The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle of World War II and one of the largest in history. When the US Navy defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy there in 1944, it marked the last time the IJN was able to muster a major naval force, and a major part of the battle hinged on the actions of one destroyer.

The USS Johnston was commanded by Ernest E. Evans and he would posthumously earn the Medal of Honor for his conduct at the Battle Off Samar:

The Battle off Samar was the centre most action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. As the only major action in the larger battle where the Americans were largely unprepared against the opposing forces, it has been cited by historians as one of the greatest military mismatches in naval history.

 The American forces, which consisted of 6 escort carriers, 3 destroyers (including the Johnston) and 4 destroyer escorts faced off against 4 Japanese battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, and 2 light cruisers. Samuel Eliot Morison, in History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II, wrote, "In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts, and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar."

The Japanese had successfully tricked Admiral William Halsey into pursuing a decoy fleet, then sent their powerful main force to attack the unsuspected and outgunned defenders.

Ernest E. Evans, commander of the destroyer Johnston, the closest to the attackers, took the initiative first. He ordered his ship to "flank speed, full left rudder," attacking on his own in what appeared to be a suicide mission.

Johnston blew the bridge off of a Japanese heavy cruiser and effectively disabled a second one with her torpedoes. From seven miles away the battleship Kongo struck the Johnston's deck and engine rooms with a 14-inch shell, cutting its speed in half. Fingers on Evans' left hand were then severed when three shells, possibly from the Japanese super-battleship Yamato, struck Johnston's bridge. The bridge destroyed, Evans moved his command to the aft where men were manually operating the rudder.

Evans noticed that four Japanese destroyers and a light cruiser were moving in on his inadequately protected carriers, and moved in to intercept. Johnston scored hits on all of them and pressured them to prematurely fire their torpedoes. But counterfire disabled a main gun and engines, and she was left dead in the water.

As her attackers gathered around the vulnerable ship, they concentrated fire on her rather than the fleeing carriers. Johnston was hit so many times that one survivor recalled "they couldn't patch holes fast enough to keep her afloat."

American ships were able to drive off the attackers, and Evans finally gave the order to abandon ship. Johnston sank 25 minutes later.

As a Japanese destroyer cruised slowly by, the survivors saw the enemy standing at attention to salute.

Evans' actions were crucial to protecting the Leyte Gulf invasion forces. After that battle, the Japanese forces would never recover, though another year of brutal island-hopping--and two atomic bombs--were necessary to force the Japanese to finally surrender.

Those involved in the presidential scandal surrounding the Obama administration's attempt to clear the primary field for Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter serve as a good example of how the game of politics is played when a scandal erupts. And it's played all the time by both parties, at all levels.

Political tactic: Be flexible in your principles

Arlen Specter, who is more accurately called a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat, switched parties after his liberal Republican sensitivities--culminating in his support of President Obama's massive healthcare overhaul--all but ensured his defeat in the next Republican primary.

Specter and the Democratic Party must have made a deal last year whereby Specter would register as a Democrat and the Obama administration would help clear the field of Democrats for him. Pursuant to that, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel--a modern day Cesare Borgia--enlisted Bill Clinton to offer Specter's Democratic primary opponent, Joe Sestak, a job in the executive branch.

Specter, for decades a Republican with a spine of boiled okra, realized his own party couldn't stand him. So he flipped, became a Democrat, and gave President Barack Obama the all-important 60th vote in the Senate to stop Republican filibustering.

Obama wanted to protect Specter. And Clinton carried the message: Sestak could remain in Congress and take a fancy appointment to a presidential advisory board.

Political tactic: Deny, deny, deny

Sestak turned down the offer, defeated Specter, and just last week the story hit the front pages. But rumors had been swirling around for months. In Feburary, Sestak was asked about the job offer by journalist Larry Kane. Sestak confirmed the rumor, but would not say what position was offered him.

Kane's station played the report aired all night.  At 6:45 the next morning, 15 hours later, a Deputy Press Secretary called and said, "You can say the White House says it's not true."

Political tactic: When it can't be ignored, make vague statements and hope it goes away

The story really caught fire last week, and the political game then kicked into overdrive as members of the Obama administration ran for cover. On May 23^rd, Bob Schieffer of Meet the Press asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about allegations of a job offer.

"I'm not going to get into it," Mr. Gibbs said, "but people who have looked into it assure me the conversations were not inappropriate in any way."

First, they denied. Now they admitted to it with vague language that nothing "inappropriate" was done. Does that mean ethically? Legally? At this point, the administration couldn't ignore the story anymore, but didn't want to advance it with a full admission. They merely hoped it would go away.

Political tactic: When you must make an admission of wrongdoing, do it when nobody is paying attention

It didn't go away and the Obama administration was forced to make a more direct response:

On the Friday before Memorial Day, 100 days later, a classic news dump day, the White House Counsel Robert Bauer issued his report.  He claimed that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel enlisted the support of Bill Clinton, "who agreed to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board."

They chose a Friday on a three-day holiday weekend, when few people are paying attention.  By the time Tuesday rolls around, the politicians will hope that it is "old news."

Has Obama used this tactic before? Right before the last three-day weekend, President's Day, the White House admitted, sort of, that it mishandled the New York trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Political tactic: Hide the witnesses

The link to the White House to this scandal is Rahm Emanuel, a Machiavellian political operative with a reputation that mobsters would be proud of. What does Rahm have to say about this? We don't know, he's in Israel.

The trip, to celebrate Emanuel's son's Bar Mitzvah, has been planned since at least November 10^th, so it's difficult to accuse the administration of arranging it as a cover up. But Emanuel left a little bit before the Memorial Day break, and one can't help but wonder if he didn't get out of Dodge earlier than expected.

Obama hid Jeremiah Wright in Africa when his scandal broke during the presidential campaign.

Political tactic: Employ proxies to split hairs

If you're a Democrat, you don't want Clinton, Emanuel, or Obama talking about any of this, but you want your message out there. So, proxies are employed to keep the story from being one-sided. The progressive media is perfect for this. Because the job offer was for an unpaid position, it's technically legal. That doesn't necessarily make it OK, but it provides a good talking point to prevent the story from getting out of control from a PR perspective.

Political tactic: Justify bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior

One of the most common, and fallacious, defensive political tactics is to go on the offensive and blame the other team for the same thing. It's a cheap, but unfortunately effective, trick. White House counsel Robert Bauer said:

"There have been numerous, reported instances in the past when prior administrations -- both Democratic and Republican, and motivated by the same goals -- discussed alternative paths to service for qualified individuals also considering campaigns for public office. Such discussions are fully consistent with the relevant law and ethical requirements."

It didn't work with your mother--"If Bill jumped off of a bridge, would you do it too"--and it doesn't work with people that are paying attention. But dishonest people will employ it to trick those that aren't paying attention.

Political tactic: Underplay

Bill Clinton denied his affair with Monica Lewinsky repeatedly, lying to everyone, then suddenly his people admitted it and said, "So what? It's just sex." If it was no big deal, why did they lie about it for so long. Additionally, they ignored the obstruction of justice charges, which are more than "just sex."

In this job offer scandal, some proxies are saying that Obama has enough to worry about with the oil spill, the bad economy, and foreign affairs to worry about such a matter.

Bottom line

The bottom line is that both parties are actively engaged in lying on a daily basis. They call it public relations, but it's all attempts to present their version of the truth rather than the truth itself. Political operatives will tell you that it's necessary to win and prevent the bad guys from taking over, and they're probably right. As long as the public refuses to pay attention to what their government is doing, the politicians can successfully advance their careers by lying. After a little while, they don't even see it as a deceptive practice--they rationalize it by telling themselves they are just presenting their side of the story.

I don't have much of a problem with an unpaid position being offered. This is common in politics, which isn't an excuse for bad behavior, but I don't really know how bad it is. It's happened everywhere and all throughout history, and I've heard it's happened locally.

It's the president's cover-up that bothers me. I respect Democratic Governor Ed Rendell for saying this on Fox News Sunday:

"I did the same thing in 2006 to ask a former congressman, Joe Hoeffel, to drop out of the race against Bob Casey in the primary... I said, 'Come back and see me if you do it.' He came back and saw me, and he was out of public service. I appointed him as a deputy secretary of commerce. He did a great job."

If you're one of the people that Jim Dantona's stiffed, don't take it personally. You're in good company. Whether you're a friend of his, a car dealership, the county of Ventura, or the state of California, you can take comfort in the fact that Dantona's failed to meet financial obligations to all sorts of groups--even charities.

That's no consolation to Simi Valley City Councilwoman Barbra Williamson--a longtime Dantona ally--who said that late last year Dantona pledged $2,500 to a local charitable fundraiser but failed to pay.

"He made a commitment to me and a non-profit foundation that I work for and he has not fulfilled that financial obligation," said Williamson. "That doesn't sit well with me."

Williamson wouldn't discuss anything else about the charity, except that it services terminally ill patients. I called around and found that a charity that Williamson is associated with had a fundraiser last fall in Simi Valley. I poked around for the fundraiser's invitation, and found that Jim Dantona is listed on it as a $2,500 "reception sponsor."

While Williamson is endorsing Dantona's opponent in the Ventura County Clerk/Recorder race, she did so before Dantona entered the race.

"Had I endorsed him I probably would have pulled my endorsement," she said, noting that she's been friends with Dantona for about 35 years. "If he would do that to a personal friend, I'm wondering what he would do if he wasn't a personal friend."

We already know the answer to that.

Interestingly, Dantona touts his own charitable organization, Baseballers Against Drugs, as one of the main reasons voters should entrust him with a public office that oversees a $9 million budget.

So why didn't he keep his word to donate $2,500 to a charity that helps terminally ill patients? Surely he would have realized that fact would undercut one of his biggest selling points, alienate a longtime ally, and lend further credence to the idea that he's not a man of his word.

But if you're Dantona, you can brush it aside with a mailer that leads with, "Like many Americans today, Jim Dantona has suffered personal and professional hardship, but has fought his way back with grit and determination."

If anyone points out that he also declared bankruptcy in 1992 and 2000, that he failed to make tax payments on time in 2006 and 2008, and has multiple tax liens and court judgments filed against him for refusing to pay his creditors, during times of broad economic prosperity, you can say they are merely digging up "old news because some of the fines dated back years."

If the man suddenly fell on hard times, I think we can give him a pass. But he's demonstrated a life-long pattern of irresponsibility that continues to this present day--voters should think very long before sending him to be the caretaker of our public records and elections.

In an exemplary series of articles, the Ventura County Star is focusing on unsolved murders in California. Astonishingly, only about half of our murders are cleared, with random gang violence the driving factor. That's consistent with national trends, as drug-related semi-organized crime replace the more easily solvable crimes of passion.

Compared to years past, when homicides were largely a product of robberies and domestic violence and the suspects were easier to target, police say the increase in gang-related killings has resulted in witnesses reluctant to talk, victims innocently gunned down and killers who walk free for too long. While the overall number of homicides in the county has decreased since the 1990s, the number of gang homicides has increased.

Not surprisingly, many of the homicides occurred in Oxnard (see map below). That's not a reflection of the law enforcement agencies--it's a reflection of the collapse of our borders and rampant illegal immigration.

Thanks for the calls & emails concerning the theft and destruction of my campaign signs. Please know that these unlawful acts were widespread throughout the County-so other than supporting me-you were not individually targeted. For your safety, do not confront anyone who is in the process of destroying/stealing our signs-call your local police agency and be a good witness. I appreciate your continued support!

I decided to check it out for myself, by driving down Los Angeles Ave. in Simi Valley. It took me five minutes to find not just a vandalized Lunn sign, but also a vandalized Peter Foy sign.

The post for Foy's sign is in the foreground. His sign lies nearby, and Lunn's sign is in the upper left corner, and looks like it was squished with a shoe. Someone must really have it in for both men to risk the consequences of getting caught.

The standoff between Supervisor Linda Parks and Assemblywoman Audra Strickland continues, as multiple opportunities to debate have fallen by the wayside.

The most recent chance to debate would have been May 28^th, the date set by Strickland in response to Parks' debate challenge:

The two-term incumbent asked Strickland to name a date she would be available, saying her only conditions are that the event be in the district, free to the public and taped for broadcast.

On Friday, Strickland's team released this:

Meeting all of Parks' challenge parameters, the debate will be held at Thousand Oaks City Hall and will be hosted by the Thousand Oaks Boulevard Association (TOBA).  Rick Lemmo, President of TOBA, will moderate the debate.  The debate will be taped and made available on Time Warner Cable Video On Demand Channel 1 prior to the June 8th primary.

That meets all the requirements for Parks' public challenge.  I wrote this Friday:

I'd expect Parks to agree to the time and location of the debate--it would expose her to criticism if she issued a challenge and then backed down from it.

I attempted to reach the supervisor a few days ago asking what she intended to do about the debate but she hasn't responded as of this writing. However, Strickland's campaign reports that Parks is declining the opportunity, and the Assemblywoman released this statement [continue reading]

CNN," the most trusted name in news," airs a clown show for two hours in the middle of the day, presided over by Rick Sanchez, who is rapidly becoming an industry joke.

Listed as one of the cable network's Newsroom Anchors, Sanchez doesn't even bother pretending to be objective. His penchant for saying the first thing that comes to mind lands him routinely on Comedy Central's Daily Show, hosted by fellow liberal Jon Stewart.

Just last week, Sanchez read the parenthetical prompter instructions out loud to the camera.

"Up next, ad-lib a tease," the anchorman told viewers before catching himself, conjuring up images of Ron Burgundy telling San Dieg-oans to, well, you've seen the movie.

Earlier this year, Sanchez repeatedly questioned guests on the metric system. "Nine meters in English is....?"

That same day, he pointed to the Galapagos Islands on the map and asked if they were the Hawaiian Islands.

But while Sanchez may be the unintentional clown prince of cable news, there's a darker side to him.

In 1990, Sanchez left Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium and ran over a 31-year-old man, leaving him paralyzed in an apparent drunk driving accident. The then WSVN-Channel 7 anchorman denied he was intoxicated. He fled the scene of the accident, and--his story goes--he went home to get his insurance information and then had a couple drinks to calm his nerves before returning to the scene and getting his blood tested.

Sanchez's victim died in 1995 in a Pennsylvania nursing home. Six years later, the anchorman graduated to the big time, going to MSNBC and finally to CNN.

Sanchez was never charged in the man's death.

Fox News superstar Bill O'Reilly featured the Oxnard school sex scandal on his program Thursday afternoon. 

The five Congressional candidates seeking to replace Lois Capps in the 23^rd District are facing off in a debate tonight in Camarillo. Yours truly is the moderator; I've been poring over questions submitted by voters and I can tell you it's going to be an enlightening night.

The debate is organized by the Ventura County Tea Party and cosponsored by the Ventura County Republican Party and the Ventura County Young Republicans.

Click here for more information.

The opponents to the Tea Party movement are busy setting up the grassroots protesters as angry, potential homegrown terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, so it's no surprise that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg assumed that the Times Square Bomber could be someone "that doesn't like the health care bill."

Bloomberg later told CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric that the suspect behind the bombing attempt could be a domestic terrorist angry at the government who acted alone.

"If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that. Homegrown, or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything," he said.

It turned out to be a young, Islamic-extremist immigrant.

You don't say.

Why is it that Progressives ignore the danger posed by Islamic extremists, despite hundreds of examples of attempted or executed terrorist attacks by them over the last few decades, but they jump to conclusions that Tea Partiers, who have turned out in the millions to protest government expansion with nary an arrest, are inherently violent?

One reason is that they're drinking their own Kool-Aid. Almost all the high-profile Progressive leaders are on record worrying about Tea Party violence and shaking their fingers at Fox News and talk radio, sending a warning that they'll be blamed if some crazy extremist from the right blows something up. When they heard of the terrorist attack, they immediately assumed that their PR campaign was about to be validated.

In their haste to blame the Right, they overlooked the obvious--that terrorists are almost always young, Islamic-extremists.

While I believe that one day some nut from the right will commit an act of violence--the movement is so large that there has to a few of them amid the millions that take part in it--it's wildly unfair to blame the movement as a whole. Similarly, it's unfair to blame the Islamic religion for Islamic extremism.

But we shouldn't cast aside common sense either and pretend that most terrorism isn't committed by Islamic extremists.

The Ventura County Republican Party, the Ventura County Tea Party, and the Ventura County Young Republicans will sponsor a debate for the five Republican Congressional candidates running in the 23^rd District. The winner of next month's primary will take on incumbent Lois Capps.

Capps, in defending Obamacare, infamously said that the Constitution guarantees "health, liberty and happiness."

I think it's fantastic that different groups are coming to work together toward a common goal, and I'm proud to be the moderator. Each of the aforementioned groups brings a unique advantage to the table.

The GOP brings organization, money, and experience in defeating the Progressives. The Tea Party brings energy, enthusiasm, and populism. The Young Republicans bring the leaders of tomorrow.

The debate will be held Tuesday, May 11^th, and costs $15 at the door. For location and time, click here.

I'll see you there!

It's a bad week for Jim Dantona, who is running for County Clerk-Recorder against retired CHP Assistant Chief Mark Lunn.

On Sunday, the Ventura County Star endorsed Lunn. Perhaps they knew about Dantona's tax problems. Lunn's campaign posted a document on its website that shows Dantona failed to pay $10,000 in taxes on two homes in Simi Valley. The website reports:

The taxes remained unpaid until April 26th. On that day Dantona, who had ignored repeated demands for payment, delivered a check for the taxes and penalties -- just four hours after a phone inquiry from the Lunn campaign confirmed that the taxes were delinquent.

The website also posted documents showing a variety of liens against Dantona, including a 1997 federal tax lien of $124,902. The most recent lien was in 2005 by the Ford Motor Credit Company.  And I don't even want to know what "Forcible Entry/Detainer" entails on page 3 of the lien summary.

Dantona also declared bankruptcy in 1992 and 2000. 

There's some debate to whether Dantona's financial difficulties should be mentioned during a campaign--but c'mon, do you want this guy in charge of your elections and vital records?

Gorell's been a legislative aide, prosecutor, war veteran, and university professor in his career. The 60-second ad focuses on his prosecutorial experience and his stint in Afghanistan, and pronounces him "tested" to take on Sacramento.

Gorell's mentioned in the past that when he used to go along on drug busts as a prosecutor, for some reason the drug dealers would inevitably have a Scarface poster on the wall and copious amounts of pornography strewn about. [continue reading]