A cynical person said the other day that when he was born, OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’ mom pushed him out along with a can of white paint and a four inch bristle brush.
It’s common knowledge around town that T-Rack, as he is fondly known, rarely, if ever, pursues political miscreants, but in the case of the OC Fair Board and its odd behavior in the summer of 2009 he had no choice. See, the State AG refused to handle the issue due to a conflict of interest and dumped the investigation back to OC, where Rackauckas was waiting with paint and brush to work on his next masterpiece.
Don't look at that guy over there. He says he didn't do anything wrong.
After almost a year the DA coughed up a 50 page recitation of the facts. Or to be more precise he regurgitated what was told to him by the individuals involved and subsequently passed it along as Gospel. Of course there were no depositions, no testimony under oath, or any other annoying and time consuming probative truth-getting-at devices.
According to OC’s own Picasso, the Create-Your-Own Board crew exercised poor judgment, but, since they obviously had nothing to gain from the sale except for a few miserable tix, no harm done, get it? After all, the fact that the real estate could be worth nobody-knows-how-many millions to people behind the scenes was not an issue to the DA because the new Board was to have served without compensation. And after all the DA isn’t a mind-reader, right?
So nobody did anything wrong – even though the Fair Board members clandestinely created their own non-profit to buy the Fair with the help of former State Senator Dick Ackerman, paid for The Flack with public money (later reimbursed after the fact) and also hired Ackerman, not to lobby the Legislature, oh, no for that would be illegal, but rather as a mere “consultant” to go up to Sacramento to feel out the Governor on his seriousness to sell the OC Fair property. Just talking to the Guv’s crew ain’t lobbying per the Government Code, and the Dickster is home and dry, right?
Here is the DA’s report, on page 15, quoting The Dickster:
Mr. Ackerman stated that he and the OCFEC “had absolutely no input into the language [of the bill] whatsoever.”
Um, yeah, right, T-Rack. But then there’s the problem of some acutely embarrassing words right out of Ackerman’s own mouth. Here he is in an October 23, 2009 article in the Daily Pilot in which Mr. Consultant tries to explain away his activities:
“In order for the fair to be sold, it would require budget language to authorize the state to sell it,” he said. “I did some preliminary work to get the language in the budget.”
Well that’s just swell, Dick. That language sure wasn’t going to write itself and then jump into the bill on its own, now was it? Working to get language into legislation is exactly what lobbyists do. In fact, that behavior may well serve as the very definition of lobbying. And it certainly doesn’t square with what the DA says Ackerman later claimed was his job.
And finally, note that in the report Ackerman says he had “no input.” Strike as non-responsive, Dickie-boy.
The issue isn’t whether you are a failed lobbyist, but rather that you were doing it in the first place!
I love it. Everybody keeps calling me "Honorable."
I also wonder if the DA’s investigators even bothered to ask OC legislators like Assemblyman Jim Silva, just who it was was lobbying him heavily, as he indicated to OJ Blogger Vern Nelson, last year. Did he talk to Mike Duvall, who also opposed the sale? Naw, why bother.
Aw, Hell, who really cares anymore? It’s not like anybody expected Rackauckas to actually look into a case where the principals didn’t sport gang tats.
Personally, I think you have admire the certain peculiar of skill set required to be able to define something by describing all the negative space around it, and coming to the conclusion that there was really never anything there in the first place.
So what do you do on Sunday afternoon after church and you don’t give a damn about pro football?
I know! Let’s go steal some campaign signs!
Let’s hope this was not the message of Sunday’s sermon!
An alert Friend snapped this image of a respectable-looking, necktied gentleman who was taking down “Bad Chi” signs on Euclid and Malvern. Here’s what our Friend told us:
“This Chi supporter was removing Bad Chi signs Sunday afternoon.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with Nextel Direct Connect”
Yikes! White collar, solid shirt! That 80s look ain’t workin’ for ya, brotha’.
Can anybody identify this lawbreaker? We are now giving odds that this guy is not related to Roland Chi in some way. And the odds are starting at 100-1.
When you’ve already been busted for poisoning folks, ignoring what you did, and then, finally having to give the DA a sample of your DNA to plea away your problems, what do you do for an encore?
The cops support me. Of course I'm law abiding...
Roland Chi seems to have decided to resort to petty theft.
A helpful Friend just sent in the photos below, which were accompanied with testimony that he saw an individual stealing “No McKinley” signs at the intersection of Rosecrans and Bastanchury on Saturday. Well, guess who that van belongs to. It belongs to AR Market, the same business owned by Roland Chi that was the site of the repeated health code violations we reported here!
Why would Roland Chi’s crew steal “No McKinley” signs? Good question. Could it be because Chi and McKinley are both endorsed by the “public safety” unions and it’s just a case of one union stooge looking out for another?
Roland's got my back. In fact we're writing a screenplay for a buddy cop movie.
We’ll be doing some sleuthing to see if can identify the idiot in these pictures in our ample image library.
And by the way, we’ve noticed a lot of “Bad Chi” signs missing. We’ll be looking into that thievery, too.
Man walking over to No McKinley sign.
Man taking No McKinley sign and stashing in van.
Gotta cover those tags, genius!
It’s starting to look like Roland Chi can’t do a single thing honestly. I’ve filed a police report and have sent these images to the Fullerton Police Department. Let the wheels of justice turn (or spin, as the case may be)!
You all know what happens when you forget to shut the back door. Invariably a fly will buzz in and start landing on places you’d rather he didn’t land. Pretty soon revulsion turns to annoyance as the pest refuses go away. Sometimes the big, fat, lazy ones are easy to smack and the problem is solved. The smaller, more agile ones defy your attempts to swat them and seem to have a positive genius for eluding eradication. You have something he wants.
Somebody left the door to OC’s 4th Supervisorial District open, and in came Harry Sidhu – uninvited, unwanted, unintelligible. And there he landed – right in the middle of the political potato salad. See, we have something he wants: our votes. Above all he seems to have a pathological hunger for the recognition that comes from elective office, and for that he needs us. For that he will even lie on voter registration forms and cook up fake addresses where he doesn’t live.
After this I will only run one more time!
As our collective revulsion has blossomed into true annoyance at this home invasion, I have to wonder what Supervisor Shawn Nelson’s campaign is going to do in the next three weeks to obliterate this hapless, yet persistent irritant. Considering that Nelsons’ campaign consultant is the very same guy who worked for Mimi Walters against Sidhu in 2008, and who prompted the now comical Sidhu retreat, I predict it won’t be pretty. But sometimes you have to get tough with pests, once an for all.
Last December we posted about a character named Ajit Mithaiwala who had built a heavily subsidized low income housing fustercluck project in Fullerton in the 1990s that epitomized the futility and incompetence of Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.
Remember? His name popped up on a host committee list for a fund raiser thrown by high speed rail impresario and con man Curt Pringle, in honor of his boy, Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu. Since the name appeared to be mispelled we had fun with the notion that it might be somebody else.
Oh, no, no, no! That is another guy, I tell you. There are hundreds of them. Thousands of them.
In the post we wondered aloud what had become of Mithaiwala, and what he had been up to the past ten years.
It turns out we weren’t alone. Federal government auditors, prosecutors, and the FBI have been wondering too, according to an L.A. Times article forwarded to us by an alert Friend.
All sorts of misbehavin’ have been attributed to this guy and his development company that found a niche building subsidized, low-income housing projects, including fraud, failure to report income, and building shoddy, unsafe buildings. His politcal contributions have been scrutinized, too.
Here are a few choice morsels in the article from the Federal investigator:
“virtually no financial records,” no general ledger, no balance sheet and no bank reconciliations. Working with forensic accountants, he said he had discovered “potential fraud and criminal activity.”
On Tuesday, he told the court he was still trying to gain control of company assets and had identified 400 bank accounts, as well as $600,000 in gold bullion and three cars, including a Bentley.
It transpires that besides Fullerton, Mithaiwala has left a trail of tears behind him in cities across Southern California, including our neighbor to the south, Anaheim, where the Mayor Pro Tem is none other than Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu.
I know nothing. Nothing!
Yikes. You don’t mess with the Treasury Department, boys. Even Al Capone could tell you that.
Old Hide and Seek Sidhu is getting pretty desperate. His squalid excuse for a campaign started putting up signs proclaiming that 4th District Supervisor Supervisor Shawn Nelson is a “job killer.” Of course they ripped off Bushala’s format, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say.
WTF?
Of course nobody is supposed to know that Sidhu can’t name a single job Nelson has ever killed; and that apart from a few chicken flippin’ jobs at his El Pollo Loco in Glen Avon, some campaign prostitutes, and the dude who cleans out his peacock cage, Sidhu has never created any.
No, Harry. Assclown is not a job.
Oops, sorry. Nelson did kill one potential job – Harry Sidhu’s attempt to be a County Supervisor!
In politics somebody is always presenting explanations for things that may or may not be going on beneath the surface. And so we present to the Friends something to think about:
I was just informed that in a Red County post my old punching bag Matthew J. Cunningham wrote a post about some jackoffs down in Mission Viejo. Why he cares about that is his own business, but in this post he threw out this precious and completely gratuitous nugget:
I realize that sounds juvenile and stupid, but that’s how these types think (kind of like how a Fullerton council candidate disliked by a gadfly faction there had a hole punched in his truck’s gas tank).
Okay, we gotta cut this piece of shit some slack. After all, we were the ones that pulled back the rancid curtain and exposed to OC Republicans the fact that their wordsmith was wordsmithing hard for $200 an hour on behalf of meathead Rob Reiner’s tax-and-redistribute, whole-village rearing Children and Families Commission.
And of course we nailed him for supporting the stillborn supervisorial campaign of Democrat and serial miscreant, Tom Daly.
Still, insinuating that FFFF had something to do with Kevlar Cueball’s gas tank puncture is pure chickenshit. And of course it is couched in all the craven wordsmithing words that will keep you out of court and maybe even avoid serious physical rebuke.
Looking down from doggie heaven on you folks I get some interesting perspectives on things. Like right now Fullerton has not a single female liberal running for the city council.
Back in 1982 & 86 it was everyone’s fave featherhead, Molly McClanahan; in 1988 it was Maryevelyn Bryden, a humorless old bat who was trounced by the still marginally cogent Bankhead; in 1992 it was my former broomstick wielding mistress, Jan Flory, who was chain-whipped by the incomprehensible Julie Sa; in 1994, 1998, and 2002 Flory ran again and actually won a couple of times. In 2004 and 2006 Sharon Quirk and Pam Keller emerged, right on cue to claim their liberal XX chromosonal birthright. In 2008 it was the hapless Karen Haluza.
But now, in 2010? Nobody. The closest thing the Fullerton liberal crowd can point to is Doug Chaffee. And he isn’t a woman.
But wait! All is not lost! There’s always the hand-picked Ed Royce candidate and darling of the Dick Ackerman/dim-bulb Federated Republican Women crowd: Patrick McKinley.
On September 7, Jan Flory gave McKinley $200 – more than she spent on dog food for me in ten years. McKinley’s website also boasts the endorsement of McClanahan, too. So what gives?
Are the Fullerton Dems so sad and pathetic that they have to go along with Royce and Ackerman tools, the same repuglican goons who have worked so tirelessly for decades to undermine Democrat candidates and electeds? Remember that Ed Royce was the sole creator of Leland Wilson who knocked off the liberal beloved Flory in 2002.
And you know, now that I come come to think of it, I have to wonder if these endorsements don’t say just as much about McKinley as they do Flory and McClananhan. Hmm.
As he slithers off into sad irrelevance, the former blog proprietor, now blog wage slave, Matthew J. Cunningham, is looking for any sugar daddy he can latch onto. After we blew his cover as a hyper-liberal nanny state teat sucker, he clearly needs work, and scribbling out press releases for the campaigns of Curt Pringle puppets may not even pay the rent.
Cynthia Ward, one of a diminishing breed of honest Anaheimers recently posted on the Red County blog about complaints to the State Attorney General about the incompatible offices held by Anaheim’s Mayor-for-Hire, Curt Pringle, who also holds the esteemed positions of OCTA Board member and California High Speed Rail Authority Chairman.
Right on cue, Cunningham attacked me, personally, instead of explaining why Pringle has been using his chairmanship of the CHRA swindle to try to move state taxpayer resources into his OCTA subsidized Anaheim ARTIC boondoggle.
It's in my interest and that means it's good for everybody...
Oh, yeah, that one. The one that has already misdirected $140,000,000 of County-wide transit tax dollars for the immediate benefit of Pringle’s useless glass Taj Mahal. And let’s not forget the biz the soon-to-be termed out Pringle will be passing to himself when his “consulting” business really gets to some serious greasin.’
A deep thought or a hard stool?
Cunningham has always congratulated himself on his self-perceived powers of thought and argumentation and “credibility,” a credibility that certainly took a shot in the mauve speedos when folks found out he was making $200 an hour passing out toothbrushes for Rob Reiner’s tax-and-redistribute First Five program. Well, lets take a gander at what Mr. Credibility has to say about yours truly. He begins his comments:
You neglected to mention the central in this drama being played by Tony Bushala, who has developed a habit of filing complaints against political enemies — or, at least, against those he perceives to be antagonistic to politicians he supports. Does anyone believe he would have filed a complaint if the Mayor in question wasn’t Curt Pringle? Or more to the point, if Curt Pringle had supported Shawn Nelson for supervisor?
Huh? A habit of complaints against political enemies? Oh yeah, like the serial perjuries of Harry Sidhu? Right well, that was one complaint. A habit? And what does Pringle’s behavior have to do with Shawn Nelson? That’s right, nothing.
This is an attempt to criminalize a policy dispute. Even if a conflict exists — which is flimsy possibility, at best — it will be obviated in two months when Curt ceases being both the Mayor of Anaheim and a member of the OCTA Board.
Attempt to criminalize? Who said anything about “criminals” beside The Jerb? Oops, a Freudian slip? But really: “a policy dispute?! Like fraudulentlybamboozling the public into a deal the perpetrators of which knew or suspected was based on cooked up rideship numbers? No, not fraud, merely a policy dispute!
I know, says Cunningham. Let’s look the other way (obviate – there’s an awful big word for such a small boy) just like Jerbal did by exclaiming that Sidhu didn’t commit perjury because his supposed stay at the Calabria Apartments was a lie of such short duration.
But wait, then there’s this gem:
Bushala’s call? Cynthia, his involvement is hugely relevant. I’m not going into CARRD’s motives — other than trying to remove an effective opponent before mayoral term limits renders the complaint moot — but Bushala has been actively trying to inflict harm on Curt, so his motives ought to be suspect.
Wrong. Pringle is responsible for his own behavior. We’re just shining a light on it. If illumination of Pringle’s activities is harmful, that ‘s his fault! But, come to think of it, why should an honest politician worry about citizens bringing attention to his activities?
Bushala is a land speculator. It’s my understanding he’s trying to get the city to re-zone properties he has so he can develop them.
Oh no! An evil land speculator! Heaven forfend! Free enterprise is breaking out all over and Cunningham’s scared! The facts are wrong, and not relevant to anything he’s talking about but let’s try to whip up a little anti-capitalist hysteria, shall we, comrade, as we try out our old distraction trick.
It’s also my understanding he and his brother are coming into somewhere in the neighborhood of $13 million in an “eminent domain” action by the OCTA. I use quotes when local governments seeking to purchase property for some public purpose, the property owners often want the city to eminent domain them, instead, because of the tax advantages.
“Using quotes” – the humorless Jerb is getting all ironical on us here, and inserting more irrelevant information about which he knows nothing, but weasels his way around that fact by saying it is his “understanding.” Why didn’t he say misunderstanding and at least tell the truth?
Finally, this is an opinion from the Leg Counsel. Opinion. I take it you believe every legal opinion rendered by the Anaheim City Attorney to hold the force of law?
Holy Shit! Now the poor loser has really his rock bottom. Well almost. This motormouth’s not done making a fool of himself, now using numbered paragraphs to give his nonsense the color of authority:
1. Bushala’s motives are absolutely fair game, and it ought to have been noted in the post that one of the filers of the complaint is not only an avowed political enemy of Curt Pringle but someone whose honesty is questionable.
How does he know I am an “avowed” anything? And what in the world do my motives have to do with Pringle’s behavior, including his career of influence peddling under the guise of “lobbying?” My honesty is questionable? Ha! See next item, below.
2. At the end of the day, what Bushala and CARRD have is an opinion of about the applicability of an opinion. Which a far sight sight from Bushala’s claim that Curt is “breaking the law.”
And now an outright lie from Mr. Credibility. I never said that. Here’s what I said: “The credibility of the California High Speed Rail Authority program, and more importantly, both the appearance and substance of fair, open and honest government in California, demand it.”Hmm. Pringle a law breaker? Another Freudian slip by Cunningham?
3. Curt has been on CHSRC for three years. It wasn’t exactly a secret he was also Anaheim Mayor and an OCTA Director. Why only file a complaint now, when he’ll be leaving office in two months and the alleged incompatibility would be a moot point — assuming it even exists?
The fact that I became aware of the Legislative Counsel’s finding only week ago seems irrelevant to Cunningham, but not to me. There’s still a month for this miscreant to call meetings and cast votes. Cunningham, who loves to put time limits on honesty when it comes to his patrons and political clients just doesn’t seem to get it.
Oh, well, the facts clearly mean nothing to Cunningham, assuming he can even grasp them through the waves of desperation that make him cling to a creep like Pringle like a drowning man clings to a rock in the ocean. And I honestly wonder if Pringle sent him a check for that string of drivel.
Get in line, boy. And stay there.
Well, folks, there you have the very essence of repuglicanism: turn looking the other way into a full time business; in fact, try to make some green off of it. Perv priests, Church cover-ups, bogus consulting contracts doled out to fellow ‘pugs, “privatization” of unnecessary functions that benefit only yourself and your pals; ignore the facts; hell, forget your own party and its supposed principles when your crime boss tells you to.
