Wow. From Tony Bushala, writing on FFFF:
Dear Friends,
Friends For Fullerton’s Future was born on November 6, 2008, and this will be our farewell post. We will be setting the blog a sail for now, into the deepest oceans of the blogosphere. It will remaining online as a testament to what we stood for and didn’t stand for, to our principles or lack thereof, and to those principles which were worthy enough for a fight of our time, our knowledge and of our lives.
This farewell post is dedicated to my Friend and Hero Zach Reed who was born October 17, 1992. His mother Stacy and stepfather Dave Miranda loved Zach just as his twin 15 year old sisters Daily and Brooke and his older brother Cody did. Zach was a Troy High School Warrior just like me, but Zach was much braver and courageous than I. Zach was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma (bone cancer) at 18 and fought every day and night for peace and happiness for the last 3 years of his life.
…
The last time I saw Zach was after the November election results were certified. We were sitting in my truck eating Taco Bell. Zach turned to me and asked why I looked sad. While explaining to him about the election results, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “Tony, you tried your best, you fought hard, maybe it’s time to move on”.
Friends, Zach was right…maybe it is time to move on. …
Didn’t see this coming. There’s more, and it’s an especially well-written and even touching valedictory essay, a tribute to Tony’s friend Zach. Give them their hits. Comments there are closed, so our doors for commentary are open. We’ll try to keep it as “free-fire” a zone in this one as possible. I’m sure that Vern will have his own remembrance soon.
About Greg Diamond
Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that.
Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too.
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)
His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)
Wow, indeed.
Rock on Tony and anonymous blogger brethren. Rock on.
I never got to correct the record as to the final swipe against me: I’m 53, not 55, and not entirely broke. When I saw that I couldn’t comment, I thought that I’d been banned.
Rock on Tony, anyway. I’d be a little selective about which anonymous blogger brethren I’d say that to. Vern will say this with more feeling, as well as with better reception, but Tony is of course welcome to post here as he wishes, even though this is a very different environment. The same, I’d think Vern would say, for other posters from there. (Some editorial discretion possible, but I’m not the final word on that.)
Tony and the others are community hero’s.
They took thier cause to the streets and regardless of whether or not you agree with them or their tactics, they did it. Did it better than anyone.
Kinda makes you wanna take a bong rip and roll out some CSN Southern Cross!
Oops. You know who i am!
Surprising. I noticed that him and Chris Thompson and Kiger all went silent very quickly. Based on this announcement I guess they really did realize they were in way over their heads and are basically admitting that now. Riding on Kelly’s back was a clear tactic they utilized and it worked while it lasted, short term.
I thought Bushala’s going away post was nice. From his heart. Made me think a little better of him, even though I never agreed with any of his tactics or ways he tried to buy that City. I’m just glad residents realized it before it was too late. He was able to buy some good changes that will make the City better. I think he realized a few things way too late though. Quirk Silva bushwacked him big time. He missed taking her out and ruining her career. All she said was socks for the homeless and they ignored her completely. He missed the boat completely with Kiger. That stooge had no business in public office and made that clear after one meeting. He thought he could run his own show without listening to the people. He got kicked out quickly and he will never be back. Best thing Fullerton did.
Bushala and his blog are better off behind the scenes. The blog died completely in the last 6 months or more, and it’s just the same 10 posters in there now. Not sure if they blocked all opposite or opposing views or what they did, but the blog died big time. I think most of the people posting are Kiger and the crew using different names as well.
Good luck Tony. As you said, you tried. Worked for a bit riding someone’s back, but that can only last so long. Farewell.
This is a perfect example of why I don’t mourn the death of FFFF.
Make accusations first without investigating, resulting in harm to innocent people, never issuing retractions when the accusations were proven wrong.
http://www.ocweekly.com/2013-02-28/news/slidebar-rock-n-roll-kitchen-fullerton-kelly-thomas-jeremy-popoff-michael-reeves/
If someone was to actually investigate and research all of the posts made on that blog, they would find that almost all of them don’t use facts and rely on personal opinions for almost everything. If I was to call Bushala and tell him that something was true, he would post it as if it’s true without even verifying. It was only a matter of time before someone sued him and his blog. The time came and now FFFF and Bushala are in the wind.
Oh that’s interesting, since the FFFF story about the lawsuit questioned whether any of it was true from the very beginning.
http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/2012/slidebar-slides-into-litigation/
Snap. Tony is smart to leave up all his stuff, he gets slandered more than anyone else.
I have been in touch with Tony and understood that his focus was heading in a new direction, but I did not expect the blog to go down. Wow. He and I had our share of bickering over the blog, especially when it got into things like photoshopping cockroach antennae on politicians heads, etc. (OK exception, the Harry Sidhu as assclown photo is one of the funniest things on the internet, although i am ashamed of myself for thinking it.)
Love him or hate him there is no denying Tony Bushala changed the face of Orange County’s political environment and taught all of us how incredibly powerful the internet can be.
We actually started out hating each other. He had posted some nasty things about me when I first started at Red County, ripping on me for backing Tom Daly on a conservative blog. (I still like the guy, so what?) anyway, he was less than nice about it, as only Tony can be, and had me hating his guts for a while. Then the FFFF started putting out the signs against Sidhu and Galloway during the Supe’s primary, and I ordered one, not realizing it was Tony in charge. He and Travis Kiger showed up at my house to deliver them, in person, on a Saturday morning. I opened the door wearing flannel jammies, covered in Scooby Doo graphics. Hands down one of the worst moments in my history. It is impossible to be a ball busting bitch to your adversaries while sporting flannel Scooby Doo jams. You just can’t. So i didn’t. I ended up giving them a tour of the house and gardens, (Edwardian wreck of a Money Pit) and our mutual love of historic preservation opened a door to what has become one of the most treasured friendships in my life. Richard and I would both donate vital organs to the guy. Instead we settle for dinners, when we can get him to slow down enough to eat. God bless Tony Bushala, we need so many more people with that level of passion. For all the accusations of him trying to “buy” the city, he truly does what he does because he believes it to be the right thing to do and expects no monetary gain from it. I know few believe it, but i do, which is why he is one of the few people i would defend with my dying breath. He may be shifting direction but Tony Bushala is not going away for long, he is incapable of it. And for that I am very grateful.
Thank you for everything, sir.
…and understood that his focus was heading in a new direction…
New direction? Please, do tell.
Well said. Thanks for sharing that story. I love the guy too. Beautiful.
“New direction? Please, do tell”………. Hmmmmmm
Assuming that the old heading was 0 the new direction will be 33.
If a blog success is measured in hits, then I guess it was more successful than most.
If you measure success by changing minds, it was a looser.
Hurting a lot of people, winner.
Seriously, how many minds are you going to change by saying Nelson Fist F**ked Jan Flory? A real winner.
Exactly. Bushala and his cronies were very childish and never verified anything. Most was made up. Lost credibility quickly. Just like Kiger and Thompson and eventually Bushala.
Well the GED brigade found this place quickly. Not bad, for you.
I wonder if it was a case of “burn out”. I hope that Tony wasn’t receiving threats because of his blog. I would like to see it back for the 2014 election cycle, perhaps with some modifications.
Maybe Tony decided to do something different with his life after losing his friend to cancer. Cancer has a way of putting things into perspective, even for those playing a supportive role. Life is short and there really isn’t time for bullshit. We may not all have the same things in life, like money but we all get the same amount of time each day (24 hours) but none of us know when our own time will run out.
Perhaps this decision to fade away means that there has been a realization that Fullerton is not the center of the universe? Best of luck Tony. Just don’t let the “oppportunities” of politics go to your head.
I never saw advertising on the blog. I wonder how much it cost to operate the blog, given the number of hits.
Doesn’t cost any extra to operate a blog on account of number of hits.
Our blog generally just costs me $50 a month. I make a tiny profit on ads. Travis ran Tony’s blog (and this one as well) as a labor of love.
Time to move to another city mr. B……