Which Republican Will Face Lois Capps?

I think that just about anyone would be an improvement over Lois Capps. In fact I think just about any homeless person on East Beach would be an improvement. Lois Capps only has an ear for constituents that she agrees with and those who are opposed to the severe fiscal irresponsibility and socialist tendencies of the current congress and administration should make it a top priority to remove her from office in the next election. Capps has yet to return a single email, letter or phone call from myself. Perhaps when the people actually send her back to the unemployment line, she will realize that she is supposed to represent all of her constituents, not just far left liberals and illegal aliens.

Amazing that I get updates on a regular basis from Lois an d answers when I write her, albeit infrequently.

What an assortment of rehashed, tried and failed politics that these candidates bring to the contest. If you preach change, you must offer solutions that can actually change things.
With platforms like offered by the candidates above, Capps should have no problem retaining her seat.

Funny how these "tea-baggers" whine about the Government spending, they have selective amnesia, W was the biggest spender in the country's history....they didn't speak out about spending when Bush was Prez.
Lois will win her seat as long as she wishes, she has a great staff that helps constituents with their challenges with dealing with Gov't agencies and she seems to roll with the punches from the far right and left. The only problem I have with her is her inability to speak out strongly against these wars. My daughter spent a year in Iraq, could not figure out why the US is there, and we are all still puzzled about that. The track record that other imperialist countries have had in Afghanistan ought to be a lesson for us...Why didn't we learn the lesson from Vietnam War? We have to stop trying to force our version of democracy on others. When peoples of any nation decide they do not want to be oppressed by their Gov't anymore, they have revolutions, coups, whatever it takes. Bush would not ever accept that he made a mistake by invading Iraq, what is Obama's excuse for not getting out yesterday? There must be some politically connected folks making the big bucks on these wars. Big Business. So sad.

I wasn't there, but did Clark Vandeventer mention his non-profit consultancy World Changers Inc? Evidentally he and Dinesh D’Souza were "developing a strategy to put Christianity on offense against the secular elitists."

I'm curious about this group headed by Mr. Vandeventer, as he described it:
"There’s a difference between being warlike and being on offense. To learn more about strategies to put Christianity on offense, go to www.worldchangers.us.com. "
http://veritasrex.typepad.com/veritas...

On another post, Mr. Vandeventer said it's a "...shift from being mission driven to being movement driven that has so many organizations excited to be partnering with World Changers Inc. where I am now serving as the chief executive officer. After nearly a decade at the Reagan Ranch, most recently as deputy director, I saw what a difference it makes when an organization seeks to have a real impact--that is, build a movement--as opposed to sticking to the status quo."
http://www.veritasrex.com/veritas_rex...

This was also intriguing: "At World Changers, our mission is to act upon big, bold dreams in a way that connects people to things bigger and more lasting than this world. While we don’t put it this way, others have defined our work as developing strategies to put Christianity on offense."
http://veritasrex.typepad.com/veritas...

But his YouTube videos and the website are now all removed.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Just because Obama and Lois have lost all credibility by continuing all of Bush's policies of expanding our foreign empire, expanding our troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, wiretapping the American people and suppressing various other civil liberties, transferring wealth from the poor and middle class to Goldman Sachs doesn't mean that the GOP has suddenly gained a bunch of credibility with voters on the Central Coast. Both parties have failed the American people, Bush was supposedly a conservative and his administration doubled the size of our government. Imagine if you were a Democrat and you elected a guy like Obama and he expanded our military presence overseas and was killing more innocent civilians and children than Bush....oh wait.. he has.. that means you guys know exactly how Republicans should feel. Betrayed.

If the Republicans want a chance of winning, they need to come out against our Neo-conservative, anti-conservative foreign empire and really stand up for the Constitution, oppose The Patriot Act and take Lois Capps on in those areas. They need to focus on property rights and oppose environmental regulations that allow corporations to pollute other people's property. Focus on ending prohibition on marijuana and ending the failed war on drugs that has increased crime and hard drug use. Those are conservative, Constitutional positions, and the first Republican to take on a platform of true liberty positions both domestically and abroad and wins the primary is the first Republican who will have a chance of beating Capps.

The sad fact is that Lois Capps doesn't seem to have a mind of her own...she votes the same way as Nancy Pelosi every single time...with that being said I want to address the fact that W was a big spender and as a proud "tea bagger" (I guess that's what I am if I don't believe in big government run programs and expect the people to take care of each other not the other way around and the government making us dependent on them, the way it was before we started to grow our government, and government employees get better benefits than those in the private sector) I didn't agree with that at all, just so you know. BUT W NEVER raised taxes to pay for his spending and I won't even. I will say this. I have watched Clark Vandeventer for sometime now and I have come to respect his views and see that he is not about party lines he has his own views on the way that our current government should be ran. I also know that those views were developed by his love for Ronald Reagan, a regular guy who happened to be president from Santa Barbara, RR was the type of person who did photo shoots not for the PR (like Lois Capps has, interestingly enough the only time that we seem to see her here in her district) Clark is a MAN who is a leader and not a follower, he doesn't stick to party lines, HE IS someone who sticks to his values and WILL LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE (something Lois Capps has failed to do), sure there is the minority in Santa Barbara that agree with her views but the Majority of the people in the 23rd district have grown increasingly discouraged.

Come November we need a new voice who won't live in Washington DC, but Clark Vandeventer who will live in Goleta, listen to the people in his district and vote their will, and yes I know that is where the position is held but with today's technology that shouldn't be a problem with go2meeting and different programs like that that make it easier to be closer to his district. Clark understands what it's like to struggle financially, to me that means he knows what it's like to live in the 23rd district and what the people here go through on a daily basis. I want change and not Chicago style politics and back room deals.

There is so much more to say but I don't have the room here.

I look forward to shaking the hand of our new congressman in November

Hey NickR,

It is a mistake to think that just because the government doesn't raise taxes that we don't pay for government spending in other ways. We end up going further into debt which means we have to pay more interest to service that debt and the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates for the banks which causes inflation and devours savings and wages. The government lies about inflation when they report the CPI, because some of our biggest expenses including housing, energy, health care and higher education are not included in the CPI. These prices have gone up dramatically in the last couple of decades and are not included in the government inflation numbers. These are the areas where we have seen inflation actually occurring, mostly because of the government involvement in these sectors which has raised prices and made them less affordable and distorted the markets.

We need to address our monetary system, we have a dishonest monetary system that creates more poverty as it hurts the middle class and poor the most. It benefits large corporations, banks and government politicians as they are able to spend the most of this inflationary currency.

One of the reasons we've been able to live off this false prosperity of debt for so long is because we have the reserve currency of the world, but this isn't expected to last forever and when the reserves end up being dumped back on the US, we will see a hyper inflationary scenario. That is what is really going to destroy our country, is a currency crisis.

Checkout Peter Schiff, he's running for Senate in CT and he gets this stuff. He release video blogs regularly and is interviewed on TV sporadically.

Ronnie the Regular Guy? Oh my. Read Patti Davis' book, his daughter. A reader's guide to a dysfunctional family, complete with child slapping, anorexic, control freak mother and an in denial, "Oh your mother would never do something like that" father.

Let us not forget that RR wanted to abort women's rights.

Look at the statistics of who raised the national debt and who brought it down.

Read Lee Iacocca's latest book written during the last regime where he says, "Kick these bums out."

Well, since the RNC just spent $2,000 at a West Hollywood bondage themed strip club, they should have had the candidate forum at the Spearmint Rino.

So here we are once again with the usual mudslinging but few solutions.

As for returning calls/mail when she's been contacted, I've found Capps to be good about this--more than I can say for Hanna-Beth Jackson.

Sadly, Capps has become another career politician lured into the abyss of politics as usual. I remember back in her first or second term she said she had no plans on running again but here we are all these years/terms later.

What ABOUT the war?...or the Patriot Act?...sadly, party politics almost ensures that while her supporters will blast Republicans over these issues, they will give her a free pass about this (as they have Obama) because the thought of a Republican winning is so horrifying that they are more than willing to give into their fears and prejudices rather than make changes within their own party.

All I know is that one of these candidates is going to lose in November.

"Let us not forget that RR wanted to abort women's rights."

Would that include their right to arm bears...I mean bear arms?

Or, if Reagan were part of the Taliban, he would have restricted their right to bare arms.

I will probably vote for Lois or just skip that section of the ballot. I do think this district as drawn is a joke (which has been mentioned before nationally) and needs to be redrawn. I would welcome a battle of better ideas, not party lines for a change.

Interesting that the Bush haters seem to think that one can only agree with their views or love Bush. I consider Bush to be one of our worst Presidents ever, which doesn't by any stretch of the imagination mean that I support the Dems. Both parties are worthless consumers of public funds. We need a new Centrist party. And to all who insist on calling the Tea Party Tea B*****s, go back to your porn and leave the debate to the grownups.

They were Bush haters, but not the folks you want, JohnLocke:

From Radar mag, via HuffPo:

"The original flight plan was a thing of goofy beauty: The airship would cruise over Washington, DC, the nucleus of Imperial America, land in northern Virginia for a triumphant rally, then fly to New York City to buzz the evil Federal Reserve Bank on Wall Street. From there it would cruise to Boston to reenact the original Tea Party by tossing boxes of tea into the harbor from hundreds of feet in the air, while crowds of Paul supporters and journalists looked on in wonder. Finally, there would be a three-week-long crisscrossing tour of the New Hampshire skies. Up until January 8, the date of the all-important primary in the Granite State, the great craft would mercilessly harass the other candidates from the air.

"It was understood by everyone else on the Ron Paul discussion forums that the blimp would forever change America. Eyes would be opened. The "sheeple" would see the truth. All the Paulians had to do was cough up $200,000 by December 7 for a month's blimp rental from Airship Management Services in Elizabeth City."

Loonpt is right, the only way a conservative will win in this district is if they speak (back to basics conservatism) out strongly against our wasteful foreign policy etc.

Loonpt you should run for something. Dog catcher, City Council, Guvnah anything, I will be your first volunteer.

binky, what the heck is that all about and how does it relate to the discussion?

Sorry I wasn't clear enough, JohnLocke; I was deeply reading this part of your post --

"And to all who insist on calling the Tea Party Tea B*****s, go back to your porn and leave the debate to the grownups."

...and thought you should know the origin of the Tea Baggers probably results from the Ron Paulians.

wrong, binky, the origin of the term "tea b*****s" comes from porn-watching lefties intent on insulting members of the Tea Party, who do, after all, have an opinion and a right to express it. But not everyone in the Peoples' Republic of Santa Barbara actually respects free speech, at least not for everyone, and react to differing opinions with a mixture of scornful denial and hateful name-calling, usually accusing anyone not of the farlefty persuasion of being a Bushlover, a Chenyclone, a sexual deviate, a moron, or whatever. Projection, I'd call it..

And don't forget that the current obnoxious behavior being exhibited by the Right was learned from the Lefties of the 60's. You know the type - don't allow your opponents to speak, scream and ridicule rather than debate, etc. SB was home to a lot of that, even to the point of burning a bank...

Tea Baggers (hee hee!) have learned very little from history in general, so it's no wonder they (and JohnLocke) have no comprehension of what the anti-Vietnam, anti-Iraq war, and other "lefty" protest movements were about. Of course, they *think* it was just signs, marches, and shouting, because it doesn't serve their purpose to actually *know* more about those previous movements since they are antithetical to everything for which the Tea Baggers (hee hee!) stand - like justice, peace, equality, etc - concepts just a little too non-Glen Beckian (there's another one for you, John).

(Incidentally, if you really want to know what the protest movements of the 1960s were about, you should try reading these things called "books".)

Congratulations, JohnLocke - I've never observed anyone so directly express their own far right political insecurities. You talk about "projection" - once again, you use a word without fully understanding its meaning - well, your post is a pretty great example of someone who's clearly feeling the pressure of a political landscape that has entirely passed him by (by, oh let's say, 6 or so decades) - and you express that frustration by blaming everything but the failings of his own political ideology and those who share similarly outdated - shall we say - "opinions". Frankly, at this point, I just feel sorry for you.

I have not been to a Tea Party rally so I cannot comment pro or con on their agenda.

What I know is that much of the Left that I see today bears little resemblence to the true protest/civil rights movement of the '60's.

Sorry, JohnLocke, you must have missed it last summer when the Tea Party members were self-describing their cohort as "tea baggers."

That soon stopped when they became aware of the modern usage of the term; they really pulled a boner with that one!

Since we can't say Tea B******, must I now call you B****
and J*** L****?

I did miss it, binky - thanks for the correction. But to your point, they did, unlike the porn-watching lefties, stop using the term once they found out its meaning. Love your use of the word "boner" - fits right in...

And to math-challenged EatTheRich: I was there obsering the protests of the 1960's in several cities and watched the so-called peace loving demonstrators scream down, insult, and name-call (sound like familiar tactics? they should) anyone who might have another view, block peoples' passage on public thoroughfares, and in general behave like spoiled children (kinda like some UCSB students carried on recently). My takeaway from that was that, while I considered the war to be the wrong direction for the US, the Nazi-like behavior of the protestors was quite frightening and an affront to the principles under which our country was founded.

Then came the burning of the bank in IV, changing my view of the protestors from spoiled children to lawless thugs, no matter their proclaimed (but false) possession of the "high moral ground". It would appear that many of their children and grandchildren still live and misbehave in SB.

Pass me by? I don't think so, unless suppression of free speech and individuality is your political motto. Like the lefties of the 60's you obviously think only your opinion and that of those who agree with you is of value; it is you who have not learned...

JohnLocke, I'm sure you would love to believe otherwise, but a recent social science survey finds "porn-watching" pretty well distributed across the ideological spectrum in the US.

Interestingly, the States which "consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/d...

Don't that beat all?

@binky: How about the RNC's recent $2k visit to a topless bondage club that might end up costing Michael Steele his job?

@JohnLocke: See, I'm conflicted. I want to ask, "Where has free speech and individuality been suppressed?" - but I know that either, a) you're knowingly throwing out red herrings in order to bait people away valid arguments critical of your "point of view", if we can even call it that, or, b) you ACTUALLY believe the things you say, in which case attempting an actual discourse with you is an exercise in futility. I think the latter is far more likely and the former gives you too much credit - but hey, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

There's also a third option I've considered (and which I've convinced myself is true, because, frankly, I sleep better at night) - you're actually a liberal parodying an extreme right-wing point of view for comedic effect - in which case, you're doing an AMAZING job. HUZZAH! Maybe you're ME when I'm sleep-posting!!

"He (David Stockdale) later, without irony, also explained the importance of getting the Hispanic vote and how manufacturing is the immigrants’ “conduit” to the middle class.)"

Why should the Hispanic, Black, Hungarian, or whatever vote be categorized as such? All this does is pit one group against another and continues the divide-and-conquer strategy.

On that same train of thought: Saying that manufacturing is the conduit for "immigrants" (Code word for Mexican/Central American migrants) to reach the middle class is saying that this is the only route these folks can take and that we cannot expect them to succeed via their brainpower. This merely continues damaging
stereotypes.

If I'm wrong about all of this, is he saying that Asian immigrants should abandon their traditional route to success in American and switch to manufacturing jobs? Which is it? (Not that there is anything wrong with manufacturing in and of itself)

To all who want more of the same (aka Lois, Pelosi, Reid, Obama…) There’s a reason there was no tort reform discussed in the Obama health care bill. The Democratic Party is made up of 85% lawyers. This is why it has become the Lawyers' Party.

Barack Obama is a lawyer.
Michelle Obama is a lawyer.
Joe Biden is a lawyer.
Hillary Clinton is a lawyer.
Bill Clinton is a lawyer.
John Edwards is a lawyer.
Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer.
Every Democrat presidential nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate).
Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.

Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress:
Harry Reid is a lawyer.
Nancy Pelosi is a lawyer.
Chris Dodd is a lawyer.
Barney Frank is a lawyer.

The Republican Party is different, it is made up of 85% business people.

President Bush is a businessman.
Vice President Cheney is a businessman.
The leaders of the Republican Revolution:
Newt Gingrich was a history professor.
John McCain was a Naval Officer.
Tom Delay was an exterminator.
Dick Armey was an economist.
Mitt Romney was a businessman.
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele was a financial investor.
House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer.
The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.

The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich. The Lawyers' Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And, so we have seen the procession of official enemies, in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party, grow.

Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.

Confined to the narrow practice (gamesmanship?) of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming.

When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association goes to the Democrat Party, then you realize who is really responsible for our medical and product costs being so high. Preventive medicine takes on a whole new meaning… as in do everything you can to “prevent” being frivolously sued.

Or do nothing. Which is what a lot of doctors and medical device makers will ultimately thinking. Why go to 13 years of school to have lawyers tell you how to practice medicine?

Who loses? You and me…If you agree REPLACE AND REPEAL - NOV 2010

As maximum doesn't like to attribute her "ideas" to their source, you may wish to find from where she got her email to throwup online. Surprisingly, the source is neither Drudge, Fox, Free Republic, or NRO:

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/...

It was originally written by Bruce Walker for The American Thinker in 2008
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/0...

maximum has (or her emailing pals have) updated the players somewhat to allow for the Obama presidency, but the meat of the article is verbatim.

And somehow the actual impact of proposed 'tort reform' never seems to soak into her rants: according to the CBO, "about 0.5 percent (about $11 billion in 2009)."
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=389

Now, that's not chump-change, but hardly the determinative reform so necessary. Unfortunately it is one of the two primary solutions anti-healthcare reform scolds have promoted and rallied behind.

Maximum is privvy to a lot more than you know Binky-Winky. And never did he or she claim to have written the entire post--though the last part was mine (-;

Arguing with idiots is not my idea of fun on a Friday night... but for the record, it's true, I did not write the entire text.

Does that make it any less TRUE??????

Gotcha' darlin' (that's a Jerry Jeff Walker phrase FYI)

We are running against Lois Capps. That's right folks, sixdolphins is running against Lois Capps. The problem in the past has been that one Republican here and there will run against her and get trounced, but if six of us run against her at the same time, we have six times the likelihood of winning as opposed to one person running. Since we are sea creatures, we also will bring the issue of ocean sustainability to the table since we live underwater, as opposed to Capps' experience which consists of the occasional venture to the beach.

"Sixdolphins for congress", you heard it here first.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/...

Now what we need is an open letter to liberal progressives...

I always find these "Open Letter to..." exercises deeply condescending and disingenuous.

I thought the David Frum post, "Waterloo," that got him canned from AEI better suited to the task: http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo

A brief history of the modern day Tea Party movement and it's relation to the Ron Paul movement:

On December 16, 2007 Ron Paul supporters decided to celebrate the 234th anniversary of the original Boston Tea Party by having rallies across the country to raise money for Ron Paul's Presidential campaign and to show our opposition to our overseas empire, The Federal Reserve, The Patriot Act, out of control deficit spending and other unconstitutional actions by our government.

We raised over $6 million that day. It was the biggest single day of fundraising for a political candidate in recorded history. The silence in the media was quite deafening, and it was at that time we truly realized that there is a war in this country to shelter the American people from the truth and bring them into a false left-right paradigm where one side battles for one set of unconstitutional mandates like foreign empires while the other side battles for unconstitutional mandates against our life and property such as the income tax and all of the horrible programs the government enacts to supposedly improve our economy. Ultimately corporations lobby the government and bring home the vast majority of the loot from the American people. Whether it is oil interests, the military industrial complex, the medical industrial complex or the globalist bankers the average American will ultimately have their savings and wages destroyed because of an out of control government that keeps giving and giving that which it does not have to give in the first place.

So after our first successful rally, we decided to plan more tea parties. They really took off, especially once neocon hawks like Hannity started promoting the activities as a way to take back our government from the Obama administration. It was that time when supposed advocates of limited government began sending tea bags to Washington DC. At this point, MSNBC coined the term "tea baggers" and described their activities as "tea bagging".

loonpt: I have nothing to add to what you said other than to say this is one of the best posts I've seen in a long time.

Hopefully small government advocates will see that the mainstream Republican party is not the small government entity it says it is and hopefully the politically correct contingent that keeps voting Capps into office over and over again will see she is not the defender of their causes they think she is.

billclausen says: "loonpt: I have nothing to add to what you said other than to say this is one of the best posts I've seen in a long time."

bill, you've got to get out more.