3/18/2008 09:00:00 PM|||Sarah Michelle Spinosa|||
They haven't said they disagree with my position on the direction of the Democratic Party. They haven't debated my view on the 42nd Congressional race in which Ed Chau needs to make a statement about the necessity of moderation in order to beat corrupt Republicans in CD-41, 42, & 44, and hopefully reshuffle his staff. They haven't even said that they disagree with any of my other views overall, just my suggestions for action. They tried to make me out to seem like Nicholson in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.' Or was it 'The Shining?' With all of that fire, it's hard to distinguish just one flame.
It seemed to come from so many different directions, and eventually it had me surrounded. There seemed to be no escape, and many thought I was dead, but more like the title character in 'Carrie,' I had discovered a way to rise above the self-important, the hypocrites, the liars, the bigots, and everyone else who stands for more control and corruption in an already much-divided world. That, coupled with the help of a brave fireman who contained the blaze while I escaped, was seemingly enough to make people wake up and realize that only they can prevent blog fires. 'We Didn't Start The Fire' is an overused excuse.
It's not that my ideas are 'crazy.' Quite the opposite. It's the fact that they're not which makes them so controversial to a collection of far left hacks like those at 'The Liberal OC.' Anything that's 'crazy' to the crazies is fine by me! These people treat government control as if they were playing SimCity. "Would cable cars and an artists village help Santa Ana," one asks. The other responds, "I don't know, click on it and find out." It's time for a reset. They need to press cntrl-alt-delete.
I suspect that the far right will have problems with my ideology as well, and if indeed that is the case, then I have truly made the right enemies. They are largely an intolerant bunch, and I don't really need them either.
Remember, a majority of people in this country consider themselves moderate whether or not the hacks of either party want to admit it. Independents have only survived this war between the parties by their instinctual and incorrect assumption that choosing the lesser of evils is the same thing as really having a voice in their government.
Oh, but some voices are louder than others, some are more eloquent, and some are drowned out by the hum of a well-organized machine, or even two. In the case of politics, the desire to 'fit in' is almost cult-like.
My thoughts on the need for more ideas about government from outside of the ever-skewing party lines were vindicated as legitimate again today by Robert Wright of the L.A. Times, and for many more independent voters than I can reach blogging.
When catering to their party's base, each candidate stretches themselves as far left or right as they're able to get, and then inevitably comes back to center and asks us to forget their prior transgressions because they 'had' to commit them for the primary. I've been asking my whole life why the media perpetually deciphers this behavior as 'necessary,' and then gives each candidate a free pass onto the 'spin round' known as the general election.
That being said, I was hoping that some people not usually involved with the blogosphere would weigh in on my posts about putting progress over politics. I'd like to see if the general public agrees with my majority ideology or your partisan gridlock Chris, Aaruni, Rebecca, and Gila. Unfortunately, with anonymous posting I guess there's no real way of knowing short of a poll... and I'm actually giving that option some thought.
SMSLabels: aaruni, ed chau, liberal O.C., moderate, partisan, strategy
|||5362549582059333918|||Yes, 'Liberal OC.' I'm all alone in my opinion.3/15/2008 04:00:00 PM|||Sarah Michelle Spinosa|||How much control does the Democratic Party have over the races in OC? A lot more than you think. Art may have invited me onto his blog because of my unique perspective, but beyond that in regards to this story, I was an adviser to one of the candidates, so I have a rather unique story to tell indeed. 'Cajun style.'
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.
SMSLabels: 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.'
FINALLY! After what may have been the longest development phase of a website the world has ever known, Ed Chau, candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress in District 42, has unleashed said website for public viewing.
I can't (thankfully) take credit for the blue-blood or establishment parts (all Ken), but I can take credit for Chau's strategy to hold himself to look like the front-runner before the race really even begins. That's right, it was my idea. Ed's opponent Ron Shepston has no political experience, although he is a veteran and an activist which gives him some credibility points. However, in making my suggestion to campaign in this manner I gave Chau more brownie points for not only having been an elected official, but also for a lifetime of volunteerism and his inspiring backstory.