Over at the Orange Juice blog, the ever-ebullient Vern Nelson has posted an overview of the big pow-wow held the other day in Costa Mesa that was organized to clarify the whole proposed sale deal. Apparently the two masterminds of the meeting – Assemblymen Van Tran and Jose Solorio – have as much grasp of the issue as a pair of two-week old jack o’ lanterns.
Tran and Solorio know the score
Vern, to his credit, keeps the issue of Dick Ackerman’s lobbying for the secret Fair Board cabal in front of the public. Ex-legislators are supposed to refrain from lobbying for a full year after their departure from office, but apparently Dick was up in Sacto this summer pushing to get the necessary enabling language in the budget bill.
What is that obnoxious odor?
Now the Fair Board members involved in the deal are trying to nicely characterize his efforts as “consulting,” even as they pretend not to know how much money was spent on Ackerman’s questionable services. Well, the distinction between a consultant glad-handing votes and a lobbyist is lost on us. It’s probably a moot point since nobody in law enforcement seems to want to enforce it. Ah! Another one of those unenforceable laws dispensed with! God it’s great being a Repuglican!
We considered ourselves pretty much hopelessly cynical. Most local elections don’t seem to matter much, at least here in OC. The choices are determined in Repuglican primaries between various assorted mixed nuts with more ambition than brains; people whom you wouldn’t hire to walk your dog. People of no real ability but a crafty sort of skill at ferreting out the main chance – for themselves. Remember Duvall? Bulldozer Daucher? Every council election gives birth to a new litter.
But this time it really is different.
Chris Norby is not perfect. A long way from perfection – like most of us. But his political attributes far outweigh his liabilities. He is a rock-solid conservative who has fought for property rights against the incursion of government depredations for decades. At the County he has opposed pension spikes, PLAs, and other policies that unreasonably raise the cost of government to the people who pay for it – us.
As a city councilman in Fullerton Norby time and time again had to stand alone in a lonely fight against the boondogglery of the Redevelopment Agency and completely incompetent affordable housing schemes – foisted on us by his colleagues. You see, Chris put the welfare of the City ahead of foolish collegiality with the rest of the council and with staff. He never forgot that it is the city manger who works for the council – not the other way around. Unlike his fellows on the council he never came to identify himself with the bureaucracy at the expense of his constituents. Remember the Utility Tax?
There is a reason a billionaire like Ed Roski Jr. dislikes Norby so much and is willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to attack him. It’s because Norby is one of the few elected officials in California who has stood up to fight the redevelopment abuses that create sham cities like “Industry” where Roski rules over his supposedly democratic realm in effective majesty.
So what can Norby do in Sacramento? He can fight the California Redevelopment Association by forging a coalition of Democrats and republicans who are tired of seeing the little guys get pushed around by auto dealers and big box corporate welfare artists. He can fight for equitable sales tax distribution to eliminate internecine tax wars between neighboring cities. As a former teacher he can bring his own experience to bear on education problems instead of relying on party cliches. And as a true fiscal conservative he can fight for the interests of the taxpayers.
His Republican opponent? An empty suit of clothes wheeled around one afternoon in front of a cameraman in poses hardly any more credible that her claimed business experience. A sham candidate imported from another district by forces of pecuniary interest who think nothing is wrong in creating a tax-free, charitable organization whose only mission is to arrange free Hawaiian vacations for legislators.
The Republican Party of Orange County has been run by a relatively small gang of manipulators and political profiteers. Almost all of them have come out in support of a woman who doesn’t even live in the district, and whose entire campaign is a fraud; and lots of small fry local electeds have followed suit, believing as they do that their main chance belongs with the Gang. Maybe they are right. But Tuesday, a message of bad news may be delivered. The Gang has never trusted or accepted Norby. Maybe a Norby victory against their hollow candidate will send the message that their days are numbered. Let’s hope they are.
Today in a brazen attempt to escalate an ongoing feud of municipal clumsiness between the two cities, a Placentia city Parks and Rec contractor piloted his lawnmower into the lake at Tri-City Park. Witness below a photo of the crew in action during the extraction process, taken earlier today by an observant FFFF fan.
Scorekeepers should note that Placentia has been giving Fullerton a run for it’s money in this race to the bottom ever since the early days of the OnTrac debacle.
Ever since some of our critics chastised us for being unduly negative, we have sought contributions from folks who, well, just have a rosier outlook than we. So from time time we post stuff sent to us from our loyal follower “Chamber Star.” Today this individual shares his/her views on the 72nd Special Election Primary.
Election time is nearing! The 72nd State Assembly Special Election is at hand. Many people have already mailed in their absentee ballots and many others will do so soon.
A lot of unpleasant things have been said and done during this campaign and at least that will soon be over. But before it is I want to share my choice for the job: Linda Ackerman.
Why Linda? First because she seems like a real team-player, and not one of those mavericks who can’t get things done. When she says she is not defined by being a Republican she is giving a real signal that she wants to compromise and make deals with the opposition to get things done. And boy do we really need to get things done in California!
As a business person myself, I appreciate that she understands our problems. This site has been very critical of her lack of business experience, but I can tell you that not just anyone can sit on a board of directors, or be part of a non-profit organization. And being on the Board of the MWD is not easy either. It must take a tremendous amount of time to go through all that mountain of paperwork and analysis to make it run more like a business.
I believe Linda shares our values. As a replacement for Mike Duvall we need someone who brings those values to Sacramento. A lot has been made of the Ackermans mentoring Duvall in the first place, but I just don’t believe it. Good, honest people like the Ackermans don’t have anything to do with individuals like Duvall. On top of that Linda has never held office before so she represents a real change, and boy do we need change in California!
Some people have made an issue out of the fact that Linda’s husband is really calling the shots. I don’t know if he literally “speaks for her” but I’m not worried. I like the fact that we can have his vast experience, wisdom, and political connections “on call” as it were; we are really getting two well-connected and knowlegeable people for the price of one!
Finally I want to address (and dismiss) the charge of “carpetbagging” leveled against this fine woman. It’s true that she moved to Irvine and has rented an address in Fullerton, but who cares? If you wanted to hire someone to work for you, would you restrict yourself to only someone from your town? Of course not. You’d try to find the best person for the job – regardless of where they live – and put them to work ASAP. And Linda with her years of charity work and with the PTA in Fullerton before she moved out is just the person for the job.
Well, don’t just take my word for it. Check out all the voices of Linda’s endorsements from OCs best and brightest elected officials, men and women who have selflessly dedicated their lives to our betterment, and who have absolutely nothing to gain personally from an Ackerman victory.
When you add it all up, the choice is very clear, and I’m confident Team Fullerton will make it : Linda Ackerman for State Assembly!
Trouble. That starts with "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for Poll!
We noticed the other day that the Ackerwoman has spent a ton of money on polling: over fourteen big ones were paid to a guy named Adam Probolsky (who is supposedly the “boyfriend” of Ackerman, Inc. campaign fundraiser Desiree Mouzoon).
Being the political novices that we are, we really have to wonder what $14K gets you in the world of polling, and why other polling was needed to be done since Ackerwoman also paid an outfit JMJ Associates another $6500 for “polling and survey.” That’s over twenty grand in just a few weeks for polling. And that doesn’t even count the polling done by the Ackerman attack dogs Alliance for California’s Tomorrow – a poll that seemed to have caused their plug to be pulled. Hmm.
According to his own website “Mr. Probolsky is an opinion research expert with a demonstrated record of success.” There is no explanation of how he got to be an “expert” – such as advanced degrees in mathematics or statistics, or the like.
And, for quite some time we have wondered whether these campaign camp followers – pollsters and campaign consultants, etc., didn’t really have an interest in stringing candidates along for their own purposes.
A ling cod
We would feel really badly if poor Linda, who has the business experience of a ling cod, were being taken advantage of by unscrupulous campaign hucksters.
Ed Roski is friends with many famous dead Americans
Although we haven’t seen it, Martin Wisckol at the Register has posted a youtube clip of a cable TV run ad that basically paints Norby as some sort of anti-feminist monster. The thing is so hyperventilated that it’s hard to believe anybody would take it seriously. It starts out with an image of Mike Duvall that morphs into Norby. Only problem is by now voters have a pretty good idea that it was Dick Ackerman who selected and groomed Duvall in the first place, and even that Norby supported his opponent.
Wisckol claims the ad has been paid for by an independent expenditure of as yet unknown origin.
A strong whiff of Ed Roski Jr. is emanating from this garbage. Since the Alliance for California’s Tumors has stopped its work, Roski has undoubtedly discovered a new conduit for his torrent of slime. But this crap is bound to backfire just like all the other Ackerman slime seems to have done.
I know all about water. We fly over a bunch of it on the way to Hawaii!
We have thoroughly and comprehensively debunked the campaign blather about Linda Ackerman being some sort of businesswoman. She’s not, of course. That’s just a lie, and almost as bad as her claim to be living in Fullerton. The sum and substance of her business experience seems to be calling up lobbyists to raise moolah for her husband Dick’s campaigns.
She doesn’t mention that in her resume, of course, because that wouldn’t look too good. Intead she shares the fact that she is on the board of a collection agency. And her campaign propaganda never fails to mention that she sits on the board of the Metropolitan Water District, an appointment no doubt orchestrated by her husband.
But let us reflect upon the MWD, a giant government entity that acts like a public utility but that in reality is an association of governments. We have already shared how Loophole Linda voted for a massive water rate hike last spring (oh no, not a tax, heaven forfend!). A recent editorial by the San Diego Union Tribune raises questions about the complete lack of leadership at the MWD – leadership the Ackerwoman is pitching as hard as she can. The SDUT notes that during the run -up to the now abandoned pension spike the MWD authorized a $100,000 contract with an operation called Marathon Communications to push the contract through; and a $300,000 contract with Agreement Dynamics to craft an agreement that would fly.
Think of it: $400,000 spent on consultants to create a deal and PR-ram it through. All at the expense of everybody at the end of the shower nozzle. And all wasted. Who agreed to all this? Good question. If the Board didn’t, then why didn’t they? If they did…
Gee, I guess I'd better not venture north of the 91
A Friend has alerted us that over at the Red County blog, Ackerman, Inc. apologist Matt Cunningham has come up with a new argument to mitigate the obvious truth that Linda Ackerman is a merely an Irvine carpetbagger who doesn’t live in the district.
He claims that Ackerwoman’s larger number of Fullerton contributors (compared to Norby) belies the the claim that she has no support in her adopted district. Hence, the carpetbagger label doesn’t stick quite so well. Apart from the obvious problem of arguing points that nobody has ever contested (typical) his post betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of Fullerton politics.
Let’s just dispense with the real issue first: LINDA ACKERMAN LIVES IN IRVINE.
Of course Ackerman, Inc. has some support in Fullerton – but among a pretty narrow and shallow tribe, that includes a few Repuglican Women, Dick’s old Rotary buddies, and some fading Chamber of Commerce types. These people participate in politics and they are the people whom Ackerman, Inc. has hit up for campaign contributions. These folks are like the insects that skim across the top of the pond – and are not indicative of much of anything going on below. Due to the influence of Ackerman they have never really supported Norby at all. Their support of Ackerwoman, far from being unusual, is in fact, perfectly predictable.
So to get a few dozen contributions from these people really indicates very little. The election will be decided by tens of thousands of voters, many of whom have already indicated their disgust at the attempt of Dick Ackerman to hang on to power through the conduit of his wife.
Back in September we published a mothers’ letter accusing the Fullerton School District of ignoring the pornography problem on school-issued laptops. At the time, the school district responded to the an OC Register reporter by claiming that this was the “first reported case of a student using the laptops to log on to pornographic sites”.
Today we know that statement is a flat-out lie.
I have been contacted by numerous parents and several FSD teachers who were each directly involved with cases where school children used their laptops to view pornography or chat with strangers online. Some had grade-school children who became addicted to pornography, while others were teachers who dealt with these issues on a regular basis in the classroom.
Witness one post by and FSD teacher to our blog following the OC Register story:
I am a Fullerton Elementary school teacher and a parent of elementary school children who have been a part of the laptop program. First, I am aware of numerous children who have accessed inappropriate sites and viewed illicit images while using their school issued laptops. Furthermore, we discovered inappropriate material on our son’s laptop. For those of you who would blame this on “bad parenting” get your heads out of you a#%! These are curious adolescents, who if given the opportunity, will venture into areas they shouldn’t go. In giving these laptops to children to take home and expecting them to refrain from inappropriate sites is equivalent to putting dirty magazines in a young boys closet but telling him to not look at them. When not monitored (and what parent can do this 24/7 ?) they will act on their curiosity. Unfortunately, this can lead to emotional, psychological and even physical harm through sexual predators who are just looking for an opportunity to catch a young child who has wandered into the dangerous world of the internet.
To the mother of the daughter who was caught up in this unfortunate situation please be encouraged. What others may mean for harm God can use for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28). May you and your daughter experience His all-sufficient grace! (2 Cor. 12:8)
It is clear that many parents are not monitoring their childrens’ use of the laptops, finding it impossible to watch them twenty four hours a day. For those super parents who disagree, please think about all of those open wireless networks across the street of your school or on your child’s way home. In this day of dual-income and single-parent families, how many children are left alone on the Internet under the guise of doing their homework? Are most parents technically adept enough to even recognize a problem when it occurs?
The prevalence of pornography on school laptops is a direct result of the district downplaying and misrepresenting the laptop safety issue to parents. Unfortunately, many children are being permanently harmed by the district’s failure to address the problem.
I'd sell my soul for a cold one right about now...
When we returned to the FFFF HQ today we noticed that somebody had been rummaging around in the medicine cabinet. Sure enough, some of our ritual mescaline had disappeared. And later today we received the following communication from the boys in the white, unmarked van, purporting to be yet another snagged Dick Ackerman telephone conversation. Although we know who the other communicant is (or claims to be) we have been unable to discover anything about this individual. If any of the Friends can help out we would certainly appreciate the assistance.
(phone ringing)
Dick Ackerman: (snort) Yeah, Ackerman here.
Louis Cyphere: Hello Richard. Louis Cyphere calling.
DA: Oh, Jesus.
LC: Come again?
DA: (Grunting sounds) Heh heh. Sorry, boss.
LC: Richard please stop making animal sounds. I want to know what’s been going on lately. You haven’t been in touch.
DA: Been busy. Trying to beat that bastard Norby. Need some more help. Things aren’t looking too good.
LC: Ah, Richard, they rarely do. But I’m wondering, well, you know, what’s in it for me?
DA: Hgpmph. Um. Well, Hell…
LC: Hmmm?
DA: I mean, you know…
LC: You see Richard, the thing of it is, I feel I’ve already pretty much optimized my investment in you and the missus, and I have so many political things on my plate right now.
DA: 72nd at stake. (grunting) Lots of possibilities in Sacramento.
LC: Yes, well, the 72nd was pretty much bought and paid for back in ’95. Surely you remember that arrangement.
DA: Ughmpmphh. Yeah, sure boss.
LC: Good. Well, the World Series is over and the Yanks have won again, so I suppose…what more do you want?
DA: Gotta shut down the blogs. That Bushala. Goddammit! Killing me. I mean killing us. I mean killing Linda! Phone calls, signs, blogthings, Goddamn signs. Right there on the way to Dolan’s house.
LC: Richard. No need to blaspheme. What do you want?
DA: (snarling sound and a low bark) Take him out. Accident. Overdose. Suicide. Something.
LC: Calm down now Richard. You know I can’t do that. Bushala, again? You mean our arrangement with Malcolm didn’t work out? I could try to cut a deal with him.
DA: Yeah. Heh. Heh heh. A deal (three quick grunts).
LC: Greek Orthodox?
DA: (undecipherable) What? Goddamit, that white van is out back behind the badminton courts.
