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Guest
Contributor
Joe
Armendariz
 Forget
MEChA, what about PORcA?
It's always about the money...
[Joe Armendariz] 9/15/03
As a 3rd
generation Mexican-American who grew up in East Los Angeles
(the Barrio) I am often asked how I came to refuse to
embrace the radical left inhabited by prominent Latinos like
Cruz Bustamante.
I guess I
can blame my parents. My dad, whose parents were born in Mexico,
spoke no English until he was
7 years old; yet, he
graduated from USC at the top of his class with a degree
in engineering. He never loitered in the intellectual ghetto
known
as MEChA,
nor did he embrace the silliness of bilingual education and/or
multi-culturalism.
My parents
taught me and my 5 siblings to be proud Americans. And proud
Americans we are, every one
of us. Moreover, if
anybody can and should speak out against the radical left
and what it
has done to undermine the economic interests of Latino
families, from one end of this state to the other, it is proud
Americans
of Latino descent like myself.
But
as repulsive as Bustamante's devotion to MEChA is, more
repulsive still
is his de facto
involvement in another
spurious "organization" --
PORcA, a club that excludes all but the most profligate
tax and spenders in the California Democratic Party.
The only requirement
is they must also be willing to take a breather from
the nation's campaign finance laws.
The acronym
stands for Obnoxious Politicos Rearranging
el Campaign Account (PORcA). The PORcA slogan is: "For
the Special Interests Everything, for the Taxpayer Nothing".
And Cruz isn't just a member of PORcA, he's their Lieutenant
Governor.He has also
proven himself to be one of the most talented
in the club at corrupting existing campaign finance
laws. Consider
what he has achieved with his $2 million dollar contribution
from Tribal Indians. Because of the contribution limit
imposed on Recall candidates is $21,200, Cruz figured
out a way to
take that $2 million dollars and deposit it into an
old campaign account
(not subject to the $21,200 limit) and then break it
up into 94 $21,200. individual contributions and deposit
the
money
into his Recall account. See?
I don't think
this level of political corruption prowess has been demonstrated
in this
state since former
Vice-President Albert Gore "accidentally" walked
away with bags of campaign cash after visiting a Buddhist
Temple
in Hacienda
Heights.
But Cruz
is a long-time "friend" of
tribes. He used to keep them company in the bad old
days before they possessed
a monopoly on casino gambling and the buckets of
cash that go with it. So perhaps, in his own mind, that
entitles him to the
millions of dollars the tribes provide to conniving
politicians who never miss an opportunity to do the "right" thing
for California -- which they seem to equate with
furthering their own ambitions.
And
the Indians aren't alone in their selfless generosity
to Cruz. Consider the $700,000 donation he received
from 13,000
of his closest friends who just happen to belong
to a union called: "Professional
Engineers in California Government". These
folks aren't interested in anything but supporting
their
good buddy Cruz
-- their generosity has nothing to do with the
fact that they have
been actively lobbying for generous pay-raises
and adamantly oppose to the state shifting engineering
work to the private-sector.
And Cruz's
interest in the money is as noble as
the motives of those who donate it -- he's just
using
the funds to "even
the political playing field." And as soon
as he is elected, his friends will receive nothing
more than a nice "thank you
card." Th-Th-Th that's all F-F-F-Folks!
Joe Armendariz
is Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Industrial Association
and the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association.
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