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Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Category Archives: Republican Party

O.C. Human Relations Commission responds to anti-Muslim protest

Posted on by Posted in Arab Americans, Civil Rights, Orange County, Republican Party, Santa Ana 2 Comments

For Immediate Release

For More Information: C. William Wood, Chair, 949-338-3713, Rusty Kennedy, Executive Director 714-567-7465

OC Human Relations Commission Calls for a Return to Civility in Reaction to Muslim Charity Speakers and Protests

The Orange County Human Relations Commission was created in 1971 to promote mutual understanding among Orange County residents and eliminate the causes of prejudice, intolerance and discrimination.

On March 10, 2011 at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Commission the speakers and protests at a Muslim charity event held on February 13 at the Yorba Linda Community Center were discussed and the Commission voted to issue a statement.

The Orange County Human Relations Commission:

1. Sends our empathy and support to the Muslim children who attended this event with their families, and were subjected to hateful and bigoted insults. The Commission feels that there is no reason to insult each other when differences of opinion occur, and compounding the inappropriateness of those bigoted and hateful insults by directing them at children is inexcusable.

2. Commends the City of Yorba Linda and their police department for the way they handled these contentious events, protecting the rights of all parties, and creating a safe environment for these highly emotional conflicts to play out peacefully.

3. Commends one of the leaders of the rally who apologized publicly for the atrocious behavior of the hecklers, even though she was not associated with them and did not know them. This gracious apology acknowledges that what these families and children were subjected to by the hecklers, was wrong.

4. Calls on the passionate hecklers who deliver their opinions with such raw emotion, to take a deep breath and look at themselves and their behaviors and recognize that their inappropriate actions hurt their own cause. A more civil debate is a more constructive avenue to promote a perspective in a democratic society.

5. Calls on leaders who speak to large groups and have many people who listen to their words, to tamp down the generalizations that vilify whole groups of people based on the actions of a few. Step back from their colorful, emotionally laden language so that fringe elements of our community don’t feel emboldened to act out their bigotry with hate crimes.

6. Calls on organizations and groups to shun speakers whose hateful rhetoric and violent innuendo polarizes people, scapegoats whole groups for the actions of a few, and incites bigotry and violence.

7. Calls on perpetrators of hate crime to stop their threats against leaders and crimes against individuals.

8. Calls on all Orange County residents, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, White, Latino, Black, Asian, Gay, Straight, Disabled, men, women, children, young and old, to come together to condemn these acts of bigotry.

Orange County Human Relations Commission
1300 S. Grand, Bldg B, Santa Ana, CA 92705
714.567.7470 www.ochumanrelations.org

Commissioners:

Bill Wood Chair
Ken Inouye Vice Chair
Ellen Ahn
Nadia Bettendorf
Becky Esparza
Chief Dave Maggard
Ki Hong Park
Amy Peikoff
Carol Turpen
Vincent De Vargas
Doug Wooley

Video by Santa Ana’s George Collins captures anti-Muslim Republicans in action

Posted on by Posted in Arab Americans, Churches and Religion, Civil Rights, Hate, immigration, Orange County, Politics, Republican Party 9 Comments

When George Collins, a past candidate for Santa Ana Mayor, showed up at a Republican Party of Orange County event in Yorba Linda, his aim was to film the comments made by the speakers, and then put them up on his YouTube page.  He surely had no idea what was going to happen after he put up the video, which shows Villa Park Council Member Deborah Pauly making very harsh statements about Orange County’s Muslim community.

What set Pauly off was the actions of the Muslim Student Union at the University of California at Irvine (UCI).  Eleven Muslim students were arrested during Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s speech on campus in February. Those 11 students stood up one at a time and yelled during Oren’s presentation and were subsequently detained, according to the O.C. Register.

Here is a video of the Muslim students’ protest:

Who is this guy Michael Oren?

Here are excerpts from his bio.:

Michael B. Oren is the State of Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.

A graduate of Princeton and Columbia, Dr. Oren has received fellowships from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, and from the British and Canadian governments. Formerly, he was the Lady Davis Fellow of Hebrew University, a Moshe Dayan Fellow at Tel-Aviv University, and the Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown.

Ambassador Oren has written extensively for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New Republic, where he was a contributing editor. His two most recent books, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East and Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, were both New York Times bestsellers. They won the Los Angeles Times’ History Book of the Year prize, a National Council of the Humanities Award, and the National Jewish Book Award.

Raised in New Jersey, where he was an activist in Zionist youth movements and a gold medal winning athlete in the Maccabia Games, Ambassador Oren moved to Israel in the 1970s. He served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, in the paratroopers in the Lebanon War, a liaison with the U.S. Sixth Fleet during the Gulf War, and an IDF spokesman during the Second Lebanon War and the Gaza operation in January 2009. He acted as an Israeli Emissary to Jewish refuseniks in the Soviet Union, as an advisor to Israel’s delegation to the United Nations, and as the government’s director of Inter-Religious Affairs. He has testified before Congress and briefed the White House on Middle Eastern affairs.

Interesting.  This guy Oren is no common diplomat.  He has a lot of Arab blood on his hands.  Now you could argue how that came to be, but the fact is I can understand why Muslim students might not be happy to welcome this man to their campus.

These Muslim students aren’t monsters, I don’t think.  They are brave individuals who risked everything for what they thought waas right.

But Pauly thinks they are “unwelcome invaders.”  Click here to see the video of her disturbing comments.  I would normally embed the video here, but Collins disabled that feature on his YouTube page.  He was upset because a Muslim organization used excerpts of his video in their own YouTube video, which was taken down when Collins claimed he had a copyright to the original video.

Collins, like Pauly, is a Republican.  She is also a member of the OC GOP’s Executive Committee.

Irvine City Council to establish Ronald Reagan Day, on Feb. 22

Posted on by Posted in irvine, Politics, Republican Party 6 Comments

Irvine Councilman Jeff Lalloway announced today that the Irvine City Council will be proclaiming Feb. 6 as “Ronald Reagan Day.”

Santa Ana, incidentally, is the home of the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse.

Reagan was once a Democrat. He raised taxes and legalized abortion when he was the Governor of California.  As President he tilted to the right and is most famed for helping to bring down the Berlin Wall and for standing up to the U.S.S.R.  He later got selling arms to Iran, illegally, so the money could be used to fund the Contras, in Nicaragua, against the wishes of the U.S. Congress.  Reagan also is the only U.S. President to have signed an amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

Here is Lalloway’s announcement:

Please join me this Tuesday, February 22nd at 5pm for a meeting of the Irvine City Council, where we will proclaim February 6th as “Ronald Reagan Day” in the City of Irvine in honor of his 100th Birthday.

Like all of you, Ronald Reagan remains a source of inspiration to me, personally, professionally, and in my public life. (So much so that I named my first child after him). Reagan’s optimism about our country in the face of grave threats, and his commitment to liberty loving values that founded this nation, should be an inspiration to everyone.

So please join me, and the rest of the Irvine City Council, on Tuesday night to honor one of our nation’s greatest Presidents.

Hope to see you there!

Jeff

What:City of Irvine Proclamation Honoring the 100th Birthday of Ronald Reagan
When: Tuesday, February 22nd, 5pm
Where: Irvine City Hall – Council Chambers
1 Civic Center Plaza
Irvine, California 92606

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

– Ronald Reagan

Naui vs. KABC’s Larry Elder, on immigration

Posted on by Posted in Civil Rights, immigration, Latinos, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 8 Comments

Santa Ana resident Nauit Tetl interviewed Larry Elder, the Republican radio host who appears on KABC, when Joe Arpaio visited the Nixon Library last week.  Above you can see the results.

Tetl kept asking Elder why Arapio, who is the Sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, doesn’t target those who employ “illegals.”  Watch Elder spit out the usual GOP talking points.  And to think this guy used to be a Libertarian!

Tan Nguyen is going to jail for trying to suppress the Latino vote

Posted on by Posted in 2010 Elections, Elections, Loretta Sanchez, Orange County, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana, Vietnamese Leave a comment

Former Republican Congressional candidate Tan Nguyen has been sentenced “to spend 366 days in prison followed by six months in a halfway house for lying to investigators about his role in a scheme to intimidate Latino voters from voting in his 2006 race against incumbent Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez,” according to R. Scott Moxley at the OC Weekly.

If you recall, Nguyen sent bizarre letters to Latino voters trying to intimidate them and keep them from voting. He denied having anything to do with it, but that turned out to be a lie.

The real question I have is who put Nguyen up to this? I don’t think it was his idea. Someone planted the idea in his campaign – but who?

We do know that Nguyen defeated SAUSD Trustee Rosie Avila in the primary that year. He later appointed her as his alternate on the OC GOP Central Committee. She is closely allied with Minuteman Lupe Moreno, who was recently appointed, again, to serve as an alternate on that committee. Did this idea come from Moreno and her Minutemen?

The Republicans never seem to learn.  Don’t forget that former Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle once hired uniformed security guards to stop Latinos from voting at the polls.  The OC GOP was involved in that too and they were fined.

We also know that Nguyen was at one time closely allied with former Assemblyman Van Tran – another guy who consistently attacks Latino immigrants.  You can see them standing together in the picture above.

Did Tran cook up this scheme?  Who knows?  In an ironic twist, Nguyen ran against Tran in last year’s primary.  Despite his legal problems he still got 3,876 votes!  That is the OC GOP for you.  Here is one of the mailers he distributed during his 2010 campaign:

Tran wisely stayed away from the immigration issue, during his campaign last year, despite his past rhetoric and actions.

If you were to ask most OC GOP Central Committee members what they make of all this, they would likely say Nguyen is a martyr.  And he is, to them.  These people agree with what he did.  What else are you to make of a Committee that appoints Moreno to their body?

Hopefully what happened to Tran will discourage other Orange County Republicans from trying to suppress the Latino vote.

O.C. leaders celebrate launch of Association of California Cities, O.C.

Posted on by Posted in Costa Mesa, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 6 Comments

Orange County Leaders Celebrate Launch of Association of California Cities – Orange County

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2011
Contact Michael Suydam
(949) 981-5008

Nearly 200 Municipal, Business and Community Leaders Attend Inaugural Dinner, Welcoming New Advocate for Orange County’s Cities and Hub for Good Public Policy

COSTA MESA, CA….The Association of California Cities – Orange County (ACCOC) kicked off operations Thursday night at the Hilton Costa Mesa with an all-star lineup of speakers and nearly among 200 civic, business and community leaders welcoming the organization to the Orange County public affairs arena.

Speakers included 33rd District State Senator Mimi Walters, Orange County Business Council CEO Lucy Dunn and former mayors Curt Pringle (Anaheim) and Peter Buffa (Costa Mesa), among others.

“ACCOC is exactly what our cities need to help protect Orange County taxpayers and enhance the collective voice of our cities,” said Senator Walters, a former Laguna Niguel city council member. “I also appreciate the enhanced resources that ACCOC offers its members.”

Among the many new programs and benefits ACCOC rolled out for members at the dinner event is a members-only “Best Practices” database.

“For the first time, Orange County city leaders and staff who are ACCOC members will have access to a comprehensive knowledge management database cataloguing city documents,” explained ACCOC CEO Lacy Kelly.

The ACCOC Best Practices database would provide immediate positive impacts on city staff resources.

“The ACCOC is all about bringing resources to elected officials in Orange County so that they can implement the best possible public policy.” explained ACCOC Board President Robert Ming, a city council member in Laguna Niguel. “This database doesn’t just save cities money by making county-wide research easier to access. It offers council members direct access to the most innovative ideas around so that they can make the best possible decisions on behalf of their constituents.”

In addition, ACCOC will offer a series of workshops and symposiums for council members and staff to enhance their base of knowledge and, more importantly, their value to their respective constituents.

In addition to the critical leadership role played by city officials in the ACCOC, business and community leaders are also invited to help guide the organization’s programs, policies and initiatives as members of the Affiliate and Cabinet programs. Affiliate and Cabinet members have the opportunity to work collaboratively with city leaders in addressing major regional concerns.

“We’re pleased that ACCOC welcomes Orange County’s business community to its table of local government leaders,” announced Lucy Dunn, CEO of the Orange County Business Council, a charter Affiliate member of the newly formed ACCOC Cabinet. “This truly positions ACCOC as a go-to place for tackling issues with cutting-edge solutions, setting a new standard for excellence and innovation.”

ACCOC will also host monthly dinner meetings featuring compelling speakers throughout the year. These meetings will be open to the public and offer tremendous networking opportunities for attendees.

While the ACCOC just opened for business at the end of January, 23 of Orange County’s 34 cities have already joined the organization.

“We could not be more pleased with the resounding and immediate response from so many cities,” exclaimed Kelly. “This demonstrates how tremendous the need was here in Orange County for a locally-controlled and locally-responsive city services organization. ACCOC will more than fill that void.”

Current ACCOC member cities include:

  • Anaheim
  • Buena Park
  • Costa Mesa
  • Cypress
  • Dana Point
  • Fountain Valley
  • Garden Grove
  • Huntington Beach
  • La Palma
  • Laguna Hills
  • Laguna Niguel
  • Lake Forest
  • Los Alamitos
  • Mission Viejo
  • Newport Beach
  • Orange
  • Placentia
  • San Clemente
  • San Juan Capistano
  • Seal Beach
  • Tustin
  • Westminster
  • Yorba Linda

ACCOC Affiliate members include the Orange County Business Council, the Orange County Transportation Authority and Parsons. ACCOC Cabinet members include Synoptek, The Monaco Group and Probolsky Research.

On Friday, February 24-25, ACCOC will host an informative two-day summit for newly elected officials as well as current elected officials who wish to hone their policy leadership skills. The workshop – free for ACCOC members, $100 for non-members – takes place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Care Ambulance facilities at 1517 West Braden Court in Orange, CA.

Other upcoming ACCOC member events announced at Thursday’s dinner include an Advocacy Trip to Sacramento, co-sponsored by the Orange County Business Council, May 10-11, and a City Infrastructure Conference, co-hosted by Parsons, on June 2.

For more information about the ACCOC or upcoming programs, please call (714) 953-1300.  Click here to see the ACCOC’s Facebook page.

The Association of California Cities – Orange County (ACCOC) is a non-profit organization that serves as the hub for good public policy in Orange County and a strong voice for Orange County’s cities. Comprised of members representing both the public and private sectors, ACCOC is committed to protecting local control and revenues while offering a vast array of benefits and resources for city staff and elected representatives.

# # #

Association of California Cities, Orange County | 600 South Main Street, Suite 940 | Orange | CA | 92868

Naui vs. Joe Arpaio, at the Nixon Library – the video!

Posted on by Posted in Civil Rights, immigration, Latinos, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 16 Comments

Mexican-bashing Joe Arpaio, the Sheriff in Arizona’s Maricopa County, probably thought he was in for a mellow evening tonight, at the Nixon Library.  But Santa Ana resident Naui Tetl, showed up with his trusty video camera.  The result is an instant classic, as Naui reminds Arpaio that he is an “Italian Anchor Baby!”

Arpaio was there to speak at an event put on by some commentator named Phil Liberatore.  Click here to read about the event.

Arpaio was accompanied by failed O.C. Sheriff candidate Bill Hunt, who has apparently grown a “porn-stache.”  Hunt was blown out of the water last year, by O.C. Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, after he resorted to racism in his sad campaign – and after he brought Arpaio to the O.C. to campaign for him.  Mission not accomplished!  Hunt now appears to be a rent-a-cop.  Sad.

Protest against Joe Arpaio today at 5:30 pm, at the Nixon Library

Posted on by Posted in Civil Rights, Entertainment, Hate, Orange County, Politics, Republican Party 6 Comments

The dreaded Mexican-basher Joe Arpaio, who serves as Sheriff of Maricopa County, in Arizona, is going to be speaking tonight at the Nixon Library, which is located at 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., in Yorba Linda, along with other Republicans, including

  • New Orange County Treasurer/Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich
  • Actor Lou Ferrigno
  • Commentators Phil Liberatore, Larry Elder and James Hirsen

I am very disappointed to see Freidenrich participating in this event.  I met her during her campaign last year and she seemed somewhat moderate.  I guess I was wrong about her!

Word just in that there will be an official organized protest of the event, starting at 5:30 pm.  Click here for more info, on Facebook.

This event is part of the Liberatore Speaker Series.  I have never heard of him, but any friend of Arpaio is suspect.

Attending this event will cost you $50.  If that sounds good to you, click here to buy a ticket.

I have a feeling that Santa Ana resident Naui Tetl will be there tonight with his video camera…

Why is Minuteman Lupe Moreno still the President of the Friends of the Library?

Posted on by Posted in Civil Rights, David Benavides, immigration, Latinos, LGBT, mexico, Parks and Recreation, Politics, Racism, Republican Party, Santa Ana 21 Comments

It is hard to figure out Lupe Moreno, the notorious Minuteman from Santa Ana.  On the one hand she is full of hate for immigrants and gays.  On the other she is a self-styled born-again Christian – and she is the current President of the Santa Ana Friends of the Library.  In fact you will most likely see her this Friday and Saturday, at the Library’s first Book Sale of the New Year.

Now I am all about forgiving folks for their trespasses – but Moreno is not sorry for her behavior.  She relishes what she does.  She is proud of it.  In fact she was just appointed, a few weeks ago, to the OC GOP Central Committee – where she will ply her hate to much applause.

Just check out the video above.  Is that any way that the President of the Friends of the Library should be acting?  Really?  Throughout the video you can hear Moreno berating the folks visiting the Mexican Consultate’s office, here in Santa Ana.  How uncouth!

Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides worked side-by-side with Moreno last year when she took over the Santa Ana 4th of July event.  She brought in a truckload of Minutemen, from other cities, and sure enough one of them called one of our residents a “wetback.”

I spoke to Benavides about this when he visited the Orange Juice blog radio show – he said he had no problem working with Moreno.  After the show he said that she is a Christian and he feels he must work with everyone.  Well, I don’t know how you can work with someone who has so much disdain for so many of the residents of our city.

Benavides disagreed – and he honored Moreno and her cohorts, although the rest of the City Council wisely passed on that opportunity.

Should Moreno be allowed to serve as President of the Friends of the Library?  Yes, this is a private organization, but the City of Santa Ana hosts their web page.  I really think that she needs to go.  If you agree, please click here and let the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Agency Director, Gerardo Mouet, know how you feel about this!

Here is a bonus video of Moreno behaving badly, yet again:

How will Supervisor Janet Nguyen get Democratic and Independent votes in 2012?

Posted on by Posted in 2012 Elections, Elections, Garden Grove, Janet Nguyen, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana, Vietnamese, Westminster 5 Comments

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen represents the First District, which includes the Cities of Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Westminster, and Midway City.  She is coming up for re-election in 2012.

Nguyen worked for  a slew of Republican politicians before she became an elected official herself, including now retired Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, William G. Steiner, and retired Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad. She also worked for then Assemblyman Ken Maddox, who now calls himself Ken Maddox-Lopez.  He has since distanced himself from Nguyen.

Nguyen served as Chairman of the O.C. Board of Supervisors in 2010.  She recently passed the gavel to Supervisor Bill Campbell, who is going to term out in 2012.

Now that Nguyen is no longer the Chairman of the Board, I think she is going to have a harder time trying to change the boundaries of her district, ostensibly to remove Latino voters and add more Vietnamese voters – but even if she does succeed in doing so, the other Supervisors are not likely to allow her to gerrymander the district.

Nguyen most likely will face several competitors, including, I believe, at least one member of the Santa Ana City Council – and it won’t be Councilman Carlos Bustamante, who she defeated in Feb., 2007.  Bustamante will presumably be running for re-election to a third term on the Santa Ana City Council.  He works for the County of Orange and will most likely be an ardent supporter of Nguyen.

Janet Nguyen beat Trung Nguyen in the 2007 election by only seven votes.  She won a full term on the Board of Supervisors in 2008, beating Dina Nguyen, an ally of Trung.  Both Dina and Trung are of course allies of termed out Assemblyman Van Tran – who was once very close to Janet.  They in fact had a joint honeymoon, at a Mexican resort.  But they split when Tran tried to compel her to use his political team, back when she ran for the Garden Grove City Council.

Last year, Tran and Nguyen made up, as she endorsed his campaign against Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.  You could tell from their pictures together that she was less than enthused, but the damage done by that endorsement will be long-lasting, as most constituents in the First District are big fans of Sanchez – not Tran.

Nguyen posed with Tran and Mexican-bashing Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, along with OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh, on the cover of Viet Weekly, which you can see atop this post.  That picture won’t help her as she tries to engender Latino votes in 2012.

Nguyen does have a First District Latino Advisory Committee, but its members include only Republicans, including consultant Theresa Ynzunza and past OC GOP Hispanic Outreach Director Manny Padilla.

Nguyen did not face a Latino challenger in 2008.  You can bet she will in 2012.  She got 55% of the vote in 2008, against Dina Nguyen and a weak Democrat, Hoa Van Tran.  She got 24.1% of the vote in 2007, in a very crowded field.  There were three Latinos in that race – the aforementioned Bustamante, whose political star crashed and burned in that race as he got only 16.5% of the vote; Minuteman Lupe Moreno got 383 votes and LULAC /O.C. Democratic Party activist Benny Diaz got the least votes on the ballot, with only 273 votes.

How will Nguyen convince Democratic and independent voters to support her in 2012?  She will be running the same year that President Barack Obama will be up for re-election.  You can bet that his campaign will work closely with Democrats in Santa Ana, including most of the Santa Ana City Council – and Obama’s campaign certainly won’t be helping Nguyen.

Nguyen does have some fans on the left, but few if any of them live in the First District.  She won’t win over blue votes just because a few random blue bloggers like her.

It should be noted that Nguyen flirted with failed Santa Ana Mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua last year – but in the end she supported Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido.  Will he return the favor – perhaps against one of his fellow Council Members?  I doubt it, but that will be another interesting wrinkle in 2012.

Nguyen is fairly conservative and she is very much a Republican.  She helped her former Chief of Staff, Andrew Do, to win a seat on the Garden Grove City Council, amidst carpetbagging allegations, and she got her husband, Thomas Bonikowski, appointed to the Garden Grove City Council.  She also supported Anaheim carpetbagger Harry Sidhu last year, in his failed campaign for Supervisor, against Shawn Nelson.  And Nguyen was a big supporter of failed Mexican-bashing GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.  I would imagine that her eventual Democratic challenger will be bringing all of that to light in 2012.

Nguyen also won a seat on the OC GOP Central Committee last year, in the 68th Assembly District Caucus.  She came in fourth, in what might be a bit of foreshadowing for the 2012 race.  Termed out Westminster Councilman Kermit Marsh came in second, behind Ed Royce, Sr., who also serves on a local water board.  Nguyen got barely more than three hundred votes than Jeff Matthews, an obscure Costa Mesa City Commissioner.  And she got less votes than Mark McCurdy, who also won a seat on the Fountain Valley City Council last year.

How did the Chairman of the OC Board of Supervisors come in fourth place in a run for the OC GOP Central Committee?  How did Nguyen get less votes than a water board member, a city commissioner, a termed out Councilman, and a Council candidate?  And how is Nguyen going to rally the troops in 2012?

I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I do know that Nguyen has quite a task ahead of her.

The Crossroads of the West Gun Show is on today, Jan. 30, in Costa Mesa

Posted on by Posted in Costa Mesa, Entertainment, Guns, Orange County, Patriotism, Politics, Republican Party Leave a comment

Are you looking for something to do today?  If your idea of fun is looking at firearms, then you are in luck.  The Crossroads of the West Gun Show continues today, Jan. 30, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.,  at the OC Fair & Event Center, in the Main Mall and Buildings 10, 12, 14, 16 and Parade of Products.

Prices:

Admission: $14. Children 11 and younger are free.  Click here to buy tickets online.  Click here to download a $1 off coupon, or print the graphic above.

Parking: General $5, Preferred $8.

For more than 30 years the Crossroads of the West Gun Shows has been the largest and highest quality gun show on the West Coast. Each show offers hundreds of vendors to meet the needs of all gun enthusiasts.

For more information click here or call (801) 544-9125.

OC GOP Update: Whitacre loses and Moreno returns

Posted on by Posted in 2010 Elections, Elections, Orange County, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 5 Comments

Santa Ana resident Tim Whitacre fought the good fight on Monday night, at the Republican Party of Orange County’s Central Committee meeting – and he has nothing to hang his head about.  He got 23 votes, out of a total of 54 elected members of the Central Committee, in his campaign for party chair, against longtime incumbent OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh.

According to Whitacre, who I spoke with tonight, there was a large crowd at the back of the room that largely cheered him on, much to Baugh’s consternation.

The big news on Monday, was that party heavyweight Jon Fleischman lost his campaign for Vice Chair.  He was upended by Deborah Pauly.  Whitacre’s ally, Allan Bartlett, lost that race but the consolation prize was watching Fleischman lose.

There were also a couple of seats to fill on the 69th Assembly District’s delegation, as Robert Hammond earned a seat on the Central Committee as a candidate for that Assembly District.  But since he also ran for the Central Committee, he vacated that seat, and it was handed to Gwen Dyrud, who campaigned for Van Tran this year in his race against Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.

Minuteman Lupe Moreno was appointed to serve as Dyrud’s alternate on the Committee – so, after losing in the Central Committee election in June of last year, she is back on the Committee – as an alternate.

Moreno was involved in a huge scandal this year when she took over the Santa Ana 4th of July event, at the Santa Ana Public Library, and brought a bunch of Minutemen with her.  One of them got caught on video calling a Santa Ana resident a “wetback.”  Moreno was rewarded for her efforts with a certificate from Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides.

Scott Carpenter won a seat in the 69th but he moved out of the district after the election.  His seat was given to Charles Hart, who ran for Mayor of Santa Ana this year.  Hart started out strong only to watch many of his supporters jump on Alfredo Amezcua’s bandwagon, late in the game.

Thomas Gordon won a seat on the OC GOP Central Committee in June as well – but he skipped Monday’s meeting.  I spoke to Gordon and he said that he told Baugh and others with the OC GOP Executive Committee that he was not going to be there, for personal reasons.

There was a commotion in the press today, as Walter Myers , a conservative black Republican, raised a stink after he was overlooked in his quest to gain a vacant seat on the Committee in the 71st Assembly District. The seat went to a white candidate, as reported today in Total Buzz, by Martin Wisckol.  What Wisckol did not report is that the three members of that delegation who chose not to vote for Myers were all Baugh allies – including Mark Bucher, and Marcia Gilchrist.

Myers has worked diligently for the OC GOP in ethnic outreach – but he got punked anyway.  And there is no way Baugh did not know about this, not with his allies joining in rejecting Myers.

Baugh tried to recover from this faux pas by pointing out that he has hired Laura Cunningham and George Andrews to fill out his party staff.  Cunningham is a Latina, who is married to Red County blogger Matt Cunningham – a consultant who serves on both the Orange Planning Commission and the Orange County Beaches, Harbors and Parks Commission – even though he often works for developers.  Andrews is East Indian.  He is an ally of the aforementioned Van Tran.

Laura made headlines in 2008, when she was hired to conduct Latino outreach for Prop. 8, the anti-gay marriage ballot measure.  She once serves as the OC GOP’s Executive Director, when Baugh first took over as Party Chairman.  But that was a train wreck.  She was dismissed a few months into her tenure, amidst allegations of ego problems.

If you want a big laugh, check out the OC GOP’s Central Committee page.  The OC GOP is utterly lacking in diversity.  Orange County is now a majority minority county.  The only saving grace for Baugh and his cohorts is that their Democratic counterparts are an even bigger mess.

Santa Ana graffiti targeting Gov. Brown underscores hate problem in the O.C.

Posted on by Posted in Blogs, Civic Affairs, Civil Rights, Crime, Governor Jerry Brown, LGBT, Miguel Pulido, Orange County, Politics, Public Safety, Republican Party, Santa Ana 7 Comments

George Collins, a videographer who lives in south Santa Ana, and who ran for Mayor last year, was on the scene yesterday when graffiti was discovered on two walls in his area – but this was not normal tagging.  The words that were painted onto those walls constituted a threat to the life of our new Governor, Jerry Brown.

Why target Brown?  Who knows?  He has been fairly moderate so far and has mostly made headlines for announcing that he is slashing public library funds and going after redevelopment and free enterprise zone funding.

Brown appeared here locally, at the Santa Ana Zoo, at last year’s O.C. Labor Day event.  He is a close friend of Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and Brown has actually stayed over at Pulido’s house while in town.  Pulido told me last year that he met with Brown several times to assist with Brown’s campaign.

The first one happened around Greenville Street just north of Alton Street, according to the OC Weekly, which also reported that the other graffiti threat appeared near Thornton Park.

Collins appears in the video above, which I am providing courtesy of ABC News.  They interviewed Collins and were able to video the graffiti before City of Santa Ana public works crews quickly painted it over.

Collins noted on his Facebook page that the graffiti was covered up by 9:30 am.  He credited the City of Santa Ana for acting quickly to get rid of these hateful messages.

Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, of the SAPD, talked to ABC News and he brought up what happened recently in Tucson – and he noted that there have been other hateful graffiti messages in town recently – those messages have targeted gays, Catholics, Mexicans, African Americans and Asians.  He also referenced that other cities in Orange County have been dealing with the same problem.

ABC News cited at least eight such incidents, in four cities here in Orange County.  Many of these messages have included spelling errors.  I have noted over the years that right-wing anonymous commenters on local blogs often misspell words.

The targeted cities have included Brea, Anaheim, and Irvine. Police in those cities are working together to identify if the taggers are the same person or are otherwise in cahoots with each other.

One teenager I know who lives near the area targeted yesterday told me in a text message that there is a known skinhead who lives in that area.  Young people in Santa Ana expressed fear yesterday, on Facebook.

These are indeed scary times.  Hate is commonplace on local blogs in particular.  This is one of the reasons I suggested yesterday that we need to scan those who attend our local City Council meetings for weapons.  There are just too many unhinged people here in town and we need to take steps to ensure public safety.

And the local Republican Party is part of the problem.  Minuteman Lupe Moreno got appointed this Monday to the OC GOP Central Committee, as I related in a post yesterday.  So did failed Santa Ana Mayoral candidate Charles Hart.  Moreno is well known for her hateful views targeting Mexicans and gays.  Hart however is not much better.  He pined during his campaign for the “good old days,” presumably when it was okay for city leaders to burn down Santa Ana’s Chinatown and segregate schools to keep Mexicans and African Americans away from white children.

Another major problem has been the behavior of failed Santa Ana Mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua, who has been railing against the Santa Ana City Council and who has recruited a Who’s Who of bitter, angry folks to his coalition of people who mostly don’t live in Santa Ana.  Their attacks on our City Council and our Mayor have been little more than innuendo and slander – contrast that behavior with that of the aforementioned George Collins, who recently met with Mayor Miguel Pulido to discuss concerns about the Harbor transit corridor and who continues to do good work in our community.  Collins is a shining example of how politicians should act when they lose an election.

Santa Ana resident Tim Whitacre releases his plan to reform the OC GOP

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Santa Ana resident Tim Whitacre, who is challenging Scott Baugh for the Chairmanship of the Republican Party of Orange County, today released his five page plan to reform the OC GOP.

Click here to read Whitacre’s entire plan.  Here is an excerpt from Whitacre’s plan:

The WHITACRE “ALL IN” Plan for the Republican Party of Orange County Central Committee

To Reform and Reorganize the way the Party conducts its mandated business in a manner that motivates all Members to excel in their Elected Positions; to Re-engage and Reconnect with its Volunteer Clubs and Base; to Reach out and support & educate Local Elected Republican Officials; to Retake and hold all elected offices in Orange County currently held by Democrats.

ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice (greed), ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams, Address to the Military, October 11, 1798

“Written and unwritten codes of principles and values that govern decisions and actions…knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do what is right….Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty…The state of being unimpaired; soundness…”

We must begin with ethics and integrity. We can accomplish any worthwhile and honorable task as long as we NEVER compromise our ethics and integrity; first as individuals and then united as a Party. As evidenced by the fervor in which ordinary Republicans and other disenfranchised Americans have been leaving their Parties in disgust and registering ‘Decline to State,’ we only need to look at our failed leadership across the nation to see why.

To use an old cliché: “They didn’t abandon the Republican Party; the Republican Party abandoned them!” Our problem isn’t the Democrats; our problem is entrenched leadership that has lost its compass heading and has become tone deaf to The People who they were elected to represent.

Locally, as a County Party Central Committee, we have all observed what many perceive to be a lack of ethics and integrity when it comes to adherence to our Bylaws by our current Leadership: We had the unprecedented Carona debacle that utterly decimated us in the eyes of the public (i.e. Carona was assured an endorsement for his monetary contribution months earlier); we had two voter registration scandals resulting in fraud (i.e. against advice, Leadership twice hired the same out-of-state firm for voter registration which falsely registered people as Republicans without their knowledge and consent.); and, we have observed preferential treatment of selected Republican candidates by Leadership while other fine Republicans were cast aside (i.e. most recently the Irvine City Council election this past November).

Americans United Meeting: The religious right, stronger than ever

Posted on by Posted in Churches and Religion, Entertainment, irvine, LGBT, Orange County, Republican Party, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Eddie Tabash, the National Legal Chair of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), will be speaking at the next meeting of the Orange County Chapter of the AU, on the topic of “The Religious Right, Stronger Than Ever,” this Saturday, January 15th at 2:00 pm, at the Irvine Ranch Water District, located at 15600 Sand Canyon Ave, in Irvine.

Tabash is an outspoken advocate of religious freedom, including equal rights for atheists, and for gay rights in America.

Tabash will be speaking on the clear and present danger to our Constitutional Democracy from the religious right. This presentation will focus on the resurgent power of the religious right and the looming threat of theocracy in America. Among the examples that will be given to demonstrate this dangerous march toward religious tyranny will be the assault on gay rights, along with other instances of the attempt to undo our modern secular state.

For more information contact Steph Campbell, (714) 299-4551, or e-mail orangecountyau@yahoo.com. There is no charge for admission and refreshments will be served.