bidwell Party of 1841 were the first.  By 1848 there were enough Americans to allow President Polk to seize California through war with Mexico.  The Mexicans living here were called Californios, and they were of two minds about all this.  Some wanted to kick all the Americans out and remain part of Mexico.  Others, like Vallejo, saw the handwriting on the wall, and were ready to split from Mexico and become Americans.  When the Americans, under General Kearny, promised to honor the title held by Mexican landowners, the deal was sealed.  Kearny only had to fight one battle with the Californios, the battle of San Pascual.  Californios became Mexican-Americans.

Today some of the descendants of the Californios, now called Chicanos, are aggressively asserting their Mexican heritage.  But they don’t want to be part of Mexico.  Like Vallejo 167 years ago, they know they’re better off being Americans.

The environmental leftists who run this state rely on Chicanos for votes.  Very little is given in return.  The historic drought we’re in the midst of should change all that.  It’s killing the heavily Chicano Central Valley, and the left won’t lift a finger to help.  50% of our water is used to preserve the ecosystem, principally fish.  That has to change, and the nutcase left will fight it to the death.  The Chicanos are about to find out who their real friends are.

I was born and raised here, and understand Chicanos.  When I was 14 a bunch of us decided to make some money doing field work.  We hitchhiked out to the Valley and got hired to chop weeds  — stoop labor.  None of us lasted more than a few hours.  When I drive down Highway 99 and see them working the fields I know how tough that work is.  All blanco Californians that I know are sympathetic to them.  They’re good people.  Go see “McFarland, U.S.A.”

And they’re tough, they like to fight.  In law school my buddy Tom Pitaro, from Brockton, Mass., home of Rocky Marciano, used to go to the Saturday night fights at the L.A. Sports Arena.  The crowd, and the fighters, were all Chicano.  We loved it.  We even got to see the big showdown fight between Schoolboy Bobby Chacon and Little Red Lopez.  He was called Schoolboy because he’d taken a couple classes at a junior college.  Little Red was the younger brother of the great Indian Red Lopez.  These guys were warriors.

Give a Chicano $30 an hour and you’ve got a Republican.  That’s what we want.  Once we convince the Chicanos of California that we’re for real, and we start to deliver, we’ll have them.  Environmental whack jobs and Chicanos have nothing in common.  They don’t belong in the same political coalition.

Representatives Devin Nunes and David Valadao understand that.  They’re Republicans and conservatives, but they get overwhelmingly reelected by their Chicano constituents.  They are the future of the Republican Party in California

Lew Uhler today told me about a guy who also figured out how to appeal to Chicanos, former Congressman George Radanovich.  Like Kasich, he’s of Croatian descent, but he’s lived and labored with Chicanos his whole life.  They like him.  He had to leave office because of his wife’s cancer, but his district was very similar to those of Nunes and Valadao.  He had big wins, easy wins.  Lew thinks George wants to run for Governor.  If this drought lasts, he’d have a great shot.  There is opportunity in crisis, or so we’re told.

Lew talked to his partner in crime, Peter Ferrara of the Heartland Institute, about the Reagan Initiative.  Peter’s staying in D. C. with Stephen Moore of Heritage.  Two very bright guys.  I’ll be interested in their take.

I’m a big Oakland A’s fan, and go to a lot of games.  The crowds are heavily Chicano.  When you’re a baseball guy, your fellow fans are your brothers.  You high five strangers and whoop it up with everybody, black, white, brown and yellow.

It’s an American game.

They’re Republican, and that will have to change.  California’s a very blue state at the moment.  I believe that will start to change next year.  But for the time being you can’t win statewide as a Republican.  It’s like being a Democrat in Wyoming.  It’s a non-starter, unless you’re running against someone who is politically crippled.  In order to win, you will have to run as an Independent.   It’s easy.  You send a postcard to Sacramento.  I did it over a year ago.  It’s painless.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez is not running.  She’d have been perfect.  Oh well.  I was hoping there was a blue dog Democrat left in the Central Valley, but they’re all gone.  Districts 21 and 22 are the heart of the valley, and both have Republicans, David Valadao and Devin Nunes.  Neither are Mexican-American.  They’re both Portuguese-American dairy farmers, both families originally from the Azores.  But they can pass.

Devin’s been in twelve years, and has built up some seniority, so he might hesitate to take a chance.  David’s in his second term, and is only 39, I believe.  Young and hungry.  And an accomplished politician.  He knows how to win Mexican-American votes.  Devin’s got 42% Hispanic.  David’s got 72%, the highest in California.  Who says Mexican-Americans won’t vote for Republicans?   These guys are the future of conservatism in California.  They get it.  And they’re conservative as hell.

The Senate race, right now, looks to be a contest between a black Northern California ultraliberal woman, Attorney General Kamala Harris, and a Jewish Southern California liberal lawyer, Rep. Adam Schiff.  A minor Republican Assemblyman, Rocky Sanchez or something like that, is not taken seriously by anyone.  No Republican of any stature is going to get in.  We’re blue on blue.  A black lawyer from San Francisco against a Jewish lawyer from L.A.

What’s a chicano going to do?  That’s what Mexican-Americans used to call themselves.  You don’t hear it that often any more.  I’ve got an idea.  Vote for an Independent from the Central Valley who speaks your language, represents you in Congress, and knows you, and your politics, better than anyone else.  Nunes or Valadao.

40% of California voters are Republicans.  Nunes or Valadao will get almost all those votes.  They get through the jungle primary on those votes alone.  Then they’re one on one with either the black Northern California lawyer or the Jewish Southern California lawyer.  These guys are farmers.  When you buy a quart of milk, they may have produced it for you.  They’re of recent immigrant heritage.  Their families succeeded with work, hard, tedious, four o’clock in the morning work.  These are very likable guys, with wonderful families.

Either one of them would win.  And all of a sudden, California’s a little purplish.

A lot of people don’t understand Chicanos.  I’ve known some pretty well.  One of my best buddies at Cal was Frank Aranzubia, from the barrio in Chula Vista, right on the border.  Frank had a really great sense of humor.  It cracks me up remembering him.  He said he was hitchhiking one time and got a ride from a guy named Big Al, who had a very weird way of speaking, which Zubie picked up on.  He called it Big Al talk, and we all talked it, our little core group.  We called ourselves the real guys.  Zubie, Warren Westrup, Doug Southworth, Rich Inadomi, the Japanese Mind Attack, and me.  To be a real guy, you had to talk Big Al talk.  I taught some of it to my sons, and we do a little Big Al talk sometimes.  It mainly involves chicken shit, said in every tone possible.  Exclamatory.  Surprised. Angry. Happy.  Skeptical.  Anything.  Say chicken shit in the exactly right way, and you can make it mean almost anything.

Chicken shit!

Or the trip that wasn’t made.  The trip to Iowa that Kasich hasn’t made.  He’s been to New Hampshire and South Carolina numerous times, but not to Iowa, as far as I can tell.  This is a very good sign, for him.  To me it shows he’s not going to truckle to the ethanol lobby, like Walker did.

When I got back up to speed on this whole BBA business I looked at the presidential field and figured it was going to be Walker, Kasich, or Paul.  Walker has eliminated himself.  He hasn’t said a word about Article V.  He knows all about us.  He watches what’s happening in the Wisconsin legislature like a hawk.  Last year Chris Kapenga pushed our bill through the House, only to have it blocked by Senator Glenn Grothman.  So he knows all about our campaign, and hasn’t lifted a finger to help.

I read Walker’s book, “Unintimidated.”  He’s trying to say, with that title, that he’s got balls.  But a guy with balls doesn’t suck up to the ethanol lobby.  Walker did that, and, combined with his neglect of the BBA, it disqualifies him in my mind.  He’s another Tim Pawlenty.  He’d make a good HHS Secretary, or something.  I like the guy.  He has a lot to offer.  But he’s outsmarted himself.  He thinks he can bribe Iowans into voting for him, and that no one will notice.  Wrong.  People have noticed.  It was not smart.  He should have let Santorum and Huckabee fight for all these bible thumping, tax subsidized corn farmers.

So I’m down to Kasich and Paul.  Both of these guys have shown me some balls.  Paul continues to impress.  He’s basically telling the neoconservatives to take a hike.  Good for him.  A neoconservative is a liberal who wants America involved in the Middle East for the benefit of Israel.  But our involvement, in any part of the world, should be based on national self-interest.  Period.  And we are no longer interested in the Middle East.  Israel is our ally, and we will fully honor our commitments to her.  No more, and no less.

Eventually Kasich and Paul are going to hear about the Reagan Initiative.  I hope they both like it.  If only one does, he’s my guy.  I think it makes sense, politically.  The federal lands transfer appeals to half the country.  Regulatory reform appeals to everybody.  You lose the environmentalists, but they don’t count much in the nominating process.  Dave Biddulph has arranged for me to meet a guy in Savannah who could not be more perfect for my purposes.  If I can sell him on the Reagan Initiative, you can be damn sure Kasich and Paul are going to hear about it.  I think by August a whole lot of people are going to hear about it.  And Kasich and Paul will be asked their position on it.  If one, or both, embrace it, we are on our way.

When I was a kid there was a black gospel song that was played a lot on the radio, “I’m on my way.”  I love that song.  I can hear it now.

“I’m on my way, glory Hallelujah I’m on my way.”