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This Soul departed ten years ago next month. If he were alive and following the election today, he might not be singing “I Feel Good.”
Here’s what’s buzzing around:
- If Anaheim’s Council agenda Tuesday night was supposed to help sway next week’s election, it didn’t work out as planned. Of the “Trilogy of Terrible,” both the freeway-adjacent land giveaway and the Community Center-adjacent “sweetheart deal”were taken off of the agenda. Good move. But that they were on the agenda at all, and they might have passed had people not been paying closer attention (as will likely be the case at the next council meeting, on November 22, just before Thanksgiving) speaks to a Staff that is completely off the rails. They need to be held back by a strong and informed City Attorney which brings us to….
- “Temporary Arturo” Fierro was approved Tuesday night on a 3-2 margin, that majority including the highly conflicted Jordan Brandman and the politically doomed Lucille Kring. As often happens, though, Kring had some revealing things to say from the dais. (Hat tip to Voice of OC’s Thy Vo for getting to this important quote first; I’m cribbing from her here, so if there’s any mistake, blame Thy!)
Kring said Fierro interviewed well and was selected on his merits, but noted that the applicant pool was small. The city received 25 applicants, seven who were selected for additional review, said Lyster.
“We were limited in the amount of candidates that we had, that is not going to get any better. I don’t care how you splice and dice it,” Kring said. “We called people, people on this dais personally called people…they were just not interested.”
This … is … fascinating. Anaheim is a wealthy city in a wonderful and vibrant location in an especially desirable county. Anaheim only got 25 applications for the position? People who were specifically sought out to apply for the position “just weren’t interested”? That’s really weird — weird enough that we (by which I mean Thy, if she wants that Pulitzer) might consider not only looking at how many applicants Anaheim has had in the past for its City Attorney position, but how many other comparable cities have had.
Kring that that situation “is not going to get any better,” but I think that she’s blind to the obvious. Good attorneys haven’t wanted this job because the City Council majority has been a horror show! With what the Council Majority has asked City Attorneys to do — and fired them for not doing — anyone working under them in the way they want to see work done faces a high likelihood of ethical compromise! That’s not good for one’s career. Luckily, VOTERS CAN CHANGE THAT NEXT WEEK by electing a new Council majority — the opportunity to work under which would likely attract a lot more than 25 applicants, because it will no longer be The Job From Hell! I’ll bet that Kring is the only one on the Council majority that hasn’t figured this out.
Fierro starts on Friday, Nov. 4. We may have an office-warming gift for him.
- Down in Irvine, Dishonest (and now also Dangerous and Disgusting) Dave Gilliard has come out with magnum opus against Farrah Khan, and it is a piece of work. Every candidate in Irvine should denounce it; every client of Dave Gilliard should do the same. It is literally 12″ x 15″ — large enough to serve as a serviceable placemat, if it weren’t for the possibility that Gilliard’s plague-bearing fingers might actually have touched some of them.
- The vicious attack on Khan, resulting from what looks like must have been a deeply thorough and slanted investigation of her life history, is the sort of thing that makes decent people want to stay the hell away from electoral politics. (Me, I’d like to run and be the target of an exhaustive Gilliard defamation effort — because it would have to be printed double-sided on 84″ x 105″ paper and there’s a possibility that the exertion of putting it together might cause him to pop and artery. (Hey, he knew the job was dangerous when he took it.)
- We’ll have more on this later in a separate piece; just know for now that it actually accuses the head of the Interfaith Council of being a radical Muslim extremist, which is probably going to be a huge surprise to actual radical Muslim extremists, who we think must view Khan as a radical peacemonger who happens to be Muslim. Damn you, Dave Gilliard, you human cloaca!
- Let’s see what else is going on: Arturo Ferreras is having a Dia De Los Muertos fundraiser at 6 p.m. tonight (11/2) to help support his final push to victoryfor Anaheim Council District 4. It will be at the home of Trustee-Elect Jose Paolo Magcalas, 1796 W. Siva Ave., Anaheim, CA 92804. The minimum suggested contribution is $44. Your contact person is Colleen Redmond 714-404-5346 or credmondconsulting@gmail.c
om. - Jordan Brandman, after being excoriated by his opponent Dr. Jose Moreno for the actions of some of those making “Independent Expenditures” for him, got a look on his face that I’ve only seen on Darrell Issa and a few mongrel dogs and attacked Moreno for not condemning anti-gay rich donor Howard Ahmanson, who is anti-gay — but also has no connection of any kind to Moreno’s campaign, unlike (cough-cough) Brandman and his Disney/SOAR benefactors. Moreno, sitting in the back row, stood up and asked Brandman if he’d like him to come forward and do so right then. Brandman did not want that to happen, not at all, thank you. At least some of us in the audience laughed; maybe everyone, as it was hard for me to hear over my own snickering.
- More to be added, most likely!
And now as a public service to our readers, Cynth-monster will post the wikipedia explanation for CLOACA, a word that apparently is known to and/or used by only Greg Diamond and the one guy on earth posting it to wikipedia. Seriously Greg, you are in the weeds when RIchard doesn’t know a word. Dial it down. The rest of us don’t share that IQ level of yours.
A persistent cloaca is a symptom of a complex anorectal congenital disorder, in which the rectum, vagina, and urinary tract meet and fuse, creating a cloaca, a single common channel.[1]
Actually it’s a pretty common word – for those studying vertebrate anatomy.
The anatomical situation is one present in, among other creatures, the cold-blooded reptiles and amphibians. That explains Pringle and Ellis.
And birds. But I wouldn’t liken Gilliard to a bird — only to its cloaca.
First time *I* heard it (and ran to look it up) was on Bushala’s blog a few years ago.
Must have been good ol’ Joe Sipowicz. Or his wife.
who DOESN’T know that the main sewer of ancient Rome was called the Cloaca Maxima?
Thus, when 18th century anatomists needed a genteel word for the organ carries away the body’s shit, they euphemistically adopted “cloaca” from the Latin. One can’t help but wonder if it started as a joke or pun amongst these Latin-speaking savants.
We all know what “euphemism” means, right?
“Euphemism”? Sounds Greek.
(Plenty of people don’t know the word, Tyler. If even Richard doesn’t know it, then not knowing it is surely no disgrace!)
“who DOESN’T know that the main sewer of ancient Rome was called the Cloaca Maxima?”
Exactly. I always wondered what it was like living on the Tevere downstream from imperial Rome.
The great French revolutionary Danton hailed from the countryside, and decided to celebrate his first arrival into Paris by jumping into the Seine for a morning swim. The spectators shouted out, “Mais no!!! Don’t do that!” but too late. He spent the next month laid up with diphtheria or something.
He would have ended up better off by going back to the countryside.