FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Author: The Fullerton Harpoon
The Fullerton Harpoon is a retired commerical fisherman having served many years on the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru where he unfortunately lost the right side of his brain and his sense of propriety in a Greenpeace attack.
Yes, the house is dark at 2215 Lucky Way, Anaheim, CA.
The neighbors will tell you that, yes, someone was living there. Once in awhile they would catch a glimpse of a squat little kid whose infrequent visitors called “Yo, Billy Dude!”
The grass looked green, so somebody was paying the water bill, alright. And there was that one party with loud speed metal blaring. Once in awhile a pale round face peered out from behind the red velvet drapery to surreptitiously survey the neighborhood.
Two cars used to be seen in the driveway. The same two cars. They never moved. But now the cars are gone and the house is dark.
The only reason FFFF sprang into existence was because the people who pretended to be professional reporters stubbornly and steadfastly refused to do their jobs.
Their jobs. The jobs to which they accrete a professional aura, a sanctimony, self-righteousness, and institutional importance that demands as a concomitant an objectivity that is exercised in the public interest.
Of course all that stuff is pure bullshit. Oh, yeah, these people want to be treated as if they actually performed a function that allows them to claim an official title: “Fourth Estate.” But in reality their work is almost never objective, never diligent, and often downright incompetent. And the closer you get to tour own community the worse it gets.
The Great Unwind.
But back to FFFF. We started in the fall of 2008 because F. Richard Jones, the Braying Donkey of Raymond Hills, the man for whom no issue could not be used to spin off, dervish-like, on an insane rant, was getting a free pass. Twelve years of insulting people from the dais, weird, barnyard rantings and raving, backtracking on key issues, and generally insulting the collective intelligence of the City was ignored.
And this being Fullerton very little has changed. Consider 2010.
The chicken was ready for plucking.
Does “the press” inquire into how candidate Roland Chi got rung up on criminal charges by the DA for serially ignoring health inspection failures? Or ask why he is using a 501(c)(3) to prmote his political ambitions? Or even ask this miscreant how long he has actually lived in Fullerton?
Hey, that vest was not designed on company time.
Does “the press” ask Pat McKinley about his $215,000 pension payout – far more than he ever made actually working – and his ability to make rational pension decisions?
Aw, Hell. Close enough.
Does “the press” ask Aaron Gregg why a guy who skipped out on $75,000 in back taxes and stiffed local creditors though bankruptcy is qualified to manage the city’s $100,000,000+ budget?
The Mayor's Prayer Breakfast took longer than anticipated...
Does “the press” inquire into what appears to be Don Bankhead’s increasingly diminished capacity to participate in, let alone conduct, a public hearing?
Of course our local reporters never said boo about the carpetbaggery of Hirsute Sidho or Linda Ackerman, either.
For some reason people who work for the Times and the Register would rather look the other way than admit that the emperors have no clothes on. What are they afraid of?
It’s sort of funny how the “public safety” unions are always telling us that if it weren’t for them everything would be chaos, a sort of post apocalyptic nightmare with all savage criminals roaming the highway and all the structures aflame.
Thanks, FPOA!
Along with this nonsense, we get the image of these people as superior moral beings, giving of themselves to make our lives better through their tireless and limitless self-sacrifice.
So what can we make of the fact that Fullerton’s Police and “Fire” unions have endorsed the unendorsable Roland Chi?
Roland Chi. The creep who poisoned a dozen people in Garden Grove; who ignored over 90 health code violations; who plead nolo contendere and had to leave a sample of his DNA with the DA to dodge prosecution; who illegally used a non-profit charity to promote his campaign; whose very own father was caught red-handed stealing campaign signs.
Roland and Dad. Don't judge us by what we did to you. Judge us by what we say we will do for you.
Oh, yeah. That Roland Chi.
So why are the Fullerton agencies who are always promoting their exclusive powers to preserve public safety to exact ever greater concessions from the taxpayer, supporting the serial law-breaker Roland Chi? If it isn’t self-interest over the public good, then what, O what can it possibly be?
The reaction was visceral. And not in a good way...
The other day Fullerton City Council candidate, carpetbagger, and food poisoner Roland Chi sent out a press release touting his “volunteering” to educate folks about some So Cal Edison program. Despite the hilarious lack of actually doing anything, or even thinking up anything for himself, Rolando decided to hop onto some idea barfed up by the power monopolists at Edison.
It didn’t take long for an unhappy citizen to respond to this vacuity. And fortunately they cc’d FFFF:
Sent: Mon, September 27, 2010 4:40:42 PM Subject: RE: PRESS RELEASE- CANDIDATE CHI VOLUNTEERS FOR ENGERY & COST SAVING PROGRAM
Dear Roland,
This is a joke, right? Are you seriously taking a tax and spend model based on a false premise of enviromental protection that this utility company has subscribed to and a.) claimed it as your own, and b.) trying to pass it off as pro-small business? Wow. That’s pretty crazy.
The “ratepayers” (residential and commercial) paid extra on their bills and then the company redistributes it by installing different lights, toilets, programmable thermostats, etc. in commercial buildings.
That neither shows “innovative leadership” nor “advance(s) business development locally.”
If you are looking for innovative leadership, try doing something that YOU came up with, not someone else. And if you are trying to help local business development, how about reducing the size and influence of government and quasi-government entities (i.e. utility companies) not encouraging it.
This seriously made me laugh. Keep the liberal policies coming.
And here’s the text of the comical “press release:”
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
Contact: Roland Chi, Fullerton City Council Candidate
Office: (714) 889-8880
E-mail: RolandChi4Fullerton@gmail.com
CANDIDATE ROLAND CHI ASSISTS FULLERTON
BUSINESSES IN SAVING MONEY AND ENERGY BY
VOLUNTEERING TO INFORM OWNERS OF FREE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON INITIATIVE
*Chi is running for Fullerton City Council’s 2-year seat
FULLERTON – City Council Candidate Roland Chi volunteered to inform Fullerton business owners of Direct Install, Southern California Edison’s (SCE) new, energy-saving program. Chi’s efforts in conjunction with the City of Fullerton and Fullerton Chamber of Commerce to facilitate the awareness and participation of local owners in such programs, demonstrates his innovative leadership and commitment to advance business development locally.
As Fullerton continues to experience economic hardships, it makes it especially challenging for small businesses to profit, let alone survive. As a local business owner, Chi understands what owners are facing by having to cut costs and operate cautiously due to continuing revenue loss. To revitalize local business, Chi’s new ideas, initiative, and strong “blueprint” are necessary for short-term local economic improvement.
SCE’s new initiative seeks to lower energy costs for small-business owners by recommending and installing up to $10,000 worth of energy-efficient products at no cost to owners. For a business to qualify, it must be nonresidential and within SCE’s service territory. Direct Install is funded by California utility ratepayers and is administered by SCE and will remain available to business owners until all funds are exhausted. The program is available to any qualified business whose monthly earnings are less than $100,000.
Chi, SCE, and the Fullerton leadership organizations who participated in this imitative, understand the benefits of programs like Direct Install, which foster active dialogues and partnerships between businesses and government, establishing an openness and trust that enables more efficient City improvements.
“I chose to volunteer for this program because this initiative aligns with everything my campaign is about which is improving the business climate for local business owners here in the city of Fullerton. This program directly improves the bottom line of small businesses which is what I seek to do on the city council.” Chi’s business-minded approach will enable local owners to re-invest, prompt growth, generate revenue, and attract new business, thus creating new jobs.
Chi’s participation in Direct Install demonstrates his dedication to advancing local economic interests by fostering open dialogue with owners, integrating new ideas, and utilizing all available resources. “I will ensure Fullerton’s remains a great place to live, work, and raise a family.” For more information about SCE’s Direct Install please call (800) 736-4777. Further information about Candidate Roland Chi is avai lable at www.rolandchi.com or by e-mailingroland4fullerton@gmail.com. VVV
UPDATE: HERE IS A POST THE HARPOON PUBLISHED LAST SUMMER. AFTER YESTERDAY’S ITEM ON A COUNCIL-WANNABE NAMED MARTY BURBANK, WE FIGURED IT MIGHT BE TIMELY TO POST THIS AGAIN – JUST TO LET THE FRIENDS GET AN EYE AND EARFUL OF A MAN WHO WANTS TO BE OUR LEADER.
WHAT A GUY. EVEN THOUGHT HE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT HOW REDEVELOPMENT WORKS, HE IS PERFECTLY HAPPY TO SUPORT IT, MISCHARACTERIZE IT, AND START GIVING LECTURES TO THOSE WHO ARE JUST AS UNINFORMED AS HE IS.
THE COMMENTS WE RECEIVED WERE ALSO RIGHT ON.
When the Redevelopment expansion proposal was first trotted out by the City Council a while back, we noted that one of the orchestrated cheers came from a chap named Marty Burbank. Now, we had never even heard of Mr. Burbank until he popped up to announce his support of the plan that necessarily requires the City Council to making legal findings of blight where none exists, thus requiring them to mislead the public about the basis for the whole deal. Well, okay. Just another sycophantic Chamber of Commerce shill who doesn’t even appear to understand what he is cheering for. If he does, so much the worse.
But, as they say, the plot thickens. One of our pajaritos informed us that Mr. Burbank is not only a lawyer and an up-and-coming Chamber of Commerce figure, but that he has politicalaspirations, too. Well, that figures. This is Fullerton where knowledge of municipal government is an immediate disqualification for office, and stoogery always gets you a leg up. Sure enough, we located his website promoting a campaign for City Council in 2010. And the guy’s a Rotarian! Be still Dick Jones’ throbbing…er, heart.
Well, we hate to be spoilsports, but we don’t think starting out a campaign for public office by encouraging the City Council to perpetrate an illegal fraud is a great beginning.
Also we have grown a bit weary of the Chamber of Commerce being represented by “professionals” and educrats who really aren’t in business at all, especially when they perform as stooges for City Hall. And Chamber Executive Director Theresa Harvey is one of the biggest City Hall stooges we can recall – and that’s saying something! She is deliberately screwing all the Chamber members who will be ultimately hurt by Redevelopment discrimination and corporate subsidies.
City staff enjoys strong Chamber of Commerce support...
Marty, Theresa, et al., here’s a quick Redevelopment primer and one you will take to heart if in fact you care anything about free enterprise and small businesses, or your members, for that matter:
Redevelopment favors a relative few selected businesses at the expense of the all the others in the pursuit to claim a share of a finite amount of consumer disposable income. Any government policy that favors a minority of businesses at the expense of the majority is, a fortiori, ANTI-BUSINESS!
Get it? Good.
Anyway, we’ll be keeping our eye on Marty and any other political aspirants who want to dump the Redevelopment load on the good folks of Fullerton.
We received the following cell phone message from The Fullerton Harpoon who is currently on a fishing trawler in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan and, apparently, has no computer access.
Dear Friends, Happy Thanksgiving. Some of you may wonder what an old, crusty, salt-bitten sea gherkin like the Harpoon is thankful for (some of you may not, and may not care). I am thankful for being part of a society in which I can hurl my outrageous barbs (i.e. my current working version of the truth) at powers-that-be, and not get locked up;
I am thankful for having a bunch of fertile words and ideas bequeathed to me by people a lot smarter than I am, who happily deigned to bestow their gifts, Bodhisattva-like on the rest of us;
I am thankful for our Friends – a rare few who are able to view the socio-political terrain, and realize that we can do better – a lot better, and who are not terrified by the thought of criticizing the Chimps in Charge.
I am thankful for all the inert Clumps in the dead, sterile center, who peer out to the fertile, incubatorial edges of their paltry weltanshauung and start to sweat yellow fear pellets; for without them we fringers would have no frame of reference ourselves.
And so, from the cold, green-grey waters of the Sea of Japan, I wish one and all of the Friends a Happy Thanksgiving.
Here are some famous fringers who did not live in Fullerton.
Socrates - the original fringer.Peter Abelard was pretty damn fringy, and so was his girlfriend, Heloise.Old Mark tried real hard to fit in, but at heart he was a true fringerIn an era of proto-repuglican dead heads, H.L. Menken liked beer and Bach. A real fringy dude. Fringe! Fringe!Here, fringe looking decidedly feminine...
Dear Friends, we have received the following e-mail from Joe Sipowicz:
The last couple of months have been a lot of fun for me as I followed the doings in the 72nd Special Election primary. This was really the first time I have paid close attention to a state election, and boy was it an eye-opener. I guess enough has been said about the triumph of substantive record versus hollow slogans, mendacity, self-serving corruption, seemingly bottomless pots of money, and an outright lie of a residency.
My favorite part of the whole episode came when FFFF published a post on the Dave Lopez appearance at the Ackerman party at the Summit House and was subsequently notified by some huge law firm (Jones Day) that FFFF would be in big trouble if you didn’t remove it and cook up some cowardly “retraction” of simple facts. It was a pretty obvious case of harassment orchestrated by Ackerman himself.
You did not give in. Instead you left the post up and essentially told the Ackerman campaign and its running dogs to shove the crap right back up where it came from. I think you deserve a lot of credit for that. And I wonder how many of the sniveling centro-sphere pin heads who love to throw around the word ‘”cowardly” would have caved in to that sort of intimidation attempt.
Anyway FFFF, my thanks for you efforts to keep the Ackermans out of Fullerton. I’m not even sure if you realize the great service you have perfomed – but thanks!
We’ve been tracking the Sell the Fair (To Us) Movement recently and noted that Dick Ackerman had already admitted to being hired by an insider Board cabal whose intent was to get the State to sell the Fair – to themselves.
A couple days ago word leaked out that the County had gotten into the act, possibly to forestall the sale of the Fair, and to own it themselves.
Attached is a copy of letter sent by the County’s top lawyer, Nick Chrisos, to the local Attorney General representative. You’ll notice that Chrisos spends no time fingering the Board and it’s lobbyist, Dick Ackerman. Chrisos wants the AGs office to open an investigation. Why? Because by the time the Board got around to hiring Ackerman’s law firm on July 29th 2009, to help pull and persuade the RFP, they had already hired them to create their non-profit “Foundation,” with the intent of buying the fair themselves. Apart from the evident open meeting and conflicts of interest, Chrisos wants to know about what public expenditures were made by the Fair Board to hire lawyers to work for the benefit of their own foundation.
POST UPDATE: Click here to download the Chrisos letter.
Gee, this looks awfully official...Page 2 - the plot thickens...
As they say: hilarity ensued. We’ve been told that the AG tossed the issue into the lap of the OC District Attorney. Why? Because the State AG represents the Fair Board! DA Tony Rackaukas has been signally dilatory in going after criminals who don’t have gang tatoos so we will have to wait to see what, if anything happens.
In the meantime, here are the Fair Board minutes of the meeting in question:
Who's minding the store?Ah, there's more!Climax and Denoument?
Check out the language of the motion: go hire “consultants” (Ackerman) to carry out the intent of the Governor and Legislation. What noble public servants! Let’s not fight it. Let’s work with the State!
But let’s not forget the troublesome little problem that Dick Ackerman himself has admitted: being involved with developing the enabling language in the budget bill in the first place. Whose idea was that? And who paid him for that? Hmm.
It’s very difficult to conceive of a scenario in which Ackerman is not involved in this little cabal right up to his eyeballs. Did he lobby the legislature first, and then the Governor’s office regarding the specifics of the RFP? If he did he broke the law since he hadn’t been out of the Legislature for a full year as State law requires. Ah, those pesky laws! Enforceable? Again that’s up to the DA to determine. We are not encouraged.
The other day the Register’s number two press agent for the Repug Machine, Martin Wisckol wrote what he no doubt hoped would pass as a species of objective reporting, here. Yet somehow it fails the smell test, as might have been predicted.
Notice how Wisckol equates Norby’s pointing out that Ackerwoman is a carpetbagger (true!) with her campaign’s libelous misuse of court transcripts in a case that was dismissed by an appellate court! Martin unhelpfully points out how Ackerwoman did live in the 72nd District for a long time – a long time ago; as if anybody thought that was germane to the fact that SHE LIVES IN IRVINE NOW!
Notice too, how Wisckol passes directly along, without a shred of skepticism that Ackerwoman is some sort of “well versed” authority on water issues (of course he diligently omits reference to her MWD vote last spring to raise commodity costs to local water retailers by 20%). Typical. We remember how he swallowed whole her lie about being a businesswoman, here, and then actually tried to explain away his apparent credulity as some sort of reporter’s strategy.
Wisckol permits a delicious quote from Ackerwoman about all the hordes of ethically upstanding Repuglican electeds who have endorsed her (including her own husband – say, Dick, how’s that Fair thing working out?) without any mention of Norby’s endorsements – by Tom McClintock, for instance – a real conservative who’s worth all of the Ackerwoman’s RINOs put together – and then some.
We could go on and on, but why bother.
Fortunately, we’ve only got one day to go. And hopefully after tomorrow Martin and Frank can go have their Friday drinkies with the head ‘Pugs at Gulfstream without having to worry about writing any more press releases.
Of course if there’s a crashing defeat for Ackerwoman they may not even be invited anymore.
