Yesterday our favorite repuglican hypocrite, Matthew J. Cunningham, put up a post whining about the hypocrisy of Loretta Sanchez who apparently had a fundraiser at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion and who subsequently applauded Craigslist for “censoring” adult services.
Here’s the quote from Loretta that offends the sensibilities of the tender Cunningham the most:
By shutting down the adult services section, Craigslist is showing that it truly values people over its own profits.
Hmm.The fact that Playboy preys upon nobody seems to have escaped the authoritarian pea brain Cunningham, but Hell, we’ll let that pass.
What’s really funny is that not so very long ago FFFF exposed the self-described small gummint conservative Cunningham as the recipient of huge windfall largess from Rob Reiner’s tax and redistribute Prop 10 that put bread on Mr. Conservative’s table for over four years. Almost all of the bread, as it turns out.
Here’s a hypothetical quotation to ponder:
By advocating to shut down the socialist Children and Families Commission, Matthew J. Cunningham is showing that he truly values conservative principles over his own profits.
As long as Mr. Cunningham keeps trying to pretend that he’s anything other than the biggest hypocrite in Orange County, we’ll be right there to remind folks the truth.
Okay, this isn’t about Fullerton, per se, although I have no doubt that there are a few Fullertonian authoritarian Republicans who would subscribe to the ravings of this brain-dead cracker fucktard:
Even up here in dog heaven I thank my lucky stars I didn’t live in Orlando, Florida, and y’all know my life in Fullerton was no bed of roses.
Do yourselves a favor. Next time you run into one of these moronic “neo-con” assholes, make sure to slap ’em up alongside their empty melons. And remember 9/11 by listening to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
NAZIs burn books. Free men and women and canines celebrate freedom.
On September 11th, the Orange County Lincoln Club will be hosting a debate on the initiatives that are on the November ballot, including Prop 19, the “legalize marijuana” initiative. The debate host is Clare Venegas.
The debate is open to Lincoln Club members who are in good standing, whatever that means. The event will feature a pro/con speaker for each side. On the Prop 19 pro side is probably the most knowledgeable man in the United States when it comes to drug policy – retired Judge Jim Gray. Judge Gray recently wrote a book titled Why our drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It.
On the con (pun intended) side is Mr. Dick Ackerman who’s wife recently ran for the state assembly in the 72nd district while claiming she lived in a rented room at a friend’s house even though everyone knew she (and Dick) were living in a “top secret” gated community in Irvine. Carpetbaggin’ and lying to the public is just fine; smoking a joint is the devil’s work.
At the end of the debate, the club’s Legislative Committee will present their recommendations and any general member in good standing will be able to cast a vote on the Club’s position for each initiative on our ballot.
The Lincoln Club’s commitment to acting on shared principles of limiting government and expanding economic and personal freedoms is a breath of fresh air, if you can really believe it. Personal freedom means adults being able to do what they want so long as they aren’t bothering anybody. That means having a beer or taking a hit of some of California’s Gold. Or both.
Let’s hope the voting members who have committed to such principles don’t get cold feet on such a hot topic when it comes time to vote.
Now that only the worst repugs still support his torpedoed campaign for 4th District supervisor (a district in which he doesn’t live), Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu seems to have decided that chumming it up with Democrats is his only prayer. Seems he even went so far as to attended the big Democrat Labor Day bash at the Santa Ana Zoo.
While Harry Sidhu was at Zoo, whooping it up for California’s #1 union stooge Jerry Brown, as reported by the Orange Juice blog here, he also happened to run across Pam Keller. Poor Harry selling his soul again just to get elected. Jeeze, this guy would do just about anything to be a political somebody. Will he re-register as a Democrat? Why not?
Well I hate to pop your bubble, Hide and Seek, but people can see right through your transparent BS, fake residences and all. All they can see is Sidhu the assclown.
The LA Times has published it’s entire database of what it calls “Value Added” teacher ratings, scoring LAUSD teachers with a method that tracks individual students’ advancement as they pass through classrooms over the years.
In support of this idea, State Assemblyman Chris Norby just sent the following letter to current school board members and to this year’s candidates. In the letter, Norby asks them to figure out how to publish similar rankings for Fullerton teachers and schools.
The LA Times’ controversial scoring method is supposed to reflect a teacher’s effectiveness at raising standardized test scores using seven years of student testing data. While the Times admits that the scores do not rate every aspect of a teacher’s effectiveness, they do “bear on the performance of public employees who provide and important service.”
In defense against the teachers’ union outcry over the release of this data, the Times asserts that parents and the rest of the public have a right to view all of this data for the benefit of children.
We’re anxious to find out how the candidates respond to Norby’s request. This information would be extremely beneficial for Fullerton parents.
Last week this blog criticized school board candidate Janny Meyer for announcing her acceptance of the endorsement of the Fullerton teachers’ union while simultaneously claiming to be a fiscal conservative. Shortly thereafter we had learned that Bev Berryman and Aaruni Thakur had also accepted union support, albeit much more quietly.
For Aaruni, the endorsement was a given. Being a union tool is practically a requirement for the modern Democrat politician. Who can fault a guy for latching onto the massive union political machine which has helped put so many Democrats into office? Well, I suppose Republicans could find that to be a cause for concern.
Berryman’s acceptance, on the other hand, is much more disappointing. She won her first school board campaign without any union support, so she certainly didn’t need it now that she is an incumbent. Saying “no” to this powerful special interest would have been the best way for her to preserve her independence. She certainly has opened herself up to closer scrutiny on future votes.
On the bright side, Bev does have a history of taking stands on important issues that put her at odds with the union. She led the charge against the most recent attempt to launch a parcel tax on Fullerton voters. Bev also was the only school boarder who has repeatedly said no to imposing the expensive Apple laptop fees on parents throughout the entire One-to-One laptop fiasco. And she has never been on the receiving end of union’s negotiating power as a government employee.
So that begs the question: Why did the union endorse her anyway?
Here are a few things that happened in annum nineteen hundred and ninety-eight:
- Hulk Hogan lost the WWF title to Andre the Giant
- Florence Griffith Joyner set a world record in the 200 meter dash
- Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” hit the top 10
- Mr. T launched his own television show
- Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America” grossed $128 million
- The Dodgers won the World Series
- A gallon of gas cost 98 cents
And Don Bankhead began his 22-year career on the Fullerton City Council.
Twenty-two years is more than enough. It’s time to give mayor Bankhead a break.
Last year CalPERS reported that the city of Fullerton is facing an unfunded pension liability of $37,531,831 on our public safety employees’ retirement plan. That’s the amount that we currently owe our public servants above and beyond all future budgeted payments.
Of course, many professional actuarials believe that CalPERS’ figures are purposefully understated. They’re just being nice. What we’ve learned over the last few years is that CalPERS and the unions have been feeding our politicians a big fat load of lies, which were used to pump up their pensions. The figures are derived from proven unrealistic investment returns that can never be achieved. Studies conducted by Stanford grads and the NCPA agree.
So we asked an industry insider to recalculate Fullerton’s unfunded pension liability using a realistic rate of return for a government pension system. While he could not do a detailed actuarial report for our city, he stated that using a more realistic 5% long-term rate of return “would raise the unfunded liability by somewhere between 60% to 120% in most pension systems.”
Based on those figures, it’s safe to say that Fullerton’s real unfunded pension liability is somewhere between $60,000,000 and $83,000,000. That’s just for the police and fire unions, which has about 250 currently employed members.
Wrap your head around that. Sixty million dollars of unfunded, unplanned debt just for our little city of Fullerton. That money will not be spent on roads, parks, infrastructure, libraries or public safety. It will be given away to retired public employees, long after they’ve stopped serving our city.
If we don’t do something about it now, it’s going to get worse.
Le administrateur asked me to respond to Dan C’s tirade on The Liberal OC in regards to Shawn Nelson’s cigar largess to the troops. As Gustavo wrote, “this is one of the worst argued posts I have seen in a very long time”. It would appear that Dan C. failed to do any research, choosing to write a hit piece rather than an article. Had he done so, he would have found out that cigars are just an addition to the snacks and other useful items being sent by Mr. Nelson. Let me address Dan C’s tirade against sending tobacco products to the front line.
While smoking is a recognized issue by the medical corps, there are many more things that can easily kill a soldier, airman, sailor or Marine while in theater. IEDs, mortar and small arms fire, vehicle rollovers, helicopter or flight crashes to name just a few. Hence, the combat theater isn’t the easiest place to start a smoking cessation program and be successful. Soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines smoke for a number of reasons –because their peers are doing it, it helps them blow off stress, and also to pass the time between waiting and combat.
Once they are CONUS, the military can and often does start in on smoking cessation programs, which also includes insidious chewing tobacco. Any form of smoking or chewing tobacco contributes to a variety of smoking related diseases and ailments. Because they will have their health needs covered by TriCare or the VA, smoking cessation programs are essential. Our challenge as a nation is to help our military heroes cope with physical, emotional and stress related issues (including PTSD) by offering alternatives to smoking through array of integrated therapeutic venues. This is the focus for the next 30 years for the veteran and veteran support communities.
My suggestion to Mr. Nelson and others is twofold:
1. Continue sending things into the combat theater, and encourage others to do so too. I’ve prepared a document called Troop Support For Newbies available through my blog, The Kitchen Dispatch. TSFN has been widely shared across the nation, among families, troop support organizations and through the military ranks. In addition, for those on a budget: the thing soldiers like best are letters! FYI, The Boys and Girls Club Teen Center on Richman completed a letter writing campaign last spring. Their letters were sent to Afghanistan, where a chaplain picked them up and delivered them to soldiers in a remote outpost (see photo). Consider rewarding these young patriots with a big fat check for upgrades on their kitchen.
2. Give to veterans programs that work to help a soldiers well-being after he or she returns home. Several excellent programs run by private non profit organizations may be found on my blog. This post ran last week, and made the rounds of both the military community and up the ranks: The Kitchen Dispatch: Getting Rid of Mental Health Stigma. Many of us work together –regardless of differing viewpoints on war, or politics to ensure a veteran at all stages of life is supported with dignity. Those who volunteer for the military constitute less than 1% of the population.
Supporting the troops goes far beyond sending things to the front line. For many, the real battle begins when they are home. Nelson’s support is always welcome, and we appreciate that he keeps the men and women who serve in mind. Should he need to contact me directly, the best way to do this is through Fullerton’s Future COC.
Sincerely,
Kanani Fong
Military Spouse
The Kitchen Dispatch
PR Team, National Geographic’s Restrepo
Writer, PBS Regarding War