Free Republic

OCEAN CITY – Ocean City lost a treasured icon this week when Captain Robert S. Craig, who shepherded the Beach Patrol through decades of change and inspired his young charges for half a century passed away at the age of 90. Captain Craig, as he was known for decades not only by the thousands of lifeguards who worked with him and for him but also by the countless millions of local residents and visitors to the resort area, passed away last Saturday at the Coastal Hospice in Salisbury at the age of 90. A former schoolteacher and coach, Captain Craig...

Several major GOP power brokers with ties to convicted former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona are about to lose their concealed weapons permits under an order by the new sheriff. Those who have received notices of revocation from Sheriff Sandra Hutchens include Michael Schroeder, chief political and legal advisor to Carona and a former chairman of the state Republican Party; Adam Probolsky, a GOP pollster; and Stephen Mensinger, a political ally of Carona and business executive for major GOP benefactor and developer George Argyros, public records show.

OC FReepers, please join me and other conservatives on Wednesday evening for our regular grassroots town hall meeting of the Saddleback Valley Conservatives. Guest speaker is Capistrano Unified School Board member Anna Bryson. Come ready with your questions and feel free to bring all your conservative friends. WHEN: Wednesday, Jan 7th, 6:00-7:30PM WHERE: Rancho Santa Margarita Ford dealership, 30031 Santa Margarita Parkway, zip code 92688. Take Alicia Parkway east all the way to RSM, turn right on Santa Margarita Parkway and head down about a mile. RSM ford is on your left. Also I will be discussing various technology related...

Hey FReepers, I am looking for other FReepers in Orange County. We are starting a new action oriented grassroots conservative group to provide support (and opposition) for local issues. It will be very action oriented (rallies, precinct walks, phone banks, etc.) and will hold regular monthly meetings in the Saddleback Valley. If you live in the area please let me know. We are holding our first meeting a week from tonight to discuss forming the club, it will be in Rancho Santa Margarita on Monday Dec 1st at 7:00 PM. Email me if interested in getting involved jesse@joinjesse.com Thanks!

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona used racist and sexist language during secretly recorded conversations disclosed in court records this week, and also boasted that the benefits of public office included rubbing elbows with billionaires, drinking fine wine and getting "phenomenal" sex. ... Carona uses the "n" word several times and discusses various sexual escapades as he talks to former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, who was wired and cooperating with federal authorities in a corruption investigation of Carona. ... "You're right, I've had a life that's been absolutely blessed," he says. "I've met millionaires, billionaires, I've traveled on personal...

While Seattle worries about concealed weapons, a new fad in the West is to pack and carry you pistol for all to see...

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080504/NEWS0502/80504003 rulses-link only

"RALEIGH, N.C. - Gov. Mike Easley will endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, The Associated Press has learned." "Easley was expected to announce the endorsement Tuesday morning in Raleigh, the state capital, one week before North Carolina's primary on May 6, according to persons close to the governor and to Clinton. The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement had not yet been made. Easley is a Democratic superdelegate who has served two terms as governor. His decision comes despite several recent polls showing Clinton trailing rival Barack Obama ahead of the state's May 6 primary."

SACRAMENTO – Saying that government employees shouldn't be able to evade traffic tickets because they have secret license plates, Assemblyman Todd Spitzer said Monday that he will propose legislation to help traffic enforcement agencies pierce the shield. Spitzer was responding to an Orange County Register investigation that showed that a Department of Motor Vehicles program designed to protect law enforcement from criminals was giving them another kind of protection: They can drive on toll roads without paying, run red light cameras with impunity and park illegally. For example, 3,722 public employees have run the 91 Express Lanes in the past...

Authorities broke up a major organized crime ring Tuesday that they say took in a staggering $2.2 billion in gambling bets over the past 15 months and supplied drugs and cell phones to gang members inside a New Jersey state prison. State Attorney General Anne Milgram said the arrests of two ruling members of the New York-based Lucchese organized crime family and 30 others puts a major dent in the criminal operation. "With today's arrests and charges, we have disrupted the highest echelon of the Lucchese organized crime family in both New York and New Jersey," Milgram said. "Disruption of...

Two OC police agencies have become national leaders in deporting illegal immigrants. Petty offenders are swept up in the net. Social tolerance was once the hallmark of Costa Mesa, a place where bowls of free soup awaited the poor just as racks of designer shoes awaited the well-heeled. The home of South Coast Plaza was also home to a city Human Relations Committee, a job center and a decades-long history of helping the poor, whether immigrant or native-born. The late county Supervisor Tom Riley dubbed Costa Mesa "the city with a heart." The soup kitchen is still there. But the...

DANA POINT- With "God Bless America" playing on a chilly and overcast morning, supporters and members of the Minuteman Project and Save Our State groups brought their anti-illegal immigration message to a Doheny Park Road sidewalk on Saturday.

Jason Antebi can be offensive. There's no way around it. When Antebi attended Occidental College, from 2000 to 2004, he ticked off many of his fellow students. Antebi was a conservative member of the Occidental Student Government and a Howard Stern-type disk jockey on the Occidental student station. His political opponents, in a failed effort to recall him from his student government position, called him a "racist" and "anti-Semite" (Antebi is Jewish); his door was defaced with the words "You're a f---ing racist"; he was accused of "sexually harassing women." Antebi registered complaints with the Occidental administration; the administration did...

I just heard this on the news. They did say several explosives have been found in Huntington Harbor. For those that don't know the location in Orange County, CA, I will say that it's very close to a large Naval Base. Anyone heard anything more? I googled it and found no info.

The first generation to grow up with the Internet and all it has wrought in the cultural mainstream is beginning to come of age. It is a generation for whom 900 numbers and scrambled scraps of flesh on the Spice channel have given way, in a few short years, to bulk e-mail ads for the Paris Hilton sex tapes and porn subplots on "The O.C." It is a generation in which sexual frankness has become a permanent feature of the landscape, with uncertain long-term implications. By definition, pornography is sexual material that is so beyond the pale as to be...

'80s refrain restrained Bands like Duran Duran are selling lots of tickets but few albums. Nikki Sixx, bassist for the famously fast-living glam-rock outfit Motley Crüe, believes that even 24 years after their debut, his band still has a certain timeless aspect. "If you want to drop the tailgate, get some beer and go to a strip club, that's the Crüe,'' he said the other day before a rehearsal for the band's new tour. Yet Sixx's band, which just released a two-disc career anthology including 1987's "Girls, Girls, Girls'' and 1989's "Dr. Feelgood,'' is returning at a particularly apt moment....

technochick99 asks Old Cracker the question that's on everyone's mind: "What's next on your list of stupid threads to post? What you had for breakfast?" Old Cracker responds: "Today, our maid fixed me two eggs scrambled, three rashers of bacon, and wheat toast with butter and orange marmalade. Fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee with cream, no sugar. I read the Wall Street Journal while enjoying breakfast on the balcony. My wife woke late and joined me during my second cup of coffee. All in all, a very relaxing morning. After a scheduled conference call with our attorneys, we moved...

HOLLYWOOD VS. AMERICA1st Linda Ronstadt, now Don Henley booed'We used to be able to have civil debate in this country. Not anymore' Posted: August 3, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Don Henley Singer Don Henley was booed at a concert in Orange County, Calif., after mentioning his friendship with Linda Ronstadt, who gained national attention after alienating much of her audience with a song dedication to leftist filmmaker Michael Moore. At the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Thursday Henley made several political comments between songs, according to a report in the Orange County Register. One comment began: "Given what...

Eight months after he was locked up when three girls accused him of attacking them in a park, a homeless man was freed after the girls admitted making up the story so one of them wouldn't be punished for being late to school. Eric Nordmark, 36, a self-described nomad who hitchhikes around the country, had stopped in Orange County last spring when the three 11-year-olds told police they were stalked and attacked by a transient in Woodbury Park in Garden Grove. Nordmark was jailed on assault and child molestation charges. On Monday, one of Nordmark's accusers admitted she and her...

THE COMPARISONS of Fox's new series "The O.C." to "Beverly Hills, 90210" are inevitable. Like its predecessor, "The O.C." is an hour-long drama featuring an out-of-towner main character the show drops in the midst of the problems suffered by wealthy, attractive teens in Southern California. This time around, though, the backdrop is farther south in Newport Beach, Orange County. And instead of watching the culture shock through the eyes of Minnesota transplants, "O.C." viewers see it through Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), a 16-year-old from unglamorous Chino, California. In the series premier, Ryan steals a car with his older brother Tray....