Our former blogger, Sean Mill, whom I unceremoniously dumped from this blog after he became a Miguel Pulido hack, broke the terms of a truce that we had arranged with the folks at the Liberal OC today when he ripped into me, and Sarah Spinosa.Mill took umbrage with my weekend post about SAPD Chief Paul Walters. Rather than debate the points I raised, which are that Walters appears to be in awful financial shape and as such he could be susceptible to the same kind of shenanigans that former O.C. Sheriff Mike Carona was involved in, Mill went after me personally, opining that I have "long left decency out of blogging."
Gustavo Arellano, of the O.C. Weekly, disagreed with Mill's comments about the Walters post: "Sean: I have to disagree with you on Art’s post regarding Walters. When it comes to our elected officials, I consider information like divorce settlements and failure to pay child support crucial to understanding the person behind it, a person desiring to represent thousands, if not millions, of constituents. I haven’t read Walters’ settlement, but I’m sure he can explain it–and who knows? Maybe he’ll turn out in a positive light if the woman he divorced was evil."
It is funny to read Mill's comments, knowing him as I do. I will have to take the time to put tags on all his old stories here at the Orange Juice. No one in the O.C. blogosphere is less decent than Mill, who sold out whatever conviction he had for a paltry commission appointment.
That aside, it is hilarious to see Mill screaming about privacy when HE took part in OUTING an anonymous blogger on his website, an act that very clearly WAS an invasion of privacy. In fact Mill joined with fellow Liberal OC blogger Chris Prevatt in that outrageous attack. Simply because they disagreed with a reader, they exposed the reader's name, even though he was using an anonymous moniker. And they exposed the name of his business.
Take a look at the picture atop this post. That is what happened to the anon commenter's business after he was outed by Mill and Prevatt. And there is more. His business has been repeatedly vandalized since he was outed on Liberal OC.
The fellow who was outed was a contributor to the No on Measure D campaign. I have heard from my sources at city hall that Mill's allies, Council Members Sal Tinajero and Claudia Alvarez, wanted to punish this man for standing against Measure D, which is going to give Alvarez the chance to stay on the City Council for four more years. It is certainly conceivable that Mill went after this commenter after being told to do so. I wonder if Mill also knows who is vandalizing this man's business?
Mill is a fine one to talk about privacy. Believe me, he doesn't give a damn about privacy. His overarching goal is to hack away for his crooked political allies. Consider how he filleted a private citizen over an indictment that was settled long ago. That fellow went after Mill's buddy, Councilman Sal Tinajero, in his 2006 Council race. So Mill went after him. That's how Mill rolls. He rarely has anything substantive to say about anything. He just likes to use his posts to go after political enemies. Make no mistake about it, I am now on top of Mill's enemies list.
By the way, Mill is also a hypocrite when it comes to GLBT issues. He called me recently and spent at least five minutes ripping into one of my bloggers because of her gender. It was awful. I have never heard anything so inflammatory, even from Republicans. But Mill has the gall to call himself a liberal. Yeah right. I know better.
As for this issue of Commie Girl being slandered by Spinosa, the fact is that I and several friends of mine saw her, rather late at night, alone with former State Senator Joe Dunn, over at McCormick and Schmicks, at the City Place in north Santa Ana. We were several tables away, so we could not hear what they were talking about, but Commie Girl looked rather enthused by the whole thing. Were they up to any hanky panky? I don't think so. But it was an odd sighting.
Did Spinosa cross any lines by mentioning that Dunn and Commie Girl were out and about? No, I don't think so. Ironically one of the Liberal OC bloggers tried to say that Commie Girl's reputation was somehow hurt by all this. That's funny. I have tried to read a few of her columns over the years. They never made much sense to me. It seemed like she enjoyed drinking and carousing with politicians. What sort of reputation is that? I don't know how Spinosa could tarnish what is already fairly well tarnished. Who cares anyway? Commie Girl no longer reports on the O.C. The last I heard she works on La Cienega at some L.A. free paper. Sounds like old news to me.
Labels: commie girl, liberal O.C., Paul Walters, santa ana, sean mill
|||3231132861322131156|||Sean Mill worried about privacy? What a joke!
Today on the 'DPOC.com blog' Sean Mill attacked our fair blog for its occasionally sensational journalistic style. Despite the fact that I personally approve all comments of a non-personal, non-threatening nature that do not use profanity, and even go as far as editing out curse words in some comments in order to post them anyway, even when I do not agree, I am still banned from 'The LBC.' My rejected comment to that cavalcade of extremism was:
All this hate against me this weekend because I used one ill-chosen word and then later apologized and retracted. Wow. Isn't that how I got chased off this blog? Some things never change.
And we're just doing our jobs. Just because we're more into investigative journalism than the 'yellow politics' of hackdom that seems to go on here at the DPOC blog, doesn't mean you can attack us personally. Every time we have a political opinion you guys don't like you come after us as people and then attack us even harder when we are unable to reconcile with you because you'd rather fight it out in the trenches than debate legitimate, political points. What are you so afraid of?
If it's supposedly so obvious that I'm 'unconnected' and 'unglued' and don't know what I'm talking about, why would you intentionally violate the truce or threaten to sue just to point it out? My guess is that the truce no longer serves the purpose of keeping your political skeletons in their closets. We didn't go after you, we went after your elected darlings. Remember to try to include protection for them as well the next time you propose a truce, or else blame your own damn self.
As usual, you and your fellow blind Dem followers have no defense, only offense. And again, you attempt to 'challenge the right wing noise machine' by not only trying to fight fire with fire, but labeling anyone who disagrees with you as right-wing and therefore fair game. I'm a registered Democrat dummy!
You can't argue the merits, so you once again stoop to personal attacks in order to discredit Art and myself for no other reason than to provide political cover for your cronies, this time Joe Dunn (who doesn't even need cover since no negative allegations have been made), Chief Walters, and Commie Girl, my battle with the last admittedly getting far too personal for either of us and probably close to an end.
Also check out how the first comment comes from none other than Paul Lucas. Wow Paul. You either can't shut your mouth to save your life, or you worked everything out with the old crew. Once again, Democratic hypocrisy (and conspiracy?) rears its ugly head when Paul accuses us of electronic bullying after what his favorite blog and his 'girlfriend' attempted to do to me.
Oh, and Sean accusing me of 'slander' on his blog as opposed to those who accused me of 'libel' on this one is priceless. I understand the legal difference Sean. It was big of you to admit that there was no cause for litigation. I really appreciate that, even if it came at so late a point.
Here's the icing on the cake:
In the case of Pedroza and others at the Orange Juice I must ask these questions: Is nothing out of bounds? Is there no level to which one should not stoop to try and make political points? Have you no decency? Have you no shame?
In psychology, psychological projection (or projection bias) is a defense mechanism in which one attributes one’s own unacceptable or unwanted thoughts or/and emotions to others. Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted subconscious impulses/desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them. The theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and further refined by his daughter Anna Freud, and for this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "Freudian Projection"
-Wikipedia
SMS
Labels: Art Pedroza, blog war, commie girl, Liberal OC, sarah michelle spinosa, sean mill
|||7258154949387850725|||Have You No Perspective?
Paul Lucas and 'Commie Girl' have got to be two of the most thin-skinned public figures I've ever met! I think I've taken more abuse than anyone in the blogosphere in recent memory and I only complain when it serves a purpose, like right now. I'm not even running for office or working for a print news outlet. I'm going to pass on commenting about Paul because I've devoted an entire article to him (and he's called me at home too when I wrote something he didn't like thanks to Aaruni 'But I Didn't Give Him Your Cell Number' Thakur), but...I don't think I've ever heard Rebecca say anything nice about anyone; not in public, not in print. Bands and directors and such maybe, but very rarely does she praise any individuals.
She's always been able to dish it, but she could never take it, and it's so much fun to watch her
squirm when it comes back to her threefold! Art I wish I was there at Drinking Liberally with you because I don't think she'd dare talk to you disrespectfully with me standing right there. My apologies for her misplaced anger and the fact that I couldn't be there (I have my son on Thursdays now), but how did you expect she'd behave? She's been losing the war of words with me since day one. Does she even know who my source was regarding her getting friendly with Joe Dunn?Commie Girl, how could you go after Art because of something I wrote? Oh, that's right, all you far-lefties are doing everything in your power to avoid clicking on my posts like some kind of electronic warfare. That's OK though. We've been discussing solutions to that problem, too. All in due time, you overrated b*tch. All in due time.
Really, it's OK, because everyone knows Steve took over Citybeat just to get you a job, as evidenced by the fact that he was only there for four whole days, so you can take your artsy, fartsy, (and free) little L.A. rag that nobody reads and shove it.
Knock, knock. I think I hear obscurity calling... for both Paul and Rebecca.
SMS
Update: I just received a threatening, libelous comment demanding that I lay off Paul and Rebecca. This morning, Art received an anonymous email threatening a lawsuit. I may have had some shady friends in the past, but I have hardly done anything illegal, nor has Art. I'm not afraid of you. In fact, you're afraid of me because you know damn well there's no way to smear me without coming out as a hypocritical bigot, which, because of your own snobbery and big mouth, is your problem.
'Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.' If I find any, I repeat, any, content about me, anywhere, that is libelous, I reserve the right to sue, and you will find much more negative publicity than you are getting on this blog.
Labels: aaruni thakur, commie girl, joe dunn, l.a. citybeat, Paul Lucas
|||7211579687465813660|||Paul And Rebecca - A Democratic(??) Love Story
Rolllng, rolling, rolling on nothing but propaganda.One of the regrettable side-effects of being independent is that, well, you're usually alone. Unfortunately for me, that means calling out people that I like personally and I don't like to do that, but in the end I do what I must.
Andrew Davey is a real sweetheart as everyone knows, but he, like Dan C, is currently having a Big-Hack attack for Hillary. A while back, I may have even joined them. I have praised her many times and defended her in the past when I thought she deserved it, but I don't play that game. I'm about fairness. If my candidate screws up, I'm going to admit it.
That doesn't mean that I won't still be voting for her again since the other candidates seem to lack a vision for our future, but I also have no plans to contribute money or join her campaign. Ok, you caught me, maybe I'll get a bumper sticker, but that's about the most I can do when I've been presented with two very lame options and one that's merely questionable. So much for being the most exciting race of our lifetimes.
There is a second strike against Andrew: his post of a letter to all CYD by the San Francisco and Sonoma chapters begging for solidarity in making sure the 'endorsed' candidate in SD-3 receives his 'prize':
So you kids want to herd your own members like sheep, but you accuse Senator Migden of attempting to control the CYD? This release states that Migden has in this way "undermine(d) the legitimacy of... all Young Democrats." News flash Andrew, the YDA embarrasses itself perpetually simply by being the kindergarten of Democratic politics with announcements like this. It essentially says that a majority should not rule. Tsk, tsk.Mark Leno has received our endorsements because he has been a champion of Young Democrats for years, including a major effort to make the 2005 YDA by the Bay National Convention a reality, and earning CYDs 2006 Mentor of the Year Award. He has consistently reached out to Young Democrats and has been there for us any time that we have called on him.
In contrast, Senator Migden and her campaign have used their connections to implicitly threaten the jobs of numerous Young Democrats who supported Mark Leno. She and her staff have spoken ill of Young Democrats to numerous elected officials and other politically-involved people, including members of our own clubs. Rather than take the high road and accept the decisions of our clubs to endorse her opponent, she has instead gone out of her way to undermine the legitimacy of our organizations and, by extension, all Young Democrats.
Like fashion shows to clothing and concept cars to the auto industry, the YDA are the experimental wing of the Democratic Party. They are nothing more than a collection of young idealists being used by the party big-wigs for wacko socialist ideas to be later refined into more mainstream policy. They often don't even receive credit where it's due. Their energy is also harnessed by campaigns for their so-called 'grunt work' (read: grassroots). Their members are zombies content to do the overlord's bidding. This year, that's overlord Dean to you!
They're essentially a PAC and PACs have agendas. So do blogs. 'Two great tastes that go great together.' Liberal OC should really just change it's name to Ocydblog.com for some truth in advertising because 'truthiness' isn't going to cut it as long as the OJ is around!
SMS
PS: In the 'Big-Hack attack' story, check out the comments in which Sean Mill goes after my arch enemy 'Commie Girl' Rebecca. Classic stuff! I'm pretty sure he hates my guts and yet his comments eerily reflect mine from about a month ago! Sa-weet!
On The Centrist OC: Democrats MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)... and Sinbad?
Labels: andrew davey, carole migden, commie girl, cyd, leno, liberal O.C., ocyd's, sarah michelle spinosa, sean mill, yda
|||2936143537297869897|||Hack wheel keep on turnin', Liberal OC keep on burning!The story starts like this: In mid-February I got a phone call from Aaruni Thakur, a very popular OCYD member, who told me he had a position for me as 'Communications Director.' Over a week later (so much for urgency) I finally met him at a Fullerton coffee house where he told me that I would be making phone calls and that I should get familiar with Pepvan, the Democratic Party's online voter database. He said he needed help because he didn't have time for the job and that it would "look good on (my) resume.' I got the impression that his heart just wasn't into it. He also claimed to have others making calls, but it turns out that wasn't true. I immediately suspected that my title was honorary.
Two days later I had a meeting with the candidate Ed Chau (pictured at left). Ed was a lot taller and thinner than I expected him to be and the first thing I remember thinking was how much physically bigger Ron Shepston (pictured below) would look next to him, but he was very polite, intelligent and candid. I appreciated that about him and immediately realized that those traits would help him draw a positive contrast between he and Ron.We talked issues. We talked strategy. While Aaruni spent 40 minutes with me, eyeballing the exit the entire time, Ed sat and listened and was excited to hear that I thought he could get elected with a moderate platform, a well-planned effort, and good people. I thought we had already achieved so much in that meeting, and apparently, he agreed enough to not waste any time with his offer to hire me as the campaign manager. Out of respect, I officially suggested Aaruni for the job instead. Apparently, there is less mutual respect right now within the Democratic Party than I had anticipated, and this is the last time I fall for one of their passive-aggressive shenanigans.
Within the next few days I got a call from Ed's D.C. consultant, Ken Christensen (Jerry's McNerny's 2006 fundraiser and union liaison). We immediately had a disagreement on both my role in the campaign and the direction we wanted to take. I pointed out that Ed, Aaruni, and I, were all on board with my strategy. It was right after this that 'Mr. Professional' over there threatened to quit because I pointed out that Jerry McNerny was his only real success story and that the other campaigns he's worked for were either losers or Clintons, who as we all know practically breathe money. The power struggle had begun already and it was so ugly that Ken and Aaruni started to ignore me unless they were pressuring me to do their grunt work. I had been betrayed by someone I once called a friend, but not anymore.For the record, I wish I had left earlier. I was quickly given assignments from both Aaruni and Ken. The Communications Director, who is usually regarded as a top political adviser by candidates, had been reduced to doing nothing but secretarial work, database building, and making phone calls. I was not provided with help. I was not provided with supplies until 2 days before I quit. I did not charge the campaign for any of my services, which included setting up the MySpace page which looked and read better than his actual site at the time, doing the aforementioned secretarial work, looking for stories for Ed to comment on, even calling 'The Daily Show' to try to book him, and of course, I was commenting on blogs. This is where it gets interesting.
A comment I made on 'The Liberal OC' disclosed that I am lesbian & a Democrat and opposed to gay marriage. My reasoning is that separation of church and state should protect marriage as being between a man and a woman since it's up to religion to define it, not the government (which is why DOMA was a mistake - the legislature should have taken a complete pass on the issue), and they should remove the word and concept of 'marriage' entirely from all legal ceremonies intended to unite two people. All partnerships hetero and homo should be considered 'civil unions' with completely equal rights being guaranteed to all. This system also respects the church's right to decide for themselves who may have their spiritual sacrament.
I really don't think this is a very extreme position, so Gila, chair of the South OC party, instead attacked my use of an improper qualifier when I attempted to speak for other gay people whom I know personally. I said, "We LGBT folk,' as opposed to 'many LGBT folk," when describing our movement's propensity for being anti-establishment, as we should be considering that society has been so anti-gay. It's a sad fact of life.
She and I began what could have been a very respectful debate, but instead she outed me as a top-level adviser of Ed Chau even though I had only said previously that I 'worked' for him. After unfairly suggesting that my comments, which were informally signed with my initials, represented my candidate, Aaruni began to complain that I'd dared to disagree with her in the first place - or Rebecca (Commie Girl - pictured at left) for that matter. I can even quote Aaruni as saying "who's Rebecca? Is she anyone anymore?'Wow! What an about face from my former friend! He also made it clear that Gila was not happy about Ed being in the race, a charge he will now surely deny. I made it clear that indeed it looked that way as she attempted to isolate me from the blog world for Ron Shepston's advantage.
And that was it. When I resigned it was off to the races against me, and before I knew it, there were about a dozen people attacking me, even as they were agreeing with me and admitting it, instead taking issue with my writing style. Have you ever had the feeling that you were being set up? They would have done ANYTHING to get rid of me. There was word twisting, things I said intentionally mis-attributed to the wrong people, and now Chris Prevatt has banned me from "The Liberal OC."
Rebecca, formerly writer of the infamous 'Commie-Girl' column in OC Weekly, a known far-lefty, took the argument to a nasty new level, making it very personal because my entry into the blog world is a threat to her self-perceived power.
On that note, it should be known that Rebecca, having no argument in her own defense, recently sent me an email that attacks me for my sexuality. Let me say that again. COMMIE GIRL IS A BIGOT! I know she spends a lot of time in the LGBT community, yet I wasn't surprised when she took the easy shot in the privacy of email. I know she wouldn't dare make these comments on a public board and it was so incredibly awesome that I caught her hypocrisy that I didn't even feel the need to respond. I'm perfectly happy being me, thank you.
Even yesterday Andrew Davey posted a threat to me that I would be banned if I continued my "sh*tstorm." By the time I finished my obvious reply noting that I was being ganged-up on, his comment had disappeared and I was put on moderation. Interesting. Censoring me after using your own scandal four times to increase your own readership?! You're a sad little tool Chris.
The truth can hurt you or set you free. It's always up to you. You and Gila are both busted. It's time you admit it to everyone that you're guilty of manipulation. As for Commie Girl, she's just jealous about a moderate stealing her voice, which is great because it keeps me famous!
Fast forward to the present. Today I saw an article about the race on Chris's blog buried at number three, with no comments, zero. I thought that was odd under the circumstances, so I made the following comment, which went into moderation status and then was rejected:
"We all know Gary Miller (pictured at left) is dirty. Sorry, but to say that he is in trouble (again) is incorrect. This post cites an L.A. Times article from 2006. That was last election cycle.Ron coming out against this is easy political grandstanding. He doesn’t tell us much about himself or his stances on issues, he just rehashes what we’ve already known. Sorry, but you guys are about two years too late to that party.
SMS"
Because, yeah, I'm not a threat to the far left. I'm just crazy. Or wait. Is it Aaruni that's crazy? On the phone today when I mentioned the article to him, I told him that I knew Ron's name would be in the blogs as soon as I was banned from 'The Liberal OC (Censored Version).' He replied that he was in the middle of getting a union endorsement, when he wasn't swearing at me that is. I told him "good luck with that in the general!"
He even accused me of conspiring with Art the entire time. I don't think I've talked to Art in about a year, so now who's crazy and paranoid? Just admit it. I called it. It's that simple. This is what I do. I warned you that every candidate who has ever declined to take my advice has lost. Ahh. Never mind, I could care less about your opinion anyway. Yes, you have a degree and I don't, but with you being wrong again, that just makes it that much more embarrassing for you doesn't it?
Welcome to the post-partisan world. Do you so-called Democrats really find it that threatening? I guess if people worked for the common good instead of attacking each other there would be more progress, less to fight over, and you'd all be out of a job! Actually, I guess I can see why you're upset after all.
SMS
Labels: 42nd CD, chris prevatt, commie girl, congress, ed chau, gila, liberal O.C., ron shepston, south oc
|||955642588291022917|||The 42nd CD presents: 'True Washington Story.'