[The family of Emigdio Vasquez let C.U. use part of their dad’s famous mural for their publicity.]
THIS is the place to be tomorrow night – Saturday night, 6-11 pm, at the old-school famous building of Santa Ana dentist and friend of the blog Arturo Lomeli (below, with Gilbert & Vern out front.)
C.U. says: “Hope you can join us for an evening of Community * Food * Drinks & Baile 
to celebrate 18 years of activism 
GET YOUR $28.52 tickets here!
“If you’d like to come but short on funds come anyway. No one will be turned away for lack of funds
“If you can’t make it but would like to donate please send funds to $chicanxsunidxs cash app 
“Please share with your circles. We look forward to spending time with everyone”
Formerly Chicanos Unidos but now Woke AF, this is a legendary group of (mostly) Santa Ana activists. You’ve read plenty in this blog about their activism including their celebrated Legal Clinic which has helped countless folks get out of unjust legal situations including incarceration, and to remove themselves from gang injunctions they shouldn’t be on. And it’s in large part thanks to these cats that Santa Ana has rent control, a police review board, and a progressive Council majority (starting with Mayor Sarmiento.)
But I gotta run… I’ll see you there tomorrow night – SATURDAY NIGHT!
Queue this por los chicanos.
https://youtu.be/0bC-xbLAi8M
Who raises more money this September ??
The Democratic Party of Orange County.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php
Or Anti-Defamation League of Orange County?
https://orangecounty.adl.org/2024-marcus-m-kaufman-jurisprudence-awards-dinner-announcement/
So are the Supes going to elect themselves to the Hall of Fame before the ish hits the fan??
https://www.instagram.com/donwagnerca/p/C-xuuuDJlKU/
Looks like someone made an FOIA request on Farrah Khan on April 3, 2023. I’m assuming that’s the mayor cuz I don’t see Louis in the name and it’s not spelled Farah like a known south East Asian celebrity.
https://vault.fbi.gov/foia-log-2023/foia-log-2023-part-01 (Find Farrah Khan on a hit of “Khan, Farrah”
ADL blasts Veep’s campaign chief for meeting with editor of Arab American News while courting the uncommitted in Michigan. Namely, one Osama Siblani who apparently praised Hamas as ‘freedom fighters’.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/adl-condemns-harris-campaign-chiefs-meeting-with-journalist-who-praised-hamas/amp/
I tossed out your linky comment and a couple of others to lower the blood Nehanian level here. You should by all means post them on Neshanian.net.
My friends in Fullerton tell me the OC Dem Party has created another fake candidate – this time in D4 to help their anointed candidate, one Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo. The guy’s name in Scott Markowitz and he was recruited by Ajay Mohan formerly the ED of the OC Dems. He’s a Democrat and his nominating papers were signed by a bunch of liberal Democrats. His ballot statement is right out of Trump Central. One his signers had already endorsed Jaramillo.
Who else is running in D4? I haven’t finished my roster of candidates (and the ROV no longer makes doing so easy when it comes to city races), so I don’t yet have the reference that I usually use. Get with the program, Diamond!
I googled Fullerton Council candidates 2024, which works good in Anaheim, but the clerk there doesn’t have it up yet. (They’re no Teresa Bass!)
What they do have up is the candidates’ STATEMENTS, except it’s hard for an out-of-towner to know who’s running in what district.
https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/Browse.aspx?id=1538259&repo=r-3261686e
And I went to read this Markowitz guy’s statement, to see what Zenger was talking about (AJ Mohan? Trumpy?) I don’t know if Mohan’s behind it, but this guy’s statement IS stupid and crazy… and sounds geared to bleed away rightwingers from Linda Whitaker.
He wants to “reign [sic] back spending,” and “We need America First Patriots to step up!” https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=1538507&repo=r-3261686e
This isn’t a first for Fullerton.
How blatant and unapologetic the players are? That’s absolutely a first.
Someone in the party needs to reign this in. Getting caught red handed trying to fool the electorate isn’t a good look on anyone associated with Dems in North OC.
Also, throwing Flory back into yet another election . . . seriously? That’s the best Dems can do?
Rein. Ha! 🙂
Flory must be pushing 80. I can’t imagine who she thinks her voters might be, besides Paul Dudley and his wife.
She’s running against Dunlap?
Yep. It’s a strange thing. She very old, very humorless and has a terrible record.
Mohan sent an email to the City Clerk announcing Markowitz’s intention to pull papers. He’s in on it just like last time, although now I presume someone is actually paying him. What a slimeball.
Who-all are in this race, and for which seat?
OK ready Greg? https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=1538260&repo=r-3261686e
DISTRICT 1
Incumbent FRED JUNG (who is a Democrat that lots of Democrats are mad at, I don’t know why, champion of the OCPA, votes frequently with Republicans Whitaker & Dunlap and against Zahra)
challenged by Democrat MATT TRUSAW (who just sent me a friend request, but doesn’t want to tell me why he’s running against Fred.)
DISTRICT 2
Incumbent Republican NICK DUNLAP
challenged by superannuated Democrat warhorse JAN FLORY
and DISTRICT 4, where
Republican LINDA WHITAKER wants to take her termed-out husband BRUCE’s place, a practice we’ve traditionally ridiculed here; but they are both nice people albeit conservative; challenged by three:
Democrat favorite KITTY JARAMILLO who I think has run many times;
JAMIE VALENCIA who I don’t know anything about; and
controversially, SCOTT MARKOVITZ, an ostensible Trumpy apparently put up by Democrats to bleed votes from Linda.
In Huntington Beach things are black and white – the Republicans are corrupt MAGA fascists and the Democrats are decent smart public servants. But I’m not sure what it means to be a Democrat in Anaheim or Fullerton.
In Santa Ana the Democrats are two different opposing parties – the progressives vs. the big-money authoritarians. In Irvine they’re like four different parties and they all seem to hate each other.
The plot sickens in Fullerton District 4. It should have been a simple race between Linda Whitaker who wants to carry on her termed-out husband Bruce’s term, versus longtime Democrat favorite Kitty Jaramillo. But now there are two fake candidates.
Because first a Democrat nobody knows, Jamie Valencia, filed and is funded by some allies of Whitaker who I won’t name … as well as rent-gouger John Saunders (What more does HE want in Fullerton? Or is he worried Democrats might pass rent control for Rancho La Paz?)
And THEN Democrats put up a fake Trumpy candidate, Markovitz. See you one fake candidate, raise you another fake candidate.
Fake candidates aside, why does Saunders want to help Linda?
Nahh, a raise would have been two opposing fake candidates. This was just a call.
“superannuated Democrat warhorse JAN FLORY”
Mean, petty, vindictive, stiff, and yes, old and equine. Among her many greatest hits was the loser lawsuit against Joshua Feguson, David Curlee, and FFFF that cost Fullerton the better part of a million bucks when all was said and done.
But she really was good fighting Poseidon during her time on OCWD. I can’t forget that.
That was most likely because Bilodeau and Sheldon were in on the con and the grift was obvious.
Next I wondered about Santa Ana, and the first thing I come across is Pedroza’s New Santa Ana piece, and our old friend Art has become a full-on anti-progressive down there, obsessively labeling the four great progressives who are up for re-election “anti-police.” Just because they are for accountability, and have voted against some excessive contracts.
MAYOR – progressive councilman Ben Vasquez is taking on nightmayor Valerie. (If Ben wins, his replacement will be appointed by.. whoever the majority turns out to be.)
WARD 1 – actual moderate incumbent Thai Viet Phan, who sometimes votes with the progressives but not always, will be facing Julie Tran.
WARD 3 – progressive incumbent Jessie Lopez (whom we helped defeat a well-funded lie-filled recall last year by the police union and developer/landlords) will be facing Zionist activist Jeffrey Katz.
WARD 4 – progressive police-accountability activist incumbent Johnathan Hernandez will be facing some Mario Alvarado. (Troll tells us that’s Gloria’s son.)
Note that if any of these races go the wrong way (except for the Mayor one which is a freebie for Ben) the progressive majority will be gone, along with the police review board AND Santa Ana’s fabled RENT CONTROL.
EXCEPT. [Fanfare sound] The progressive forces have put their rent control ordinance on the ballot as well, so if that passes it’ll be enshrined in the charter and not subject to electoral whims. Hopefully all of this together will help the worthy Thai, Jessie and Johnathan stay in office, and maybe even get Santa Ana a better Mayor!
I’ll see if I can track down our old “Zorro” to write about this.
none of you asshles will conribute a nickel. Just shut the fuck up
Nice to hear from you, Dan. Drive careful now!
I’m only contributing to Harris-Walz, but I’ll be walking precincts for Derek Tran. I call it my Tran Exercise Program.
I know I should ignore Dan’s drunken taunts like Kamala ignores all Trump’s insults.
But … also people should maybe know, just in case they want to do like me…
So far this season I’ve contributed to Derek Tran, Frances Marquez, Kamala (the day Biden dropped out) and I’ll be contributing a lot to Francisco Rosas.
Oh yeah. I also remember sending money to Ruben Gallego. And Colin Allred.
Who is Dan, and why does he drink?
He drinks because he is Dan.
Okay, he drinks to excess. What is his relevance, exactly?
But but Chubby donated to Farrah Kahn’s campaign for supervisor. Loser!! He could have spent that $ on booze. What a loser!!
Who or what is Chubby?
And on that dismissive note, let us conclude this sideshow.
Dismissive or Inquisitive?
Kamala draws heat over her Israel liaison.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/kamala-harris-choice-jewish-liaison-director-draws-criticism-over-israel-iran-stance-red-flag.amp
https://laist.com/news/politics/orange-county-supervisor-andrew-do-raid-rhiannon-do-house-tustin
FBI raid house purchased by Do’s daughter.
The fbi and the da just raided all the homes and offices of Dos daughter and friend in the Covid money case .
Apparently Andrew was a Tustin resident after all. Lol.
https://laist.com/news/politics/orange-county-supervisor-andrew-do-raid-rhiannon-do-house-tustin
You know what, this blog wrote about Do’s Tustin Hills residence way back in 2009. This was way back with the previous blog owner Pedroza.
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2009/10/does-garden-grove-councilman-andrew-do-live-in-santa-ana/
And at some point we were threatened by some legal firm to take that story down, which I did briefly and then put back up, adding a photo of the home. (As documented in the comments section.)
I guess we were right all along. And I’d forgotten all about it. He was definitely lying about his residence when he was Garden Grove councilman.
But that residence is also outside of Supe District 1, isn’t it?Okay, it is inside Supe District 1 though.Okay, it is inside Supe District 1 though.
But it wasn’t before redistricting, right?
That thumping sound you may have heard was ish hitting the fan.
If this residence in Tustin is his primary home then shouldn’t he automatically be disqualified from being district 1 supe? And all his board votes nullified ?
Damn, what’s going on with this blog? The whole front is gone and it doesn’t even show “latest comments.” I’ll see if I can get it fixed today.
Meanwhile got about seven new stories in the hopper!
How come none of Kamamalalalala’s staff spoke at the DNC?
You know the folks that know her best and are in the trenches with her. Stop all the divisiveness? What about the toxicity?
https://thefederalist.com/2024/07/23/92-percent-of-kamala-harris-staff-left-in-her-first-three-years-as-vp/
Yawn… dude.
As I work on my Fullerton District 4 piece, I see that Dan has produced some illiterate miasma of words and documents, trying to prove… SOMETHING about Bushala, Fred Jung, and Jamie Valencia, a piece that’ll leave any unfortunate reader confused. Fred tells me the only accurate thing in Dan’s story is that he spelled his name right, and illustrated the story with a picture that is, indeed, one of Fred.
https://theliberaloc.com/2024/09/05/the-long-game-in-fullerton-that-voters-should-be-paying-attention/
Seems to be based on “info” from Ahmad Zahra, who is Dan’s new Jordan Brandman. Spoiler alert – the more I look into it, the less I think Jamie is a fake candidate like Castro or Markowitz. Or Truxaw.
I don’t know about this Tuxaw dude, but Markowitz is a slime suck. Apparently he changed is reg. to Republican to be congruent with the Yammy ballot statement. A real good question is whether his nominators are implicated; one at least – Diane Vena definitely is – she previously endorsed Jaramillo.
An even better question is who paid Ajay Mohan to hold Markowitz’ hand when he went to pull papers. The current odds favor election meddling by the Long Beach dope dispensary cartel. Jaramillo was a booster of the wide open plan Fullerton briefly adopted at the end of 2020.
Truxaw also changed his registration at the last minute to Republican, to give him a better shot at beating Democrat Fred. And I see that Truxaw’s Facebook friends are all Democrats, meaning we have a lot of mutual “friends.”
The generally loathsome “SoCal Daily Pulse” took notice, and wrote a startlingly fair appraisal.
https://www.socaldailypulse.com/post/more-deception-in-fullerton-republican-matthew-truxaw-a-wolf-in-sheep-s-clothing
But as you’ll see when I finish my piece, I take issue with the characterization of Jung as “moderate” vs Zahra as “progressive.”
I hope you tie the County Dem Party to this fraud.
If Ada Briceno thinks she’s ever doing to get another dime from Bushala she’s got another think coming.
I’d be happy to discuss alternative outlets for politically directed money that may better suit Tony’s preferences. I didn’t know that he’d given to DPOC. Was is on a bet?
Ada hit him up big for some Dem or other. I don’t know why. She was obviously complicit in the Tony Castro fraud.
That won’t be happening again.
Vern, the yellowing Fullerton Observer crowd always refers to me as “developer Tony Bushala” as if I actually was one; and if I was, somehow that’s a horrible thing. Over the years I probably could have been a rich Fullerton developer by supporting the boobs in City Hall instead of fighting them when necessary – as in the 2012 recall. Of course they are always questioning my motives without bothering to ask me.
If they just said or wrote the truth about me, just once…about my life, my work, what I really want to do, I would really be surprised. Oh, well.
But I guess people are gullible, as when they hear a narrative they like. Which explains why these same folk like to believe in the magic dust of Ahmad Zahra’s storybook tale:
“I came to the US and went to the Statue of Liberty, I got on my hands and knees and thanked God for this opportunity. My dream was to be a movie producer, so I went to California, enrolled in film school at UCLA. After graduating I started my own movie production company. Moved to Fullerton and ran for City Council. Now, I’m the first and only elected representative who is Gay, Muslim, and Arab American.”
Of course Zahra left out the part about getting married to an American woman in Arkansas so he could stay in the country legally. Almost his first act in the USA (after buying that bus ticket to Little Rock) was to commit marriage fraud – a federal crime.
And he certainly doesn’t talk about his much more arrest for assault and battery, and his subsequent plea deal with the DA that expunged his criminal behavior and permitted him to falsely claim he was exonerated.
His acolytes don’t care about Zahra’s complicated tissue of lies, but his political future looks pretty cloudy.
Tammy Kim is fudging a few things about herself and has plenty of issues, that hasn’t stopped team bushala from donating to her campaign for mayor. What is team bushala’s motivation for donating to her campaign? Let’s try to keep a response to one short paragraph.
That’s hilarious.
What in the world makes you think Bushala is even aware of your deliberately tendentious existence, let alone owe you an explanation for his activities?
I’m not sure that a “marriage of convenience” constitutes marriage fraud. In my case, I fell for my wife hard and wanted to keep her in the country, so we got married quickly. I’d defend that because we were actually in love and I didn’t get any sort of cash payment or other consideration to marry her; I had to really convince her that the worst that could happen was a divorce and that we both know that life goes on after. Just this week we celebrated our third grandchild born in this country, all of whom I love to bits, so I think it has gone quite well.
How is Zahra’s case materially different from this? If he’s purely gay (other than bi or willing to be flexible). then I suppose we have any conjugal relations factor helping us out in the comparison. But do you know that any other the other factors are so distinct as to constitute “fraud”? I’m not really keen on the government looking too deeply into the legitimacy of marrying people from other countries. I think that the four grandchildren and three naturalized children we have added to the country are a seriously substantial asset. Without more than I’ve seen here — like got paid, didn’t cohabit, or dumped her at earliest opportunity — I’d extend to same presumption to him. (Of course, Tony and Zenger may well have the goods here, in which event this line of questioning is a fastball down the middle on a sunny day with the wind blowing towards the outfield.)
(I also recognize that my mentioning this will of course be a signal for trolls to go to our comments section — where I sneer at them and wait for them to slip up, as they sometimes do — and to Chumley’s comment section to make defamatory anonymous comments that smell of elderberries.)
It was definitely a marriage of convenience. He needed to stay in the country.
He has stated he always knew he was gay, so how did he end in Arkansas marrying a down-on-her-luck American woman?
It’s a real roadblock in his “coming out” narrative which is mostly bullshit anyway.
However, when he claims to be gay (not bi-sexual), and has known it since his formative years, I will take him at his word. So why does a gay, Syrian immigrant in his late twenties end up wed to an American lass?
He gave Vern this malarky: “we liked each other so we thought we’d give it a try, but it didn’t work out.” Gee, what a surprise.
I’d love to get Michelle Salmon, the Arkansas belle who captured Zahra’s heart, in a deposition.
There are better reasons to bemoan Ahmad Zahra.
“I’d love to get Michelle Salmon, the Arkansas belle who captured Zahra’s heart, in a deposition.”
You’d need to go to law school first. And, honestly, you probably should.
Why are you so afraid to confront this obvious scam? Doesn’t fit well within the PC narrative?
If I were an honest immigrant I would be appalled.
You wrote earlier: “It was definitely a marriage of convenience. He needed to stay in the country.”
I do not want the government assessing marriages that facially meet the formal standards for validity to see whether a couple had sex or had ulterior motives. If people want to get married so one of them can get citizenship, and it’s not patently provable in court that it was simply purchased, then it’s none of the government’s fucking business (beyond assessing the applicant for legitimate national security concerns). You understand and value resistance to government intrusion in people’s lives in other contexts; why don’t you appreciate it in this one?
To me, this is the opposite of an immigration scam that I really dislike: building expensive luxury houses (as in the Great Park) so that wealthy foreign nationals can deposit their kids there so that they can have anchor babies. Opposing that is just a restriction on corrupt commerce. Poking into the legitimacy of marriages, by contrast, is intruding into the most personal aspects of someone’s life. As someone who actually did fall in love with an foreign national, improving my life greatly, I’d oppose denying one person that right is wrong even at the cost of letting in ten people who did what you say that Zahra did. There are rules and follow-ups to determine the legitimacy of “green card marriages” prior to recognizing the legitimacy of a relationship — and they’re challenging — and I presume that Zahra passed them. End of inquiry, so far as I’m concerned. “Love matches” that aren’t so is not really a serious problem for this country, even if they occasionally bring in someone you or I might not like.
If you think that I was being sarcastic in saying that you should be a lawyer, I wasn’t. You’d be good at it. That’s a compliment, not an insult.
You could depose her but you’d probably mess it up.
Oddly, the scenario outlined below rings of a similar situation Chubby attempts to articulate. And what business do the Bushalas have donating to Tammy Kim’s campaign??
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-seabreeze/ (Find Sam Leung)
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-leung-hearing-20180802-story.html
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-09-07/l-a-real-estate-developer-accused-of-444-violations-of-campaign-fundraising-laws
Tony does have some history running afoul of the FPPC.
Well, David, let’s see I’m an American attorney with ties to Irvine and roots in the city from right around when it was founded. Let’s start there.
And, bushala is just an […] apex predator[].
Deliberately tendentious? I think you have me confused for Bushala, David.
The trust is only controversial to frauds.
Has Fullerton pledged to build that […] Day monument?
After all these years Team Bushala has found their pro-police association candidate. Mujajajaja!!
Tammy Kim boasts about being endorsed by the Irvine Police Association.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1056661659792773&id=100063468469439
https://voiceofoc.org/2012/02/fullerton-recall-drive-bankrolled-almost-entirely-by-bushala/
Looks like Team Bushala has warmed up to […] Tammy Kim.