Thursday, May 13, 2010

Outrage. Or not.

.....THINK OF IT. Here’s a guy who can’t string three words together, who claims to be a “fiscal conservative,” and so, with the help of Crony Man, he takes some dopey County job, pumps it (and his salary) up with big promises of savings and efficiency and untold staunchitude, and then he screws it up and runs it totally into the ground. When the sh*t hits the fan at the Board of Supes, he, first, dons clown pants, and then immediately hires the designated Republican Rat Bastard mouthpiece (who happens to be the Supes’ Rat Bastard mouthpiece too), and after a little song and dance and seltzer down your pants, Johnny Boy is right back to pullin’ down the big bucks while somehow always bein’ out of town on important business for “the district.”
.....—Yeah, Johnny, but, um, aren’t you claiming to be at work for some of that deadly-dire, duty-driven district gallivanting?
.....OK, so we’ve published copies of ACTUAL DOCUMENTS from the County and EQUALLY ACTUAL DOCUMENTS from the SOCCCD that seem to show that Public Administrator/Guardian (and SOCCCD trustee) John Williams has claimed—in timesheets that he has signed—numerous full days of work at his Santa Ana office on days when, according to SOCCCD records, he was, well, seriously elsewhere—in places like freakin’ Orlando, Florida.

No defenders?
.....Naturally, people have contacted us to express their disgust with, or cynicism about, or suicidal tendencies concerning, this disturbing Williamsific paper trail.
.....But NO ONE has defended PE Boy in any way.
.....I kept waiting for something. I thought for sure somebody’d say, “Hey, maybe he took his County work to Orlando! Yeah, he attended important conference panels about "trusteeship" and then ran back to his room to work on his corpse issues—and like that, back and forth, for several days! What a patriot! What about that!?”
.....Or maybe: “How do we know you didn’t fabricate those records, Blog Boy!”
.....Something!
.....But no. Nothing.
.....* * *
.....Today, a friend called and informed me that, recently, Williams was interviewed for that goofy TV station in Laguna Woods Village (formerly Leisure World). The wily friend gave the producer a heads up and so he (or a talking head) came prepared to ask Williams about the indicators of Williams’ curious apparent dual whereabouts.
.....I’m told that Williams flatly denied everything. Don’t know the details.
.....Does anybody get the Fogey Channel? Check it out. Tell us what he said. And, more importantly, what did his hair look like?
.....* * *
.....As you know, we’ve contacted the county about this business, and supposedly they’re on the case. We have little faith in ‘em. It was like pulling teeth to get any information at all about their alleged inquiry. We’ve heard not a thing from those people. Dang!
.....But wait a minute! If (notice the “if”) Williams falsely claimed to be doing work at the County that he did not do—well, that’s fraud, right? That’s hundreds of dollars (maybe thousands) of taxpayer loot going to pay a guy who, it seems, was in fact sunning his ass in the Lap Dance state, getting his toenails polished.
.....A minor clerical error you say? Nope. We’re talking multiple timesheets here.
.....And not only that! Williams was sunning said ass and polishing said tootsies on the taxpayers’ dime! In my entire life, I’ve never spent the kind of money that Williams routinely spends at his far-away districtular getaways. It’s strictly deluxe, man.

Where’s the outrage?
.....I woulda thought people would go apeshit over this. I mean, I know how it is. People don’t seem to react much to, oh, unconstitutional actions by government officials or, say, idiotic, expensive, and utterly counter-productive projects (SLOs), or, say, powerful people ruining people’s careers because they’re deluded and narcissistic rat bastards from Hell.
.....“Yeah, whatever,” they say.
.....But when a guy takes a solitary dime out of the public kitty, we’ll that’s a different matter entirely! Good Lord!! Hang ‘im by the yardarm! Leave his carcass to twist and stink in the sun!
.....But not this time.
.....Well, no matter. We’ve got some people on the case—I mean people beyond those squirrelly bozos down at the County. So we’ll see.
.....And if that doesn’t work, we’ll finally go for the ol’ full-court press. Trust me. We haven’t done that yet.

"Israeli Apartheid Week" event

Speaker denounces Zionism in UCI protest (OC Reg)

.....Islamic activist Amir Abdel Malik Ali spoke at noon Thursday at UC Irvine as part of "Israeli Apartheid Week" presented by the Muslim Student Union. He said before a crowd of several hundred that a movement is occurring in which people aren't afraid of being called anti-Semitic for criticizing Zionism and calling attention to Palestine.
. . .
.....UCI became a microcosm for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this week as hundreds of students, faculty and visitors took part in demonstrations and counter-demonstrations that painted the school as a battleground for bringing attention to the Palestinian point of view on one side and a breeding ground for anti-Semitism and hate on the other.
.....During a question-and-answer session following his speech, Malik Ali answered questions about whether he supports Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups that are regarded as terrorist organizations by some and resistance movements by others….
. . .
....."I condemn the killing of innocent civilians,"[Mohamed Abdelgany, MSU president] said. "But I can understand the kind of pressure that the Palestinians are under living under occupation."
.....During Malik Ali's speech, counter-demonstrators carrying and wearing Israeli and American flags marched around the speaking area. After the speech, they sang and danced next to MSU's wall that was erected to convey the plight of the Palestinian people…. (Continued)

Mathur, et al., encourage participation in rally

SOCCCD employees just received this curious email (from Tracy Daly) entitled “Statewide Rally To Save Education in California” (CSEA). The above flyer was attached or included.

INFORMATION THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO ALL EMPLOYEES:

Wednesday, May 19th, California Advocates United to Save Education (C.A.U.S.E.)
Statewide rally to send a message to California leaders to save education!
4:30-6:30p.m.
Orange at El Modena High School’s Fred Kelly Field

Chancellor Mathur, President Roquemore, and President Burnett
are in support of classified employees attending this event
as excused time, subject to their immediate supervisor’s approval.

Will these boys survive cozying up to a union?

'Zona

Arizona bans 'ethnic studies' (Politico)

.....Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a law banning the state’s schools from teaching ethnic studies classes.
.....Brewer signed the bill Tuesday that targets Chicano studies programs currently being taught in Tucson schools.
.....Proponents of the bill argue that the classes are designed only for students of a particular race and promote ethnic solidarity over community integration.
.....“Public school pupils should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people,” the text of the bill reads.
.....The law prohibits the teaching of any classes that promote “the overthrow of the United States government,” “resentment toward a race or class of people,” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
.....Neither the governor nor the bill’s supporters have identified examples where a Chicano studies class has advocated the “overthrow” of the federal government, and the bill’s opponents in the state have expressed outrage over what they see as a law that unfairly targets Hispanics.
.....Brewer’s signature banning ethnic studies classes comes nearly six weeks after she signed a controversial immigration law that has prompted boycott calls.

● Arizona governor signs bill targeting school district's ethnic studies program (LA Times)
● Arizona slides into Grand Canyon, disappears w/o trace (DtB)

Illustration: from Pee-Wee's Playhouse

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...