Fuentes' Cuban adventure

From Dissent 57, February 14, 2001

[Years before Tom Fuentes decided to nix the “study abroad” trip to Santander, Spain, on the grounds that “Spain has abandoned our fighting men and women,” he pretty much did the same thing to the Cuba trip:]

COLD WARRIORS, HOT DAMN!

College's Cuba trip bothers trustees

EDUCATION: The study-abroad venture has been OKd by Saddleback College's president.

January 27, 2001

By MARLA JO FISHER

The Orange County Register

     MISSION VIEJO - Trustees are balking at the idea of a Saddleback College-sponsored study trip to Cuba, saying it would not be appropriate to allow students to go to a communist country with a record of human-rights violations, according to a student trustee who favors the trip.

     Trustees who criticized the Cuba trip in November approved a study visit to the People's Republic of China during the same meeting, student trustee Jason Wamhoff said.

     "The students want this trip," Wamhoff said Friday. "It is already full. And China has more human-rights violations than Cuba does."

     The trip would mark the first time that the South Orange County Community College District has organized a study-abroad program with the Caribbean island nation. Until early 1999, U.S. citizens were banned from traveling to Cuba because of politics, but cultural and educational exchanges are permitted.

     Dozens of colleges and universities, including Duke, Tulane and American universities, offer study-abroad programs in Cuba, but Saddleback would be the only community college locally to offer such a trip.

     California State University, Fullerton, has a faculty-student exchange program with the communist Republic of Vietnam.

     Saddleback's program was approved by Saddleback President Dixie Bullock and the district's acting chancellor before it was sent to the trustees.

     Bullock said she signed off on the trip because it had been approved by the college's Study Abroad Committee, even though she's not sure how she personally feels. She vetoed the same trip last year, because the college had not received permission from the U.S. Department of Treasury to qualify it as an educational trip. This year permission came through.

     "I still have mixed feelings about it, because I worked with Cuban refugees when I was in Texas," Bullock said. "But if a faculty member comes to me with a proposal that is done properly, approved up through the line and I don't have any specific objections, I'll approve it."

     The college district's written policy on study-abroad programs does not ban visits to communist countries, though it specifies that students should be fully apprised of any potential dangers.

     The proposed Saddleback trip, entirely funded through $2,250-per-student fees, would consist of a 10-day visit to Havana, where students would earn credit while they visit historical sites, attend concerts and discussions on topics such as the sugar industry, political affairs, international relations and health care.

     Two trustees — Tom Fuentes and Dorothy Fortune — were questioning the appropriateness of the trip, Wamhoff said. Neither returned phone calls Friday.

     Minutes from the November trustees meeting were unavailable because they have not yet been completed, a secretary in the district office said.

     Peter Sanchez, partner in Cuba Tours and Travel LLC, a Los Angeles-based company that organizes educational tours for colleges, agreed that the destination is controversial.

     "Cuba is a country with a lot of issues to deal with, but I think it's important for people to gain more understanding of the problems there," Sanchez said. "I think people-to-people contact is what will change things over there."

     Wamhoff said he hopes to recruit students to attend Monday's upcoming board meeting to support the trip.

     "The board is constantly talking about low enrollments, and here's a program that is an excellent attraction and an innovative study-abroad program. They should allow it," Wamhoff said.

College trustees reject Cuban trip

January 30, 2001

By MARLA JO FISHER and JOAN HANSEN

The Orange County Register

     MISSION VIEJO - Students at Saddleback College won't be going on a school-sponsored trip to Cuba after trustees voted 5-2 Monday to abort the first-ever study-abroad program to the island nation.

     "The liability to the district is enormous to send students to Cuba, whether we have insurance or the perfect tour operator or not," college trustee Dorothy Fortune said. "If there are any problems, they are going to sue us."

     About 15 students attended Monday's meeting of the South Orange County Community College District to ask the trustees to approve the program, which was reportedly so popular it was oversubscribed.

     The college received permission from the U.S. Treasury Department to travel to Cuba.

     Dozens of colleges, including Duke and Emory universities and other top-rated institutions have study programs in the communist country.

     But trustees rejected the plan, saying the United States has no embassy there, and criticizing the nation's attitudes toward Americans, politics and safety.

     "There's no true diplomatic representative," Fortune said. "The liability to their health and safety is real."

     Trustees David Lang and Marcia Milchiker voted to support the trip.

     As proposed, the trip would have been financed entirely through $2,250-per-student fees and included 10 days in Havana studying culture, history, politics and economics.

     It had been approved by the college's Study Abroad Committee and President Dixie Bullock.

     Trustees previously approved trips to other communist countries, including the People's Republic of China.

     

IRVINE WORLD NEWS

Letters to the editor, Feb. 8

Community colleges should promote trips to Cuba 

     It is with disbelief that we read the reasons South Orange County Community College district trustee Tom Fuentes gave for voting against the students from Saddleback Community College going on a trip to Cuba.

     Although we have not yet had the opportunity to travel to Cuba, we have many friends who have been fortunate to make that trip. Some went with the Audubon Society, others with groups of journalists or educators or on a medical mission and some just on their own. Everyone of these friends have had nothing but raves for the country and her people.

     One friend, who just returned last November, went on and on about the hospital he visited and the high level of medical care that is offered. One couple had a baseball and a bat and went to a local park to play. Soon they were joined by Cuban children who played baseball with them.

     Much to our friends' delight these same children invited them into their parents' home for dinner and to even stay the night.

     Mr. Fuentes also produced a report from Rep. Christopher Cox's office that advises caution for U.S. citizens that travel to Cuba. Every Sunday in the Los Angeles Times Travel Section there is a column that lists the countries our government considers unsafe for its citizens to travel and we have yet to see Cuba listed.

     The fact that one of the other reasons given by board members is that Fidel Castro made derogatory remarks about President George W. Bush is really ridiculous. Our government is always making such remarks about Fidel Castro.

     In closing we both wish to thank board members David Lang and Marsha Milchiker for being open-minded. Ms. Milchiker's comment, "I think building bridges with the people is valuable to do," seems to be what a community college should be promoting.

     --Angelo and Marilyn Vassos

LA? No Way?
College district blocks student trips to Los Angeles 
OC Weekly, February 9 - 15, 2001

by Andrew Tonkovich [aka Red Emma]

     Hot on the heels of its recent vote to disallow a student trip to Cuba, South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) trustees on Monday night voted to block all student outings to Los Angeles County. "The trustees have serious concerns about allowing district-sponsored travel to Los Angeles," said a district spokesperson. "It’s far away and dangerous. Plus, students might get lost."

       In discussion of the recent controversial Cuba vote, trustees cited a report that "Fidel Castro made derogatory remarks about President George W. Bush." Later, in announcing the ban on Los Angeles field trips, conservative members of the board of trustees raised concerns about student health and safety during visits to the nearby metropolis.

       "It’s all about protecting our kids," said one.

       Recently elected trustee Tom Fuentes voiced concerns that students might not understand compact cars, sidewalks, mass transit or rent control.

       "These concerns are not political," said Fuentes, who is Orange County’s longtime Republican Party chairman.

       Indeed, some students at the district’s South County community colleges—Saddleback and Irvine Valley—have never visited Los Angeles, which is 50 miles north of Mission Viejo, the district’s administrative headquarters.

"I’ve heard of it," said one Saddleback College student. "Isn’t that, like, where they had the riots?"

       Fuentes expressed legal concerns, noting judges in LA County had ruled in several federal suits brought against the SOCCCD, finding that trustees had violated student, faculty and staff rights. "The judges up there are unbelievable," complained Fuentes. "I’m not sure if they even recognize our laws. There may be jurisdictional, even diplomatic issues here. You can bet I’m going to consult with Chris on this one."

       Fuentes’ reference to Congressman Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) reflects his close relationship to the author of a widely discredited report on China’s security threat to the U.S. Cox contributed $5,000 to Fuentes’ election campaign, in which he replaced the retiring Steven J. Frogue, the target of two recall attempts.

       In explaining the LA travel ban, Fuentes cited Los Angeles as a Democratic Party stronghold. "I understand," he said, "that members of the LA City Council made derogatory remarks about President Bush. Some even suggested that he didn’t win the election and lacked the intellectual capacity to govern!" As the local GOP chieftain, Fuentes introduced then-candidate George W. Bush to audiences across the state. Many speculate that Fuentes expects a position in the Bush administration.

       Current district policy allows student visits to maquiladoras in Mexico, sweatshops in Indonesia and public executions in China. Indeed, the board had approved a recent study-abroad trip to the last country, the largest Communist nation in the world. Also, current policies permit students to organize field trips to agricultural fields in Orange County or to any number of restaurants and fast-food retailers employing underpaid and undocumented workers from El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and even Los Angeles. Some students have inquired about visiting Europe.

       "Yes, they are certainly free to go there," said a district spokesperson. "But what for? George Dubya hasn’t been there."

       Controversial board member Dorothy Fortune, who in the past has been a beneficiary of homophobic campaign literature, raised the issue of district liability. "If a student acts in any way offensive to the county of Los Angeles, the district would be potentially liable," she said. Asked what behavior this might include, Fortune, a longtime Democrat-turned-Republican, said that sometimes people’s actions can be misinterpreted.

       "You know," she said.

       Fortune discounted Cuba’s reputation for providing among the highest quality of free public health-care services in the hemisphere. "Oh, sure," she said. "And bring up Canada, too, why don’tcha?"

       Meanwhile, a district spokesperson—a different district spokesperson than the one referenced in the first paragraph of this story—denied rumors of a plan to sponsor an Irvine Valley-Saddleback College student tour of Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz led by former board president and Holocaust revisionist Steven Frogue.

       "That would just be wrong," said the spokesperson (again, this is the second spokesperson, not the first one). "Wouldn’t it? Well, wouldn’t it?"

       Eager to move past the Cuba/LA controversy, trustees took the opportunity to announce their latest comprehensive initiatives, including:

•A program to coordinate critical thinking and reading programs with the Orange, Tustin and Newport-Mesa high school districts, where parents have recently lobbied to ban novels by Ken Kesey, Isabel Allende and David Guterson.
•The launching of a "Straight-Straight Alliance" organization to encourage traditional heterosexual dating among students.
•The Richard M. Nixon "Ethics in Government" certificate program.

--Andrew Tonkovich is an Irvine Valley College instructor.

College district blocks student trips to Los Angeles--er, Cuba! (Red Emma)

     Red Emma sure does know how to piss people off. Check out this piece he wrote for the Weekly (LA? No Way!).
     This piece was inspired by real events, which are described by the news articles that follow

OC WEEKLY

February 9 - 15, 2001

LA? No Way?

College district blocks student trips to Los Angeles

by Andrew Tonkovich

     Hot on the heels of its recent vote to disallow a student trip to Cuba, South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) trustees on Monday night voted to block all student outings to Los Angeles County. "The trustees have serious concerns about allowing district-sponsored travel to Los Angeles," said a district spokesperson. "It’s far away and dangerous. Plus, students might get lost."
     In discussion of the recent controversial Cuba vote, trustees cited a report that "Fidel Castro made derogatory remarks about President George W. Bush." Later, in announcing the ban on Los Angeles field trips, conservative members of the board of trustees raised concerns about student health and safety during visits to the nearby metropolis.
     "It’s all about protecting our kids," said one.
     Recently elected trustee Tom Fuentes voiced concerns that students might not understand compact cars, sidewalks, mass transit or rent control.
     "These concerns are not political," said Fuentes, who is Orange County’s longtime Republican Party chairman.
     Indeed, some students at the district’s South County community colleges—Saddleback and Irvine Valley—have never visited Los Angeles, which is 50 miles north of Mission Viejo, the district’s administrative headquarters.
     "I’ve heard of it," said one Saddleback College student. "Isn’t that, like, where they had the riots?"
     Fuentes expressed legal concerns, noting judges in LA County had ruled in several federal suits brought against the SOCCCD, finding that trustees had violated student, faculty and staff rights. "The judges up there are unbelievable," complained Fuentes. "I’m not sure if they even recognize our laws. There may be jurisdictional, even diplomatic issues here. You can bet I’m going to consult with Chris on this one."
     Fuentes’ reference to Congressman Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) reflects his close relationship to the author of a widely discredited report on China’s security threat to the U.S. Cox contributed $5,000 to Fuentes’ election campaign, in which he replaced the retiring Steven J. Frogue, the target of two recall attempts.
     In explaining the LA travel ban, Fuentes cited Los Angeles as a Democratic Party stronghold. "I understand," he said, "that members of the LA City Council made derogatory remarks about President Bush. Some even suggested that he didn’t win the election and lacked the intellectual capacity to govern!" As the local GOP chieftain, Fuentes introduced then-candidate George W. Bush to audiences across the state. Many speculate that Fuentes expects a position in the Bush administration.
     Current district policy allows student visits to maquiladoras in Mexico, sweatshops in Indonesia and public executions in China. Indeed, the board had approved a recent study-abroad trip to the last country, the largest Communist nation in the world. Also, current policies permit students to organize field trips to agricultural fields in Orange County or to any number of restaurants and fast-food retailers employing underpaid and undocumented workers from El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and even Los Angeles. Some students have inquired about visiting Europe.
     "Yes, they are certainly free to go there," said a district spokesperson. "But what for? George Dubya hasn’t been there."
     Controversial board member Dorothy Fortune, who in the past has been a beneficiary of homophobic campaign literature, raised the issue of district liability. "If a student acts in any way offensive to the county of Los Angeles, the district would be potentially liable," she said. Asked what behavior this might include, Fortune, a longtime Democrat-turned-Republican, said that sometimes people’s actions can be misinterpreted.
     "You know," she said.
     Fortune discounted Cuba’s reputation for providing among the highest quality of free public health-care services in the hemisphere. "Oh, sure," she said. "And bring up Canada, too, why don’tcha?"
     Meanwhile, a district spokesperson—a different district spokesperson than the one referenced in the first paragraph of this story—denied rumors of a plan to sponsor an Irvine Valley-Saddleback College student tour of Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz led by former board president and Holocaust revisionist Steven Frogue.
     "That would just be wrong," said the spokesperson (again, this is the second spokesperson, not the first one). "Wouldn’t it? Well, wouldn’t it?"
     Eager to move past the Cuba/LA controversy, trustees took the opportunity to announce their latest comprehensive initiatives, including:

•A program to coordinate critical thinking and reading programs with the Orange, Tustin and Newport-Mesa high school districts, where parents have recently lobbied to ban novels by Ken Kesey, Isabel Allende and David Guterson. 

•The launching of a "Straight-Straight Alliance" organization to encourage traditional heterosexual dating among students. 

•The Richard M. Nixon "Ethics in Government" certificate program.

--Andrew Tonkovich is an Irvine Valley College instructor.

* * *

College's Cuba trip bothers trustees (OC Reg)

EDUCATION: The study-abroad venture has been OKd by Saddleback College's president.

January 27, 2001

By MARLA JO FISHER

MISSION VIEJO - Trustees are balking at the idea of a Saddleback College-sponsored study trip to Cuba, saying it would not be appropriate to allow students to go to a communist country with a record of human-rights violations, according to a student trustee who favors the trip.

            Trustees who criticized the Cuba trip in November approved a study visit to the People's Republic of China during the same meeting, student trustee Jason Wamhoff said.

            "The students want this trip," Wamhoff said Friday. "It is already full. And China has more human-rights violations than Cuba does."

. . .

            Saddleback's program was approved by Saddleback President Dixie Bullock and the district's acting chancellor before it was sent to the trustees.

. . .

            "I still have mixed feelings about it, because I worked with Cuban refugees when I was in Texas," Bullock said. "But if a faculty member comes to me with a proposal that is done properly, approved up through the line and I don't have any specific objections, I'll approve it."

. . .

            Two trustees - Tom Fuentes and Dorothy Fortune – were questioning the appropriateness of the trip, Wamhoff said. Neither returned phone calls Friday….

* * *

College trustees reject Cuban trip (OC Reg)

January 30, 2001

By MARLA JO FISHER and JOAN HANSEN

MISSION VIEJO - Students at Saddleback College won't be going on a school-sponsored trip to Cuba after trustees voted 5-2 Monday to abort the first-ever study-abroad program to the island nation.

            "The liability to the district is enormous to send students to Cuba, whether we have insurance or the perfect tour operator or not," college trustee Dorothy Fortune said. "If there are any problems, they are going to sue us."

. . .

            Dozens of colleges, including Duke and Emory universities and other top-rated institutions have study programs in the communist country.

            But trustees rejected the plan, saying the United States has no embassy there, and criticizing the nation's attitudes toward Americans, politics and safety.

. . .

            Trustees David Lang and Marcia Milchiker voted to support the trip.

            As proposed, the trip would have been financed entirely through $2,250-per-student fees and included 10 days in Havana studying culture, history, politics and economics.

. . .

            Trustees previously approved trips to other communist countries, including the People's Republic of China.

* * *

IRVINE WORLD NEWS

Letters to the editor, Feb. 8

Community colleges should promote trips to Cuba

It is with disbelief that we read the reasons South Orange County Community College district trustee Tom Fuentes gave for voting against the students from Saddleback Community College going on a trip to Cuba.

. . .

The fact that one of the other reasons given by board members is that Fidel Castro made derogatory remarks about President George W. Bush is really ridiculous. Our government is always making such remarks about Fidel Castro….

--Angelo and Marilyn Vassos

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‘Twas the Thursday After Election… (Dissent 56 - Nov 27, 2000)

Dissent 56

November 27, 2000

‘Twas the Thursday After Election…

by Chunk Wheeler [Roy Bauer] 

 

       It was the Thursday after the election, about 7:30 a.m., and I was driving to school with a Carl’s Jr. coffee in one hand and the steering wheel kinda in the other. Things sucked bigtime. They way sucked.

But I had forseen suckage. I had known, or at least believed, since July—the month of the Dark Side’s Frogue/Fuentes switcheroo—that the November trustees election would stink on ice. Steve Frogue’s trustee candidacy was by far the best thing we of the Rebel Alliance had goin’ for us, and we knew it. Pre-July, the standard joke was that John “Bailiff Boy” Williams was goin’ nowhere fast, what with Stevie the Nut firmly strapped to one hip and Dotty the Barbarian—whom the OC Weekly, in a rare moment of understatement, recently called “despicable”—firmly strapped to the other. We’d laugh.

      And then, suddenly, Our Steve was gone, and a Cadillac-flak who spends his time “talkin’ Ronnie” with Republican money was sittin’ in the Froguester’s chair—and sportin’ that all-important incumbent’s advantage besides.

       The new reality was mighty grim. First of all, “downballot” races—trustee, judge, and dogcatcher contests—draw little public interest and, thus, get little media attention, leaving the voting public clueless, unless vigorous (and expensive) efforts to clue them in are made.

“But,” you ask, “what about all the ‘negative’ news coverage of recent years?” Well, even assuming that they read the papers, voters generally retain no clear picture of tedious sagas of buffoonery—or of anything else. Hell, some of our advisors even suggested that a particular trustee’s notoriety—e.g., Frogue’s—could gradually turn into positive name recognition, so benighted are voters. 

Dude, it’s true, an’ I’m dyin’.

To top it off, clueless voters generally pop chads for incumbents, when they get that far down the ballot, and they often don’t.

Scam:

        The Frogue/Fuentes switcheroo wasn’t the only one we had to contend with. In July, Dot Fortune announced her decision to retire, which encouraged two candidates to run for her seat. (I’m told that she helped recruit one of these guys, but I’m not sure that’s true.) But then, at the very last minute, she filed for candidacy. Wow! Suddenly, “Despicable” Dot was sittin’ pretty, goin’ into the election armed now with the incumbent’s advantage plus a split in the non-incumbent vote! (In the end, however, she managed to wrack up more votes than her two opponents combined, so the shell game was unnecessary.)

        It all makes you wanna just give up on this trustee election thing—and on democracy in general.

On the other hand, on the 7th, incumbent Dave Lang, the bean-counting leader of the “Clean Slate” (or the “Tabula rasa,” as I liked to call them), garnered by far the most votes among SOCCCD trustee candidates, both in absolute numbers and in percentages (65.1%). It appears that the Langster’s reputation as a Board Buffoonery Contra plus our various efforts to sell him to voters yielded about 12 or 13 thousand votes (9 or 10 percent of the total).

Maybe with a bit more effort, Bob Loeffler, Fuentes’ “Clean” opponent, would have won, too, for the Bobster garnered 93,00 votes—more, by far, than any other non-incumbent among the trustee candidates, and only 16,000 fewer than Dot.

—I’m dreamin’.

Dirty:

       As usual, the Dark Side fought dirty: clean Slate campaign signs were daily stolen or vandalized; that old “same-sex” hooey was mailed out anonymously to selective neighborhoods; libelous unsigned fliers were strewn about both campuses; a “newsletter,” filled with misinformation and inept personal attacks—a pathetic homage to Dissent, I guess (Dissent’s personal attacks are ept)—was sent to local reporters, who immediately deep-sixed it. It, too, was anonymous.

Do you detect a pattern here? Cowardice, dear reader, is the hallmark of Dark Sidery.

There was nothing that could be done about the dirty tricks. On the other hand, we knew that these plebeian shenanigans wouldn’t significantly affect the election outcome.

       Natch, Williams and Fortune ran around South County, claiming credit for the district’s fiscal health, a situation that, in truth, is entirely attributable to an unexpected property tax windfall, which in turn must be credited to a decision—to switch the district’s funding model—made by the state, not the goddam board.

       In my view, we will never be able to topple undesirable incumbents until we change the curious manner in which trustees are elected. As things now stand, a trustee for a particular area is elected, not by voters of that area, but, absurdly, by voters of the entire South Orange County district, the vast majority of whom have, or retain, no clear notion of the district’s actual predicament, and no clear notion of those responsible for it, despite the numerous, largely-accurate news stories.

“So educate them!” you say. Well, sending voters just one mailer, in hopes of alerting them of some sliver of the worrisome truth, costs about $40,000! Incumbents, on the other hand, can manage to approve and mail out expensive district propaganda at taxpayers’ expense.

Scandalously, that’s just what they did, despite the vocal objections of Lang and Marcia Milchiker. Admittedly, the district’s $50K mailer—carefully timed for the election—was so badly written that it couldn’t have been much of a factor.

Press:

       Post-election media coverage has been the usual mixed bag of entelechy and error. The Register’s “morning after” article concerning the trustees’ race placed our board “at the center of disputes the past few years that have led to the departure of key administrators and a host of lawsuits.” Exactly. On the other hand, the article failed to challenge Fortune and Williams’ mendacious boast, which it reported, that “the improved financial stability of the district” is “proof that [Fortune and Williams’] policies have been successful.” Again, the boast is a lie; in truth, the Board Majority’s ill-conceived policies have driven productivity into the ground and slowed growth to almost nothin’. (Check the district’s online “almanac.” It’s all there.)

The Reg also reported that these two “downplayed the unhappiness of faculty” caused by “a few disgruntled members.” That claim too was left unchallenged, despite the recent overwhelming votes of no confidence in El Ced [Cedric Sampson] and Mr. Goo [Raghu Mathur] at IVC (94% and 90%, respectively).

       The Times “morning after” article was a bit better:

         Inflammatory and anonymous fliers were circulated during the campaign saying that the so-called Clean [Slate] candidates supported domestic-partner benefits and a gay-and-lesbian-studies program. [But] Board President Nancy M. Padberg, part of the board majority, said those subjects were not an issue in the campaign. One flier even made the untrue claim that one of the challengers had been endorsed by…an obscure group that endorses pedophilia….

         The California Teachers Assn. is investigating whether money raised under the old union leadership to support political candidates was mismanaged. Most of the former union presidents who controlled the fund have refused to cooperate, and the CTA may take the issue to court….

         Even before the election, the district was synonymous with controversy. The…accrediting agency said the district was “wracked by malfunction” and placed it on warning status. It finally accredited Irvine Valley and Saddleback in February.

         Much of the controversy centered on Trustee Steven J. Frogue, who was accused of being an anti-Semite. He resigned in June, and the board appointed Fuentes to replace him….

         Most recently, more than 90% of the Irvine Valley faculty voted no confidence in President Raghu P. Mathur and Sampson.

Bright:

McLendon

       There is one bright spot amid the general education-related electoral gloom. You’ll recall that, two years ago, the Old Guard-dominated faculty union spent big money to help elect Nancy Padberg and Don Wagner, two Republicans whom “Captain Curt” McLendon insisted are “political moderates.” In truth, the Wagberg are right-wing extremists and avowed anti-unionists, which was clear already back in 1998—the year of Curt’s warm endorsement—when these two acknowledged their association with Education Alliance (EA), a Christian Right outfit founded, funded, and furthered by such reactionary fools as Frank Ury, Mark Bucher, Jim Righeimer, and banking heir Howard F. Ahmanson. Wagner has also been active in the “Federalist Society,” one of Robert Bork’s retrograde legal clubs.

EA, based in Tustin, emerged in late 1994 with a plan for politically crippling teachers unions—the Religious Right’s Great Satan of education—and packing school boards with EA members. According to Jerry Sloan of the Institute for First Amendment Studies, Alliance members oppose multiculturalism and condom distribution in schools and “want to see evolution and creationism taught side by side.” (You’ll recall that one of Padberg’s new diversions—the media “watchdog” group Accuracy in Media—sells anti-evolution bumper stickers.) The organization’s leader, Frank Ury, authored 1998’s failed Proposition 226, a measure designed to “radically reduce unions’ political muscle” (George Will, Times, 2/8/98).

EA has had some success in Orange County. According to the OC Weekly (10/27/00), its members dominate the Orange County Board of Education, a body that recently “canned a daycare program that served nearly a thousand low-income families,” though it continued to fund “an $82,320 beaver exhibit.” Over a dozen EA-supported candidates—including Wendy Leece of Newport-Mesa, who has proposed plastering the Ten Commandments on classroom walls—have been elected to OC school boards.

But all is not well with Education Alliance. According to a recent Register article (“Conservative Group Backs Only 10 for Board Seats,” 11/6/00), the EA has had trouble finding candidates and keeping them elected. Several years ago, Fat Cat Howie Ahmanson gave EA some seriously big money. This year, however, he forked over a paltry $5,000.

It appears that EA has run outa money and outa steam. Thank God!

Phone:

       —But let’s get back to the Thursday of the 9th and my lousy cuppa Carl’s Jr. coffee.

Once in my office, I found a copy of a report, by Peggy Casey, Exec. Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor (Admin./Business Services), which lay, unexplained, on my desk. As I recall, this report was instigated many months ago by those well-known “fiscal conservatives” John Williams and Dot Fortune, who were concerned about excessive cell phone use in the district. Ms. Casey’s report focused on cell phone bills for the month of April.

Guess who tops the list? Of the 21 persons issued cell phones at the two colleges, by far the biggest abuser is—who else?—Raghu P. Mathur. Last April, he wracked up a bill of $75.07. The second highest bill for that month was Dixie Bullock’s, which was nevertheless half of Raghu’s. The vast majority of individual cell phone bills were below $20.00.

Among district personnel, one bill stood out like a turd in a glass of milk. According to Casey’s report, Sabrina Ruminer wracked up a cell phone bill of $507.45! That’s about $420 more than the second highest.

I should mention that five employees reimbursed the district for costs incurred from “personal use.” But not our Mr. Goo.

Ray:

       I checked my email. Dark Sider Ray Chandos had spammed faculty with more dithering about the IVC Academic Senate’s decision, many weeks earlier, to hold votes of confidence in the Chancellor and President. (That referendum had by now occurred, its results promulgated.) The decision was made via secret ballot, and, in Ray’s estimation (he’s no lawyer), it thereby violated provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act (the Open Meetings Law), which requires maximum openness in the conduct of “public bodies.” (Whether an Academic Senate, whose members are not elected by the public, is under the purview of the Brown Act is an open question.)

       The potential problem here concerns, not the votes of (no) confidence, which were conducted very professionally and appropriately, but the senate’s having decided whether to conduct these referenda via a secret ballot. (The decision to use secret balloting, of course, reflected widespread [and reasonable] fears, among senators, of retaliation by Raghu and his minions.)

       Those familiar with the Brown Act know that, under such circumstances, the error (if there be an error) can often be corrected simply through a repeat vote done openly. Indeed, just prior to Judge Seymour’s January ‘99 decision in my second successful Brown Act lawsuit against the board, the trustees, over a year after the fact, “cured and corrected” several of their illegal actions—including the July ’97 Reorg and the appointment of Mathur as IVC Pres.—retroactively making them valid, despite their initial illegality. (See OC Register, 1/21/99.)

       It was precisely this sort of after-the-fact “cure and correct” action that the senate was set to discuss and contemplate at the meeting to be held at 2:00 on this day. Ray, of course, hoped for something else: an action that would undo the overwhelming votes of “no confidence” that the Chancellor and the President had recently suffered at the hands of full-time faculty at IVC.

       Ray had written:

The senate should follow the Brown Act scrupulously, not only to discharge its duties under the law, but to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy after criticizing and conducting a vote of no confidence in the chancellor for alleged violations of the Brown Act.

       A cup of Joe in my lap, coffee-stained fingers trembling, I responded to Ray in an email, noting that his powerful allies often did not seem to share his enthusiasm for obeying the law. Indeed, said I, recently, El Ced opined that observing the Brown Act is “irrelevant.” I closed by writing: “Ray, please help me to understand. Are you people pro-law or not?”

       Those interested in the Brown Act and its possible applicability to California Community College Academic Senates should see www.thefirstamendment.org /brown.htm#The Basics.

Inspired: 

“The press…delight in negative coverage. It’s like, ‘if it doesn’t bleed, it won’t read’….”

                             —Nancy Padberg, Oct. 20

After my office hours, I taught my Critical Thinking class, coffee in hand. Nancy Padberg, an avowed “dittohead” (for those of you in Rio Lindo, CA, that means she’s a Rush Limbaugh fan), will be delighted to learn that, among the texts of the course is Logic and Mr. Limbaugh, by philosopher Ray Perkins, Jr., which employs Rush’s incomparable writings to illustrate fallacies and sophisms. Rush is terribly helpful in that way. Hence, in his “Acknow-ledgements,” Professor Perkins writes, “to Rush Limbaugh, without whom this book would not have been possible.”

Perkins notes, with droll understatement, that “Much of Rush Limbaugh’s reasoning is logically incorrect or FALLACIOUS.” One cannot read Perkins’ book without agreeing with that judgment, unless, of course, one is a blockhead, which one might very well be.

In class, I covered two chapters—Rush on the Environment, Rush on Animal Rights—and then turned to another text, Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, by the estimable Dean Edell, M.D., which seeks specifically to provide scientific information to readers who are daily bombarded with media hype and pop culture pseudoscience concerning health.

Yes, Nancy, Dr. Dean shares your distrust of the news media—“Trust” it, he warns, “at your peril.” The media, he argues—sounding very much like the board president—offers a distorted picture of reality by consistently emphasizing bad medical news over good medical news, though, unlike the Nance, he is disinclined to explain the pattern via a vast liberal conspiracy.

Edell, like Nancy, views himself as a champion of truth. Should, asks Dr. Dean, researchers inform the public of suppressed “incorrect” truths? —Yes! Correctness be damned!

For instance, research consistently indicates that moderate drinking of alcohol is actually beneficial, and yet we are made to feel that such facts must never be acknowledged. Indeed, they must be denied!

Edell believes otherwise:

Dr. Curtis Ellison, Chief of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University, got in a tangle over this at an American Heart Association meeting in 1994. The issue: How much should the public know about the benefits shown in alcohol research? Ellison suggested publicizing findings that five to six drinks a week cuts heart disease risk by 28 percent. That compares with 15 percent by rigorously lowering blood pressure or 23 percent with a low-fat diet. Only quitting smoking can compare…A firestorm ensued…But ethically, is it right to withhold information from people who could benefit because others might be harmed? (194)

Edell eschews political correctness in favor of “scientific correctness”—i.e., focussing on the findings of science. (You gotta love ‘im.) Accordingly, a few pages later, having moved to the subject of illegal drugs, he is compelled to say:

Let’s first admit that some illegal drugs give pleasure to people who do not, as a result, suffer apparent horrible consequences from the practice [Gasp!]…There is no evidence that occasional marijuana use is harmful. [No! No! No!] Most studies, in fact, have found that marijuana users are better off [Commie!]…. (201)

I’m sure that Nancy and her friends will be pleased to learn that, owing to her fine example, I have decided to devote my considerable energies to combating the media and their endless politically correct tomfoolery. I shall present the unvarnished truth—as it comes to us from science—and I shall not be deterred by the inevitable disapprobation and nattering nabobery of brainwashed nudniks and mendacious conspirators. Amen.

Nancy, without your example, my noble enterprise would not have been possible!

God:

       After class, I bought another cup of Joe and hotfooted it over to the grassy expanse in front of the Student Services Bld., where Mr. Goo was about to introduce IVC’s first annual “Veterans Day Observance,” evidently the brain-child of Frank Pangborn and other veterans at the college. There, amongst a sea of tiny, flapping American flags (no doubt flapping in violation of BP8000), I ran into a student friend dressed in his Marine Corps uniform. He looked good, and I said so. He snapped a salute and I swelled with pride.

       The gathered dignitaries seemed to await the arrival of an audience, but it had not yet materialized, nor would it do so later, although, eventually, about ten homeless Vets showed, a situation no doubt attributable to Mr. Goo’s ludicrous efforts to promote the celebration on local TV.

       I snagged a copy of the program, which featured yet another American flag, upon which was written, “In God We Trust.” Beneath that: the Pledge of Allegiance, which, of course, featured the Lord.

Eventually, Nelson C. said a few words in his snazzy sailor suit. He was followed by Pastor Darrin Stevens of the Voyagers Bible Church, his pet gerble Samantha perched precariously on his head. The pastor said the usual things to “Father God” and “Jesus Christ.” God, it seemed, was the real star of the show, judgin’ by all the mentions He got. Darrin twitched his nose coquettishly and instantly disappeared: “Poof.”

Then four uniformed dudes, representing each of the military branches, accompanied by canned martial music, marched the “colors” straight up the middle of the Big Grassy and planted them, limbs akimbo, boldly in a hole. This was impressive, despite the audio guy’s unfamiliarity with the concept of fade-out, which lent an aspect of grade-schoolery to the proceedings. Then, after the Pledge, Frank Pangborn, formerly a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, warbled the Star Spangled Banner and pretty much nailed it.

Frank introduced Mathur, our next chancellor. Mathur, marbles in mouth, lower lip jutting upward hideously, hair slicked straight across his fat head, spoke of a place called “Irwine Valley College.” The audience stared.

Nabobs:

Mr. Goo made a big point of identifying “dignitaries” in the audience, including Tom Fuentes, who, two days earlier on TV, railed indignantly against the “liberal media” for jumpin’ the gun on Gore’s “victory” in Florida, but who offered no similar railage, a few hours later, when the same media jumped the gun on his pal George Dubya’s presidential “victory.”

The Obsequious One, subtly genuflecting, identified Fuentes, not as a trustee, but as the “chairman of the Orange County Republican Party,” as though that were a high government office. How unseemly.

Well, that’s our Mr. Goo. Get used to it, Saddlebackians. He’s headed your way, I think. Maybe that’ll wake you up.

Looking desperate, Raghu sought the faces of two further bigwigs: Irvine City Council members Mike Ward and Dave Christensen, two sleazy, pro-development Republicans, who had faired poorly in the elections. Not long ago, these two helped pull the plug on Irvine’s much-ballyhooed “Great Park” initiative, the latter being a part of Larry Agran’s anti-airport strategy. The plug-pullage pissed voters off, I guess.

Amazingly, incumbent Ward, a shill for the Irvine Company, received fewer votes than first-time candidate (and liberal Agranite) Chris Mears, though Ward did manage to get reelected, albeit now on a liberal council. Incumbent Christensen, who’s facing a serious FPPC investigation concerning conflicts of interest, lost bigtime, despite his Irvine Co. connections.

Ward and Christensen’s AWOLery seemed to cause Mr. Goo to regurgitate more marbles and jut more lip. The audience cringed and cowered. In a futile effort to compensate, I grinned furiously. Wendy P came by, thus making possible stereo grinnage. John Williams made an ugly face while Nancy dithered in her seat.

But Raghu, now sweating copiously, pressed on. Just thinking about veterans and soldiers an’ all, he yammered, gives a guy “goosebumps.” Displaying his usual grasp of English usage, Mr. Goo then spoke of our country’s many “freedom fighters” in uniform. I could take no more. I turned my back on ‘im.

Some old soldier who had not yet faded away gave a good speech. (I turned back around for that.) Then a hairy old hippy representing Viet Nam Veterans of America spoke. I bet he had some health cigarettes on ‘im. But I had to leave for class, so I don’t know what he said, though he looked good sayin’ it.

Intimidation:

       Back in my office at about 2:00, I found more Chandosian e-spammery. Ray had turned up the heat in his intimidation program, intimating, portentously, that senators who participate in Brown Act violations are guilty of a “misdemeanor.”

Translation: “if you don’t pull the plug on the ‘confidence’ votes, you could go to jail!”

The Senate President and Tom P, a lawyer, had independently fired off indignant responses to “this transparent attempt at intimidation” of senators. “Way cool,” thought I.

       Full of hope, I ran out the door for the senate meeting.

       As I entered B209, the senators were debating the “cure and correct” issue. Some bemoaned the climate of fear created by Raghu. Others objected in particular to Chandos’ execrable scare tactic. Some senators expressed concerns about an open vote, fearing retaliation, should they fail to vote in a manner pleasing to Mr. Goo. Meanwhile, VP (and future P) Armando Ruiz, sitting in the back, scoffed and grunted, intimidatingly.

Undeterred, the senators voted to perform the correction. Then they repeated the vote (to hold the referenda), this time openly. 19 senators voted for the referenda—the same number as had voted for them via secret ballot, several weeks earlier. 4 senators voted against them (weeks earlier, the number was 5).

The recent “no confidence” votes were now legal and valid. Ray’s “Brown Act” issue had been rendered moot.

The loathsome attempt to prevail through intimidation had failed.

“Asshole”:

As the meeting continued, I walked over to the other end of the room and sat next to Armando. I said something like: “Armando, did you come to intimidate senators?” Armando responded by calling me an “asshole.”

Concerns:

            Jeez. I don’t think powerful administrators oughta be callin’ faculty members “assholes.” What’s next? Floggings? Urine tests?

            Sometimes, when I have concerns, I offer them to the board via a pleasant email. When I got back to my office, I had concerns. So I wrote the board the following message: [Letter now missing]