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The Orange Juice Blog is happy to break the news that…
Termed-out Councilwoman Lorri Galloway’s husband Mike has decided to jump into the Anaheim Council race! A retired electrician, Native American, and longtime volunteer for Eli Home, the award-winning home for abused women and children he founded in the 90’s with his wife, Mike immediately becomes a frontrunner in the field.
Lorri and Mike Galloway with daughters.
Ordinarily the Orange Juice Blog is as skeptical as anyone about “dynasties” in politics, but, given the slim pickings in Anaheim council candidates this year, and the dire need for good progressives on the council during these rough times, we’re willing to give Mike a chance! What will he do on the Council, what is his platform? We want to know too. Watch the Orange Juice Blog for the first, exclusive interview with Council candidate Mike Galloway very soon!
Announcing the Orange Juice project of “Let’s spend lots of money at the vandalized businesses!”
As was widely reported, several perfectly innocent businesses in the vicinity of Anaheim’s City Hall fell victim to the mob’s inchoate wrath during the riots after the last Council meeting, suffering broken windows and more. We don’t condone any of those actions, although we do sympathize with the helpless sense of anger the rioters must have felt after first having their friends and relatives summarily executed by the police sworn to protect them, and then apparently being locked out of their own City Council meeting. I probably would have felt like throwing something myself.
But these businesses – the “T-Shirts Outlet,” the Starbucks, the Taqueria Leonardo, deserved none of it, and over the next week we are going to be featuring each of them here and encouraging all our readers to spend money there. And when you do, let them know (if) you’re a fighter for reform in Anaheim and a strong opponent of police brutality there, but that you feel they didn’t deserve to suffer the damage they did. I foresee, among other things, a large order of Take Back Anaheim t-shirts from a certain Mom and Pop store at 280 West Lincoln. Details to come…
Who’s really responsible for APD’s terrible policies? Could it be Deputy Chief Craig Hunter?
Craig Hunter, deputy police chief of Anaheim, soon-to-be chief, and once and future sheriff candidate?
There is apparently a policy at the Anaheim Police Department of shooting fleeing minority youths, perhaps suspected gang members, in the back of the head – summarily executing them. It’s happened often enough that we can surmise that it’s a policy. And apparently there’s also a policy of gross, militaristic, staggeringly expensive over-reaction to protests. You could almost think that some sinister authoritarian mind had planned this out, and that it’s all gone according to their plan so far.
Chief Welter bears responsibility for these policies, and he could change them. But inside sources who know him are puzzled, saying he’s a smart and slick person and these policies are neither. They also respond to calls for his removal or resignation by claiming he WILL be gone soon, but the “number two guy is much worse.” And who is this number two guy? Deputy Chief Craig Hunter.
Does that name ring a bell? It’s because he ran for Orange County Sheriff in 2010 against incumbent Sandra Hutchens. The Register even endorsed him over Hutchens because of his willingness to slash police pensions. Hunter is obviously an ambitious lawman, and Welter is looking for his way out of this nightmare. Could it be that executing suspected gangbangers and raining the militaristic wrath of God on resultant protests is the opening salvo of an incipient Caesar, something he thinks will play well with the voting mobs of white OC reactionaries? This is all still speculation, but something the Orange Juice thinks needs looking into, because it makes sense.
Figuring out who the “puppeteers” are behind the protests…
Meanwhile, small minds – I take that back, TINY minds – minds that just can’t IMAGINE oppressed folks from poor neighborhoods having any agency or will of their own, are scrambling to figure out who the “puppeteers” are behind all these angry “puppets” on the street. Well, okay, we all know they’re not REALLY trying to figure out who the “puppeteers” are, they’re just using the unpopularity of the sometimes unruly protests to tar the people who have always been their political foes. The two main examples:
Blaming the rioting on Mayor Tait
To the backers of the corporatist majority on Council – that is, Kris Murray, Gail Eastman, council candidate Jordan Brandman, all ACTUAL puppets of Curt Pringle and Disney, the most hated politician right now is moderate Republican Mayor Tom Tait, with his principled opposition to corporate welfare and his general encouragement of strengthened democracy. This crowd is hellbent on discrediting him in any way possible, and replacing him as mayor with hardcore corporatist Kris Murray. On “Colony” message boards, on the local blogs, and whispered in frightened angry rooms, you hear nonsense like this:
Tait needs to take responsibility for these Riots – his organizers at Take Back Anaheim – were in our neighborhoods begging people to rally at city hall. And for what? So he can get his political agenda front and center. He’s the Mayor – he should be asking for peace – but no, he is still only focused on what is in it for him…
It’s good for a chuckle, this idea of the laid-back blue-blood Mayor, whose motto is “fiscal responsibility, freedom and kindness,” as some 21st-century Che Guevara calling forth mobs of Communists and gangbangers to break windows and throw stuff at cops in the service of his opposition to corporate welfare, but … there you go. That’s what the Murray-Eastman-Brandman folks would have you believe. (more here)
Blaming the rioting on Lorri Galloway and Take Back Anaheim
It makes a TINY bit more sense to blame the riots on the progressive forces who have been trying to get the poorer neighborhoods to organize and be more politically active – your Councilwoman Galloway, her aide Joanne Sosa, Take Back Anaheim, Los Amigos. But encouraging disfranchised people to organize and to speak up for themselves IS NOT the same thing as encouraging riots, vandalism, projectiles, obscenities … which some people have been accusing the progressives of.
And some of the people doing the accusing (you know who you are!) are Tom Tait supporters, who should be our allies, and are trying to deflect the bullshit off of HIM. Lorri sent me this response yesterday, in reaction to a certain someone’s false accusations about her actions last Tuedsay:
The insidious accusation that I was inciting rioters to yell obscenities at police officers is absolutely false. This kind of accusation is irresponsible and takes away from the true issues that have affected our city.
Last Tuesday, I walked through the lobby of city hall to see if residents of Anna Drive were able to get a seat in the council chambers to voice their concerns. I greeted residents and visitors. All seats were filled mostly by those who were called by others to come early and show support for the $158 million taxpayer giveaway. [That would be the building-trades hardhats – V] I then stood in an enclosed area with city staff, the police chief, and police officers while I waited for the city council meeting to begin.
Friends who favor reform and should be our allies, let’s stop this sniping! We can expect this kind of slander from the Murray-Eastman-Brandman crowd, let’s not do it to ourselves!
Finally, I regret that I can think of nothing nasty to say about Kris Murray and Jordan Brandman joining Sunday’s peace march.
This Sunday past there were two marches or protests – the usual one at the police department which has been written about here already, and a silent “Peace Walk” organized by “We Are Anaheim / Somos Anaheim” which started at city hall, marched up to La Palma Park, then headed over to Harbor and down to the Police Station. Since I had a ride I decided to go to a little of both.
I was surprised to see quite a distinguished crowd of politicians participating in the “Peace Walk” – state senator Lou Correa, assemblyman Jose Solorio, supervisor-elect Todd Spitzer, assembly candidate Tom Daly, labor leader Julio Perez, council candidate John Leos. But the biggest surprise was seeing Councilwoman Kris Murray and Council candidate Jordan Brandman, two of Anaheim’s biggest corporatists. But try as I might, I can’t think of anything bad to say about them being there.
The policies they favor hurt the poor neighborhoods that are also being attacked by the police. The corporate interests that fund them and whose interests they fight for at everyone else’s expense are the same ones the police so ostentatiously and extravagantly defend. They were both accompanied by what looked like bodyguards – Kris with Todd Spitzer and Jordan with Claudio Gallegos (who I had THOUGHT was fervently opposed to Jordan’s politics.)
But still. At a Peace March there is room for everybody! We will defeat Kris and Jordan and their corporatist agenda … peacefully!
The Happeningest Place on Earth is about to meet our best hope for change 41 year resident, Native American and candidate for Anaheims city council “MIKE GALLOWAY”.
Take Back Anaheim is proud to support Mike, who understands the issues in Anaheim first hand and can offer solutions change in a broken system that for far too long has given the lions share of financing and tax breaks to the billion dollar resort area ignoring the cries of the disenfranchised and misrepresented residents. Today we celebrate !
Sosa- so when it cool for god followers to lie- you do it all the time, you put out that fake recall booth, when you werent even doing it any more…Illegal, and your boss’ abused their sick aunt, O yeah I talked to the niece, she is coming to council to tell how they stole from them…thats story one, I have 5 more, but I will wait I have PROOF, and killed a tree in order for everyone to get the court copies & all the tax paperwork that says your a scam, in english and spanish. YOUR A SCUMBAG, and will be treated acoordingly, I have contacted the DA, with your ELI house scam.Your filth.ANYONE associated with you is going down too. ANY DEMS DROP THESE PEOPLE BEFORE YOU ALL GO TO JAIL FOR RICO….o I havent even begun, SOSA IS A SCUMBAG. I ran you, why do you have several different alias’…O asst can you spend the next three hours, doing skip traces on these names? I may have 12 things to bring up. O joanne your hated in ANNA CRIME, the stories just keep gettin better. SOSA =SCUMBAG.
Rich Olquin? Is that you?
Nutjob.
native american?? since when? I’d like to see the proof of that (especially since we are related…)
Wow — that’s quite a set of stories there. Seven, all worth reading!
What does Mike Galloway do for a living now? All work with Eli Home?
Great idea on spending money at vandalized businesses. I hope some people from Anna Drive may join us for coffee.
Something tells me that this Craig Hunter story is going to have legs.
I will assume that my previous comments did not post because I used profanity, not because of some type of censorship, and will keep it clean this time.
If you are backing Galloway, then hold on to your fedora Vern, because a negative campaign is headed his way (he has way bigger enemies than me by the way) and God knows the Galloways have given us enough ammo to use, in court records alone. No, this is NOT the kind of leadership an already tense community needs.
http://redcounty.com/content/another-galloway-anaheim-city-council-not-mikes-record
As far as Lorri, she absolutely did jump into that crowd of protesters, as they were chanting “F the Police!” at the top of their lungs! She made no attempt to calm them down, redirect them to a more constructive chant, and certainly did not pass along the Mayor’s orders that anyone who wanted to be heard would be able to speak, as long as they waited their turn because the Chambers were full. I was RIGHT THERE, she physically pushed me aside to get to that crowd, and the scene was verified by another witness who called a talkradio show while they interviewed Gustavo Arellano.
I know you like them, but frankly I call BS on the Galloways.
Bring it, girl.
Cynthia,
With respect, I think that you overestimate how much one can do to calm, redirect, or even inform an angry crowd in that sort of situation.
She’s not responsible for what the crowd is yelling; her presence there doesn’t indicate that she endorses it.
If people are angry over this sort of governmental maltreatment, you don’t just tell them to change their chant. By then it’s too late; the time to connect with them was earlier, as she’d tried to do two days previous. Here she just did the best she could.
Maybe it did help some; after all, it was a small minority of the protesters that did anything violent. But I can’t see blaming her for failing to perform a miracle in curing a conflict that other people created.
Don’t you know Lorri has superpowers, Greg, tiny Filipina superpowers?
As a Filipino-in-law, Vern, I urge you not to take tiny Filipina superpowers lightly.
Actually, had she relayed the information to the crowd that they would be permitted to speak, the tension would not have built to the rate it did. People were angry because they were mistakenly told they could not enter, when in fact Mayor Tait had made it clear that ALL would be heard if they waited their turn due to Fire laws in a packed Chamber. She could have done a significant amount to reduce the animosity out there. For her to cheer for protesters is one thing, to cheer them on while they chanted obscenities directed specifically at the Police that work for her was disgusting. To then hide behind them when things got hot was even worse.
But beyond Lorri, who we all hoped was going away, the behavior of her husband as her partner was even uglier. Go look at the court docs on the blog link, they stripped his dying aunt of the equity out of her house, without her knowledge or permission, and left her to battle cancer evicted on the streets after foreclosure. That is not a rumor, that is from court docs! How can we even begin to think someone of that caliber is fit for public service? This is what you call a true progressive? Come on people! This is not even an objection to political differences, this is just pond scum.
OK, Cynthia, I’d like to know:
(1) the link to the court docs (I can send you a private message if you prefer) so I can see the context, if any
(2) how you think Lori G. could have transmitted the information to the crowd
(3) why it was not otherwise transmitted to them (and the responsibility left to fall on her)
(4) how long the crowd would have had to wait outside before speaking
(5) how she “cheered” the protesters last Tuesday night
(6) how she could have conveyed any positive message to them, in your view, without it being construable as endorsing obscenities
(7) why you think she could have done “a significant amount to reduce the animosity” (which I take it is just your surmise).
I’m sure my reasons will be obvious. I understand your desire to convict her; I don’t see much evidence, though.
On #3. I know that Joanne Sosa, Lorri’s right-hand lady, was asked by the cops to convey this info to the protestors by megaphone; she tried but they were already too loud and upset and didn’t hear or believe her.
Greg, the pdf of the court docs is on the redcounty page, which as of this writing is still online able to be viewed. Vern has my email if you want to speak directly.
Read through them and tell me, where is the room for misunderstanding?
Cynthia,if you do a google search of ELI Home, you will find their financial history/tax returns for several years. These are filed with an outside national foundation group. Makes for interesting reading.What government agencies are funding it? lists the employees and salaries. illustrates all the deficit spending of this organization.Should be read/reviewed by attorneys specializing in nonprofits and cpas that specialize in nonprofits.
Bottom Line: not clean
Gee, why wouldnt they believe her? Wasnt it TAKE BACK ANAHEIM, that told it people to come down, demand justice and be heard, walk with us? Am I wrong here? Isn that what was promoted? And having said event, with 100’s of people, when you get to your destination, you run to other side of the media wall, and leave your group outside, chanting FUCK THE COPS,and you what? thats right leave them there, Really? when they ask if they are goin to get in they are told, no. So guess, what they have been told to calm down, we will figure this thing out of the apparent human sacrifices that are going on with in a small area of the world, where cops shoot kids with rubber bullets if you want to voice your opinon in your front yard, and then they were told, we will help you get your voice heard, to be left at the door, Really? So Vern, when that over maked up lady did saunter out, they were already having a fit…no one from city council, not a one came out to say ANYTHING..so yeah I kinda do blame the people that showed up with 100 of people and then left them out there, to get beat up. Too late, she wasnt too late for shit, she went in to put on fucking lip gloss fer her fake ass moment, REALLY! THEY have NO representation and they know it. They are all carpetbaggers. The Eli, scam what a joke.
Joanne SOSA…thank you for the name, now I know what to put on my compaint with the FBI, inciting a riot, how about the FAKE, registration JOANNE SOSA, put up in front of her council meeting,w hen asked, she said I dont really have the recall going, I just want to scare the others…SO A COUNCIL WOMAN ASST IS OUT FRON WITH HER AUTHORITY DOING FAKE PROPAGHANDA…really that would be fraud, oh the charges againt this lady are staking up.JOanne coming in to my city and stirring shit and then thinking I will not come into your city and let people knwo truely what a morally bankrupt peice of shit you are,wait til the 4 page story on your sad ass comes out,I love it ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS GALLOWAY will go down in flames…people until you stop defending your lame fucked up party members, be part of the solution not the problem, just because it has D behind the name your gonna give thema free pass…why is this?
Oh be quiet. You can’t even keep track of what kind of person you’re pretending to be.
I can tell that you’re going to offer a tremendous contribution to raising the level of discourse on this site.
Let me guess — are you one of the mysterious, hidden, “truthorangecounty” people who thinks that Anaheim flatlanders can’t protest without a “puppetmaster”?
On their first comment though, they were pretending to be an aggrieved protestor who felt let down by Lorri and Joanne.
I guess that its hard to keep one’s personae straight sometimes.
Who do you think is behind this site (registered anonymously) slamming them? http://truthorangecounty.org/who-is-the-puppeteer-organizing-the-protests-in-anaheim/ You know people’s motifs here better than I do. Have you heard anyone else but there and here call Joanne Abu Qartoumy “Sosa”? I’ve never heard her use the name, suggesting to me that maybe … it’s not her name.
The case for real district-based elections has been made so clearly and profoundly by recent events that I’m almost surprised that anyone is fighting against them.
Joanne was married to a Palestinian called Abu Q-something, she’s recently gone back to using her maiden name Sosa.
Eli Home is award winning? How can a non-profit, the primary purpose of which is to raise money to pay Galloway salaries and acquire real estate in their names, be award winning? There are still suspicions they actually serve few, if any, clients.
How can the Eli Home be “award-winning?” I dunno, ask Presidents Clinton and Bush, both of whom gave the Eli Home Presidential Awards.
I see that the Galloways and Eli Home have drawn a lot of haters, critics and naysayers over the years. I didn’t think I was gonna have to worry about that, with Lorri termed out and all. But now that Mike’s running, I’m going to have to become an expert on what’s true about Eli Home and the Galloways, and what’s not true.
I’m sort of impressed. Boil that comment down and it’s almost entirely content-free except for the unsupported charge about its “primary purpose.” That takes some doing.
Vern. I look forward to your investigation. Be sure to do a media/literature search back into the 90’s for openers. Quite a colorful history back then.
Another Anaheim Hills candidate…
What’re you gonna do? Where ARE the good candidates? I wanna find out more about Mike, but I suspect he’s the best one running, AND the best one likely to win.
ELI Home financial history (annual statements are available on line) illustrate a never-ending history of deficit spending in addition to the employment of family members.
Does this mean something other than that they borrowed money to run the equivalent of a family business? That’s all you’ve got?