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I don’t know about you (really I don’t) but I’m looking forward to Saturday’s monthly meeting of the Anaheim Democratic Club (Feb. 3, 12:15 to 1:45, at the Haskett Branch of the Anaheim Library – 2650 W Broadway, near Magnolia.) You don’t have to be a Democrat to come either!
At this meeting we are going to meet the Democratic candidate for Shawn Nelson’s old seat on the Board of Supervisors. We actually have three Democratic candidates for that seat, Cynthia Aguirre is brilliant and Rose Espinoza is sweet and did do that Rosie’s Garage thing, but this fellow, Joe Kerr, is the best funded and most endorsed. I want to see how much he knows about how the County runs and what his positions are, and if he’s good enough to make us forget that he’s only recently moved from Coto de Caza and is gonna be facing an ocean of Bushala-funded anti-carpetbagger signs. And if he talks way too much about being a firefighter and saving someone’s life.
We do need to get some non-Republicans onto the Board, the current Supervisors’ priorities are just not the same as most of ours. Lucille Kring would be a nightmare, Tim Shaw would be a little less bad, but still. The culture on the 5th Floor needs to be totally changed, the “swamp drained.” The Voice of OC provided lots of reasons here, but also I’m getting really sick of OC Republican supervisors, mayors and councils who turn away federal and state funds out of quasi-religious principle, denying US the revenue and services that should come back to us from the taxes that we have to pay anyway – something I’m gonna write about soon.
And then our old friend Duane Roberts – that’s right, not a Democrat, but the 2010 Green candidate for Senate, and a longtime OC activist and former OJ blogger – will talk to us about police oversight, and the state of Anaheim’s ongoing attempts to get a decent Police Oversight Committee.
So… this is in progress. I’m going to report on what these two fellas say, and maybe include some video.
But for now, this is your Weekend Open Thread …
TAKE IT AWAY!!!
First Video – Kerr talking, answering questions…
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Duane pt 1 – He explains how he came to see that weak police oversight
can be better than nothing.
Duane pt 2
Duane pt 3
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“The culture on the 5th Floor needs to be totally changed, the “swamp drained.” The Voice of OC provided lots of reasons here, but also I’m getting really sick of OC Republican supervisors, mayors and councils who turn away federal and state funds out of quasi-religious principle, denying US the revenue and services that should come back to us from the taxes that we have to pay anyway – something I’m gonna write about soon.”
The solution is not electing a “public safety” union boss and poster child for pension abuse, who has the arrogance to foist himself on a district he doesn’t live in. The idea of faking a voter registration as one’s first act wanting to be a representative doesn’t sit well with a lot of folks whose name isn’t Bushala.
The problem is that the governance of the County has become completely politicized. The Gang of 5 wield their near-imperial powers with almost zero oversight and no accountability – mostly for the selfish end of political advancement. The Voice doesn’t seem to grasp this general problem, or if they do content themselves with cataloging the problems one by one. And they miss most of them.
I think you are mistaken about turning away funds. That rarely happens anymore in Orange County where there is hardly much difference in voting records between Dems and Republicans. In the case of some grants – like those that promote local public works boondoggles – they should be left alone. Like widening Lincoln, for instance, or destroying downtown Brea.
So far as I can tell there is hardly any difference in the intellectual caliber between candidates of the two parties, where ambition beats out ability 19 out of 20 times.
Agreed.
Lies and fake residency has never led to anything unselfish let alone good.
Come on, Vern. Anyone who’s willing to move away from their wife and kid to run for office is fundamentally unfit to serve. End of story.
Except that nobody believes for a nanosecond that “Coto Joe” actually lives anywhere but Coto. And so once again we have the obnoxious spectacle of the fake carpetbagger – like Sidhu and Galloway and Linda Ackerman – who blatanly lie to the public about where they live. That’s perjury. They get away with it because the DA is a worthless slug and the political class condones it. Fortunately the public does not.
At least a genuine carpetbagger like Sukhee Kang took the effort to move. It didn’t do him any good, but at least he tried – in his cartoonish way.
If you guys are convinced that Kerr actually continues to live in Coto, why don’t you set up a surveillance and sting operation, the way that Steve Young did with Mimi Walters in 2012? Otherwise people like me are just left taking your word for it — and having to calculate an appropriate discount for hyperbole.
For people who want to see fire fighting management moved out of the cities, by the way, it’s not clear why having a former head of the fire fighters union on the Board of Supes would be anathema. Wouldn’t he agree with your stance? The people I’d expect to disagree would be the firefighters themselves — given that the county has already proven that it can go bankrupt (and stiff many creditors) with surprisingly little political fallout.
“why don’t you set up a surveillance and sting operation,”
Because normal people have better, less creepy things to do; and it doesn’t matter. The campaign will no doubt be: No Kerr/Coto Carpetbagger, not No Kerr/Fake Carpetbagger.
I couldn’t care less who provides the “fire fighting” service – that’s a fake issue. How about that there is at least a remote connection between the service cost and the supply of labor, and that the unions don’t game their own overtime?
Again, agreed.
I really don’t feel a need to provide incontravertible evidence to distinguish between Joe Kerr abandoning his wife and kid to run for office or blantantly lying to the public.
Both are automatic DQs.
Real shame they aren’t for the Democratic Party of Orange County.
Yeah, it’s sort of funny. I’d love to see Coto Joe produce a few utility bills with his name on them for that address in Brea. Still wouldn’t matter much. He’d still be a rich, south county dude foisting himself on north OC.
And now that I think about it I wonder when the No Kerr campaign will begin.
“Except that nobody believes for a nanosecond that “Coto Joe” actually lives anywhere but Coto.”
Your comments just above seem to suggest that you don’t want this comment to be taken seriously — or at least at face value. At least that’s what I get from the admission that you seem to have no actual idea.
Yeah, most people won’t try to verify such a claim. But then most people won’t make such a claim in the first place.
I can actually be convinced on this point. You just don’t want to do it. Well, so long as we both understand the score….
Coto Joe doesn’t live in the 4th District any more than Sidhu lived at the Calabria Apartments in west Anaheim, or Galloway lived in ANY of her three fake addresses, or Mrs. Ackerman lived in the bonus room of some dude in Raymond Hills.
Please produce one person who really believes Coto Joe lives in Brea.
I hear the signs are going to be great.
That’s what’s called a conclusionary argument — “the conclusion is true because [reiterated conclusion]” and it is not what smart people do.
I recall you and others presenting evidence of a video by Galloway wherein she made a stunningly unconvincing case for her having moved. (I don’t recall what you did with respect to Sidhu.) You REALLY don’t have anything to bolster the facts beyond “we don’t think he did it and if he did do it he’s scum”?
I suppose that you can call him a “carpetbagger” regardless of whether he moved — but the argument that he’s defrauding the authorities with a false claim of residence goes beyond that. I had presumed that you must have something there; now I’m starting to presume that you don’t.
You wrote:
“The solution is not electing a “public safety” union boss…”
Then what is the solution?
We know the problems with the current group.
You offer no alternative.
A couple of comments from an article written by Max Boot on the Nuñez memo:
” After all the dust settles, wouldn’t it be comical if Trump went to prison and ended up rooming with El Chapo?
How ironic: El Chapo (“Shorty”) rooming with Los Manos Pecanos (“Little Hands”).
Would Trump build a wall across the cell and try to get Guzman to pay for it?
Reply
And would El Chapo dig tunnels under this wall?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nunes-memo-wasnt-meant-to-win-over-everyone–just-34-senators
Link didn’t work for me. Try again?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nunes-memo-wasnt-meant-to-win-over-everyone–just-34-senators/2018/02/03/607531d6-085d-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?undefined=&utm_term=.980bf60918f4&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
I wish that more conservatives had cared more about the FISA Court back in 2001 when it the USA PATRIOT Act was being shoved down our throat.
This is an example — I don’t know how rare of one — when the FISA court seems to have worked appropriately. Carter Page had been bragging about his (illegally not officially disclosed) ties to the Russian leadership for years. There would have been little problem in — or little controversy about — the FBI getting a warrant on him.
Yes, it IS sad that between 2001 and now, conservatives and many OTHER FOLKS IN POWER DURING THAT PERIOD, could have shown that care OR ACTED UPON it but DID NOTHING. So here we are NOW.
I thought the issue with the FISA Court was NOT it’s operation but instead the folks who defrauded it to strip a US Citizen of the supposed protection against domestic surveillance by bringing to the Court apparently un-vetted and possibly fictional evidence which they swore initially and repeatedly (90 day renewals) was true, and without which a previous FISA application failed. Followed by the use to which the resulting surveillance was supposedly put. But you’re right, absent that context, little controversy.
The basis for FISA surveillance against Carter Page was established way before the events described (well, PARTLY described, e.g., leaving out that it was Republican primary rivals of Trump who paid for the report in question) in the Nunes memo. That’s how the FISA Court works: it can only authorize surveillance on an existing and established investigation.
So no one defrauded the FISA Court — unless the claim is made that the FBI initiated its investigation of Carter Page, based on confirmable public statements he had made and actions he had taken — before it was even clear that he’d have a role in the Trump campaign.
If you can prove that they were precognitive, then you have a point.
What is the feeling on requiring drug testing to SART dwellers in return for some “fast track” assistance?
The recent survey exposed some serious issues, when combined with the counties claim that THOUSANDS of hypodermic needles were found in the river ( A HUGE environmental hazzard in and of itself).
Is a drug test (voluntary or otherwise) fair?
Why?
If they want assistance, especially if it involves addiction, give it to them.
What it really comes down to is: if they are found to be using drugs, do you want to
(1) pay for them to be in jail;
(2) have them sleeping and excreting in your bushes for lack of anyplace else to do so; or
(3) accept that other people don’t always follow the rules the way we’d like and it’s nevertheless generally not acceptable to kill them over it, and banishment, however tempting you may find it, is illegal, besides which they gotta be somewhere.
I’m really sorry that the drug-using homeless inconvenience you. Lead in water, Poseidon money grabs, big bank bailouts, etc. inconvenience me, but I’m generally expected to put up with them if I can’t help to defeat them politically. And capital always has somewhere else to sleep.
Local Republicans, please tell me that (1) you condemn this sort of vicious abject unconstitutionally racist cheating and (2) you’re not going to claim that the right not to have the legislature dilute your voting strength by packing and cracking is only about as significant as the right not to have the legislature keep you from arranging for a special election with the smallest possible expected electorate.
*DZ is at it again……we agree completely? Unreal. OK, on the BOS issue. Shawn is gone….Andy does what he is told. Lisa is kind but doesn’t step out of line. Michelle is looking for much higher office…..and Todd……oh my….The Hot Toddy…..wants Tony’s job and isn’t going to get it. Can we get Toddy out? Not without a can opener. Michelle and Lisa are more or less leveraged in, so that leave Andy. So, what are you goin do? The Sheriff Job is the one that is important. The New Sheriff must be vetted in the Extreme, because a very strong Sheriff could in fact change a whole bunch of stuff around the County. Hutchins was just tired of pushing stuff against the tide. We are still angry with her for taking our Press Passes. That was not nice! So, as The Trumpster might say: “We will have to wait and see!” Whoever Hutchins endorses will be the “Rabbit” in the race.
OK, now on to slime ball Nunes, FISA, Patriot Act, Hopeless sell-outs, Big Agra in the Central Valley and “how in the hell ….did Nunes ever get to be the Chair of the Intel Committee? Well, he has to go. As you can see by the local Press….there is a concerted effort to give him cover…with the big Tulare Agra interest. Pretty sick really. The good news is, if the Hispanic Community (the legal voters) can actually put together a solid effort to replace him with a strong Hispanic Candidate. Nunes is sweating bullets and knows the heat is on. Much like Rohrabacher…..he knows the game is up. So…
Where do we send our money for that strong candidate in Tulare running against the dreaded Nunes?
Prosecutor Andrew Janz seems to be the consensus choice. I tried to interest Gil Cisneros in this race a while ago, but now that there’s national interest in the race it’s probably too late for him to switch. Janz’s information is here: https://www.andrewjanzforcongress.com/
Can’t make this shit up –
Enjoy “free” journalism on the internet, WHILE IT LASTS!
Can it last? It’s been a week since the last activity at all on the ironically named “Liberal OC” – no stories, no comments. (Their last story and last ten comments or so were all just attacking me, so maybe that just got old.)
Maybe Chemical Lewinsky has been busy at one of those dress-up-like-cartoon-characters festivals he likes to frequent. Not that he’s been mute or calm – he spent a lot of yesterday on Facebook ridiculing the Latinos of Huntington Beach for their spelling. Maybe he can work that into a post.
There is a tribe in Honduras that shares its jungle habitat with a bright pink toad that exudes a toxic slime.
They have a useful saying: don’t touch the pink toad.
But… But… It’s irresistible!