Pacific Strategies – $3,200 for One Op-ed

Was a ghost written “op-ed” worth the $3,200 that Cunningham charged the OC Children and Family Commission? You be the judge. Here is the article that found it’s way into some obscure journal. Notice how the supposed writer, Shawn Steel,  starts off by announcing his opposition to prop 10. Sound familiar? Then begins the fight to save Rob Reiner’s legacy.

But really. How could this have taken the better part of 20 hours to produce? That’s two and a half freakin’ days! The Declaration of Independence was written faster.

The irony of the “we know the value of a buck” schtick written by somebody billing the taxpayers $200 an hour to hand out toothbrushes is profound.

And why can’t Shawn Steel write his own op-eds if he actually cares about this issue instead of wasting the CFCOC money? Of course he may not be very bright. For some reason he is a supporter of Hide and Seek Sidhu.

Anyway, here’s the Pacific Strategies billing that reflects the effort on that masterpiece. So what does that work out to, ten bucks a word?

More scary ghost(writer) stories to follow…

The Priorities of Organized Labor

Like their brethren among the ranks of the public employee unions, it appears the non-government unions want to grab as much government gravy as they can, too.

Here’s a mailer sent out by labor unions for Lorri Galloway. Same brainless jobs, jobs, jobs theme as Hide and Seek Sidhu, but with a decided emphasis on make-work jobs for union members earning very high prevailing wages.

See, we’re in a budget crisis. So what’s the solution? Jobs! Say what? It takes a few mental bends to figure it out, but presumably people with jobs will pay taxes and increase tax revenue. But wait! Where on Earth are those jobs going to come from? Galloway knows: they come from projects funded by current taxpayers. In other words, ya gotta spend more money to make money. The typical big government refrain. Will it ever break even? Of course not, but who’s keeping track?

Naturally, those “living wage” earners will also need a place to live and Lorri probably has a plan for that too – more subsidized low income housing, of course!

Of course the unions have no more conception of what a County Supervisor does than do Harry Sidhu or Lorri Galloway.

You know, I really just don't get it.

Supervisors ARE NOT in the jobs creation business. They are supposed to be there to manage the County government.

And why can’t people like Galloway look at government  from the taxpayers point of view? That is: to provide necessary County services efficiently at the best value? Instead its all about satisfying the government workers and their demands. And that’s exactly why the State and the local governments of California are so completely screwed up.

It’s pretty simple. Galloway wants to go to work for the unions, and they are already working for her.

Galloway Puff

Apparently the Precious Princess has sent out a campaign mailer, and boy is it hollow. Almost as empty as her noggin. Here’s one side:

I wonder how many of these people are going to end up suing me...

Ah, the Shining Path to a brighter future runs right through Galloway and her fortune cookie. Pedicures for everybody!

Here’s the other side:

Jobs, jobs, jobs!

Oh oh! Hide and Seek Sidhu has already staked out that territory. And come on, Lorraine, you’re taking credit for the All Star game and the Kaiser expansion? Hell, Kaiser already has a medical center in Anaheim only a mile away. What’s going to happen to that? The only thing Galloway can really take credit for is the massive ARTIC boondoggle that is siphoning off $140,000,000 Measure M tax revenue into Curt Pringle’s white elephant.

I wonder if Disney is going to like the Precious Princess taking credit for their expansion. Hmm.

The Liberal OC – Where The Truth Goes to Die

Dan C-somethingorother, the pompous Priapus who runs the The Liberal OC blog as a front for hapless, incompetent, or crooked Democrat politicians likes to pretend he’s a real reporter. Who can forget his hushed “this is Dan C-somethingorother reporting” sign-off on that ridiculous “exclusive” about how Precious Princess had received “a series” (actually it was one) ” harassing” phone calls (actually the guy just told Galloway what he thought of her). We told that story, plus how this bozo tried to blame us, here.

Yesterday he offered up a polished scat about eagerly awaiting an impending “hit piece” against Shawn Nelson by Hairball Sidhu. Everything’s legit, see, he has his “sources,” but of course we see through that bullshit right away. John Lewis told Matthew J. Cunningham and Cunningham told Dan C. Way to wear out the reportorial shoe leather, Dan!

A large hairball was passed.

Now for the really inaccurate part:

“while Nelson enjoys the advantage of IEs from the Fullerton Friends blog…”

FYI, Intrepid Boy Reporter #1: FFFF is not an IE, has not and will not be one in this election. Get it? Please to be removing cranium from lower colonic cavity. Didn’t they teach you anything in journalism school about facts?

By the way, Dan, since you are a reporter, when are you going to report to your readers Lorraine Galloway’s adventures in Monterey, her multiple bankruptcies, her tax liens, and all those embarrassing judgments that make her patently unfit to run a dog walking business, let alone a county? Don’t worry. We can be your “source.”

Poor Bella

As a former abused doggie myself, I know what it’s like to be mistreated. Here is poor “Bella” yanked around as a stage prop by her owner, the infantile 57 year-old airhead Lorri Galloway – who insists on acting like a scatterbrained teenager.

Viewers were shocked when Galloway hoisted this poor girl into the air, putting all her goods on display (not my type, even when I was alive).

We all sort of got the impression that Ms. Galloway would soon be wandering off to her bedroom to have a tea party with her dollies; or maybe play house with the stuffed animals on her bed – Mr. Bonkers and Glenda the Giraffe.

Real nice manicure and coif, though (on Galloway and Bella). Now there’s a couple of high maintenance females.

Time to End the Children and Families Commission’s Autonomy

It's almost always about the children...

The public relations and tax revenue fixated OC Children and Families Commission needs oversight. How do I know? Because of the amount of money these people pay to PR types and lobbyists – who just happen to be pals of Commission members. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, in fact.

Last year the Riverside County Board of Supervisors addressed the same issue when their “First 5” Commission members were busted for distributing grants to their own organizations. Here’s a 2009 article from The Riverside Press-Telegram that talks about the problem. The solution proposed by the Riverside BOS was to subsume their “First Five” Commission into the County government structure.

Whether or not this sort of thing has been going on in OC is not known without a complete shakeout. But what is known is that the Commission has been paying for things like toothbrush distribution and facebook editing at a rate of $200 per hour – to a Matthew Cunningham, a pal of the current Commission Chairman, and a running board occupant of the John Lewis political machine.

Then there’s the small matter of the hundreds of thousands contracted for lobbying services to Phil Isenberg as well as our own local big-government gold digger – Anaheim Mayor for Hire, Curt Pringle.

When you awake you will feel completely refreshed...

It’s high time to place this Commission in a chain of command that puts ultimate responsibility in the hands of elected representatives – people who will have to account for grants and contracts awarded to political operatives, and to decide what sort of political lobbying, if any, is appropriate. And that would be the County Board of Supervisors.

Pacific Strategies – The Facebook Gold Mine

More fun stuff from one of OCs repuglican welfare state spongers, Matthew J. Cunningham. $4,200 in 8 days, to be precise. And ten references to Facebook updates.

Link to full invoice

Funny how stuff kids do for free can be mined by a well-connected political operative for big bucks. Well it’s big bucks when you charge 200 clams per hour and have no competition.

I ran the table at the Children and Families Commission. Nobody seemed to notice.

What’s really startling is that the Children and Families Commission kiducrats are willing to pay somebody that exorbitant rate for a “social network” medium “work” that will have a completely negligible effect. Not negligible, you say? Prove it says I.

Oh, yeah. Be sure to reflect upon Mr. Conservative Republican’s daily billing totals and note the inevitable “account management,” whatever the hell that is. Who knew being a kiducrat payed so well?

Pacific Strategies – Won’t Someone Please Think of The Children?

Using kids as a front to support your bureaucratic empire is almost something of a cliche. The educrats and teachers unions have been doing it for years. And so naturally the OC Children and Families Commission sings from the same sheet music.

Check out these billing entries from Matthew Cunningham to the Commission.


Okay, on January 15th, 2010 Mr. Republican is ghost writing an op-ed piece for a Democratic politician – the former State Superintendent of Schools, Delaine Eastin. A dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do do it, right? Besides the money is great.

The inability to write is not a partisan political issue...

Then we notice that about five weeks later the beaver-like Cunningham is hard at work disseminating the “Eastin op-ed” to literally dozens of readers via “social media tools”

A little digging and we uncovered this Sacramento Bee op-ed “by” Delaine Eastin dated 2/24/2010. Delaine is fighting hard for the dough that fuels the kiducrat machine, and that, parenthetically pays Cunningham $200 an hour. Is this the very same piece he wrote for the otherwise mute Eastin? Check it out and see if the style isn’t 100% Cunningham schmaltz – including the obligatory quotation from Abraham Lincoln. Be sure to read the comments as a reminder of Eastin’s troubled regime as Superintendent of Schools.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. The OC Children and Families Commission is paying hundreds of thousands a year in PR and lobbying expenses that are handed out to the politically well connected like Cunningham, who is good buddies with Commissioner Chair Bill Campbell and Hugh Hewitt. What is the procurement process for these contracts, and what quantifiable metrics are applied to judge the success and ultimately the renewal of these contracts?

It’s time to open the window on this Commission and let some fresh air into the room.

Pacific Strategies Critical Task #1 – “Daily Media Review”

I never charge for reading the comics or the sports section.

One of the critical tasks assigned to Matthew Cunningham by the PR fixated and obviously rudderless OC Children and Families Commission is to “review” media, i.e. read newspapers and blogs, which is convenient for Cunningham because that’s what he does anyway – for free. Now he’s a pro at 200 bucks an hour.

Yes, Friends, you read rightly. He’s paid to read blogs.

This is exactly what I had in mind...only they were supposed to be Democrats!

January 25, 2010 was another banner day for Pacific Strategies. $700 for a few hours noodling around on the computer. Plus time for 18 holes in the afternoon after the siesta!

Oh, and look. A phone call to newly minted Assemblyman Chris Norby made from Suite C. Probably to assure Chris that Cunningham really wanted him to win all along and how much he really, really hates carpetbaggers and perjurers.

Pacific Strategies Jackpot – The $1680 Day

It's only bad if you get caught...

UPDATE: as one of our commenters pointed out, you can click on the billing fragment, below to get the picture of what happened for the month of July 2009. Enjoy, but try not to retch.

August 17th, 2009 was a great day to be Matthew Cunningham. See, the Red County Blog editor and pretended conservative pulled down $1680 wordsmith pimping for the liberal welfare state via his lucrative deal with the OC Children and Families Commission.

Why this Commission, that was created to help little children, is dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars each year into opinion swaying of dubious value is exasperating. The fact that this money is going into the coffers of well-connected repuglicans also gives off quite an aroma – influence peddling-wise.

How and why these contracts are awarded is certainly a topic that should be addressed by the Commission and their Executive Director Michael Ruane, as well as by the Board of Supervisors, who appoint Commission members.

One thing is crystal clear. This Commission is more interested in PR and lobbying for their revenue than they are actually accomplishing anything.

Here is the billing statement for that day that put a happy face on all the Cunninghams in Suite C. Who knew that revising vanilla versions of op-eds could be so rewarding?

Maybe Cunningham really does believe in the good works of the Commission, although I’ve got to wonder what other tax and spend schemes he will be promoting next.