Friday - Quick Hits

Supporters of Toll Road plan to appeal Coastal Commission decision to Federal Government. UT

Mayor want airport authority to take a look at John Moores reconfiguration plans for Lindbergh Field. UT

Danger Will Robinson! Engineer's report claims that Lake Wohlford Dam could liquefy during a major earthquake. UT

Local conservatives are beside themselves after Romney leaves presidential race. UT

State threatens Mira Costa College with accreditation if the board of trustees don't get their act together. UT

Duncan Hunter to Soldier on to Republican Convention

With his quixotic campaign for the Republican nomination only receiving on 1.3% of Republican primary voters to date, Duncan Hunter continues to fight on.[Link] So far Hunter has collected just one delegate, far short of the 1191 needed to obtain the nomination.[Link] He might want to step up the campaign if he wants to win the nomination.

The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost

Via Brave New Films:

For year conservatives have played up the "angry white man." Constantly drumming up meaningless issues into a mob frenzy. I find it funny that some of the mob has turned on their conservative brethren.

Here is the video of some angry Ron Paul supporters chasing down Sean Hannity chanting "Fox News Sucks"! See what happens when the mob turns on you.

Duncan Wanders onto MSNBC Show

Via TPM: This morning Duncan Hunter walked onto the MSNBC show Morning Joe to plug the fact that he had won one delegate Saturday in the Wyoming Caucus. Classy move Duncan!

Score One for Duncan

I guess Duncan Hunter's strategy to bypass the Iowa Caucuses in favor of the Wyoming Caucuses today paid off. The Congressman earned 9% of today's vote and 1 delegate [Link] toward the GOP nomination. He only need 1190 more to win the nomination.

Working the Fringe with Duncan Hunter

Over at The New Republic, editor Eve Fairbanks spends some time on the road with Duncan Hunter as he campaigns for the Republican Nomination. It has been a difficult time for the Hunter campaign as it tries to crack into the mainstream of the GOP presidential race. But in his case even cracking into the fringe appears to be a high hurdle for the campaign overcome. In the article titled "Plain Nuts" she portrays the campaign as:

traditionally ... people running for president with no support in the polls "vanity candidates." The Duncan Hunter campaign for the Republican nomination, though, feels more like the antidote to vanity.[Link]

She describes Hunter riding in a white convertible Corvette in a Veterans Day parade in Reno.

The parade's organizers have assigned him a slot at the end of the march, putting him behind Dennis Kucinich supporters, people banging saucepans in memory of Molly Ivins, a hayride truck filled with senior citizens labeled MARTIANS FOR PEACE, and, worst of all, a troupe of five cavalry re-enactors on horseback. Hunter, a military equipment nut, enjoyed hanging out with the cavalrymen before the parade, but, once they set off, their horses begin pooping profusely along the route. As Hunter's convertible starts to roll, it streaks piles of hot yellow horse dung under its wheels. "Eeewie!" a child screams.[Link]

Hunter isn't your typical fringe candidate. He does have an affable personality but has struggled to gain traction in the race.

A friend of Hunter once described him as "Pat Buchanan with a smile." Hunter has struggled just to break into the fringe. He has raised half as much money as Tom Tancredo and netted half the major-paper mentions of Dennis Kucinich over the past year. Apparently, becoming a successful marginal presidential candidate is harder than it looks.

* * *

But Hunter is not only too fringe to be mainstream; with his mild manner and good cheer, he is also too mainstream to be fringe.[Link]

With the California less 60-days away, I suspect that Duncan Hunter will be withdrawing from the presidential race the day after the primary. Maybe, he can make his concession speech from in front of the Midway aircraft carrier much like he did his announcement to run.

Virginia GOP Abandons Loyalty Oath Plan

Via TPM Election Central:

Last week the Virgina GOP had applied to the state elections board and received permission to institute a "Loyalty Oath" for all who participate in the February Virginia GOP Presidential Primary. The plan would have require anyone who requested a GOP primary ballot to swear to support the GOP presidential nominee.[Link]

Well today the Virginia GOP has decided that requiring people to sign a loyalty oath, gives "[t]he perception was that it was more of a closed-door policy, and we want an open-door policy."[Link] So much for their best laid plans.

Wednesday - Quick Hits

Year after City Council passes plan to end homelessness, still no movement on the plan. VOSD

Peters re-elected to another term as Council President. UT

CSU Trustees to meet to discuss SDSU expansion plans. UT

Long time in the making. Council makes recycling mandatory. UT

Kissing demonstrators at the border, arrested by Border Patrol agents. UT

Mayors of Poway and Vista both endorse Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination. NCTimes

Crazy Wingnut Alert!!

Via Think Progress: On Meet The Press yesterday, William Safire who is close to being insane these days, particularly when he's peddling his pet theory that Mohamed Atta had secretly met with Iraqi Intelligence in Prague during the Spring of 2001, now thinks that Mitt Romney should make General Patraeus his VP selection.[Link] Safire is not the first wingnut to state that Patraeus should be the GOP's VP selection next year, he does carry a little more credibility with the MSM than most crazy wingnuts.

UPDATE: Someone e-mailed me, to tell me that on Meet The Press, Safire also said that he believes Obama will select DiFi as his VP if he wins the nomination. I have to wonder what Safire is putting into his Ensure these days because he really isn't making any sense at all.

Duncan channels B-1 Bob Dornan

Via Brad Blog: During the Republican Presidential debate at Morgan State University back on September 27th, you know the debate that the top four leading Republican Presidential candidates were too busy to attend. Our very own Duncan Hunter did his best to channel B-1 Bob Dornan. In response to the following question from Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Recently a push to give the District of Columbia voting representation was defeated because of heavy Republican opposition. In addition many voting rights advocates are worried about rigid voter ID laws which require photo ID like a drivers license. Are you concerned that some eligible voters will be denied theright to vote simply because they don't have a drivers license?[Link]

Representative Hunter's response was pretty pretty standard wingnut fare:

On the issue of allowing...mandating some type of ID, you know the first twenty-one black Congressmen were Republicans who came out of the South. And they went into a series, they went into a series of poll taxes and, and all types of...all types of...deals that the Democrats, roadblocks that the Democrats put in their place to keep them from voting. So I don't, I don't agree with those types of stumbling blocks. But I would say this: We have right now a real danger of people that are illegally in the country being rounded up, herded into the polls --- we've seen that in California --- voting illegally. That disenfranchises everybody in that community. I think you have to have some IDs.[Link]

Wow, I never knew I could feel nostalgic for B-1 Bob and all of his crazy statements.

UPDATE: Here is the YouTube clip from the debate.

Friday’s Menu Special: Honey-glazed Chicken served over Rice Pilaf

I don’t know if anyone caught last night’s GOP presidential debate from New Hampshire on Fox. Personally, I have better things to do with my time such as: getting a root canal rather than listening to these clowns drone on about “who is tougher on terrorists.” But I have to give it up to our own 52nd Congressional Representative, Duncan Hunter. In response to a question from Wendell Goler regarding the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and their indefinite detention:

The last time I looked at the menu, they had honey-glazed chicken and rice pilaf on Friday. That's how we treat the terrorists.

They've got health care that's better than most HMOs. And they got something else that no Democrat politician in America has: They live in a place called Guantanamo, where not one person has ever been murdered. And there's not one politician, one Democrat politician in America, that can say that about one of the prisons in his home district. We've got to keep Guantanamo open.

Hey Duncan you forgot to mention that there are no Labor Day drunken beach riots there either!