Repuglicanism Archives - Page 54 of 70 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 8, 2010May 8, 2010Dead heads

Nick Berardino is Dishonest. And Really Stupid.

Over at the Red County blog yesterday Cynthia Ward properly went after the idiotic mailer the OCEA put out against Shawn Nelson for voting to preserve the Fox Theater.

Naturally, Matthew Cunningham, who is doing his usual shuck and jive for John Lewis to torpedo Nelson, decided to let Chief Union Goon Nick Berardino defend the flier in detail, and of course did his usual look-the-other-way routine as Berardino just made shit up.

Bernardino-2-300x234 — How can you tell when he's lying? When his lips are moving.

Berardino defended his fraudulent mailer by claiming that Nelson received campaign contributions from The Morgan Group who was in negotiations to buy the Fox Theater. Then Berardino points out that (some years later) Nelson voted to approve a matching grant to the Fox Foundation for restoration, like there was some sort of connection.

If Cunningham weren’t working for the Lewis cabal to sink a real conservative Republican (Nelson) in order to promote a district-hopping, ignorant assclown (Sidhu) he would have pointed out that the two things had absolutely nothing to do with one another; that the Morgan Group never had a stake in the Fox grant decisions and that the Fox Foundation that got the grant is a non-profit corporation that doesn’t give out political contributions.

Nick says he did his homework. Nick is a liar and a sack of Nigerian pygmy goat shit.

Oh, and by the way Nick, your flier included a big picture of the old Bank of Italy on it that has nothing to do with the Fullerton Fox.

If Nick weren’t so stupid he might soon come to discover that helping preserve the Fox Theater will win a lot more votes than it will cost him. So keep it up, dummy. Just love the way you waste your members dues!

May 7, 2010May 10, 2011Dead heads

Pacific Strategies – Monitoring John & Ken for Fun and Profit

by Grover Cleveland25 Comments

fartboy — Those guys don't scare me. I'm in this for the kids..

In our series documenting the PR/lobbyist hungry OC Children and Families Commission we have shown how they have employed local political operative and Red County blog bloviator Matthew Cunningham to propagandize their myriad big-government good works.

We have seen how the preachy Mr. Conservative Republican was paid $200 an hour to do such things as update facebook pages, ghost write articles for liberal Democrats, and perhaps, funniest of all (in a sick sort of way) – coordinate toothbrush distribution to the Diocese. While he was at it, he amassed some mammoth paydays for his “Pacific Strategies” wordsmithing operation.

Jerb2 — The toughest part of the job is thinking up new ways to spend all that gummint dough.

Of course you can’t really propagandize effectively unless you know what the opposition is saying. So enjoy this.

In January, 2009 Governor Schwarzenegger called for First 5 California to be eliminated in his 2009-10 budget. Regional commissions would have taken a 60% cut in funding.

KFI radio broadcasters John and Ken went on the offensive, and Cunningham was right there listening in at $200 an hour to formulate his defense of the Welfare State. Here’s the invoice entry:

Full invoice – January 2009

As I said yesterday, it’s way past time to put this Commission under the control of the Board of Supervisors so that at least contracts and policy can be authorized by elected officials in a much more public forum. And maybe instead of fixating on PR the kiducrats can concentrate more resources on actually helping poor children instead of well-off, hypocritical Republicans.

May 7, 2010Harry Sidhu

Sidhu on Defined Benefits

by admin9 Comments

Just in case you missed the recent OCGOP showdown between Shawn Nelson and carpetbagger Harry Sidhu, we generously share a video clip showing Sidhu trying to to talk about defined contributions versus defined benefits.

Since this is the major problem contributing to government unfunded liabilities you would think a competent supervisorial candidate would be all over this – especially at a Republican nominating meeting.

Well see if you can understand what Yahoo Harry is talking about before stammering that he really doesn’t know anything about it! Enjoy this quintessential Sidhu moment.

May 6, 2010May 6, 2010Dead heads

Nelson Zings Sidhu

by Joe Sipowicz6 Comments

Over at the Red County blog Cynthia Ward shares a fun hit piece on the 4th District claim jumping assclown from the 3rd District – Harry Sidhu. It basically sums up all we’ve been saying about Hide ‘N Seek Sidhu with regard to fake addresses, crazy ambition all out of proportion to any real ability, and only a passing familiarity with the truth. They were too nice to mention the perjury deal and the DA investigation, but that’s okay.

The best part, as Ms. Ward points out, is the map with the push pins showing offices that office hound Sidhu has been whoring around for in the past few years. The pattern sort of looks like a flock of geese flying south – which is where Sidhu’s campaign is heading. The piece archly notes that space precludes them from going back more than 3 years!

And then of course, there’s the giant, disembodied Sidhu head floating over OC, signifying massive ego and inflation with lighter-than-air gas. The voters never get tired of this:

Geez, I really love that pic. Almost as much as this one:

May 6, 2010May 6, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Time to End the Children and Families Commission’s Autonomy

by Grover Cleveland24 Comments

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.

PringlePower — 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.

May 5, 2010May 6, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Pacific Strategies: January, 2010 – The Kiducrat Bonanza

by Grover Cleveland6 Comments

The largest monthly tax-payer funded haul for local Kiducrat spokesman Matthew Cunningham seems to be January 2010, when he racked up an impressive $10,840 to wordsmith and social network as a PR shill for the big-government OC Children and Families Commission. Click on the document below to see what a “conservative” Republican wordsmith does for a living – apart from writing op-ed pieces for liberal Democrats.

My favorite line item is the last one – a blanket $800 charged for “account management” for the month, whatever that may entail. Say what? You mean the folks in charge bought into that baloney? Oh that’s right – nobody seems to be in charge at all.

But hey! It’s all about the kids, right?

With every passing second it become more and more obvious that the Children and Families Commission is in dire need of some outside oversight to stop this exorbitant waste of money on overpriced PR efforts doled out to political operatives.

May 4, 2010May 6, 2010Boohooism

Pacific Strategies – The Facebook Gold Mine

by Grover Cleveland11 Comments

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.

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?

May 3, 2010About Us

Sidhu Hires High-Priced Defense Attorney, Beats Rap; Not Exonerated

by admin13 Comments

We finally heard back from the District Attorney on the matter of our complaint that Harry Sidhu committed perjury and fraud when he swore on voter registration forms (twice) that he lived at the beautiful Calabria Apartments – instead of his “Elegant Yorba Estate” in the 3rd Supervisor’s District.

HarrysHome — Only problem is that he never set foot in the place...

Their “investigation” (if you want to call it that) concluded that “there is insufficient evidence to prove Mr. Sidhu committed any crimes.” Hmm. Apparently statements from Calabria residents saying they never saw Sidhu there and that the apartment had been empty for a year weren’t persuasive to a DAs office that habitually ignores funny business perpetrated by politicians. Still, it’s important to remember that nobody at the DAs office is in any way saying that there is evidence that Sidhu did live there. So no exoneration for Hide and Seek.

Well, it wasn’t as if anybody really expected Tony Rackaukas’ department actually to do anything, so there’s no reason to be surprised.

Still, the fact are inescapable. In his insatiable hunger for elective office in a district in which he doesn’t live, Harry Sidhu cooked up a fake address in a crummy apartment on Lincoln Avenue in West Anaheim next to a pool hall, and lied about it on voter registration forms – twice.

Ironically, we see at the bottom of this letter from the DA that ol’ Hide and Seek Sidhu employed one of those evil defense attorneys his supporters are always railing against. But they can come in handy can’t they?

May 3, 2010May 3, 2010Behind Closed Doors

Pacific Strategies and the Big Toothbrush Caper

by Grover Cleveland15 Comments

Apparently part of Matthew Cunningham’s deal as wordsmith to the OC Children and Families Commission is to fill other functions from time to time – such as Ambassador to the Diocese of Orange with Dental Portfolio.

Here, in October and November 2007 we find Mr. Conservative Republican billing the taxpayers $200 an hour as coordinator of toothbrush distribution:

It seems as if the Commission was eager to insinuate itself into Catholic schools, too.

But did it not occur to anybody auditing these invoices at the Commission that it was a wee bit inappropriate to pay somebody that exorbitant rate to talk to somebody at the Diocese about handing out toothbrushes? Was anybody at the Commission even reviewing these invoices at all?

By the way, anybody out there know how many toothbrushes you can get wholesale for $200? Oy vey! Just more lax or non-existing oversight by our friends on the Commission.

Ironically, in the fall of 2007 Mr. Cunningham was hard at work in the trenches as a loyal foot soldier for the Diocese. But that’s a whole other matter.

May 2, 2010June 22, 2010Behind Closed Doors

The John Lewis Poll & The Voice of OC

by Joe Sipowicz8 Comments

I had some hopes for “The Voice of OC” as a source of information in Orange County, even though it was started by a former Democratic officeholder and funded by the County employee’s union.

Then on Friday I read Norberto Santana’s follow up to an earlier post about a poll repuglican John Lewis supposedly did that included results showing Sheriff candidate Bill Hunt within 1% of Sandra Hutchens. The problem was that neither the undecideds nor a % for Craig Hunter were released. How come? Lewis said he was restrained from saying. But it rendered the numbers pretty meaningless.

Instead of telling Lewis to cram his bogus “poll,” Santana gave the guy some more free publicity – whether there was even a real poll or not. And almost no inquisitiveness into who Lewis was working for or even if (as is quite likely) he’s just working for himself.

Well Santa was too incurious to press the matter, but I’ll speculate freely. I’m pretty sure Lewis is not working for Hutchens or he wouldn’t have released the numbers at all; ditto Hunter. Is he working for Hunt? Pretty unlikely since the unindicted members of Team Carona still show little but disdain for Hunt who would be unlikely to pay Lewis to do a poll in any case.

So who has the money and the resources to hire Lewis? The AOCDS union does, and since they are backing Hunt it would make sense – although the missing Hunter data would remain odd indeed – unless he, too were catching up with Hutchens. It would also make sense since the union is also backing a candidate in another important June race.

If Lewis were working for the his old Measure D pals the Lewis poll results in the 4th Supervisor’s race will indeed be interesting. If they are even released, it’s a safe bet that Harry Sidhu will miraculously receive credible numbers despite a campaign marked by perjury, carpetbagging, ignorance, and general buffoonery. Shawn Nelson is bound to come out badly since neither the AOCSD nor Lewis can tolerate a Nelson victory. Or are we too cynical about Lewis doing a phony “push poll”? Maybe. But we do recommend counting your fingers if you ever have to shake his hand.

Anyway, Lewis also has a way of working on spec so he can make lobbying calls later, so maybe he’s just trolling. What his motivations for hiding the Hunter data might be will become clear by early June.

But c’mon Norberto. Why wait?