"Orange Juice! Politics For The Rest Of Us." - 12 new articles
Huell Howser – Redevelopment Whore? Say It Ain't So.
We read in the LA Times this morning a story about Redevelopment by Jessica Garrison. It was a kind of weird hybrid about State budget raids on Redevelopment agencies and about how the California Redevelopment Association had paid to produce a series of TV shows touting the wonders of redevelopment and hosted by Huell Howser click here for story . We have always considered Howser something of a menace to culture and intelligent television with his dopey drawl, his inability to ask an insightful question, his perpetual overstatement of the obvious, and his complete disregard for whatever his "guests" happen to be saying. The transfiguration of the mundane into the near metaphysical (hey Louie, you gotta get a picture of this bubblin' mud hole!) is another annoying part of his tiresome schtick. But on balance he seemed to be fairly innocuous, little kids who didn't know any better liked him, and we remember with fondness his attempt to save the Long Beach Naval Shipyard facilities. Read more.
Quachzilla attacks Little Saigon!
The Orange County Register is reporting that Westminster City Councilman Andy Quach was arrested on suspicion of DUI after crashing into a light pole. The pole knocked out power to approximately 300 homes. Councilman Quach said that he is willing to accept all responsibility.
That all sounds good; unfortunately for the people of Westminster, it does not appear as though his actions reflect his words. Councilman Quach refused to submit to a breathalyzer test. If Councilman Quach was really willing to “face the consequences” then he would have agreed to a breathalyzer. I am not critizing Andy Quach the individual, since it is his right to refuse a breathalyzer, but I am critizing Andy Quach the Councilman since I believe that elected officials should be held to a higher standard. I am not saying that the Councilman is guilty but refusing a breathalyzer comes across as though he is hiding something about what happened earlier in the evening at “dinner with his friends.”
Since Councilman Quach said he wants to face all the financial consequences, I would like to help his constituents get in touch with the Councilman. In the event that any of their food was spoiled in their refrigerators last night or they would like to voice any other concern, I am including his city e-mail address. Councilman Quach should resign from his City Council seat if the blood test results show that he was, in fact, DUI. In unrelated sports news, The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim continued their winning ways ON THE ROAD and won game 2 of a three game series against the Minnesota Twins 11-6. Donations to the Nick Adenhart Memorial Fund can be sent to: Geier Financial Group
Huell Howser, “California Gold’s” founder and host, sells out on redevelopment
Exactly one year ago this past week I spoke to Huell Howser, producer of the very popular, nonpolitical, “California Gold” public access TV Series regarding an upcoming series he was about to commence. You can see that July 29, 2008, blog post, and the 30 reader comments, on the Orange Juice. Our July 2008 discussion was triggered by discovering that Huell was hired by the state Redevelopment Agency to visit a group of projects around the state to promote the alleged benefits and success of same. This 14 segment series was to be named “California’s Communities.” In my phone discussion I asked if he planned to cover redevelopment projects that were about to commence or those that were not “success stories.” To illustrate my point I mentioned the city of Baldwin Park where hundreds of homes and businesses will shortly be visited by Bisno Development’s bulldozer(s). In that discussion Huell told me he has “no political agenda” and that he “keeps politics out of it,” a reference to his multiple TV series. He did provide a list of projects that will be visited. When I asked him to include redevelopment stories that were not successful, or to mention that they were not all a success story as defined by CRA, Huell stated “they (CRA) are underwriting the series…they are paying me.” So much for fair and balanced topic coverage. As he said “the series will not be pro-redevelopment,” and as a full year has passed, I will now divulge some of the 14 project sites mentioned by Huell in that call. Temecula, Clovis, railroad bridge and the Alameda Naval Station. Let me close by stating that we enjoy his traditional KCET reports and are saddened that he has decided to accept one side of the redevelopment story as hundreds or thousands of Californians have become victims to redevelopment bulldozers when they do not wish to sell their homes and businesses.
Profits Before Patients! Why Healthcare Reform and the Public Option Matter With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform. This PBS special unveils the two party system that is entrenched in denying health care for Americans. Whether you have your own health care insurance or whether you used to have it, the goals are the same - to deny service, while taking money for premiums. If you get sick, chances are pretty good that you’ll be targeted for removal from the health care insurance provider. This video is a “must see”. Full text transcript of the program can be accessed at this LINK. ~~Snip~~ You know, we have more people who are uninsured in this country than the entire population of Canada. And that if you include the people who are underinsured, more people than in the United Kingdom. We have huge numbers of people who are also just a lay-off away from joining the ranks of the uninsured, or being purged by their insurance company, and winding up there. And another thing is that the advocates of reform or the opponents of reform are those who are saying that we need to be careful about what we do here, because we don’t want the government to take away your choice of a health plan. It’s more likely that your employer and your insurer is going to switch you from a plan that you’re in now to one that you don’t want. You might be in the plan you like now. But chances are, pretty soon, you’re going to be enrolled in one of these high deductible plans in which you’re going to find that much more of the cost is being shifted to you than you ever imagined.
Patients gather outside the Virginia-Kentucky Fairgrounds for their turn to enter the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Health Expedition in Wise, Va., July 24, 2009. Photo by Paul Morse for AARP Bulletin Today. More at the LINK
Local red and blue blogs foundering
Pity the poor bloggers at the fading Red County and the Liberal OC blogs. While they are spending more and more of their time bashing us, their numbers just aren’t holding up of late. According to Blognetnews.com’s weekly political blog influence index, we are currently rated #2, while Red County/OC is all the way down at #20. And Alexa.com shows (see the graphic above) that the Orange Juice blog is absolutely trashing all the local blogs in the very important search category. And check out our annual Sitemeter statistics in the graphic below:
Red County does not allow anyone to see their readership data, but the Liberal OC does, and it ain’t pretty:
Maybe Red County and the Liberal OC would do better if they weren’t such one-sided hacks for their respective political parties? When you consider the low ratings or our California State Legislators, our Governor and the U.S. Congress, it is obvious that the voters don’t trust the red and blue parties anymore. Our promise to you here at the Orange Juice is that we will report all sides - we will go after bad red and blue politicians. And NONE of us are paid political hacks. We do what we do as a public service, period. This is a blog with NO political consultants or P.R. hacks on staff. I will NEVER allow such people to blog for me. Thanks for making the Orange Juice blog the #1 political blog in Orange County!
Why is the O.C. Fair allowing an alleged school thief to participate in their BMX competition?
“Ben Snowden, 28, will compete this weekend in the Big Air BMX Triples competition at the OC Fair,” according to the O.C. Register. Excuse me? Why didn’t the Register’s latest article about Snowden mention what they reported back in April of this year:
Why would the Orange County Fair allow a guy who was accused of robbing schools to participate in this event? Isn’t this a bit ridiculous? I don’t know if Snowden was ever cleared of the charges as the Register never revisited the story. But this just doesn’t make any sense. What was the O.C. Fair Board thinking?
Santa Ana’s city managers jumping off a sinking ship
The City of Santa Ana’s Council Meeting agenda for Monday includes, “GO LOCAL PROGRAM STEP 2 TECHNICAL ANALYSIS - Execute an agreement with Cordoba Corporation in the amount of $4,845,026,” according to Gustavo Arellano over at the O.C. Weekly’s Navel Gazing blog. This money was allocated to Cordoba, whose President, George Pla, sits on the board of the Santa Ana Business Bank, over the objections of Santa Ana City staff. That should come as no surprise. The Council and Mayor Miguel Pulido have been in bed with Pla for some time. But to waste so much money on Pulido’s light rail pipe dream is disgusting - even as the city continues to lose managers - who are jumping ship like proverbial rats. We already reported that Assistant City Manager Catherine Standiford is leaving. She is supposedly taking a job with Soroptimist International, according to my City Hall pajaritos. She is currently the President of their Garden Grove Board of Directors. Also leaving is Jim Ross, the head of Santa Ana’s public works department, according to my pajaritos. His legacy is miles of badly paved streets, a decaying water and sewage system, and the highest water prices in Orange County. Library Director Rob Richard has left as well, according to my pajaritos. He was also in charge of the city’s website. The city recently folded the library board and put the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission in charge of the fading library. I understand that the City’s Personnel Director is also leaving and we know that the City Clerk, Pat Healy, is hasta la bye bye as well. The city recently hired a former intern, at a salary of over $120,000, to replace Healy. That intern is a Latina so at least City Manager Dave Ream can say that his executive team finally includes a Latina. Steven Harding, the former Deputy City Manager, left a year or two ago. He was replaced by Cindy Nelson, who some believe is going to eventually replace Ream - if he ever leaves. I am told that Ream will be gone in a year or two. Perhaps he is waiting to destroy the entire city before he finally exits. In the interim, Pulido’s choo-choo to Garden Grove is on track, even if most of his city managers are running for the hills…
Pulido’s choo-choo?
Allies: Obama WTF in Afghanistan
Obama’s “Afghan Strategy” has delivered “much less than it promised” due to the lack of a realistic strategy, an influential committee of lawmakers said Sunday. In a report, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said without a clear strategy stabilising Afghanistan had become “considerably more difficult than might otherwise have been the case.” Lawmakers criticised US policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan and warned the “considerable cultural insensitivity” of some coalition troops had caused serious damage to Afghans’ perceptions that will be “difficult to undo”. What has Obamas “Afghan Strategy” done so far? Targeted the US Military is what. The number of US deaths in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since Obama’s military strategy was implemented. July 6 was the highest one-day Afghan death toll of U.S. troops. Seven good men died. Where are the media blasts? The countdowns? The SCREAMS? Remember during Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was the daily broadcast of US deaths - recounted ad nauseum. At the current rate, 2009 would be the deadliest for the U.S. in more than seven years of fighting, surpassing the 132 killed last year, the military said. Now, all quiet on the left wing front.
Will voters back home also have doubts? A New York Times poll taken in mid-June showed that 30 percent of respondents thought the war in Afghanistan was going well, while 55 percent thought it was going badly. Those numbers don’t necessarily reflect poorly on Obama — they were similar last summer, but now Obama is in charge of Afghanistan and making proactive decisions there, not just following or cleaning up after his predecessor’s orders. He owns this conflict now, whether the headlines get better or — as in the case of the reported abduction of a U.S. soldier — worse. Where is Rachel Maddow to proclaim the humanity of it all and blame the C in C for our missing soldier? It won’t take long. Watch how badly a “Democrat War” goes…
According to today’s LA Times Mission Viejo is not alone in a RECALL actionMission Viejo councilman Lance MacLean should follow the action taken by Flint, Michigan Mayor Donald Williamson who resigned 10 days before his recall election. Following are brief comments on other recall efforts around the country as published in today’s LA Times “Throw the bums out’ is national mood.” Tuesday August 25th is the deadline for turning in the recall petitions in Mission Viejo. From what I am told the volunteers have obtained more than enough with a comfortable cushion against any challenges. The Times reports that “Recall efforts are already up more than 100% over all of last year, according to one tally. Voters target local leaders: mayors, school board members, city and county officials, sheriffs. “He made people so mad,” said Eric Mays, a retired GM worker who led an earlier effort to recall Williamson that failed. “He had to go.” Fueled by the recession, voters nationwide are recalling local leaders, including mayors, school board members, county officials and sheriffs. Although there is no official tally of recall efforts, the website Ballotpedia:Recall reports at least 52 local campaigns this year — up from the 24 last year, it said. At least 13 elected officials this year have resigned, decided not to run for reelection or been recalled, according to the website. “There was so much anger toward big government and, right or wrong, we at the local level are the direct target of it,” said County Commissioner Kevin W. Stufflebean of Coos County, Ore., who successfully beat back a recall attempt this year. In May, voters in Tuolumne County, Calif., recalled all five board members of the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District… In Kimberly, Idaho, voters started a petition drive to recall the mayor and two council members after they backed a 50% increase in utility fees to fund infrastructure projects. The petition drive fell short, and law enforcement officials are investigating whether local officials tampered with the process. A mayoral recall vote was set for this fall in Toledo, Ohio — despite Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s announcement July 12 that he wouldn’t seek reelection…. Recalling officials is considered a relatively drastic form of democracy. Instead of challenging an official’s stance on specific issues, such as tax hikes or land use, “voters are condemning all of their policies,” said Phyllis Myers, head of State Resource Strategies, a Washington-based consultant on state and local ballot measures. “It’s rare that you have the public be that angry with an elected official,” Myers said. With the recession continuing to hurt city budgets, “these early recalls could be the beginning of a deluge of local political battles,” said Joe Mathews, a senior fellow at New America Foundation and former Los Angeles Times reporter. Few municipalities have as much experience mobilizing the electorate around a City Hall recall as Flint. The city pushed to recall two mayors in seven years. Williamson’s predecessor was recalled in 2002 over economic issues…. As mayor, he was combative with the local media and critics. “He’d been pushing people and pushing people’s patience for a long time,” Mays said. Williamson, who did not return calls for comment, and his supporters scoffed at the recall effort, saying voters were recall-crazy: In addition to the mayor, a councilwoman faced a recall attempt, as did three board of education members in nearby Westwood Heights School District. In June, Don Plusquellic, who has been mayor of the struggling blue-collar town of Akron, Ohio, since 1987, overwhelmingly defeated a recall initiative, which cost the city $175,000…. “I’ve been involved in local politics for decades and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said attorney Warner Mendenhall, who spearheaded the mayoral recall effort. “People are energized. They’re ready for a fight.” The entire Times recall summary can be found at the following link. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-recall1-2009aug01,0,2626189.story OK Santa Ana activists. Are you happy with Mayor Pulido? If not are you mad enough to begin a recall? We need to let every public servant know that while we carried them over the finish line, we will not sit on the sidelines if they fail to deliver. More often than not, instead of drinking Orange Juice, they fill up on Kool Aid with arrogance of power. Right behind Lance MacLean is CA Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Claremont, who broke his pledge not to raise taxes. He is now in the crosshairs of other activists getting petitions on his recall which requires 36,000 valid signatures.
Mansoor is getting bigger every day
We should all be worried, Mansoor is getting bigger and bigger everyday. Not only Latinos ought to be scratching their heads, but also “chinitos”, “turcos” and all the immigrant family in Orange County, from Fullerton to San Juan Capistrano. Months before the 2010 election, Allan Mansoor’s piggy bank has gained a few extra pounds. So far he’s gotten more than $150.000 in campaign funds for his state assembly run. It’s time for OC residents to take the Honorary Minuteman and Mayor of Costa Mesa seriously. Whether we like or not, what Mansoor has been able to accomplish is quite impressive, especially if we consider his lacking academic background -no “real” college degree- and his lack of a moderate political base. He’s been known for making friends in the most radical groups of the county. Jim Gilchrist, Martin H. Millard, Barbara Coe, to name a few, are his buddies. He’s been a jailer for most of his life and doesn’t have a woman. In some social conservative circles, not having a girl is considered a big sin. Before people make wrong assumptions on the woman issue, Mansoor doesn’t seem to be gay either. At least his record shows that way. A few years ago, when he decided to get into politics, he wrote scathing articles against homosexuals on a local Costa Mesa website. And we all know that he’s got a special dislike for Latinos. Anything coming from Santa Ana is no good for him. If you have a Mexican name, such as Cuauhtémoc, Xochitl or Gustavo (sorry my friend), you better changed it to something more European sound prior to attempting to engage in some business deal with the city of Costa Mesa. In short, Mansoor is an intolerant guy. With all these negative traits, Mansoor has been able to do good with other more mainstream OC conservatives recently. That’s why he’s got more money than any other candidate this far, and that’s why OC residents, particularly the Vietnamese community, must take him seriously. Costa Mesans didn’t do their job when he started out his political stint. They are now paying the price for underestimating him. Humberto Caspa
Eminent domain involving Cong. Ken Calvert and former Sen. Bill MorrowThis is a first for me. Sandra Stokley, my wife’s cousin, writes for the Riverside Press Enterprise. What a surprise to see her covering an issue involving a California Congressman and “eminent domain,” the subject which consumes much of my time and efforts. In her first report on this saga Sandra writes: “The (Jurupa) Community Services District sold the property to Calvert, R-Corona, and his partners more than two years ago for $1.2 million in a transaction the Riverside County grand jury concluded violated state law. The (park district) lawsuit charges the community services district with fraud and deceit in connection with the property sale. It seeks at least $1.5 million in general damages and unspecified special and punitive damages. That never happened in this case despite the fact that the Jurupa park district had expressed interest in the property as a possible park or sports field going back to at least 2001.” With recent discussion of Term Limits some might question where did our elected officials end up after leaving Sacramento. In this fight over land ownership we learn that former State Senator Bill Morrow, R. Oceanside, is representing the Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District Board of Directors. To commence the powers of “eminent domain” and issue a “resolution of necessity” require the vote of a supermajority of the Agency. In this case they require 4 of the 5 Board members to vote in favor of enacting that police power. There has been a slight hick-up in that the Board failed to obtain the required fourth vote on Thursday night. “The Press-Enterprise GLEN - The Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District board of directors on Thursday night failed to pass a resolution that would have initiated the seizure of 4 acres from a partnership that includes U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert. The resolution needed the votes of four of the five board members. Directors Stephen Anderson, Larry Riddle and Robert “Bobby” Hernandez voted yes. Director Richard Lynch abstained and director Brad Hancock was absent. Lynch gave no reason for abstaining. Attorney Charles T. Schultz, who represents Stadium Properties, the partnership that owns the Mira Loma property, had no comment after the meeting. But during the public hearing, Schultz urged directors to vote down the resolution because they had not made the case that the Stadium Properties land was the only place a park could be placed. He also noted that the district’s 2009-10 budget had no money for such a project. “You have to have funds to build a park,” he said. The park district, which does not have the inherent power of eminent domain, sought permission from the Board of Supervisors to seize the property. The request was denied. District officials then turned to their constituents. In a mail-in ballot last August, nearly three-fourths of voters approved the use of eminent domain to seize the land.” Gilbert comment. “Abstaining” is almost the same as voting “present.” Does Director Richard Lynch have a personal conflict of interest or perhaps a close relationship with Congressman Calvert? While this is not a typical “taking” it is something that we need to monitor to see what the outcome may be should this acquisition end up in a court of law. Note: Former Senator Bill Morrow has partnered with San Diego attorney Peter Lepiscopo. Following is the July 30th story link: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_vote31.4657ae7.html
Ruh-roh! Is Sarah Palin getting a divorce?
Is Sarah Palin fishing for a new hubby? “Todd Palin and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin are to divorce. Multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage have confirmed the news,” according to AlaskaReport.
Ruh-roh! This doesn’t sound terribly family values does it? UPDATE: Palin has refuted the charges, on her Facebook page. But has she blown it again? Her is how Politico.com assessed her reaction:
“Palin’s usually busy Twitter feed, with nearly 129,000 followers, has also been tweet-free since last Sunday,” according to the New York Daily News.
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