Category: Boohooism

Posted onBoohooism

“Joel Swintowski”: Who is He? What Is He Promoting?

by 22 Comments on “Joel Swintowski”: Who is He? What Is He Promoting?

The other day FFFF received this rather odd comment on the blog:

“Thanks for risking your lives so that my family and I can enjoy OURS!”
– Joel Swintowski

There were links to a website here that sported an official-looking letter from Fullerton’s police officer’s union president, Barry Coffman asking for money. There was the quote from Mr. Swintowski, clearly implying that he supports the Fullerton police union.

I got to wondering who this Joel Swintowski person might be. I never heard of him. So last night I contacted our FFFF  investigative team of people-finders and guess what they came up with? There’s no such registered voter in Fullerton or in all of Orange County with any such name.

But, as they say on TV infomercials: Wait! There’s more! I also found a host of identical websites for police unions across California with the same quote from this “Joel Swintowski” guy. Clearly this operation is a money gathering scheme organized by some entity and then sold to police unions throughout the state like this one in Menlo Park, probably with a hefty cut taken from proceeds collected from unsuspecting suckers.

Now back to Fullerton. Coffman says it’s a “donation” that he’s begging. The request for money states: “Your contribution to us today will help provide outreach and strengthen relations by and between the FPOA and several local worthy groups and charities.”

Now we know the FPOA spends tens of thousands of dollars trying to get right-thinking people elected to the Fullerton City Council. And by right-thinking, I mean “public safety” union stooges who will raise their pensions and lower their retirement age.  Do any of these “contributions” find their way into political activity? Could be. They are not tax deductible – the kind of deduction you get making a contribution directly to a real charity, eliminating the pistol-packin’ middleman.

So who might some of these “worthy” recipients be? Any guesses?

Could they include the campaigns of the same two guys, Bankhead and McKinley, who are getting prepared to raise your water rates 91% so they can use a portion of that money to support their own plush $McMillion retirement plans?

Maybe it’s time for an IRS audit of this solicitation for alms. Maybe the State AG needs to be called in, again. You know, just to make sure it’s legit.

And in the meantime maybe it’s time for FPOA to find a real Fullerton resident for its self-promotional testimonials.

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Posted onBoohooism

Bread and Circus. The Return of Pam Keller

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Yesterday teachers launched another demonstration along Harbor Boulevard to promote higher taxes (yours) to pay for higher pay and bennies (theirs). FFFF was once again on hand to remind folks of the hundreds of teachers in Fullerton pulling down more than 90K for nine month’s employment.

Yes, my jaw is retractable.

KFIs John and Ken were there too to engage in an intelligent conversation with the protesters as only they know how to do. And guess who was there to defend the indefensible? That’s right – Pam Keller – the prototypical Fullerton Boohoo out of whose mouth hardly anything intelligent has tumbled in living memory. But that has never kept her from opening it. Wide.

Hey Pam, your'e on the clock collaboratin', right?
It's all about the kids you idiot!

Photos by OC Register.

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Posted onBoohooism

Out of Context?

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Matthew J. Cunningham is scurrying around the internet trying to plug the holes in his sinking conservative reputation. Amongst other things, he has accused the Friends of posting portions of his invoices “out of context,” whatever that means. Of course he refuses to explain the details of his activities and continues to do the old “look over there” routine.

You want context? Fine. Here are all of the Pacific Strategies invoices that we scanned. Enjoy.

[ ] Invoice-2007-10.pdf 73K 

[ ] Invoice-2007-11.pdf 65K

[ ] Invoice-2008-06.pdf 231K

[ ] Invoice-2008-07.pdf 255K

[ ] Invoice-2008-08.pdf 170K

[ ] Invoice-2008-09.pdf 348K

[ ] Invoice-2008-10.pdf 336K

[ ] Invoice-2008-11.pdf 543K

[ ] Invoice-2009-01.pdf 149K

 [ ] Invoice-2009-03.pdf 232K 

[ ] Invoice-2009-08.pdf 201K

[ ] Invoice-2009-11.pdf 148K

[ ] Invoice-2009-12.pdf 129K

[ ] Invoice-2010-01.pdf 81K

[ ] Invoice-2010-02.pdf 73K

[ ] Invoice-2010-04.pdf 268K

[ ] Invoice-2010-05.pdf 279K

And if you don’t have time to go through all those invoices, just listen to this ‘ol clip from the John and Ken show:

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Posted onBoohooism

Epic Fail!

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I hear the train a comin'...

Scott Martindale of the Register has posted this shocking revelation that two-thirds of JC students in OC fail to get any sort of diploma or certification after six years.

That’s a pretty damning indictment of a system that sucks in billions of tax dollars in this State every year and that is opaquely run by local boards of trustees composed of educrats, geriatric featherheads, and assorted big-government apologists.

Apparently, our community colleges are largely acting as baby sitters for late teens and early twenty-somethings who seem to be more interested in putting off a serious confrontation with the working life than with education. Harsh? Yes. Oversimplistic? Maybe. But consider that through the JCs in OC we are subsidizing the educational infrastructure for over a hundred thousand people at any given time who will never graduate.

And then contemplate the vast, breathtakingly compensated hierarchy of admninstrators that administer this  Empire of Failure and tell me the system ain’t broken.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

A Blast From The Past

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Every now and then we like to remind our Friends about Fullerton’s recent history. We did it here, in a post on the arrogant mismanagement of Fullerton by former City Manager, James L. Armstrong. We noted that in 2001, after seven years’ worth of failure in Fullerton, he failed all the way to the top job in tony Santa Barbara.

But, alas, Poor Jim has run afoul of the cops up there, and, recently was taken to task by a blog for his efforts to stall the release of information about a city program that subsidized houses for – city employees! Too bad Armstrong mistakenly cc’d his sentiments to the very people who were making the public records request!

Jim Armstrong hard at work shoveling...well, you know what he's shovelling.

Still the same. Incompetent and arrogant.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Reason Rips First Five & Co.

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Here’s an article from Tim Cavanaugh at Reason, having some fun with Rob Reiner’s big government First Five Program.

The best part is the reference to our old friend Matthew J. Cunningham. Follow the links all the way back to a 2006 Flash Report blog post Cunningham did on the program – before he got hooked up with all that Children and Families green!

And here is a tale in The Voice of OC(EA) about how our local branch is suing the State to keep their stash from going to help support MediCal! It seems these people are really, really desperate to keep their gravy train rolling along. After all, the Executive Director of the OC branch makes $327,000 a year in salary and benefits. His job? Handing out cash. Nice work if you can get it.

Right now the First Five superstructure is tottering and about to collapse. Let’s help give it a push.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Why Hugh Hewitt Belongs on the First Five Commission

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A lot of Love on that First Five Boat

The other day we re-ran a post from last year questioning how repuglican yakmouth Hugh Hewitt was qualified to be on OC’s version of Rob Reiner’s tax and redistribute Children and Families Commission. See, we didn’t believe he could possibly meet the requirements for membership defined in the County ordinance.

Watching yesterday’s Board meeting provided some enlightenment and showed how much Supervisor BillCampbell, who chairs this ultra-liberal commission, wants Hewitt on there. Badly.

Yes. It's a Do Tank.

As Campbell explained, Hewitt does indeed qualify in the education category. How? Because he is a director of the local branch of something called Young Life. I googled the name and found this. Not much to go on. No list of directors, so we’ll just have to take Hugh’s word for it. But check it out. It’s a Christian-based program for adolescents. This has zero to do with 0-5 child development and nothing to do with any professional qualifications for anything, so at least now we can be completely satisfied that Hewitt’s appointment was always bogus.

But as they say on TV infomercials: wait, there’s more!

According to Supervisor Shawn Nelson, who objected to Hewitt’s appointment, the latter missed seven meetings in a twelve moth period, and, per the code, was automatically removed from the Commission. Of course the Commission staff never notified the Board of Supervisors as the law requires. Hewitt was simply permitted to keep participating in the few meetings he was able to make, and was casually “re-appointed” along with the rest of the incumbents. And on that subject Nelson demonstrated that no solicitation for new members had ever been made – also required by the law.

So there you have it. A packed, opaque Commission doing whatever the hell it damn well pleases, and answerable to nobody, except presumably, its grossly overpaid Executive Director and his protector Bill Campbell.

 

 

 

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Posted onBoohooism

The She Bear

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The She Bear made me do it!

On the eve of my departure for Sacramento to the repuglican convention, I was just about to enter Steamer’s to visit with city councilwoman Sharon Quirk-Silva at her annual St. Patty’s day party and listen to my Friend OJ blogger and entertainer extraordinaire Vern Nelson play the piano (and trust me Vern is quite the entertainer) and who did I see? None other than Fullerton’s biggest sissy – city councilman (by 91 votes) Pat McPension.

At first I thought about going up to him to ask how the Hell he had the nerve to show up at Quirk’s party. After all, this is the same puppet that followed his repuglican string pullers and stuck a proverbial knife in Quirk-Silva’s back on that old Mayor pro-tem stuff.  Remember? But then I thought: it’s not that big a deal – he’s probably use to sticking knives in people’s backs.

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Posted onAbout Us

Dan C and Art of Careful Reporting

by 28 Comments on Dan C and Art of Careful Reporting
Dan C.

Quite recently Dan Chiemlewski of the deadly boring LiberalOC blog put up a post about censorship and civility or something. I noted this pearl from the self-righteous and sanctimonious Dan C., who styles himself a real reporter:

Comments on FFFF are a free for all and so is sock puppetry (thanks guys for that visit to my home by the Anaheim Police Department on the day of my son’s graduation for a comment by a “Dan Chimichanga-Cub Reporter” who threatened to cut Harry Sidhu’s brake lines.  I’m sure you found it hysterical),

Well, here’s what the commenter actually said.

#9 by Dan Chimichanga, Cub Reporter on June 16, 2010

Sidhu better check his brake lines every time he gets into a car between now and November. That’s all I’m saying.

Now the context of the post (and others like it at about the same time) were all about how Dan Cs carpetbagging darling Lorri Galloway had vaulted back into third place in the 2010 4th District Supe’s race. Mr. Cub Reporter got the message and commented: if Hairbag Sidhu were to pull out of the race, then Anaheim Hills’ Precious Princess might assume the second position in the fall run off against Shawn Nelson. Hence the warning about brake linings was a snide shot at Galloway’s vaulting ambition perhaps playing out by disabling one of Hairball’s BMWs. That’s perfectly obvious to anyone who put the comment in context. It was joke.

Okay it wasn’t very funny, but it sure wasn’t a threat. And anybody who tried to make it into one was either disingenuous or a damn fool. And anybody who keeps persisting in this nonsense is deliberately lying. Not the sort of behavior you’d expect from a proud member of the OC journalism corps. Come to think of it I wonder what part Dan C. might have played in reporting that alleged “threat” to the Anaheim PD in the first place.

Sock puppet, out.

 

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