Category: Setting The Bar Low

Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Pacific Strategies: Ventriloquism For Uncle Bill and The Little Kids

by 9 Comments on Pacific Strategies: Ventriloquism For Uncle Bill and The Little Kids
There's a little stick in back that makes my head swivel.

Sometimes its hard to tell whether certain people are stupid or lazy. Or maybe a little of both. Take, for instance, County Supervisor Bill Campbell who is currently the Chairman of the OC Children and Families Commission.

As a commissioner he has approved big PR contracts to his political pal Matthew J. Cunningham whom he also appointed to the County Parks Commission. And I mean really big contracts. And apparently free of either competition or real scrutiny.

Part of Cunningham’s job is to ghost write pro-commission “op-ed” pieces for politicians across the political spectrum who either can’t be bothered, or who are too illiterate to do it themselves. The topic of these scribblings is always the same: protect the tax revenue!

Here’s an invoice where Mr. Conservative Republican Wordsmith is wordsmithing hard for – Bill Campbell!

And looky here, we’ve uncovered the fruits of Mr. Cunningham’s labors in the OC Register.

There are some fun quotes about rigorous  audits and Grand Jury approbation that come a-tumblin’ out of the old mannequin’s mouth, but these are my faves:

“I can say unequivocally that if state government emulated the prudent, sensible and farsighted operations and budgeting practices of the Children and Families Commission, there would be no state budget crisis.”

Uh, yeah, like handing out a $200K per year PR contract that enables your pal to put semi-intelligent words in your mouth for $200 an hour.

“…while our commission contracts out as many functions as possible so more dollars go toward funding services rather than bureaucracy.”

See comment above. Contracting out unnecessary PR crap for $200 an hour services like facebook updates, going to lunch with Steve Greenhut, and passing out toothbrushes. Newsflash Bill – that robs funding. Contracting out for unnecessary services is incompetent. Directing that largess to a political crony is despicable.

“Taxpayers should cast a critical eye on the idea of abolishing such county Children and Families commissions, which are locally accountable and manage their budgets responsibly…”

Uh huh. Yeah. Sure, Bill.  You pass out hundreds of thousands annually for lobbying and PR most of which seems to be mysteriously directed outside Orange County. Well, Campbell also seems to be one of the masterminds behind the unintentionally hilarious Harry Sidhu for Supervisor campaign. And that, in a nutshell, really tells you all you need to know about that sawdust head.

And finally a free wordsmithing tip to the Wordsmith: when you’re going to put words in the mouth of numbskull try to avoid words like “panoply” and “unequivocally.”

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Posted onHarry Sidhu

The Joke’s On You!

by 3 Comments on The Joke’s On You!

I got an e-mail today from a friend of mine from Anaheim who isn’t all that politically active, but who saw the 4th District Supervisor WAND forum and has seen the videos of Hide and Seek Sidhu on our website.

One is the loneliest number.

Shock and dismay would be two good words to describe this woman’s impression of Sidhu. But I’ll let her speak in her own words:

I am aware that money is really all it takes to run a political campaign, but I have to say I am really and truly amazed by the campaign of Harry Sidhu. I know he doesn’t live in the district and I know he made up several addresses in order to run in the 4th. Okay. That’s pretty awful.

But what’s really bad is that the man is completely incoherent, has no grasp of any issues, and can only read what has been written for him on index cards. It’s pathetic. I would feel sorry for him if he hadn’t brought this embarrassment on himself. In fact, I really doubt if the man has a sense of shame at all.

At the WAND forum all I heard from this character were platitudes of the emptiest kind and even most of those were irrelevant. His performance at the GOP Central Committee meeting was humiliating  – and embarrassing for everybody.

Keep up the pressure on this candidacy. You are doing an great job exposing this empty suit for what he is – an over ambitious, ignorant carpetbagger.

P.S. You can use my name.

M. Rodriguez

Thanks, for that. I couldn’t agree more.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

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

by 12 Comments on 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…

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Watchdog Growls

by 4 Comments on Watchdog Growls

Teri Sforza at the Register’s “OC Watchdog” bureau has posted a truly alarming story about three graduate students who’ve done some great digging on the compensation allocated to OC City Managers. The figures are astronomical and the publication couldn’t come at a worse time for these Miraculous Mandarins who do so well at our expense. Here’s the compilation:

Please try not to gag.

Be sure to check out the Fullerton row.

Thanks to Sforza for sharing. But the real thanks go to the kids who assembled the data – the real watchdogs.

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Posted onDead heads

The Joke of OC

by 7 Comments on The Joke of OC

Listen up, Supes! We finally got our own news outlet!

We’ve recently seen the true purpose of “The Voice of OC,” and organization that promotes itself as a “non-profit investigative news agency.” We’ve noticed that the manager, Norberto Santana has never said a word about any of the manifest malfeasance taking place in Democrat Tom Daly’s Clerk-Recorders office, but has found time to publish what a amounts to a political hit piece on Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson – public enemy #1 as far as County unions are concerned.

It continues. The Voice has recently detailed in five separate posts a DA investigation brought about by charges made against Assessor Webster Guillory by County personnel and publicly advertised by OCEA union chief Nick Berardino. So what, you ask. Here’s what: not once has Santana mentioned that the OCEA provided start-up captial for the Voice of OC. That’s an obvious conflict of interest, and one that any ethical operation would make known to its readers.

What’s also interesting is that the blog comments section has become a forum for a raft of public employees pretending to give a rat’s ass about government efficiency. You will even find LibOC blogger and dead beat, Chris Prevatt on the list. Typical.

Say, Norberto, why not publish something on Tom Daly’s cronyism, waste, or bad real estate deals? At least then the Clerk-Recorder personnel could have a chance to weigh in and let Berardino know how his members feel about OC’s biggest money squanderer.

Well, “The Voice” never claimed to be impartial or objective. Just non-profit.

And that’s why it’s quickly becoming the known as the Voice of OCEA.

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Posted onDead heads

More on Pacific Strategies and The Greenhut Lunch

by 4 Comments on More on Pacific Strategies and The Greenhut Lunch

Lunch is my favorite meal of the day.

In the comments thread to our post this morning on Matthew Cunningham billing the taxpayers $200 an hour to have lunch with former Register editorialist Steve Greenhut in September, 2008, an observant Friend “nobody” drew our attention to a July 2008 blog article written by Greenhut. In the article Greenhut calls for getting rid of the Children and families Commission altogether.

Well that wouldn’t do! So what does the Commission do? It sends its Ambassador to Conservatives, Matthew J. Cunningham and its Executive Director, Michael Ruane to lunch with Greenhut. Did Greenhut learn the errors of his ways? I wonder. Steve?

What I don’t wonder about is how much this lunch cost the taxpayers.

Oh, and for extra fun, read the one and only comment on Greenhut’s post. It’s by a guy named “Michael” and he’s he’s defending the Commission from State budget raids, calling that a new tax. Here’s the money quote from “Michael’s” comment:

“Granted, there are always imperfection and waste when government doing anything, but at least with Prop 10 the money returned to the counties where anybody could see if there is a misappropriation and fix it.”

Ho, ho! Imperfection and waste? Hoo boy, he nailed that one! But anybody could see if there is a “misappropriation?!” If by anybody, “Michael,” you really meant almost nobody, then we are agreed. How many people know the Commission has a $195,00 a year contract for PR with Pacific Strategies? How many people knew the Commission was paying Cunningham $200 an hour to read blogs, Facebook, recycle the same “op-ed” piece over and over again, and do all those lunches? For the love of God, Michael, please tell us you were only joking!

Hmm. Come to think of it now I wonder if Pacific Strategies didn’t write that comment for “Michael.”

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Posted onDead heads

When Harry Met Jennifer

by 5 Comments on When Harry Met Jennifer

Those rascals in the white van have done it again. After a night of hard binge drinking that included shots of denatured alcohol and grapefruit juice, the FFFF Surveillance Unit sprang into action and arrived outside the State College/Katella Denny’s in time to capture part of the conversation between Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu and OC Register’s intrepid reporter, Jennifer Muir, that we reported on here.

The following transcript has been deciphered from the somewhat poor quality sound recording, and the written notes submitted by the crew, although the handwriting is a bit jittery. Invest any amount of credence in this that you think it deserves.

Jennifer Muir: …so in other words you did not live at the Calabria?

Harry Sidhu: Yes. I mean no. There was a refrigerator.

JM: Excuse me, what?

HS: A refrigerator was delivered and even plugged in. But I had to go skiing. In Colorado. Uh, no in my opinion it was Utah.

JM: And so you signed your name to that voter registration form thinking that you were going to live there, but you never did?

HS: Yes. Yes, indeed. I was always meaning to live there, of course. And may I say you are looking very attractive this morning?

JM: Um. Thank you. What about the DA investigation?

HS: Oh, let me tell you all about that. Politically motivated! I have been cleared of all wrong doing. I came out of that smelling like a daisy.

JM: Uh huh. So then what happened was your wife refused to live in a stucco box behind a bowling alley?

HS: Yes. Such a wonderful woman. You know, we are still sweethearts after all these many years. Sometimes we will hold hands for no reason at all as we walk along the path. Maybe you saw the picture? She even voted for me at the CRA nominating meeting.

JM: Why did you tell people that you had bought a house in the district?

HS: Well, you know, I don’t know anything about that. I will get back to you. By the way, I am very fond of your shoes.

JM: The fact is that up until December you lived in the 3rd District. The issue of carpetbagging has dogged your campaign. Any comment?

HS: In my opinion I have represented 40% of this district for so many years I have forgotten, so I am not only qualified but the people of the 4th District deserve to be having me represent them. In my opinion I truly believe they have been calling for me. I hear the the voice of those people. I am responding to their many calls.

JM: Right. Well. Let’s move on. Some of your critics point to your lack of knowledge about County issues. What would you say to them?

HS: I will be learning all about that later. For now I would say we need jobs. Jobs. Jobs.

JM: Yes, but how, exactly would you create any jobs as a Supervisor?

HS: I am a businessman, not a politician. I know all about creating jobs. I have a plan. We will have a big jobs fair! I will be turning “The OC” into one giant jobs fair.

JM: Excuse me?

HS: There are many fast food franchises that are hiring. In these hard times people eat more fast food than ever. It is a well known fact. I did very well during the last recession. We need to match them up with people looking for jobs. It’s very simple. A jobs fair.

JM: (Unintelligible gurgling sound) Uh, um, how does that tie in with the supervisor’s duties, exactly.

HS: Jobs, of course. We need jobs.

JM: You say you’re not a politician, but you seem to keep running for different political offices. Why is that?

HS: Uh, why is what?

JM: What?

HS: What?

JM: Why all the political campaigns?

HS: Well, this is because I am not a politician, of course. I am running these races because people need me because I am not a politician!

JM: What would you say to (sounds of crashing dishes) to the critics who complain that you always seem to be running for office?

HS: Well those are people who don’t know me because…

Unidentified female Voice: Can I warm up that cup for ya, hon?

HS: …if they knew me they would know how important it is to be electing me to something. Soon. It’s really all about a job. I mean jobs. Jobs for everybody.

JM: Hoo-kay, then. At the GOP Central Committee meeting you seemed to be a little fuzzy on the subject of defined benefits. Have you cleared up that point?

HS: Well, let me tell you, that was a trick question by my good friend Mr. Scott. I have been in deep consultations. And it is my opinion that in my opinion, I have not yet looked into the impact on that and will continue do so in the future.

JM: That’s a pretty important issue. Don’t you think the voters will want you to understand that?

HS: After the election I will try, but of course there will be many, many things to be getting on with. I will hire only the best people to explain these things to me. Mr. John Lewis has promised to help me with that.

JM: Your website takes credit for the High Speed Rail project but at the WAND forum you specifically claimed you have not made up your mind. Care to comment?

HS: Ah, Jennifer I have so much respect for your journalism ability, let me tell you.

JM. Thank you. How about answering the question.

HS: Well this is a very delicate matter because you cannot be for something without understanding all of the complications and implication. Implications  are very tricky. And you cannot be against something until you have thoroughly examined all the details. As I say, the devils is in the details. Well, it’s all a great muddle in my mind, really…

JM: So is that a yes or a no?

HS: Please repeat the question.

JM: Let’s move on.

HS: Okay, jobs.

JM: Pardon me?

HS: Jobs. Jobs Jobs. Oh, I see that white van again. It is becoming quite a bother and now I must be pushing off…

(at this point intelligible audio was lost)

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Pacific Strategies – My Lunch With Greenhut

by 20 Comments on Pacific Strategies – My Lunch With Greenhut

This tidbit harvested from the Pacific Strategies billings to Rob Reiner’s OC Children and Families Commission was way too good to pass up.

Here we see Mr. Conservative Pundit Matthew Cunningham hard at work setting up and then eating lunch with former OC Register editorial writer Steve Greenhut back in 2008. Looks like Executive Director Micahel Ruane went along. Maybe Cunningham acted as interpreter between the libertarian Greenhut and the social services bureaucrat Ruane. I guess that’s what they call a business lunch.

I wonder if the suffocating welfare statists persuaded Greenhut of the need for their commission.

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Posted onDick Jones

Bullhorn Berardino Backfire

by 5 Comments on Bullhorn Berardino Backfire
Nick is that a union made garment? Too bad it doesn't hide your Rolex.

There is an old axiom that says all politics are local. Nick “Bullhorn” Berardino, chief union goon of the Orange County Employees Association seems to have forgotten that adage. Maybe he never heard it.

A week or so ago week his union sent out a mailer accusing Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson of voting to spend money on a “red-tagged” building. Too bad the building was Fullerton’s historic Fox Theater, a structure whose restoration thousands of Fullertonians support and to which hundreds, including Nelson, have made personal donations. The mailer provoked this letter that appeared in the mid-May Fullerton Observer:

Oops. Looks like Berardino has really soiled himself this time.

Retraction? Apology? Not very likely, guys. See, Nick Berardino and his crew operate in a whole different environment that you might imagine. In Comrade Nick’s world you grab and grab and keep grabbing all you can get while giving as little as possible in return.

And that’s why Orange County’s finances are so messed up, why County departments are run so poorly, and why the OCEA is absolutely terrified of a Shawn Nelson victory.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Gordo Gets Greedy

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Dressed for success...

Andy Warhol once famously said that everybody gets 15 minutes of fame. Apparently Thomas Gordon got his when he popped up on the Red County blog a couple of months ago with a semi-literate attack on Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson. Gordon is a low-grade goon from Santa Ana who is evidently acting as some sort of flunky in the Hide and Seek Sidhu jailbreak. Whether he is being paid in cash or El Pollo Loco chicken has never been made abundantly clear.

Naturally, we had some fun with Gordo here, here, here and of course, here.

Later we ran into Gordon at the NUFF blogger’s forum when he tried to intimidate one of our bloggers and ended up with a face full of Chris Thompson.

Damn. Busted again.

Apparently these brushes with notoriety have not provided sufficient celebrity for Gordon. The other day he started making obnoxious and gratuitously obscene comments here under the name “Major Nelson.”  Busted. Well, hell we tolerate all sorts of stuff here, even the rantings of a useless nutjob and Sidhu stooge.

Apparently a sense of desperation is setting in on the three-wheeled Hairball Handcart, and with a fourth place finish looming on June 8th the small fry are getting agitated.

What kind of mileage will it get?

But seriously Thomas, if you want attention you’re going to have to start using your own name again, even if it results in another shower of ridicule. And another tip: if Sidhu is going to pay you to rip on Nelson you’d better be smart enough not to get busted. Of course intelligence is not an attribute widely ascribed to the Sidhu team members.

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