CRA Battles to Verge of Extinction

The knives have come out for the fight over the leadership of the California Republican Assembly. In a contest that harkens back to the old MTV Celebrity Death Match, it’s incumbent Celeste Greig vs Karen England.

Celeste Greig started this term as one of ten vice presidents in California. After the CRA president—Ken Mettler—resigned to run for state assembly, she was promoted to replace him. Greig has served most of the two year term. She has been active in the CRA periodically for more than three decades. She has had some exposure on a national stage as a representative of Republican and conservative causes. In the early days of the program, she was a guest several times on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. She is strongly rooted in her views and values.

Karen England has been the president of Capitol Resource Institute (CRI) for many years. I know her best as the person that runs the City on a Hill summer camp for high school kids. England is often the lone voice at the capitol dissenting the crazy anti-family legislation that spews forth from liberals in Sacramento. Karen has served many terms as a vice-president in CRA. Most recently she was the National Committeewoman charged with representing the CRA the at the convention of National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA).

Unfortunately, both candidates have their downside. Neither is an ideal candidate for the leadership of a volunteer grassroots organization that has gone from a paid membership of over 100,000 to one that now is lucky if they have three thousand. Both have some shady folks in their corner that tarnish the reputation of those around them. Heretofore, my biggest complaint is that they don’t respond to email correspondence from CRA members unless there is a potential benefit to them personally.

The rhetoric has been escalating for several weeks but supporters of Celeste Greig are preparing their version of the nuclear option. What they are planning will insure a victory over England but this short-term victory will likely destroy the organization. The reality is that if they follow the rules they would probably win on a straight-up vote, get the reforms that they seek and still beat England. This shortcut will be as divisive as the take-over of Barbara Alby and company in the late 1980’s.

From a look at the bylaws, what is being proposed cannot be done; however, this may not stop Greig and her supporters from trying. While I have promised not to disclose the particulars of the proposed course of action, I strongly argued that the tactics about to be employed are the wrong way to deal with England and her people. Once again, the God fearing folk in the Republican Party are resorting to power politics and not letting Scripture guide their lives.

Reapportionment Rumors

Two rumors have been circulating lately about the process of drawing new lines for California districts for Congress, Senate and Assembly.

First, one consultant on the short list of possible vendors to help the citizen’s commission draw the new lines is directly affiliated with the guy that drew the lines last time Jerry Brown was governor.  This group claims to be non-partisan but they are just a front for Democrats.

Second, the new lines for Sacramento County will include two self contained congressional seats. By self-contained I mean that the districts will likely be wholly within the county. The western district will run from Natomas thru Sacramento to Elk Grove. This will be the new safe seat for Doris Matsui and the other district would be the more competitive home of Dan Lungren.

Let’s see if these two rumors come to pass.

AT&T Ranks last in 4G speeds

The news for AT&T continues to be bad. First, AT&T has the most dropped calls of any U.S. cellular provider and terrible customer satisfaction results from J.D. Powers. Two weeks ago, it was reported that AT&T’s 4G speeds are actually slower than their 3G speeds. And now, AT&T has received yet another honor. Today CNET is reporting that RootMetrics has conducted a survey of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

In the results shown below, Verizon clearly beats all other carriers. This news comes the day after AT&T announced that they have agreed to buy T-Mobile. Ironically, most folks that I know using T-Mobile are refugees that fled from AT&T because of their high prices and lousy service.

AT&T has become to the cellular phone industry what America Online has become to Internet service providers. If the recent data on AT&T won’t persuade you to change carriers then you deserve to wallow in mediocre technology.

Here is a sample of the press AT&T has received recently.

J.D. Power says Verizon tops in call quality
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20039032-266.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

How AT&T Totally Flubbed 4G
“…if you stand in the same place with a “4G” phone and a “3G” phone on the same network, the 3G phone will be faster.”
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381915,00.asp

Study: Verizon fastest among 4G networks
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-20045376-251.html?tag=cnetRiver

CRP Convention

Thanks to Congressman Tom McClintock, the California Republican Party was delivered from the destructive course of action advocated by outgoing chair, Ron Nehring. In the eleventh hour, McClintock lent his name to the proposal by Mike Spence to move to a vote by mail caucus beginning in 2014. While not perfect, the Spence plan will allow a primary election to be conducted via mail and allow any interested registered Republicans to participate. Despite three years to plan for it, the Party decided that they did not have the time to implement the system for the 2012 election cycle and opted for a “do no harm” approach to this series of elections.

Spence’s proposal is a positive development but it opens a series of new questions that should be addressed at the next convention.

My peer group has talked it over and we think that using snail mail for anything is costly and if the CRP had any visionary folks they would get the primary set-up as an online voting system. This would be a perfect opportunity for any aspiring tech company to field test their voting system under actual conditions without the repercussions of screwing-up an election for a government entity. After all California is the home of Silicon Valley and such a system is a logical extension of technology.

In addition, the CRP has no clue how to pay for the primary. In the past this exercise has always been paid for by taxpayers. Now that it will become privately funded we are entering uncharted territory.

The one office not addressed by this proposal is the election of Central Committee members. Should this be the only partisan election still paid by taxpayers? How does this affect McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws? Are Central Committees still needed or are they relics of a bygone era?

Allowing registered voters to continue to participate is good but trusting the CRP to get it right is a slightly more dubious proposition.

Nuclear Power Myths

By far the most pervasive myth of nuclear power is that the reactor goes critical just before it explodes. This is non-sense and has been a constant source of irritation to people knowledgeable about nuclear power. I don’t care how big a budget the movie has, when characters start talking about nuclear power they always get it wrong. The only description I have ever seen in popular culture that got it right was Tom Clancy.

Simply put when a reactor is critical, it is creating enough power to sustain a nuclear reaction.

A nuclear reaction is controlled by several factors including design of fuel and control rods, degree of enrichment of the uranium, medium used for heat transfer. The two things controlled by nuclear plant operators are position of control rods and coolant.

When a reactor is “scrammed” the control rods are rapidly inserted into the reactor. The rods absorb energy that would otherwise go into the fuel and disrupt the chain reaction from continuing. Thus the reactor is shutdown. Gradual raising and lowering of control rods can increase or decrease the temperature of the reactor. Depending on the design, a reactor will operate at a temperature of 450 – 600 degree Fahrenheit.

Coolant is used to transfer heat from the reactor to heater exchangers (often steam generators) and then the cooler fluid is pumped back to the reactor to be heated again. Usually the coolant is very pure water. However, I have been to an early reactor in Idaho that was cooled by liquid sodium. This closed loop then transferred heat to another closed loop of liquid sodium and then via a heat exchanger, created steam to power a generator. Imagine if this was the design in Japan and they had to resort to cooling their reactors with sea water. (If you didn’t know, sodium reacts violently with water.)

In many water cooled plants, the water not only is used to transfer heat but it actually can help control the nuclear reaction. In water cooled, water moderated nuclear power plants, the water’s ability to expand when heated and contract when cooled is used to help the reactor maintain a constant temperature. When the water is heated, the water molecules get further apart and reflect fewer neutrons back into the fuel, when the temperature decreases, the water becomes denser and will reflect more neutrons back into the reactor.

A normally operating reactor is critical and will maintain a rather constant temperature as long as the heater transfer process is constant.

Next time you see a movie featuring a hero that is desperately trying to prevent the reactor from going critical; please remember that you are witnessing a drama where a Hollywood myth is being presented as fact. Reactors are supposed to go critical. That’s what they are designed to do.

Meltdown in Japan

First, I am moved by the destruction and devastation in Japan. My prayers are going out to the folks over there. The loss of life is much greater than the preliminary reports.

In a former life, I worked as a nuclear reactor operator so I think I understand the basics of what is occurring in Japan. Much of what is happening depends on the design of the plant. What is the percentage of enrichment of the fuel? What is the coolant used? (Likely very pure water but nuke plants can run with other types of coolant.) What is the operating temperature and pressure of the plant? What is design and placement of the control rods?

The plants where I worked is in some ways like the typical cooling system in a car. The engine is a heat source, water is pumped thru the engine and is warmed, it passes thru pipes to the radiator and is cooled and then the cooler water returns to the engine to be heated. The whole system is closed with an overflow source to allow for expansion and contraction of the water and this allows for the addition of more water to the system.

If the engine is running, ever just idling, and the water pump breaks, water ceases to circulate in the engine. As it heats—even under pressure—it will turn to steam. In a reactor when this happens the core can become uncovered, the fuel rods will distort and could leak fuel into the reactor. What can happen is an uncontrolled reaction that damages the reactor vessel and/or a steam explosion. The end result is an uncontrolled release of radioactive material.

To prevent such an occurrence, there are emergency generators on the site in case an external source of power is needed to run pumps for cooling during maintenance or emergency. Since the plant is on the coast, a last resort would be salt water. The plant can never be operated again if saltwater is used to cool the reactor compartment.

It appears that this option has been used to cool the reactor. When the water was pumped in and came in contact with the pressure vessel—which contains the nuclear fuel—a brittle fracture resulted, some water flashed to steam and the building which was structurally compromised by the earthquake collapsed. At this point the core is covered and the plant is a multimillion dollar pile of scrap.

Open Letter to CRA Leaders calling for response to the Ron Nehring amendment

CRA has been a leader in California Republican Party politics for over 75 years. One distinctive that has always set CRA apart from other groups is the emphasis on pre-primary endorsements. In the wake of the passage of Prop 14, the pre-primary endorsement is no longer possible. However, I think most in CRA would like to have our local chapters have a voice in deciding who wins in the June election. The Nehring proposal will effectively make the endorsement of any republican candidate not selected by his process illegal.

CRA members who are delegates to the endorsing conventions must literally tow the party line or risk expulsion for four years from any party activity. The CRA no longer has a prohibition on officers also serving on county committees but the inverse is about to be true. The CRA will be muzzled on its choice of candidates or lose its right to participate in the selection process.

Nehring’s proposal implements at top-down leadership style much like he ran in San Diego County as its Central Committee Chair. CRA is a grassroots, bottom-up organization.

Nehring is advocating a “smoke filled room,” behind closed doors event, populated by party insiders and is disenfranchising millions of republican voters by excluding them from the process. Whatever process is adopted, it must include the opportunity for rank and file republicans to have a voice. If regular republicans are told by party bosses who their nominee is then haven’t we crossed the proverbial Rubicon and become the Democrat party. After all that’s how they got Jerry Brown.

Nehring’s proposal has many shortcomings that we still have time to fix but in order to do so we must organize enough to vote this down at the spring convention and work to substitute a better framework for adoption in September. This is the crucial issue of the 2012 election and we need to start acting now.

I think CRA needs to adopt a statement of principles about what would be an acceptable process for endorsement. I suggest the following as a basis for that discussion.
• If the CRP is to establish an official party nominee, all registered republicans should be afforded an opportunity to have input into that system. I don’t think a majority will actually participate but the fact that they could if they chose to will be the difference between the nominee being accepted or ignored. If our voters think they are being dictated to by the party, then I think many will sever their ties to Republican Party. Ronald Reagan had faith in the American people and so should we.
• No incumbent should be given a free pass for endorsement just because he won the last election. We can all name a host of RINOs that deserve to have a challenger from within our own party. Candidates that lose touch with their constituents always move decidedly to the Left.
• The entire process must be open to the public. Transparency and the rule of law will set us apart from the Democrats. When California goes off the cliff, we must show that we are offering something different and better not just more of the same if we hope to gain the trust of the electorate.

The Republican Brand is tarnished and Nehring’s plan will relegate us into obscurity. If it passed, in four short years we will be hearing of the Tea Party versus the Democrats because no one will be a Republican any more.

I implore you to stop the Nehring plan and work to open the process to all republicans.

CRP Says Forget about 1099s

Oops. I just got word that the California Republican Party neglected to send Form 1099s to their campaign workers. The forms were legally required to be sent by January 31st. Their position is it is a matter of conscience whether you wish to report the income. They reported it to the FEC as services rendered. I guess they missed the part about getting a corporate ID number or needing to report the workers paid over $600.

Did they learn nothing from all the BS Meg Whitman went thru with her maid?