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So, I see Anaheim’s “Democrat” Assemblyman Tom Daly has now endorsed Republican Disney/SOAR-backed council candidate Steve Faessel against the only Democrat in the 5th District race, my wife Donna. Not a big surprise. I imagine Steve is working on Lou right now. We hope Lou remembers what Party he’s in. Which reminds me:
I Have a Faessel Trophy!
“How did you get a Faessel Trophy?” you ask, “Did you break the law by stealing one of your wife’s opponents’ campaign signs?” No, I don’t think so.
What happened: last night I was walking precincts for Donna, and I saw this huge Faessel sign attached to a nice, real-visible, chain link fence in front of the home of a Democratic Latino couple, so just on a hunch I knocked on their door anyway, and told them, in my broken Spanish, all about how Donna opposes the giveaways to Disney and the resort district, and wants to bring back resources to the community.
And they liked what I said and promised to vote for her. So I said, “I notice you have a Faessel sign out there; that’s her opponent, the Disney candidate. Did he ask you if he could put it up?” “NO. Someone just came and put it there. They never said anything.” “Do you want me to take it down? Can I put up Donna’s sign instead?” “Yes, yes, please!” So I detached it from their fence, which took some work, it was attached with tough plastic ties – and replaced it with two of Donna’s.
Daly and Faessel.
This is so typical of these Disney candidates too. They – or maybe the firms they hire – or maybe, the firms SOAR hires on their behalf to put up signs – stick the huge things ANYWHERE with no permission. The rest of us try to follow all the rules. But the kleptocracy’s sign-posters stick ’em high up on poles in every gas station without saying a word to the managers there.
Remember this is the crowd that calls themselves the Masters of the Universe, and that’s how they behave. We MUST defeat them!
HOLD THE PHONES – MORNING UPDATE
As I sat admiring my Faessel Trophy, I began to wonder who’d paid for it – his own campaign committee, or SOAR, or some anodyne-sounding front group created by SOAR – but lo and behold, there was no such info at the bottom of the sign. Nothing but a little blurb for the print shop that created it. We’d been told we had to put a “paid for” at the bottom.
So I took a little walk around the corner to see our local Faessel Monument, one of the many Faessel signs up around the district that are big enough for three or four homeless people to sleep on. On the way I examined a Lou Correa for Congress sign (had “paid for by bla bla Committee” on it) and a Mark Lopez for Council sign (which included the Committee ID#.)
Not Faessel. The Monument on Baxter Street was exactly like my trophy, but ten times bigger … and nothing at the bottom but the print shop. NOTHING about who paid for them, and there’s got to be a thousand of them around the district. Are the other “SOAR candidates” also flouting these laws? Hello FPPC!
FINAL UPDATE: Our good friend Fullerton council candidate Jane Rands tells us that, counterintuitively, there’s no problem with these signs as long as they are from the candidate himself. Hmmm… But that means they are not done by SOAR or some IE, but by Faessel’s workers themselves, which makes me confused about David Bartash’s comment below, claiming that they don’t use plastic ties, and don’t put signs on private property without permission. *Scratches head in puzzlement*
(better photos coming soon)
Nothing but the COGS printer blurb … and THEY should know better! What is being hidden?
(Brief note: “Faessel” is not pronounced like “facile,” which means easily well-spoken but not deep, nor is it pronounced “fossil” which means old bones, but with a short “e” as in “fester.” I did not know that before the Chamber forum.)
Right, the Chamber Forums.
In late September, the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce (Siamese twins to SOAR, the OC Business Council, and OC TAX) held a series of four council candidate forums, one in each district. José Moreno pointedly boycotted the 3rd district forum, correctly sizing it up as a rigged game where his only role would be to utter a line at some point that could be taken out of context and used in an attack ad as they did in 2014. Honest OC GOP-endorsed Robert Nelson also boycotted it, resulting in a one-man show of Jordan Brandman extolling the virtues of lavishing subsidies on our resort district. Father Arturo boycotted the 4th district forum, resulting in a one-woman Lucille Kring show which must have been riveting.
Here we pause and consider how Anaheim does indeed have two parties, but those are not R & D, but rather the kleptos (who are both R&D) and the rest of us (who are both R&D.) Just as the Chamber forums were avoided by nearly everyone but the klepto candidates, so the Anaheim Republican Assembly one was ATTENDED by nearly everyone but the klepto candidates. (And to a lesser extent, the ACLU/Islamic Institute one last week.)
Still, Donna Acevedo-Nelson was planning to go to the Chamber Forum in District 5, until her work schedule changed, making it impossible. Brave grassroots candidate Sandra Angel showed up along with the Chamber’s chosen candidate Faessel, to be grilled by OC TAX’s Carolyn Cavecche on such irrelevant (to council races) OC TAX obsessions as split-roll reform of Prop 13, and utterly Faessel-targeted softballs such as “Where did you stand on the Ball Basin Power Plant, and what did you do about it?” (Opposing that project, successfully, over a year ago, is Faessel’s major claim to fame.)
After Cunningham posted a video of that forum, Donna decided she should post her own answers to the Chamber’s questions, along with the admission that she did have a lot more time to think about the questions than Sandra did: READ HERE.
Last Week’s SOAR Protest!
Who is SOAR, and why did we protest their fundraiser last week? (Apologies to longtime OJ readers who know all this; the following is adapted from a Donna Facebook post.)
SOAR stands for Support Our Anaheim Resort (previously, in their first paranoid incarnation, “SAVE Our Anaheim Resorts” – hence some confusion.) It is the political arm of Disney and Anaheim’s resort district. They pay to have their favorite politicians elected onto the city council, and in turn those council members give Disney and the resort district all the favors they desire. Over the last few years, that’s meant over $700 million in tax rebates to build unneeded hotels, an agreement not to tack on a gate tax to Disneyland for 30 to 45 years, and more. But they still want more!
This year, now that we have district elections, SOAR has chosen their candidates for each district – Lodge in district 1, Brandman in district 3, Kring in district 4, and Steven Faessel in 5 (with Democrat wannabe-klepto Lahtinen district 1 second string.} They’ve already donated $100,000 to each of these candidates and there will be more – I’m hearing $2 million eventually – and that’s what us grass roots candidates are up against. You’ve probably noticed all their hundreds of huge signs going up all over your neighborhood.
Trinkets handed out by the anti-STR contingent.
One thing to remember – when their people knock on your door, when you see them putting up their signs, most of those people are being paid well. Campaigns like Donna’s, Mark Daniels’ and others are being run by volunteers who believe in their candidate, and funded by folks like you who believe in us. We finally have a chance now against the SOAR candidates, now that we have smaller areas to run in thanks to district elections.
Back to the SOAR fundraiser – it happened last Wednesday at The Catch, and a couple dozen of us protested outside. Obviously Donna and Mark believe in using the political system as they’re running for office, but we’ve always thought protest was useful too, to make the public aware of problems, to feel solidarity with people who feel the same way, and also to make the powerful a little uncomfortable. (AND have some fun!)
So, if you think Anaheim should continue draining its treasury for the benefit of Disney and the resort district, vote for the SOAR candidates – Lodge or Lahtinen, Brandman, Kring, Faessel. But if you want us to start directing our resources to our neighborhoods instead, then vote for one of the GRASS ROOTS CANDIDATES … and please SUPPORT US HOWEVER YOU CAN! (Thanks to Lou Noble for this cool video of the protest!)
(By the way, Donna has been protesting SOAR fundraisers for years!)
The Bookmobile Comes to Anna Drive!
Last Wednesday on Anna Drive, EVERYBODY was excited to see the Bookmobile back. It reminded me of how happy I was to see the bookmobile come by when *I* was a little kid.
Donna, Yesenia and I have to be excused for feeling some pride over the bookmobile coming back to Anna Drive. The portion of street you see here, since time immemorial, had said “No Parking Mon-Fri,” and since there was no obvious REASON for that, and since it was hardly ever ENFORCED, and since parking is so hard to come by in that area, people ALWAYS parked there. But every now and then, once a month or so, some meter maid would get all zealous and give us all tickets. And meanwhile Yesenia would be muttering to us about some “bookmobile” we never saw.
So Donna and I took a little trip down to City Hall, first floor, the parking people. And they were very helpful. They explained that the school bus USED to pick up and drop off there, but as we explained to them and they later confirmed for themselves, that hadn’t happened in a long time, as the bus now stays on La Palma.
EXCEPT on Wednesdays, as they told us – Wednesday afternoons are when the BOOKMOBILE is supposed to park there. And before long, the parking signs were changed – No Parking Wednesdays! And since that was reasonable and made sense, people started following the law, and the Bookmobile came back, and all the children rejoiced! And we learned the lesson that there are some very helpful and efficient public servants in our City Hall.
Talking to bookmobile librarian Katrina (dressed below as a Jedi Knight or something because it was “Star Wars Day” or something on the bookmobile, duh) we learned that Anaheim used to have TWO bookmobiles but now has only the one due to funding shortfalls. We can be proud that we ARE the only town in the OC that still has a bookmobile at all, but we think that if we just allow these fabled new hotels, 3 or 4 star or whatever, to pay their TOT, there’s no reason we couldn’t have two again. Think how big the town is, and how many children would love to use them!
[more coming…].
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You can see how I’ve been a little busy for blogging, but maybe these diary-type entries will do as blog posts for now. This is also your Weekend Open Thread, so discuss whatever you like within … what was it … “broad bounds of decency and decorum.”
Mr. Nelson –
I do not know how the Faessel sign you acquired found itself attached to that house’s chain link fence.
We precinct walkers have made it a point to only place Steve Faessel signs in the yards of residents that have allowed us to do so.
The Faessel signs we use also have the little metal posts on each side of the sign, not the big wooden stake in the middle.
We also haven’t been zip tying the signs to people’s fences.
I did notice a number of Acevedo signs zip-tied to peoples fences along La Palma. I also noticed many zip tied to chain link fences on city owned property like the corner of East Street and La Palma.
I suspect your team wasn’t exactly innocent of sin before you decided to start throwing stones at the Faessel campaign over this issue.
The large sign you photographed was placed in the yard of the Baxter house with the permission of the homeowner. Please stop harassing the homeowner and trespassing on his land.
Ay ay ay. Hi David.
I don’t know who’s zip-tying Faessel signs to people’s private property without permission, I believe you if you say it’s not you, but SOMEONE is.
We always knock on the property owner’s door, and tell them about our campaign and positions, then ask permission, before we do that. I imagine you do too, but there seem to be huge TEAMS putting up Faessel signs (and probably Brandman, Lodge, and Kring signs) that aren’t following the rules.
And I didn’t harass the homeowner on Baxter or trespass on his land, I was obviously standing on the street.
Thank you Faessel “precinct walkers” for following the rules LIKE WE DO, but SOMEBODY isn’t!
The picture was taken from the public right-of-way.
Please stop harassing us with stupid comments.
This is why we need to repeal things like Citizens United.
“SOAR stands for Support Our Anaheim Resort”
Really? I though it stood for Screwing Over Anaheim’s Residents.
Other interpretations are expressed in the video and accompanying photos.
SOAR Sucking Out Anaheims Resources
For WOT-
How many heard or noticed that control of a central part of management of the Internet was ceded by the US to a UN body this week ?
Information-
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/30/internet_handover_is_go_go_go/?
mt=1475286383721
One opinion-
https://youtu.be/PwRA-zAbx1k
Vern – Someone defaced several Acevedo signs at St. College and La Palma. That is unnacceptable behavior. If we see anymore, we’ll let you know. We hope your team does the same for us.
Thanks Dave I don’t wanna fight with you. Someone who calls themselves “Rapist Ramos” (kinda creepy) keeps defacing our signs at State College and La Palma. We’re guessing some disturbed homeless dude who probably has no idea that I’m in the middle of writing a song called”Queen of the Boulevard” about the late ALICE.
Who is ALICE? Why do you think that a disturbed homeless dude is defacing Donna’s signs? We know more of one non-homeless dude, disturbed by Donna’s running for city council, and who knows, they may be defacing the signs. They had done crazy things, like the Teddy bear one.
With all due respect to Dave and Vern, you should be fighting with each other, not about signs but about the positions of the candidates. I don’t want Steve Faessel representing my district. As his record shows, he will be representing not the district but the SOAR and Disney interests.
Alice was an amazing free-spirit Ruby-Tuesday type character who died recently, and hung out mainly on that corner, and was known by all as “the Queen of the Boulevard.”. I am writing a collection of songs about homeless people, she’ll be in it, along with Kelly Thomas, Vincent Valenzuela, and some more generic characters.
You must be busy, running a campaign, working on policy issues, posting signs and writing an opera. Call me if you need some help.
I think another defaced Acevedo sign is at the corner of La Palma and Sunkist (Gas Station)
Also… freeway onramps.. we are not supposed to do!
Is he talking to us?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFpFDyKeqyA
and on furniture shopping….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koTrmin5n0g
Vern- We’ll keep an eye out and report if we see anything.
Mr Toro- We disagree about many things, but we are still neighbors. Once this election is through, we may find ourselves working together to solve some local issues. If we treat each other with respect while we fight over some , then we’ll be more willing to work with each to improving things on which we agree. Thanks
Completely agree. Looking forward to discuss our disagreements and find the common grounds to improve life in our district and in the city. I do believe that Mr Faessel’s SOAR membership speaks volume about where his real commitments are.
Right. And it’s the same old story, the same cast of characters that endorse the Faessels, Kringles and the Albert Steven Lodge Chavezes: PringleCorp® – OCBC, OCTAX, cop union, fire union, Rackaukas – The Good as No DA DA®, etc, etc.
This is a battle between good government and crepuscular, fuzzy, no-account misrule whose front persons’ only function is to direct public resources into the hands of the same people that elected them.
It’s us versus the Kleptocracy®, pure and simple.
To be entirely fair, Rackauckas is not quite as good as “no DA.”
Yep. That’s why we need Jose Moreno and Arturo Ferreras on the council, so their UNITE-HERE patrons can get their snouts in the trough next time a developer applies for a TOT subsidy.
Wait…you don’t think those two are actually going to back Tait on TOT subsidies, do you? Ha! So naive. They only want to tack on to the price tag.
And it won’t take long for hollow man Mark Lopez to turn. Only poor, helpless Denise Barnes will reliably do what Tait tells her.
You read it here first.
Pre-Cog, you may be right. The unions will pressure these two to back deals where labor agreements are in place. However there is no doubt at all that Kringle, Brandman and Lodge would do it for Team Pringle.
As with districting, there was always just a slight chance that PringleCorp® couldn’t buy district elections. And a slight chance is better than none at all.
I will say this much for Faessel: of the SOAR 4, he is clearly the least objectionable. (That is not an endorsement, at all.) But his clearing the bar set by Lodge, Brandman, and Kring is not difficult.
The worst thing I can say about Faessel — and I’d say the same of Leonard Lahtinen, who remains loyal to SOAR even though they turned their back on him — is that as an intelligent person with experience in public governance and without a crippled soul, he should really know better. I presume that he is simply ignorant of many critical facts — but he could also be selling out to the people who can get him elected, in which event I can only hope that if he does win he studies up, wises up, and consequently betrays them. (An “anti-Kring” maneuver, in other words.)
Well I can say one thing for sure; as I was walking precincts for Sharon Quirk-Silva today, even Republicans are voting Democrat because the want to stamp out any form of Trump-ism as is being displayed by Young Kim. So you guys should get used to saying “Assembly-Member Quirk-Silva. Walking always Trumps talking. Better return on investment than any 100 dollar donation from any troll anywhere.
Ima just gonna leave this here….
http://abc7.com/news/anaheims-police-chief-deputy-facing-fraud-investigation/1549133/
Interesting….who leaked the memo….The Seal Beach’s police chief is also under a confidential personnel investigation
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/police-731200-chief-stilinovich.html
The prospect that Craig Hunter could make it out of the Anaheim PD unscathed and Raul Quezada couldn’t would be extremely depressing.
Stakes in this election just went up!
Jeepers Creepers! Are people out there following “The Real Lucille” on Facebook?
https://www.facebook.com/thereallucillekring/posts/
From Chumley’s site today, two different threads on the same item.
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I don’t think that he even sees the connection here. Does “Anonymous” hate me for being Progressive or for being Jewish? To Chumley, the proper response to religion-baiting is apparently “meh.”
As for being beaten to the story: our story about the signs was published at 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday. Chumley’s was also posted on Tuesday, with the first comment at 1:24 p.m. I raise this not because I care who “scooped” whom, but to note Chumley’s consistent and comprehensive disregard for the truth of what his anonymous liars post. What’s that psychological term for lack of a conscience again?
He is bordering on grounds for removal from the CC. And apparently he has another henry lipton posting over there too according to an informant that reads that screed for me because I wont visit his bullshit digital piss pot. Here he is the whole time accusing me of being henry while the whole time he was in collusion with him. This guy needs psych meds. I guess he took tips from Jubal er I mean Gerbil, I mean matt c.
Heads up Vern, at least one Acevedo sign was knocked over in front of the Taqueria de Anda strip mall across from the Ana Drive apartments.