Meet the Ugly Face of Gaylord Entertainment

I came across this blog over the weekend and thought I would share a rather interesting post. It provides some much needed background regarding one of the figures during the recent Gaylord Entertainment brouhaha that occurred in Chula Vista this summer. The individual in question is Eric Christen who is the “Vice President of Government Affairs for the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of San Diego,” but is nothing more than an “an attack dog-for-hire.” [Link]

Apparently, Mr Christen has some very extreme views that he likes to espouse. Such as that he believes human caused Global Warming is an hoax perpetrated by the “Left” to gain more power and that environmentalists are more dangerous that Islamic Terrorists.[Link]

Besides his extreme views, Mr. Christen also has a bit of an assorted past:

He likes to pose as a regular guy who knows what’s best for the people of Chula Vista, but he comes to us from Oregon, via Colorado. The people back in those states know what a hot-headed fringe character he really is.

When he ran in 1996 for the Oregon state legislature as a far-right candidate against a moderate Republican, Christen railed against “the increase in violent, senseless acts of crime.” But Christen failed to inform voters that he was, in fact, a convicted criminal. He was found guilty of criminal mischief after terrorizing a 17-year-old boy and attacking the teenager’s car in the previous year.

In Colorado Springs — where he got himself elected to the school board after running a pro-voucher, anti-public education campaign — Christen quickly created havoc, threatening mass firings of school district employees and verbally abusing fellow board members. “It’s been a long while since I’ve been around a public official who’s as rude as Eric Christen,” said the president of the local PTA.

In addition to alienating fellow school board members and school employees, Christen enraged the African-American community when he claimed that most black students who manage to graduate from high school will be functionally illiterate.” He also got in hot water with the Latino community when he insulted the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. In another school board meeting incident, he joked that several students who had gotten a rash were on crystal meth. I’m guessing it wasn’t too tough to gather the 16,443 signatures supporting his recall. [Link]

Considering Mr. Christen’s questionable past, not to mention his personal extreme views, you have to ask the question; “Why does the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) have someone like him representing them?”

You can pry my gun, out of my cold dead hand!

This morning the UT reports that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation yesterday requiring all “new models of semiautomatic handguns sold in California be able to stamp identifying serial numbers on shell casings.” [Link]

In signing the legislation, the governor stated: “While I appreciate and understand that this technology is not without limitations, I am signing this bill to provide law enforcement with an additional tool for solving crimes, I encourage all stakeholders to work on improving this technology.” [Link]

The law puts California back into the forefront for gun control legislation. Of course the crazy gun totting wingnuts, who believe that every person has the right to own a bazooka were quick to react to the governor’s actions.

Sam Paredes of the Gun Owners of California said Schwarzenegger may have become “the most anti-gun governor in California history.” and he noted that Schwarzenegger, a Republican, approved a ban on .50-caliber rifles three years ago. [Link] I suspect that Arnold and Maria shouldn’t expect any Xmas cards from Chuck Heston after this.