Posted onDead heads

Terror Warrior or Demagogue Punk?

by 127 Comments on Terror Warrior or Demagogue Punk?

It’s time to share a video that’s gotten quite a bit of attention lately. Apparently some Islamic organization or other put on a benefit in Yorba Linda to raise funds for women’s shelters, hungry people, and dirty bombs.

Oops! No, the dirty bomb part didn’t make it into the press release, but you wouldn’t know it by the reaction of the spittle-fleck mob of know-nothings and uber-patriots who showed up to shower abuse on little kids with epithets against their heritage and their religion. Of course the real reason we are sharing this is that our own congresscreature, Ed Royce, was at the event to lend legitimacy to the goings on and help whip up the rubes.

Royce styles himself some sort of expert on foreign affairs, but his posts on Red County are little more than neo-con half-truth claptrap that is spooned out to him in little bite-sized morsels by the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

Royce seems to like to deploy his alleged expertise to enhance his stature, but really, exercising one’s Napoleonic Complex at the expense of women and kids is a new low even for Ed, who has saddled Fullerton with every dim-witted repuglican barnacle we’ve been stuck with for the past twenty years so he can play big frog in little puddle.

P.S. Actually the best part of the video is when wing-nut Villa Park councilcreature Deborah Pauly informs her listeners that she doesn’t care if people think she’s krazy or not. Well, that will certainly make things easier for her in the future, shame-wise. It seems her son is a Marine, and apparently he and his buddies are just itching to send some towelheaded terrorists to Paradise.

The audience doesn’t care if we think they’re krazy, either.

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Posted onBig Brother

The Cop Death Threat: Agent Provocateur or Just Some Nutjob?

by 26 Comments on The Cop Death Threat: Agent Provocateur or Just Some Nutjob?

The other day some sick individual left this hideous comment attached to a blog post regarding Fullerton police officers:

Wow.

That’s messed up! Our initial analysis led us to the almost certain conclusion that this rather obvious death threat against Fullerton’s Finest was actually left by a member of Fullerton’s own police union, the FPOA, in an effort to stir up trouble for us bloggers and draw much needed sympathy for their own members. Agent provocateurs is what I believe they call police officers who pretend to join in an otherwise peaceful rally and then incite violence, usually in order to facilitate a brutal police beatdown against pesky protestors.

But, in this post 9-11 world, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Which is why we decided to notify the Fullerton Police Chief and the FBI about this potential threat to officer safety.

Thanks. You never can be too sure.

Is it illegal to call for the death of police officers? I have no idea. But it really is a horrible thing to say, and none of us bloggers here would condone any such sentiment. We should leave it up to our law enforcement specialists to look into it and decide for themselves.

We’ll let you know if we hear of an investigation.

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Posted onLocal Media

On The Air With Friends Cameron Jackson & Steven Greenhut

by 12 Comments on On The Air With Friends Cameron Jackson & Steven Greenhut

If you have the time, listen to OC radio commentator Cameron Jackson interview Steven Greenhut.  In the interview Greenhut credits former Fullerton city councilman and current OC Supervisor Shawn Nelson for inspiring him to write the book “Plunder”.

[wpaudio url=”http://www.kuci.org/podcastfiles/622/Steven%20Greenhut%20interview%20March%204%202011.mp3″ text=”Cameron Jackson and Steven Greenhut on KUCI”]

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

LA to Anaheim HSR on Verge of Derailment

by 16 Comments on LA to Anaheim HSR on Verge of Derailment

Our friends over at the the Voice of OC(EA) are reporting on yesterday’s California High Speed Rail Authority meeting. And if you’re one of the repuglicans or make-work junkies supporting the unsupportable, the news ain’t good.

Everybody now admits that the LA-Anaheim link is the most impractical and least effective segment of HSR. In fact, if it is ever built, it may not be “high speed” at all! Hiding behind euphemisms like “phase-in” the reality is that this segment has been pushed all the way to the back of the CHSR bus.

Hilariously the HSR-ocrats are paying lip service to the Will O’ The People who voted a multi-billion dollar bond to support this extravagant boondoggle. Oh, that’s right. The People. The ones who were given false information at every step of the way and who were never presented with a business plan as required by the initiative. And the People, these miscreants are quick to remind us, voted for a system that would come all the way to Anaheim! No prize for guessing who got the Anaheim language into the initiative.

"A" is for...

And speaking of Der Pringle, he provides the best quote of the article when he cautioned not to use the word “splippage” since it might undermine confidence in the whole gig. Hooboy!

Meanwhile Pringle’s glassy monument to himself, the egregious ARTIC 200 mil bus barn continues to loom in our collective psyche, promising to suck up $100,000,000 of Measure M revenue that is supposed to bring HSR to an expanded Metrolink station. Of course ARTIC does neither, but as we have already noted, that means nothing to the small-town drones on the OCTA board. And this reminds me of a poem:

In Anaheim did a ‘puglican
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Santa Ana, the part-time river, ran
Through suburbs measureless to man
Down to a closed-beach sea,
etc.

 

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Posted onBig Brother

Oops. Fullerton PD Botches Narc Raid, Church Lady Not Amused

by 42 Comments on Oops. Fullerton PD Botches Narc Raid, Church Lady Not Amused

Every once in a while you read a story about some innocent citizen whose privacy and safety are wrongfully violated by a police raid executed on the wrong home. Picture the frightening scene of a modernized para-military police force busting their way into your home with guns drawn, putting your innocent family members in immediate danger. Of course it’s almost always perpetrated under the guise of the interminable War on Drugs.

Well, this time it happened right here in Fullerton, and to the last person whom you would expect.

An actual dramatization

Notable conservative Christian activist and self-described “family values” advocate Robyn Nordell says that her family was mistakenly treated to an armed raid by Fullerton narcotics agents back on October 20th, 2010. According to statements filed by the Nordells at city hall, police quietly came onto her property one evening through her back gate and then entered her home with guns drawn through an unlocked back door. Once inside, police held the Nordell family at gunpoint while they checked her house, presumably for drugs and parolees.

Oops. It turns out they were actually looking for the neighbor who lived next door.

The Nordells helpfully provided photos showing the obvious differences between the two properties, including a deteriorating address marker on the back gate:

Well, that’s not very good. If you’re going to storm someone’s house using lethal force, you better make sure the address is right.

Robyn and her husband Chuck have demanded an investigation by the city council into this incident. While the police have been apologetic, actual follow-up and resolution seems to be lacking. It took several months and some persistence just for the victims to get a copy of the police report.

Corrective action? Unlikely. And if the cops do manage to change something, will they ever admit it to the public? Keeping incidents quiet is always best for them, but never good for the rest us.

Maybe it’s time for some citizen oversight.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

Der Pringle Creeps Out of Shadow, Into OCTax Light

by 13 Comments on Der Pringle Creeps Out of Shadow, Into OCTax Light
I will be conducting your future

We got wind of a press release put out the other day by an organization called “OCTax,” an organization that purports to be an advocate for taxpayers, yet in actuality is little but a vehicle for political endorsements and self-promotion of its president and officers.

So naturally Anaheim’s former Mayor-for-Hire Kurt Pringle would be a great Chairman of this operation. This greatness has been thrust upon him at an annual general membershp meeting. Now he won’t have to pull the strings from behind the curtain.

Another officer includes Pringle Pal Lucy Dunn, who seems to be intent on using any organization for her own self-promotion.

The best part of the press release is the description of the 29 boardmembers of this entity, a group that endorsed the unendorsable Pringle Puppet, Carpetbagging Haibag Sidhu – which not only reveals the moral lassitude of this endorsement-for-pay operation, but its practical incompetence, too, since Hairball went down like the RMS Titanic .

Glub, glub, glub....

Here’s the fun description:

These Board Members represent a wide variety of private companies, public agencies and non-profit organizations throughout the county.

Holy Politburo! “Public entities and non-profit organizations” represented in a tax advocacy group? Well, folks, that tells you just about all you need to know about OCTax. Stay tuned in 2011 for big ARTIC and high speed rail sink hole boosterism, and in 2012 for an endorsement slate that best fits Der Pringle’s vision for his own healthy revenue stream.

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Posted onFullerton City Council

Fullerton Water Rates – Disgust, Distrust, Anger, and Fear

by 11 Comments on Fullerton Water Rates – Disgust, Distrust, Anger, and Fear

Last night’s Fullerton City Council meeting brought out a number of people concerned that their water rates will be going up.  I would like to thank each and everyone of them for taking an active interest in our City!  A few of them stood and spoke before the council and many approached me after the meeting.  They expressed a wide range of emotions and sentiments.

Disgust. Distrust. Anger. Fear.

There was the universal disgust that goes with the realization that Fullerton’s leadership has been absent for decades.  There was the feeling of distrust that comes when someone feels they have been lied to about where the money goes.  Many were angry that this report was not commissioned decades ago.  Then there was fear.  Many are fearful that the few businesses in Fullerton who are heavy water users will soon pack up and head out of state to more business-friendly areas.  Others are fearful that they will have to leave, unable to afford the higher costs.

Those who sat through the 2-1/2 hour meeting observed many things.

Most notably, at least one councilman had serious trouble staying awake for the meeting.  Death by PowerPoint I believe was the cause.

Mayor Jones repeatedly used Hitler as some sort of misplaced analogy to the gross mismanagement of our water system for nearly a century.  There were several people who were clearly disgusted with his remarks.

Mayor Pro Tem Bankhead, who is a representative for the City on the Orange County Water District Board, bragged that the board hasn’t raised their tax on the City’s pumping efforts in a year even though a few key executives received raises.  OCWD charges Fullerton taxpayers somewhere in the neighborhood of $236 per acre-foot of water that the City pumps.

The franchise tax was mentioned several times.  I pointed out that the tax should be eliminated completely which would allow the City to NOT raise water rates AND address the urgency of the neglected system.  I did misspeak on one key matter.  Specifically, I said that it would be better for the general fund to take the 10% hit rather than the taxpayers.  Actually, the water utility franchise tax ($2,474,860 FY2011) accounts for about 1% of the total budget ($180,802,880 FY2011), not 10%.  Cutting the franchise tax would increase the water fund from $27,728,430 FY2011 to $30,203,290!

So, the bottom line is that we have the funds to fix the water system but the City Council will need to adjust the City’s priorities.

Those in land development, engineering, construction or anyone else who rides Fullerton’s roads knows that the City’s priorities are out of order.  City Hall places too much emphasis on housing and transportation boondoggles while ignoring the skeleton and muscle of the City’s infrastructure.  It causes me to question whether or not our City leaders (are there any at City Hall?) have planned for repairing and replacing our roads.

Those interested in protecting the City’s infrastructure from further neglect while protecting the pockets of taxpayers are urged to attend the Water Rate Study workshops in the coming weeks and months.

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Posted onFullerton City Council

91% Water Rate Increase, WTF Is Next?

by 28 Comments on 9128 Water Rate Increase, WTF Is Next?

Let’s hope the city council comes to its senses and votes NO on raising our water rates and associated taxes 91% over the next 10 years. Friends, I’d like to thank Greg Sebourn for bringing this issue to our attention. As many of you may remember, Greg ran for Fullerton city council last year and received 6,375 votes. Here is Greg’s take on the proposed rate increase:

Fullerton Water Rates to Double

This Tuesday night the Fullerton City Council will direct staff on the implementation of a water rate study.  Based on the proposal from the City’s consultant, Municipal & Financial Services Group (MFSG), the new rates will be increased by 10% for 5 years then 3.5% for another 5 years amounting to a 191% increase by 2021.

The reason for the tax hike is clear.  MSFG says, “It should be noted that the planned spending on mainline replacement over the projection period is significantly more than the City has undertaken in the past. At a cost of approximately $190 per linear foot of line the City plans to replace approximately 6 miles of mainline per year at a cost of over 6 million per year.  At this pace it would take the City 400 years to replace the entire system (which consists of approximately 420 miles of pipe).”

MFSG’s proposal spells out how exactly we got into this mess in the first place.  Unfortunately, this proposal and the implementation should have been undertaken decades ago.  Oddly, the proposal notes that the City could just ignore the problem (like they have been doing for so many years).

Read the rest of  “Fullerton Water Rates To Double”

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Posted onFullerton City Council

Quick, Hide Your Assets!

by 22 Comments on Quick, Hide Your Assets!

Tuesday night’s city council meeting includes an agenda item asking the council to approve transferring all assets owned by the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency to the City of Fullerton.  Agenda item number 12 asks the city to take ownership of a soup to nuts inventory of everything the Redevelopment Agency has been using our bond money to buy for the last few decades.

In an urgent sounding letter to the council Acting Redevelopment Director Romona Castaneda explains that the council may only have a few weeks to move these assets from one pocket to the other if the state adopts Gov. Brown’s budget plan to eliminate redevelopment agencies.  If this happens, it seems, the agency will be forced to sell the properties “expeditiously” and turn over the proceeds to the county.

One has to wonder what would happen if Redevelopment was indeed forced to sell all eighty of its properties, including the Fox Theater, the empty lot where four craftsmen era houses were torn down just east of it, Union Pacific Park, the site of Costco, a 2001 Chevrolet Malibu (?),  the Santa Fe Depot, and some fencing around the Police Department.  It’s a fun list.

The city would still be required to move forward with projects already approved for these properties, including affordable housing projects.  Anybody have a guess about how legal this maneuver is?

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