About Us – Page 33 – Friends For Fullerton's Future

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011About Us

Subpoena Squashed

The Friends won a minor victory in the courtroom today as our motion to (s)quash a subpoena was granted by an Orange County Superior Court judge. The subpoena would have compelled us to reveal identifying information of a blog commenter to an Anaheim city employee, who is suing an anonymous John Doe for defamation.

burger-squashed — Quash. Such a cool word.

A series of arguments filed just before the hearing centered on the inherent nature of Friends for Fullerton’s Future itself. Is it a business, an unincorporated association, a global shadow conspiracy, or just an Internet domain? The judge didn’t want to go there. And really, who can blame him?

So we won on a technicality and the plaintiff vowed to serve the subpoena again. Outside the courtroom we implored her to focus on the nasty stuff left on other websites and drop the case against FFFF’s comparatively mild missive, leaving it to whither away into Internet nothingness where is just may well belong.

Will she listen? Doubtful. She seems as hardheaded as we are.

January 9, 2011About Us

Hey! Wait A Minute!

by Joe Sipowicz48 Comments

Yesterday, we received this anonymous e-mail from somebody who obviously reads our humble blog regularly:

I’m sure you heard about the vicious political attack against Congresswoman Giffords in Arizona. It was clearly driven by all of the anger and hate spewed from places like this very blog. This is the kind of event that might happen in Fullerton if you keep up your mean rhetoric and hateful talk. If it does, I hope you go to jail for a very long time.

Yes, this “kind of event” might happen in Fullerton. Or Anaheim, or Azusa, or Cucamonga. Or Timbuktu.

Confused thinking is not uncommon among some of our critics, but this is just ridiculous. Blaming “people like us” for a mass murder perpetrated by a wing-nut with an agenda is absurd. But it is also insidious because this type of argument is clearly used to provide cover for incompetent, irresponsible and unethical local politicians.

Mean rhetoric and hateful talk. Hmm. Mean? Dunno. How about honest? Hateful? Well, anonymous, you got us there. We do hate unaccountable government; and maybe even politicians who say one thing and do another, who waste public funds on junkets and who turn over our city to out of town developers.

And to deal with them we have elections.

January 7, 2011January 7, 2011About Us

The Subpoena: Will It Quash?

by Travis22 Comments

Let’s hope so. FFFF filed an emergency motion to quash a subpoena this morning in the case of Cheryl Sanders vs. John Doe, a defamation suit filed by an Anaheim city employee against an anonymous commenter in which the Friends were compelled by court order to release private records. Our little hearing is scheduled for Monday at 1:30 pm at the Central Justice Center.

View the motion to quash subpoena

Journalists have a right to protect sources who allege corruption within government offices, and we believe that right extends to bloggers, too. Lucky for FFFF, the courts in California seem to agree. Given that, we’d rather punch our own groins than divulge the identity of a potential whistleblower who partakes in the raging digital discussion that happens here.

Here’s the bottom line: Friends for Fullerton’s Future won’t surrender any of our anonymous commenters’ private data to anybody (especially a public employee) without a fight.

January 3, 2011January 3, 2011About Us

Subpoena from an Anaheim Employee

by Travis59 Comments

The OC Sheriff’s department staked out an FFFF outpost last week to deliver a subpoena demanding that fullertonsfuture.org produce information identifying one of our anonymous commenters.

Cheryl Sanders, currently a “Real Property Specialist” for the City of Anaheim, is suing (see complaint) one or more John Does who allegedly defamed her in anonymous comments on FFFF and a few other sites. The blog comments claim that the Anaheim planning department is taking bribes under the table, call for an investigation and state that Cheryl Sanders should be “brought to justice.”

anonymous — Faceless Internet meanies strike again

Of course, Sanders’ suit against the commenter claims that all of these statements are false and were made with the intent to emotionally harm her.

But back to the matter at hand: Cheryl’s initial demand for FFFF to identify the commenter was denied. We don’t disclose our logs to anyone. So what should we do with the subpoena?

View the subpoena

The Friends have a soft spot for the anonymous horde of commenters that visit our humble blog and we’d hate to see any of them get pushed around by a litigious public employee. On the other hand, making false statements with the intent to harm is a legal no-no, and the alleged victim should have her day in court. But the actual comment that was left on FFFF was vague, uninspired, and hardly defamatory in my professional opinion (it was removed pending the outcome of the case, but that was pointless since you can now view it on the last page of the subpoena.) Truthfully, this blog is disinclined to acquiesce to the court’s request, but we’d like to consider the opinions of the armchair attorneys that frequent our blog before we proceed.

And it’s worth noting that in over two years and 350,000 words, none of our own bloggers have ever been sued for libel. Why not? Because you can’t sue if it’s true.

December 15, 2010December 15, 2010About Us

Chaffee Surrenders to Chiefee

by Mr. Peabody22 Comments

Word from the OC ROV is that recent council election show horse Doug Chaffee has given up the ghost in his recount against place horse Pat McPension.

It was a forlorn hope to begin with but Chaffee wanted to give it that one last shot. He’ll be trying out for the Dodgers in the spring.

Of course OCs RINO elite is pleased as punch and God bless ’em. It’s been a tough 14 months.

December 9, 2010December 18, 2016About Us

The 2010 Fringies Are Coming to Town; Let the Fun Begin

by Jan Florys Dog7 Comments

Yes, Dear Friends, it’s that time of the year when young bloggers’ thoughts turn to love – love of the sublimely ridiculous, of course. And so we will bring you the 2nd Annual Fringie Awards.

You don’t deserve the abuse that is coming your way. Oh wait. You elected Chief MC Pension and Don Bonehead for the umpteenth time. You deserve exactly what you’re going to get.

November 20, 2010November 20, 2010About Us

Fleischman Puts ‘Pug in Repuglican

by Grover Cleveland15 Comments

You remember a fellow named Jon Fleischman, don’t you? Well, of course you do. He starred in the now historic 2007 holiday visit video to Dick Ackerman at the latter’s house inside a “secret, gated community” in Irvine.

tricky dick — I still owe Fleischberg for that. Heh heh.

An alert Friend just forwarded a post that was published on the completely hackish blog-for-sale, The Flash Report, of which Fleischman is proprietor. It’s a rousing condemnation of the practice of bogus non-profit, public benefit corporations staging legislative love-ins at plush resorts on Hawaiian islands. The things are bought and paid for by lobbyists who get to corner state legislators at fraudulent “conferences” that are nothing more than schmooze fests, golf and cocktails on the veranda. The Sac Bee gives more info on the latest scams, here. At the end you’ll read about “The Pacific Policy Research Foundation” that just perpetrated its annual scam on Kauai.

Sound familiar? It should.

We reported about the scam over a year ago, here. And the biggest offender of course was the hideous Linda Ackerwoman, bogus 72 AD candidate, who participated in the sham front known as the Pacific Policy Research Foundation that got her and husband, Dick Ackerman, annual junkets to Hawaii. And of course Ackerwoman was an officer of the bogus “charity.”

And to close the circle we have to recall that Fleischman was a big Ackerwoman cheerleader. Ackerwoman. No record, no accomplishment, no residence, no sale. What a difference a year makes.

November 14, 2010November 15, 2010About Us

My New Vocation

by admin15 Comments

Just when I thought it would be a good idea for me to hang it up from Fullerton politics, this sign showed up in and around Fullerton.

Good grief! Someone really took the time to make and plant these comical things. And that got me to re-thinking my role in Fullerton. Geez, thinks I, if these people believe I’m so powerful that they are willing to give me this sort of free publicity, maybe I should leverage that celebrity in the future.

And so I have decided that I must and will stay involved. There’s too much at stake and my gang and I are having too much fun. I guess it’s a calling!

Oh, and just a reminder: Chris Thompson was the #1 top vote getter in all Fullerton races including city council.

November 13, 2010November 15, 2010About Us

Congrats to The Fullerton Reformers

by The Fullerton Shadow6 Comments

Although it’s a bit late, I want to add my voice to the chorus congratulating Chris Thompson and Bruce Whitaker for their impressive elections to the Fullerton School District Board and the Fullerton City Council, respectively.

Chris Thompson out-polled every other candidate in Fullerton by a mile, despite his opponents’ support from the teachers union.

The Fullerton School District Board of Trustees has been a sinkhole for years, poulated by liberals and Ed Royce RINOs. And of course the Fullerton City Council…well the less said about that the better, but Whitaker will be running that show in no time.

I expect good things and real, effective change from both of them. I know I won’t be disappointed.

November 11, 2010November 11, 2010About Us

Chi’s Gang Accosts Admin at Vietnamese Restaurant

by admin57 Comments

Here’s a fun video of something that occurred a couple weeks ago. The entertainment value is pretty good.

I was minding my own business while having a bowl of delicious Pho at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant – just like I have been doing for 25 years. I was approached by a man inside the restaurant claiming that I was not allowed to park in his parking lot.

I finished my Pho quickly paid my bill and went outside only to be surrounded by a gaggle of Roland Chi supporters. It turns out that this restaurant is in the same center as Roland Chi’s scampaign headquarters! Those guys sure were interested in what I had in my truck!

Once outside I was again approached my the same man who claimed to own the shopping center telling me that I could not park there because it was his parking lot. The man in the video did actually push me, but being the sweet and gentle guy you all know and love I got in my truck and motored off.

Oh, and by the way, guess what I saw parked in front of Chi Headquarters? You guessed it. The white sign theft van!

QED.