A Step in the Right Direction Archives - Page 9 of 16

December 7, 2016December 7, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

A Worthy Cause

Reposted from Bax Baxter

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Please support local children who have lost a parent to police violence this holiday season by donating an unwrapped gift to our Young Survivors Network Toy Drive before DECEMBER 15TH. You can help by simply purchasing a new toy, of any value, and dropping it off at the Young Survivors donation box located front and center at Max Bloom Cafe Noir (220 N. Malden in downtown Fullerton 1pm – 10pm M-Sat) Volunteers will wrap the gift for you before it is distributed among the families of these victims.

I know many of these kids personally. They are strong, they are beautiful, and they are hurt. To have lost a parent, in such a violent manner, at the hands of someone wearing a uniform that you have always been told to turn to when you needed help, is uniquely horrifying. Additionally, the family, and the victim, are far too often villainized in the press and by the police in a concerted effort to mitigate any civil action. Regardless of the circumstances which led up to the violence, these children are innocent, and they have been dealt a hand which is incredibly difficult to process. A simple act of kindness on your part this holiday season, will bring them a little joy, and assure them that there are members of their community, who care about them.Please be one of those member of their community.

I thank Kevin at Max Blooms for allowing us to use his establishment for this cause, and I thank all of you who plan to step up.

Merry Fucking Christmas!

December 5, 2016December 5, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

A while back we shared the musing of one Matthew J. Cunningham, a repuglican ink-dribbler, who falsely blamed Bruce Whitaker for the embarrassing showing put up by repuglican Larry Bennett in Fullerton’s 2016 council election. See, Whitaker is not popular among the “everything must go” repug’ crowd who see government not as too big, but as just not having enough teats.

Better get it while you can... — Better get it while you can…

So here, forthwith, I present another one of this sorry individual’s political ejaculations. This post was supposed to be a wrap-up of the State Senate District 29 election, a district that includes all of Fullerton. Repuglicans loved them some Ling Ling Chang. And why not? Her candidacy was the creation of the noxious Ed Roski bag man, Bob Huff, the perpetual cheerleader for the failed California Redevelopment swindle.

Back to the actual post: see if you detect the wave of wishful thinking intruding upon the shallow lagoon of this flunky’s intelligence:

After yesterday’s OC Registrar of Voters update, it’s highly likely Democrat Josh Newman’s unlikely political journey has come to an end – and it’s time to start addressing Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang as Senator.

29,746 ballots have been counted in the last two days, and Newman is not only failing to close the gap – he is falling further behind. At this stage of the game, if you aren’t gaining ground, you’re losing ground because the universe of uncounted ballots is only getting smaller – meaning the percentage the second-place candidate has to capture keeps getting bigger.

Congratulations to Ling Ling Chang, who once again has emerged victorious from a bitter and hugely expensive election battle.

Of course anyone who follows election counts knows very well that the post-election day provisional ballots always lean heavily Democrat in Orange County. They also know that the late VBM ballots likely go Republican – and these were obviously the first post-election ballots counted.

looking for the exit... — Looking for the exit…

A few weeks of sporadic ballot counting have passed, and the final tally has Fullerton’s Josh Newman, State Senator-elect, winning by 2500 votes. He was sworn in today as the State Senator form the 29th District.

I feel constrained to point out that this “battle” was “hugely expensive” only because of the $6,000,000 pumped into it by the Statewide ‘repugs and their running dogs to smear Newman, who appears to be a thoughtful and decent guy. Is there any need to also point out that Cunningham’s rancid Dave Gilliard-owned blog also participated in that shameful smear effort?

Friends, we may accurately call Ling Ling Chang many things: nakedly ambitious, serial liar, empty suit, air head, puppet, soon-to-be unemployed; but one thing we can’t call her is Senator.

December 1, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

Okay, So Maybe I was Wrong!

by admin13 Comments

By Tony Bushala, Guest Contributor

Way back in 2010 I offered a post attacking Norberto Santana and his relatively new blog Voice of OC. The title was “The Sad Degenerate World of Norberto Santana.” It was a pretty tough post attacking Santana’s objectivity given the fact of his financial backing by the OCEA union and what some of us perceived as slanted reporting. I won’t go into any more detail. You can check out the original post, here.

Well, over six years have passed and I, like many others have come to appreciate the good things Norberto and the Voice of OC have done uncovering the bad behavior of many of our so-called “conservative” leaders in Orange County. The Voice has been particularly effective uncovering the influence peddling going on in Anaheim, but also covering the County level, where the Board of Supervisors have been working us over like we were peons on their plantation. Their Board’s latest little tactic is to limit public comment to just 3 minutes per person, per meeting. Pretty shameful, right?

With an almost complete lack of competent news coverage on local stuff from the mainstream media, it is more important than ever that we recognize and financially support the the Voice of OC.

November 27, 2016November 27, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

Revisiting The Seven Walls of Local Government

by Joe Sipowicz2 Comments

What? We can't hear you. Please speak louder... — What? We can’t hear you. Please speak louder…

Over five years years ago this blog published an essay (broken into bite-sized pieces) on the subject of local government and how it exercises its ability to effectively marginalize and ultimately disenfranchise the very citizens it is supposed to be working for. It is called The Seven Walls of Local Government and it has both scholarly and entertainment value.

For the reawakening of the blog from its almost four-year snooze, I propose to re-schedule this masterpiece for the edification of the Friends. Stay tuned.

November 18, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

We Get Mail

by Mr. Peabody23 Comments

FFFF has always been a drop box for mail from sources that prefer not to be identified. Some are obviously credible; others perhaps less so – sort of like like Sgt. Andrew Goodrich the FPD spokeshole who claimed that the cops who killed Kelly Thomas suffered broken bones, etc.

Yesterday, we received an e-mail from one of our readers identifying himself as “DTF” who passed along what was presented as information sent out by a disgusted cop who was hired, and departed the FPD for a different agency during former POChief Danny Hughes reign:

cop-letter

And there’s more, relating to the Joe Felz incident:

I have excellent sources at FPD who hate the Hughes clan because of the lies and double standards.

Get a hold of those videos before they are erased, hopefully that hasnt already happen. Admin is trying to make the officers sign a new policy to prevent them from talking about the incident.

When the first two officers arived on scene, Felz was still in his car trying to free it from the sidewalk and tree. The officers pull up behind Felz just as he dislodges his car and drives away. The officers purse him and actually perform a semi pit maneuver to stop his vehicle. (There is minor damage to one of the police cars if not both)

This next part is sketchy. One version he was pulled out of his car at gunpoint and Felz identifies his self and immediately says to call Hughes. The other version is he flees his car when it has been immobilized and there is a short foot pursuit.

But one thing I know is that the officers on scene said Felz was HAMMERED there was no doubt he was drunk.

There is definitely video of the whole incident from the point the officers arrive on scene.

FYI no breathalyzer is necessary on scene. You can’t make a person take one at the scene. But the accident it self, coupled with his obvious impairment is plenty to have arrested him.

Put pressure on the PD to release the video. This is another huge cover-up by Hughes and his boys.

DTF

Friends, feel free to lend credence to this information in any degree that makes you feel comfortable.

November 16, 2016November 16, 2016A Step in the Right Direction

See? FFFF Can Do Puff pieces too!

by Sean Paden5 Comments

While the focus of this blog is rightly on the many problems and challenges faced by the City of Fullerton, I’d like to briefly mention a bit of a positive story, just this once.

Many of you know Thom Babcock, who was one of the members of the group behind the 1994 Recall, who most recently served as Fullerton’s representative on the Metropolitan Water District from 2012-2013 and is a friend of this blog and many of its contributors. This it Thom:

Since 2014, Thom and his granddaughter, Alyssa, have participated in Catarina’s Club’s pasta drive, which helps feed motel kids in the Anaheim area. Thom estimates that he and his granddaughter have collected 125 pounds of food for the drive and $300 in donations so far, but if any of our friends at FFFF would like to help add to the total, you can contact Thom by Sunday (Nov. 20) at tbabcock2609@gmail.com to drop off any additional donations of pasta or pasta sauce. There’s a lot to be cynical about in our political environment but there are good people and causes in our community and if you can help a lot of kids in need will appreciate it.

December 25, 2012December 25, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Holiday Fun

by The Fullerton Harpoon54 Comments

Who knew there was a boat parade in Fullerton?

December 16, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Hail to the Chief!

by The Fullerton Harpoon136 Comments

Fullerton has a new mayor, Bruce Whitaker.

Bruce is the obvious choice to lead Fullerton – he is calm, intelligent and principled. After a year of rambling, southern fried idiocy that was completely MIA, and then another year of pea-brained, pedagogic scolding we are now set for a strong, responsive, and responsible mayor.

We all know that during the past eighteen months Whitaker has stood up for accountability from an out-of-control FPD Culture of Corruption, and justice for Kelly Thomas, a homeless man murdered by members of a police department that subsequently tried to hide the whole mess. I also did a little background check on Bruce’s history of activism in Fullerton. It is impressive.

Whitaker became involved in Fullerton politics in 1993 when the newly minted City Manager, Jim Armstrong tried to strong arm an unnecessary utility tax. Naturally, the antiquated liberals, RINOs and former public employees on the City Council went for it. Bruce and a handful of compadres organized to recall Bankhead, Catlin and McClanahan, and, ultimately get the tax repealed. Fullerton did just fine without it.

After the County bankruptcy in 1994, Whitaker plated an important role in organizing resistance to the usual “break it and tax you” model of government. The big government crowd tried to get a new sales tax to pay for their own disaster. That too, failed.

Subsequently Bruce has had a distinguished record as a appointed office holder in Fullerton, a conservative watch dog, and a determined foe of abusive Redevelopment. He was elected to the Council in 2010.

From what I’ve seen Bruce is the real deal – a man for whom the concept of “freedom friendly” has nothing to do with the Curt Pringle-like crony capitalism that passes for conservatism in Republican Orange County.

Congratulations, Bruce. We’re counting on you to look out for the interests of the citizens and taxpayers over the interests of the public employee unions.

November 14, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Kiger’s Lead Shrinks To 56; About 1500 ballots Left to Count

by Mr. Peabody255 Comments

As of yesterday, November 13th, Travis Kiger’s lead over Jan Flory had been reduced to 56 votes. According to the ROV there remain about 1500 mail in ballots and provisional ballots left to count.

It’s gonna be close! Will Fullerton move ahead or will it retreat to the bad old days of denial and unaccountability? Will Jan Flory’s Dog become a major player in the OC blogosphere?

Stay tuned. We should know by the end of the day!

October 28, 2012A Step in the Right Direction

Sunday Editorial – The Wrath of the Police Unions

by admin69 Comments

I’d say Steven Greenhut hit it out of the park with this piece in today’s OC Register:

Despite the revelations, police unions continue to behave as before, trying to intimidate council members who refuse to go along with their demands for ever-higher pay and benefits, and protections for their members from oversight and accountability.

Two councilmen in Fullerton, Bruce Whitaker and Travis Kiger, are experiencing treatment similar to the Righeimer episode in Costa Mesa. The Fullerton police union is angry at the role those men played in demanding reform in the wake of the death of Kelly Thomas, a schizophrenic homeless man fatally beaten by Fullerton officers in July 2011.

Please read the rest of “Steven Greenhut: Others feel wrath of police unions”

Category: A Step in the Right Direction