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Has anyone other than me wondered why neither of the two main partisan blogs in OC – the Liberal OC and Red County have even mentioned the OC Fair scandal a-brewin’?
Red seems intent to chatter about all sorts of Fair topics – but not the crooked Foundation itself. Blue doesn’t seem to have posted a comment about the Fair at all.
Are these two paragons of “reasoned debate” both so involved in reasoned debate that they have missed one of the biggest stories of the year?
Just asking.
Over the week-end we read some interesting things about the surreptitious “Fair Foundation” and their publicly paid lobb….er, consultant, Dick Ackerman. It transpires that the State AG, Jerry Brown has pulled the plug on legal support for the Fair Board, arguing quite reasonably that the Board majority are members of the clandestine Foundation, and that the taxpayers ain’t gonna pick up the tab to defend their misfeasance. Now they’ll have to pay for their own lawyers, thankfully, and we won’t.
We also learn that Ackerman’s law firm was paid over $19,000 in public funds to do something (not lobbying of course – that would be illegal). We would dearly love to see the billing statement with dates and activities.
Honorary Fringer Vern Nelson has an excellent post this AM over at the OJ blog.
The helpful folks over at the OC Progressive have posted a fun run down here, passing along info gleaned by the Daily Pilot via a public records request.
Despite all the obfuscation and dust kicking up by Foundation apologists, it seems like the truth will emerge.
Well, we called it all right. Matthew J. Cunningham had just invited one Cynthia Ward, AKA “Colony Rabble” to blog on the quickly purpling Red County Blog. He caught a lot of flack from us and one of his own bloggers, Allan Bartlett, for bringing in an obvious RINO into his herd.
It was clear to everybody that Ms. Ward’s sole function was to promote the Supervisorial campaign of Democrat Tom Daly. To his own bloggers he claimed that Ward was there to provide Anaheim coverage. Mr. Cunningham actually had the nerve to show up on our blog to claim that we couldn’t prove anything, and that he was a model of toleration and open mindedness, and, that in any case he could only think of one thing he disagreed with Ward about – the Suncal project.
He obviously wasn’t thinking about it very hard, and fortunately Colony herself immediately provided the example of Proposition 8 that she opposed, as a point of disagreement – a real watershed issue if ever there was one. Now there’s a shot to the shorts in the credibility department.
But we digress. Sorry about that. The following sparkling comment made by Ms. Ward on her new blog was just forwarded to us by a observant Friend:
Sidhu and Galloway will both be shocked that they cannot buy their way into this seat. But I am as appalled as you that they both just begged to be put back into Council seats they clearly do not respect or value. A recall could be interesting, but there are bigger fish to fry in the coming months. Not the hill I want to die on. At least not right this minute. I might be pursuaded later. For now, go find a good candidate (like Daly) to back and give that your energy. Defeating them with a good Supe would be the ultimate revenge. Go get ’em.
A good candidate like Daly?Hmm. Well we did call it: dish dirt on Sidhu and Galloway to help clear the Anaheim field for John Lewises Democratic candidate Tom Daly. Yup. Pretty transparent.
Here is a very good column we came across today by Barbara Venezia. in light of some of the non-conversations we’ve been having here lately with a Fair Board supporter, we thought we’d share it.
Venezia: OC Fair Board should be removed
BARBARA VENEZIA
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Barbara Venezia
Why isn’t anyone calling for the removal of the current Orange County Fair Board? Doesn’t personal responsibility matter anymore? When you take into consideration the collateral damage they’ve caused with this ridiculous self-serving shell game of buying the fairgrounds, every single one of them should be held accountable, including the two who were not part of the nonprofit shenanigans.
When I asked board member Julie Vandermost why she wasn’t a part of it, she emailed, “It’s a matter of not having enough bandwidth in my schedule.” David Padilla didn’t return my call; rumor has it he wasn’t even asked to participate in the nonprofit. If true, you have to wonder why.
I’m not buying Julie’s clever excuse and David’s non-response speaks volumes. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out they were probably the first ones who saw something hinky in this plan. Why didn’t they speak up? Was it because they didn’t want to rock the boat and lose the lucrative perks of being on the Fair Board? Or were they afraid of the blow-back speaking against powerful fellow board members could bring?
Does personal responsibility go out the window if you just keep your mouth shut?
This Fair Board’s questionable behavior should be enough ammunition to explore removal. Let’s not forget they were smack dab in the middle of the Mike Carona trial with board member Debbie Carona. Then there was the whole messy ticket/private dinner scandal that some argued amounted to “gifts of public funds,” perks estimated at approximately $40,000 plus. When this was taken away, tongues wagged that 50 percent of the board considered quitting.
Now Costa Mesa’s setting aside beaucoup bucks to create a plan B, (making a bid to buy the fairgrounds), should plan A, (getting the governor to rescind the sale), not work. This exercise in futility could’ve been avoided had the OC Fair Board done their job and not lobbied for the sale or formed their own nonprofit to buy it.
When is someone going to talk about the elephant in the middle of the room? It appears this board is not looking out for the best interest of the public. Politicians generally hate going after those who fund-raise and have political juice, but what if they’re out of control?
Maybe it’s a task for Supervisor John Moorlach; after all, accountability’s something his office has preached repeatedly. Sure his administration’s taken its lumps as they’ve gone after some sacred political cows like pension reform, but whether you agree with them or not, this group seems fearless. It would make sense for Moorlach and company to lead this charge.
But will he? He’s gearing up for a tough re-election bid. Going after political heavyweights on the Fair Board could cause a rift within his party; then again, being pro-active on this issue could give him a leg up with voters. Wonder if he’s a gambling man?
Costa Mesa, coupled with the OC Board of Supervisors, could accomplish rescinding the sale and requesting new board members. So who’ll have the chutzpah to stand up for personal responsibility? We all should.
Freelance writer Barbara Venezia’s opinion column appears online and in The Current every Friday. Email BV at bvontv@earthlink.net
Amen, Barbara, and thank you for saying what no one in the Republican hierarchy has the courage to say. Clean the Augean Stable at the OC Fair. Even if we have to divert the Santa Ana River to do it!
On a post we did the other day about the Red County blog signing up a RINO, we received this choice nugget from our ethically challenged nemesis, Matthew J. Cunningham:
We’ll remember that when you faux conservatives on FFFF come out for Lou Correa next year.
Hmm. That was a pretty uninformed comment, even from our rodentine pal.
As readers of this blog know, our primary aim is to promote political representatives that are accountable to their constituents, and not to themselves, the bureaucracy, or to lobbyists. Many of us happen to believe that conservatism is more likely to produce that result than liberalism. But we recognize all too well that plenty of so-called conservatives are the biggest government supported parasites we can think of. Consider the money machine that is Ackerman, Inc.
Faux? Poor Mr. Cunningham. Dragged down by the pecuniary interests of his boss John Lewis, he is forced to step and fetchit for the Democrat Tom Daly, making him not only just about as faux as you can get, but a sorry flunky, to boot. And here we have hit the river bottom of the Repuglican food chain.
Lou Correa has his faults, to be sure. If a better candidate comes along we’ll be all for him or her. But if the alternative is some carpetbagging wacko Bible beater, seemingly backed by the same Repuglican machine that spit out Linda Ackerwoman, then Hell, it looks like a pretty easy call.
We’re used to insults flung at us from the non-fringers who talk a real good game, but who are basically all about feeling out and burrowing into whatever handy crevice will accommodate their abdominal bulk, six legs, and antennae.
So we take it in stride when the latest addition to the Red Bottomed blog, “Colony Rabble” took a little baby swing at us in the comment thread of her maiden post:
“I love Tom Daly to bits, and the fact that the nimrods at FFFF (how many F’s?) bag on him just makes me fight harder for him.”
Nimrods? Ouch. I think.
We really have no bone to pick with Colony Rabble. She “loves Daly to bits” which is just fine. She is clearly not a Repuglican, just a big time RINO. You fight on, girl! Work your tail off for Tom. You’ll probably end up working a lot harder than he will.
But why shouldn’t we “bag” on Tom Daly – a career politician with no evident ability other than political careerism? Is it really so bad to think we can do better? A lot better?
And it does seem pretty unusual that someone whom Matthew J. Cunningham agrees with on almost no issue he says he believes in, is suddenly blogging – just in time for the 4th District election. Well, color us suspicious. And so color, too, their own blogger Allan Bartlett, who is under the impression that his blog should stand for something. Silly Allan!
The Red Bottom Boys have just added a new blogger to their dismal and vacant site: Colony Rabble, otherwise known as Cynthia Ward. She is supposed to be addressing Anaheim issues.
Cynthia is best known to OC bloggers as one of the big advocates of the SOAR coalition that fought the Suncal project near Haster and Katella in Anaheim. And this makes it weird since Matthew J. Cunningham and his other man-crush, John Lewis, were working for Suncal at the time. While Cunningham was trying to canonize Lorri Galloway and demonize Disney, Ward was hard at work trying to make sure that martyrdom preceded sainthood.
And just today Cunningham is going off on some rant about the Costa Mesa council members approving ballot box zoning – just the thing Ward was preaching on the Suncal deal.
So what gives? What gives is that Ward, who is about as conservative a Republican as a brown trout, just luuuuuuvs Tom Daly. She’s been onto our site recently touting the wonders of career politician Daly.
And there you have it. “Conservative” Red Bottom brings on board a ballot-box zoning RINO who coincidentally supports the candidate John Lewis is pimping as hard as he can.
Anybody surprised?
We hear that Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle is raising money for Harry Sidhu’s putative bid for the 4th Supervisorial seat next year. Pringle deals with Sidhu on the Anaheim City Council, and Harry’s an okay guy, and at least he, like Pringle, is a Republican. But goddam it Pringle, Sidhu does not live in our district. He lives in the “Elegant Yorba Estate” that, unfortunately for him, is located in the 3rd District!
Let’s not forget that Pringle also endorsed the candidate with the phony residency in the 72nd AD election – Linda Ackerman, whose entire campaign was one fraudulence heaped on top of another. So what gives? Does basic honesty count for anything among our electeds?
Guys like Pringle and John Lewis are obviously into politics for what they can get out of it personally. Like Lewis, Pringle is a lobbyist, making his living off of all the contacts made during his days in the Legislature, and by making calls to people that he has helped. And that makes him just as big a government parasite as any government union worker.
Today Matt Cunningham deigned to visit our humble blog with about eleven hundred comments. Hell, I’m honored, I guess. What dedication! Now that he seems to be following us I thought I’d raise a topic that is becoming more timely than ever – the 4th Supervisor election that now could be decided in June 2010.
Let’s see. The Red County blog is supposed to be a conservative Republican blog. So why hasn’t uber-Republican Matthew Cunningham come out with any endorsement in the OC 4th District Supervisorial race. We know that he just couldn’t find it in himself to go out on a limb and support Chris Norby over the unqualified, dishonest, carpetbagger from Irvine, Linda Ackerman – it was just such a close call; but c’mon now this one’s a freakin’ slam dunk fer crissakes.
Let’s help out Matt by reviewing the would be Supes:
1. Tom Daly – career government worker; Democrat.
2. Rosie Espinosa – Democrat and no doubt as “progressive” as they come.
3. Lorri Galloway – Democrat and no doubt as “progressive’ as the come. Oh, yeah!Carpetbagger!
4. Harry Sidhu – Republican but Carpetbagger; plus Cunningham has been taking shots at him as an unprincipled hack for several years.
5. Shawn Nelson – Conservative Republican who stood up to the unions and his RINO pals on the Fullerton City Council and who took a strong position against Fullerton’s phony Redevelopment expansion.
Well this is really a no-brainer for somebody who is supposed to be a conservative Republican. Whatdya say, Matt? Who are you supporting in this election?
