Rest in Peace Charlton Heston

In a fitting memorial, the LA Times reprinted a number of letters to the editor that Charlton Heston sent in over the years.

It turns out that Heston, along with being an epic actor, was a bit of a crank.

THE cultural and social fabric of the country is fraying around the edges as we split up into separate little Gypsy camps, each with a different agenda, heading in different directions. A while ago, I was at one of those silly "A-list" parties and fell into conversation on all this with a stunningly beautiful, famous star (not a bad actress, either) who said, "Well, look what it says on the dollar bill: 'e pluribus unum.' From one, many." "Actually, you've got the Latin backward," I replied. "It translates, 'From many, one.' As in one nation . . . indivisible?" "No kidding?" she said, amazed. "Well . . . whatever." And there you have it. We live, increasingly, in a "well, whatever" nation. God help us all.

Immigration post trick: three is a magic number

While SF welcomes and seems to benefit from border crime money, Arizona is making life a nightmare for immigrants and plenty of residents and citizens too. With pride, they speak of proving a state can do it alone, without the feds:

In recent years it has barred illegal immigrants from receiving government services, from winning punitive damages in lawsuits and from posting bail for serious crimes. A new state law shuts down businesses that hire illegal workers. And the sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and three-fifths of the state's population, dispatches his deputies and volunteer "posses" to search for illegal street vendors or immigrants being smuggled through the county. . . .

Juan Carlos Ochoa, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in an upper-middle-class subdivision near Phoenix named Laguna Hills, can't find a job because a government database classifies him as a possible illegal immigrant. Pauline Muñoz, a 39-year-old mother of six who was born in Phoenix, has been afraid to leave her apartment since being held by sheriff's deputies for 15 hours for a driving infraction -- an example of what she believes is racial profiling.

The problem is the E-verify system that, if you aren't up-to-date with Social Security, can label you as a possible illegal. Not for sure, just possible. Getting duplicate papers, however, can take up to 10 months from Department of Homeland Security.

This article doesn't contain any jaw-droppingly offensive moments, but it is disquieting nonetheless. That Arizona takes such pride about running people out of town. And I wonder how, like, New Mexico feels.

And then there's this

No one as ever said San Francisco is a simple city. They're kinda confusing actually - a sanctuary for illegal immigrants as well as a huge freakin' siphon for federal border crime dollars. Go fig:

San Francisco's $3.7 million federal grant to help fight border crime in 2006 was the largest awarded to any county in four states bordering Mexico, according to a federal audit that found the city was not entitled to any of the funds.

City officials have not explained why a city 500 miles from the state's southern border would have prosecuted more than 2,000 cases for the federal government that were related to drug gangs and crimes near the border in a three-year period.

The audit, which was released this week and challenged all $5.4 million that the city received from 2004 to 2006, raises questions about the basis for the city's request for funding under the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative.

Compassion or calculation?

San Francisco advertises services for illegal immigrants

This week, the city launched a campaign featuring TV and radio ads, billboards and bus signs reminding residents of its status as a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants. The $83,000 blitz will include brochures distributed at police stations and hospitals, promising safe access to city services regardless of residency status.

"We're inviting people to come out of the shadows and take advantage of services," said Mayor Gavin Newsom. San Francisco has tried to make this point clear for years.

Gavin makes a lot of points, ever notice that? I want to believe him - I think what he does, from gay marriage to making it clear that making people too scared to seek help or healthcare is monsterous, is, frankly, beautiful.

But then the ugly pragmatist in me rises up and slaps me upside the head: are you kidding me? Just hand them the White House already! Predictably, one comeback is that this is an insult to the people who did things the right way, applied, waited, etc. But that's not really comparing apples and apples. San Francisco doesn't have the power to grant amnesty - which is the only thing that really might insult those who waited to get here. One healthy immigrant child means a classroom is healthier altogether. One mother less afraid of seeking help from the cops in cases of domestic violence is one less dead mother and one step closer to eradicating violence generally.

Oops, so much for pragmatism.

Shortsighted-much?

Does it have to be either/or when it comes to national security (or "national security") and the environment? Apparently, according to the feds who are prepared to exempt themselves from all manner of environmental and other laws in their quixotic quest to fence us in.

I think the saying is don't fence me in, but whatever. 9/11, 9/11, danger, fear, lookout, okay, built the fence. That about covers it, right?

We're going to mortgage our futures, our kids' futures, on faulty, ineffective protectionist antics that won't leave us safer, but will potentially leave us without an earth. Or at least an inhabitable one.

Otherwise liberal ideas that serve to make us all look bad

So, union jobs are good. Union wages are good. Protecting union jobs is good.

Forcing non-profits out of business because unions have a chokehold on public works under an expanded definition of the term? Stoooopid. Really dumb. Don't do it:

The original wage law was designed to protect union contractors from being underbid on public projects by firms using less expensive, nonunion labor. But the broader application carried the concept to an entirely new level.

Labor unions started filing complaints about local governments and nonprofit groups using volunteers on public projects. The first to surface was in Redding, where college students were given class credit instead of pay when they helped a local nonprofit group clear a brush-choked streambed. A state labor agency fined the group for violations of labor laws.

Ugh! Man. I'm sure there's more to this story than the columnist cobbles together to fit in limited column inches. But really, ugh. So unions got their way with expanded definitions of public works and then continue to pound the point home over this sort of project.

As Seth and Amy would say - Really?!

Political Theater from the State's Most Colorful Characters

Lookout - mover/shaker Richie Ross, operates-on-a-NYC-tempo Carole Migden, and uh, former something and current FPPC Chair (sorry, I ran out of creativity just then) Ross Johnson are going out it like a community college thespian club. You sue me, I'll sue you, you're retaliating against me, you started it. Phew, I'm tired just trying to figure out who the real jerk in this story is. (Make sure you click on the link to check out a scary photo of Chair Johnson. Yikes.)

Side note: political pop quiz - who is the "he" in this quote:

During a budget fight in 1983, he called Assemblyman Lou Papan, D-Millbrae, an expletive and made a vulgar suggestion in an exchange that has become Capitol lore.

If you said "John Burton" . . . you're wrong! But no one would blame you for making a highly educated guess. It was Ross Johnson, but anyway . . .

Though Johnson sounds like he's been less than well-spoken at all points in his career, it's Ross and Migden that come off like the real peaches of the story. Ross has a history of screaming vulgarites at those who cross him, deign to defy his wise demands, er, advice, and question his, um, integrity. Yeah. And that kind of sounds like Migden too, except she's less screaming vulgar than screaming condescension.

I don't think mean, rude, probably law-breaking people should be rewarded with public office, so I hope Migden loses and does her penance. She should have another chance someday, after humbling herself a bit.

And Ross? Well, like he says in the linked article - everyone has a dark side. He just seems content to let his run the show.