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“I’m not standing here. I’m not holding this. YOU LIE!!!”
Last night in a statement to the Viet media (why do these guys always think we’ll never hear what they say in the Viet media?) lame duck Assemblyman and Congressional wanna-be Van Tran called the Orange Juice Blog “a left-wing website … that spreads false rumors about Republican Vietnamese elected officials.”
Well, though we may or may not regret a few intemperate word choices we’ve used on Mr. Tran in the past (e.g., “Herod-like douchebag,” “Dodo Bird,” “The Oil Spill Known As Van Tran“) a few thoughts immediately spring to mind:
- Our blog’s leftwing slant will come as devastating news to our rightwing/Republican contributors Larry Gilbert, Terry Crowley, Sgt York, the Fullerton Fringer crowd including Tony and Travis, OverButNotOut, Rogue Elephant, Irvine Reporter, Martha Montelongo, and the Winships; not to mention firebrands Art and Sean who spend as much time attacking Democrats as Republicans.
- This photo is not a lie or a false rumor or otherwise faked. Either Van is proudly displaying a request to punish his primary opponent, racist foe of democracy Tan Nguyen (which would actually be the coolest thing Van has ever done) or he has no idea WHAT he’s holding, in which case he’s VERY lucky nobody handed him a Commie flag or child porn.
- We await eagerly this list of lies or false rumors we’ve spread about any GOP Viet pols – even just one or two! – so we can retract them if they’re indeed false.
- Since we seem to have Van’s attention, THIS isn’t a lie: When one of your closest friends, admirers and acolytes, Joe Dovinh, was pressed to come up with anything you’ve accomplished during your eight years in the Assembly, the only thing he could think of was a bill to relax health standards on Vietnamese New Year Pastries (so they can be sold when they’re no longer safe to eat.) Is that about it, Assemblyman? Have you done anything else?
- This blog has been a staunch supporter of independent, honest Viet GOP candidates Hugh Nguyen and Quang Pham, who have resisted becoming members of the competing insular, corrupt, racist cabals of Van Tran and Janet Nguyen. (Several years ago we supported Janet when she seemed like a fresh-faced alternative to the Trannies, but as her own corruption, racism, self-dealing and ineptness grew more apparent we’ve become outspoken critics of her too.)
- Tran’s whine, on Vietnamese media, that we pick on Vietnamese candidates, is not only demonstrably untrue, it’s also more of the pathetic, unseemly, and divisive victimology that I would have hoped we’d all outgrown by now.
- I lay this new discouraging phenomenon at the feet of Van and Janet: I’ve now heard from THREE young Viet voters – which makes a pattern – that they will never vote for Vietnamese candidates because in their experience they’re all corrupt showboating liars. That would be commenters Lam Pho and Nuoc Mam, and my good friend anti-war activist Thu-Trang. We have an uphill struggle convincing disillusioned young Viets that candidates like Hugh, Quang, and the great progressive hope Phu Nguyen, will be any different. Thank you Van! Heck of a job, Janet!
Until we hear back from Mr. Tran on the subject of our false rumors and his accomplishments, we’ll be forced to conclude that he is, indeed, both a Dodo Bird and an Oil Spill, as well as, yes, sadly, a Herod-like douchebag.
Vern…thank you for this post, and exposing what appears to be divisive and dismissive pandering by Assemblyman Van Tran.
I think we would all be laughing WITH Assemblyman Van Tran and NOT at him, if he had admitted that he did this in jest…but to try to spin it into something other than what it is, and to mis-characterize it, shows a certain Flip-Flop…First he was for Posing for it…and then he wasn’t.
Or alternatively, he should have stood firm in the principle that he believed that the actions of candidate Tan Nguyen were at a minimum reprehensible attempts of intimidation, and possibly illegal acts directed against Americans of Latino/Hispanic/Mexican descent, and an affront to all law abiding citizens!
I also concur in your sentiment that “This blog has been a staunch supporter of independent, honest Viet GOP candidates Hugh Nguyen and Quang Pham”…
and I would go a step further…please see the link to my positive comments about former candidate Quang Pham, back in March 6 at a Merced Sun Star article on “Q”.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2010/03/06/1339097_p2/mike-tharp-quang-pham-is-a-loss.html
I include the text of what I wrote to the editor in Merced County (6 hours north from here):
“Dear Mr. Mike Tharp:
I have met Mr. Quang Pham because I live in Orange County, I am also a former Marine (also served in the CA Army National Guard), and the Commander of a not-for-profit Veterans Organization down here in Orange County.
I graduated from Livingston High School in 1981 (my family moved to Merced county in 1976; and my mom and other extended family lives in Merced, Livingston, Gustine, Delhi, Keyes, Atwater and other surrounding cities.)
Although, I am a supporter of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, I wished Mr Quang would have stayed in, because he seems to be a very honorable candidate, and I think our electoral process would benefit from a “marketplace of ideas”.
Thank you for this great piece on this honorable Marine!
sincerely,
Francisco J. Barragan CPA, CIA
Commander, UMAVA
United-Mexican American Veterans Association
http://umava.org/
Commander@umava.org”
(My opinions only and not those of any group)
Nothing like starting a teapot tempest…….whose Van Trans Campaign manager?
This will keep that photo up for a couple of days………I don’t even really know what it means .
But this is defintitely the wrong way to handle it. Goody for us!
Someone is posting “Dump Loretta” signs all over Santa Ana, I don’t know if it’s Tan or Tran, does anybody else know?
Makes no sense for Tran to waste money attacking her when he needs to win the primary first.
Weird.
Art, He must think Tan is going to jail before June, If he is in fact putting up the dump Loretta signs.
Is Van/Van’s camp stupid? Pictures don’t lie, and in this case niether is the Orange Juice. He’s clearly holding a Jail Tan sign in his hand!!!!
I saw the dump Loretta signs in Costa Mesa (does Van know Costa Mesa isn’t part of the 47th District?) Also, thats just poor form. Why not shed light on what you’ve done for constituents, instead of what you claim Loretta hasn’t done.
By the way, have you seen the headlines on how Loretta is shedding light on the injustices in Vietnam. I don’t see you speaking up on behalf of your people!
You know, now that I look at that picture again, he’s carefully holding the sticker so that you can read it. Otherwise he’d be grasping all that paperwork with more of his hand. What a chump! What a liar. Holding that message was the high point of his career and now he’s running away from it.
The “Dump Sanchez” signs are Tan Nguyen’s doing.
It is however illegal to post campaign signs on telephone poles. Obviously both Van and Tan have chosen to ignore that though.