The dead and the pious

1. GOOD-BYE BUCKEROO. Buck Owens has died. He was 76. I hated “Hee Haw” but I loved this man’s best songs. Check 'em out.

2. RELIGIOUS RADICALS’ FINANCIERS. About a year ago (Feb., 2005), Time Magazine ran a front-page story on the 25 most influential Evangelicals in the country (Most influential evangelicals).

Number 1 on the list was Rick Warren, “America’s New People’s Pastor.” Warren pastors a little church down the street from my house. Saddleback Church has 22,000 members, and it’s hard for me not to think that those people are confusing religion with football. I wonder if they show up wearin’ that stupid make-up and doin’ the Wave.

Number 2 is—you guessed it!—Orange County’s own Howard and Roberta Ahmanson. Near as I can tell, Howard is one of Tom Fuentes’ pals. (Also: he provided the seed money for the organization that brought us Don Wagner and Nancy Padberg.)

Here’s what Time had to say about the Ahmansons:

The Financiers: Money makes the Word go round, and this wealthy, conservative Republican couple takes a dizzyingly ecclectic approach to funding evangelism. The projects that savings-and-loan multimillionaires Howard and Roberta Ahmanson have paid for over the years through Fieldstead & Co., a private philanthropy in Irvine, Calif., form a cornucopia of faith-based activism, including an institute linked to the antievolution intelligent-design movement and a study of social endeavors by Third World Pentecostal churches. The couple have been accused over the years of having an extremist agenda, mostly because a onetime pet charity, the Chalcedon Foundation, advocates the Christian reconstructionist branch of theology that says gays and other biblical lawbreakers should be stoned. Howard distanced himself from those views and resigned from the foundation board years ago.

The couple, both 55, now are warning powerful conservative Christians about the pitfalls of hubris in the aftermath of their victories over liberals last November. Says Roberta: "Christlike humility and [improving] the lives of human beings should be the goals."

OK, so Howard and Roberta have backed off of the “stoning” idea. Maybe. But saying that somebody used to be on the board of Chalcedon is a bit like saying that they used to be Devil Worshippers. Check out Chalcedon and the rest of the Ahmansons’ “Christian Reconstructionist” crowd. It’ll curl your hair.

While you’re at it, check out the Claremont Institute (one of Fuentes’ haunts), the Discovery Institute (the Earth is 6,000 years old!), and other organizations that the Ahmansons still fund.

And don’t be thinkin’ that Howard gave up his wild talk long ago. According to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in 1992, Howard explained that “My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives.”

Thank you, Howard, for the marvelously succinct statement of the Chalcedon project, aka Christian Reconstructionism.

This guy scares the shit out o' me. One of these days, I'll wake up and find out that I'm in deep doo-doo cuz I didn't go to the stupid church-mall down the road.

3. JARAMILLO POINTS TO CARONA. Did you see Peggy Lowe’s article in today’s Register about “Hometown Hero” and Fuentes star Mike Carona’s former assistant, George Jaramillo? Check it out. As I’m sure you know, Mike Carona is a devout Christian—you know, like Tom Fuentes.

Jaramillo says ex-boss Carona should be facing same charges
Outside court, fired assistant says sheriff misused department's copter.

SANTA ANA – Waving a manila envelope filled with what he said was evidence, fired Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo said Friday that Sheriff Mike Carona should be prosecuted for the same charges he is facing.

Jaramillo held court outside the courtroom after a routine hearing on the newest round of charges he faces, including perjury and misusing public resources. A grand jury found Jaramillo improperly used the Sheriff's Department helicopter for a ride to the airport with his wife in 2003.

Taking copies of Orange County Sheriff's Department logs from the envelope, Jaramillo accused Carona of using the helicopter up to 32 times for trips to an award ceremony, a ride to attend his son's soccer game and another trip with his "longtime mistress."

An Orange County Register investigation showed that the county's helicopters were used at least 16 times in 2002 to take Carona and others to award ceremonies, television interviews, the airport and a Lake Arrowhead retreat, costing taxpayers $26,000.

…Sheriff's officials have denied all of Jaramillo's claims as "outrageous lies."

Jaramillo has pleaded not guilty to all the charges he faces, which also include bribery and conflict of interest. His trial is set for September.

Why is it that the worst people I know are also the most pious? Explain that one to me, will you?

The Lyin' King

At the March 2 IVC Academic Senate meeting, senators discussed Chancellor Mathur’s curious new “planning process,” which pretty much leaves faculty out of planning. No surprise there. The new process had been authored by the corrupt little fellow. He had not solicited senate input.

That is illegal, for Title 5 and BP 2100.1 require that the district rely primarily on the Academic Senate(s) for the development of processes for institutional planning and budget development. It's as plain as the nose on your face.

Academic Senate Prez Wendy then explained that, during a meeting with the Chancellor that very day, after lengthy discussion with the two senate presidents (Claire and Wendy), Mathur acknowledged that he made a mistake when he developed the District Planning Process without consulting the Senates. He even apologized for the error and promised that he would not commit it again.

That was welcome news. Still, senators were unhappy. Some, including yours truly, pressed for clarification regarding the standing of the illegal planning process. Is it dead or no?

We know our Raghu. It would be just like him to acknowledge that he was in error and even to promise not to commit the error again—and then to set about implementing the erroneous action. That’s just standard Mathurian operating procedure.

According to the published minutes for the March 2 meeting, “Senators pointed out that despite the admission of wrongdoing, the apology, and the assurance of non-interference, the District Planning Process remains in place and will continue to create confusion among deans and faculty until it is withdrawn.”

Thus the senators took action. They requested “that the Chancellor immediately discontinue implementation of the illegitimate District Planning Process or the Academic Senate will consider filing a Minimum Conditions Complaint with the office of the State Chancellor.” (From minutes.)

During a subsequent meeting, the fellow clarified matters to Wendy in the way desired. He agreed that the new process should be (or already was?) discontinued. How could he do otherwise?

Wendy then wrote IVC faculty, delivering the good news.

But, in a kind of “switcheroo” that will be familiar to long-time Mathur observers, Mr. Goo then cried foul and denied that he had agreed to discontinue the process. Evidently, despite acknowledging the impropriety of his unilateral development of the process, he persists in viewing the process as valid.

Stunning. —But no. It’s just Raghu bein’ Raghu. The New Raghu that we've heard so much about (from Dopey Dave) is just the Old Raghu sayin’ he’s New. Woo-hoo.


And so, on the 23rd (yesterday), the "planning process" issue returned to the IVC Academic Senate. Clearly, Wendy was disinclined to pursue this matter through the existing legal channels, namely, filing a complaint with the State Chancellor. That’s slow and tedious, bigtime. I think maybe she’s had her fill of this kind of legal work for a while.

But senators were adamant: we cannot threaten to go to the State Chance if Mathur does not fly right, and then not go to the State Chance when, in fact, Mathur keeps flyin’ wrong. We said we’d turn to the State Chance, and so now we've got to keep our word.

A motion was made to that effect.

Wendy groaned. She suggested that we change the motion so that it speaks of “exploring” this avenue. But senators would not hear of it. Said one senator: “If you tell your kid that if he does that again, then there’ll be consequences, then, when he goes and does it again, you can’t say, ‘we will now explore consequences.’”

We’ve got some funny senators, boy.

The motion passed unanimously. The IVC senate will now file a Minimum Conditions Complaint.

Soon, the Saddleback College (or, as one of our favorite administrators spells it, “Saddle Back College”) Academic Senate will meet to discuss the planning process. Don’t be surprised if they take a similar action.

And can you blame 'em? We faculty are supposed to have a role, and these people--Mathur and his board patrons--keep taking it away. We can't let that happen.

Naturally, the Accreds will hear about this. We might wanna start looking for new jobs.

A setback for the Fuenteans--PLUS: Is our Nancy a “crazy aunt”?

A MAJOR DEFEAT FOR THE FUENTESISTAS. The OC right-wing blogosphere has been atwitter this week over the failure, Monday night, of the county GOP to endorse Mike Carona for Sheriff. As you know, Carona is a star in Fuentes World, aka the Neanderthal Political Machine.

A couple of years ago, owing to its Fuenteans, IVC’s Foundation anointed Carona its “Hometown Hero,” a fact made ironic—among the civilized—by the subsequent train of Carona scandalosity. Between Carona and Cave co-star Tony Rackaucus (our embattled county DA), these local Neanderthals have more than matched the Bush Administration, corruption-wise. And that's sayin' something.

Recently, the OC Register reported that key denizens of the Fuentesphere—namely, Mike Shroeder (Fuentes' close pal and GOP backer of the Frogue Recall), John Fleischman, and Adam Probolsky (Fleischman and Probolsky are on the IVC Foundation board)—were caught engineering an effort by a “citizen” to challenge the campaign statement of a Carona challenger, Republican Bill Hunt. Hunt had referred to the “scandals” and the “failure” of the Carona administration. “Unfair,” cried the citizen, who turned out to be very connected to the Fuentes crowd (mostly through his wife).

It seems clear (given their emails, which, somehow, Fleischman accidentally sent to the Register) that the Cave People seek to use the threat of expensive litigation over this matter to motivate Hunt to soften his campaign rhetoric. That Hunt’s language--especially his use of the word “scandal”--is manifestly accurate is beside the point.

Trustee John "Brownie" Williams has weighed in on this issue in a letter to the Register (yesterday). Naturally, he sides with his pals and against Hunt. (See Williams questions Hunt's competence)

THERE’S ALWAYS A BIG “BUT.” OK, the local GOP has come to its senses and has not endorsed the corrupt Carona. Still, there's bad news, for it is clear that Carona has lots of cash for his campaign, and money is everything. You may as well get that tatooed on your butt.

According to OCBlog.net, Carona is “miles ahead of opponents in fundraising." They got the following from the OC Registrar of Voters:

Mike Carona 
Cash-on-hand: $618K 
Debt: $28K

Bill Hunt 
COH: $6K 
Debt: $26K

Bob Alcaraz
COH: $76K 
Debt: $100

Ralph Martin 
COH: $80K 
Debt: $3K

Evidently, in the last three and a half months, Carona’s campaign has amassed over half a million dollars. When all is said and done, Carona will have spent over a million dollars on this campaign, or so crows Mike Schroeder. Compare that figure to the puny war chest of a guy like Hunt: $6,000 (and 26K in debt).

TRASHING OUR NANCY. We recently reported that trustee Nancy Padberg is running for Judge. On Tuesday (the 21st), “Roscoe” of OCblog.net reported that there are three candidates for the #4 spot on the OC Superior Court:

Sheila Hanson, Deputy District Attorney - DEMOCRAT

Nancy Padberg, Attorney/College Trustee - REPUBLICAN

Lyle J. Robertson, Commissioner, Superior Court - REPUBLICAN

Roscoe goes on to explain:

Hanson already has the support of her boss DA Rackauckas, neither Padberg or Robertson paid for a candidate statement so we don't know a lot about their campaigns.

We do know Nancy Padberg from her time on the South OC College District. She is kind of like your crazy aunt you keep in touch with just in the hope that she might leave you something in her will.

Robertson has run before and lost.

With three candidates in the race there will probably be a run off in November. Robertson and Hanson will most likely be in it unless Padberg does something crazy like spend $200,000.

“Crazy aunt”? I bet Nancy didn’t like that a bit. Not a bit.

A Mr. Mark Brainard responded to Roscoe’s blog by writing “I disagree with your characterization of Nancy. She would make a terrific judge.”

Another reader said that he “met Nancy at the Central Committee meeting [on Monday]…and I support her.”

Yet another reader—this one calls him/herself “Redwine"—wrote:

I recommend asking around a little before disparaging someone you obviously don't know, like Nancy Padberg. She's a dedicated Republican activist who has assisted MANY campaigns over MANY years. She is an elected Trustee for the SOCCCD and, until her resignation last night [presumably, from the Central Committee, not from the Board] because of her campaign for judge, she was an elected member of the Central Committee.

Nancy should be supported by the Republican Party Central Committee and every elected Republican (including Rackauckas, who you say has already endorsed the Dem).

Redwine’s remark provoked “OCSD Investigator” to write:

Redwine, are you kidding me? We should vote for Nancy because she is a Republican. Is that your argument? Do you vote everything straight down the party line? Hanson is a very experienced trial lawyer. She has had her hand in putting away some very dangerous child molesters and numerous other criminals. I have presented many cases to her and found her to be very dedicated to her craft. When it comes to being a judge in the county where I work and live, I could care less about party lines. I do not mean to discredit the other two choices. I just find your comments offensive.

At this point, someone (not me, but someone called “Investigator”) suggested that readers check out DISSENT the BLOG and its account of Nancy’s recent activities on the SOCCCD board (Closing in on Junket Abuse), whereupon Redwine wrote: “OCSD Investigator—My God, a voice of sanity on this issue. Thank you.”

“Jim” then wrote to say, “I know Ms. Padberg, and I have appeared many times before Commissioner Robertson. Both would make fine judges.”

For what it’s worth, here’s Hanson’s campaign statement. We’ll post Nancy’s, too, as soon as it becomes available:

SHEILA HANSON
JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT, OFFICE NO.4

Occupation: Senior Deputy District Attorney

Police, prosecutors and crime victims overwhelmingly support me because they know I will be a fair, no-nonsense Judge who supports law and order for Orange County.

I am honored to have spent sixteen years as a prosecutor in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Currently, I lead a team that prosecutes crimes including drunk driving homicides, kidnapping, and robbery.
While assigned to the elite Sexual Assault Unit, I prosecuted sexual predators, child molesters and rapists.

In the prestigious GangUnit, I prosecuted criminal gang members for carjacking, drug-dealing, and drive-by shootings.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) honored me for my dedicated work with crime victims.

Because of m ysupport for Victims’ Rights, the death penalty and Three Strikes, I am endorsed by:

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas
Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters
California Coalition of Law Enforcement Associations
Orange County Coalition of Police and Sheriffs
Police Associations representing; Anaheim, Santa Ana, Fullerton, Westminster, La Palma, Placentia,
Garden Grove,Brea, LosAlamitos
Citizens for Law and Order
Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau

I am most proud of my family and my volunteer work with Assistance League, Girl Scouts, Laurel House, AYSO and in my Parish.

I would be honored with your vote.

I should mention that, according to her district bio, “Nancy serves as a Temporary Judge for the Superior Court of Orange County.”

Godzilla menaces college campuses, then returns to ocean

Late this morning, Godzilla emerged from the ocean and lumbered inland to Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo.

According to witnesses, the enormous reptile seemed to take a special interest in the Student Services Center at the college, which he briefly scorched with "hundred foot long" plumes of flaming breath.


After a few minutes, say witnesses, Godzilla seemed to lose interest. He then proceeded northward on Interstate 5.

At about 12:45, he reached Irvine Valley College, where he paused at the site of the future Performing Arts Center.


According to Highway Patrolmen on the scene, the creature then "mildly scorched" a Hummer that was traveling southward on Jeffrey Road.


Godzilla was last spotted entering the ocean just south of Corona Del Mar.

It was a beautiful day at the colleges

It was High School Senior Day at Irvine Valley College. KROQ was on hand to entertain the throngs of youngsters. The KROQ DJs played lots of Green Day. You know, "American Idiot," and all that.

The weather was excellent, and a good time was had by all. Check out the pics.


There was this big rubber blow-up thingy. Everybody just stared at it. It was pretty colorful, I guess.


The U.S. Army was there with some kind of "hoops" game. If you made a basket, a stupid noise would sound. it was popular.

It was a beautiful day also at Saddleback College. The light shone brightly on the face of the library:

Over toward the mountains, it looked pretty blustery:


I tried to be pissed off, but everything was so beautiful. I mean, here's how the central park-like area looked:


Plus there was a seriously cool "nursing" display over in the new Health Sciences Building. I'm not kidding, it was cool. Stuff from the 40s, I think.


Did you know that you can walk the stairs all the way up to the roof of that building, and actually emerge to the roof and walk around--without once encountering a "keep out" sign?

Don't tell anybody, but it's true. Here's a shot I took of the ocean from up there:

Mysterious "Chrysler" menaces campus

Six Degrees of Fuentes Nation

id you read Jean Pasco’s article in the Times this morning? Pasco reports that

A supporter of the Orange County sheriff's reelection bid filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the ballot statement of a rival candidate that calls the sheriff's term a "failure" marked by "scandal after scandal."

The sheriff, of course, is Mike Carona, a fellow who is indeed up to his eyeballs in scandal. He’s a player—a star—in Fuentes Nation (aka Fuentes World), a community that is peopled by like-minded right-wingers.

Being accused of corruption or at least ruthlessness seems to be an entrance requirement.

No doubt thanks to Mr. Fuentes, three years ago, the Irvine Valley College Foundation named Carona its “hometown hero.” That's when everybody in the country was falling all over themselves in a mad rush to honor the "hero" of the Samantha Runnion tragedy.

Some hero. Have you been reading the paper? Carona is about as dirty as that other Fuentean hero, Orange County DA, Tony Rackaucus.

The “supporter” referred to in the Times article is Ronald Young, who will appear in court today with his lawyer, Michael Houston.

Houston, of course, is a crony of Mr. Tom Fuentes. Why am I not surprised?

Pasco informs us that Mr. Houston works for Rutan and Tucker, a fancy-schmancy OC law firm.

Hmmm. Rutan and Tucker. That would be the firm that represented the district in my First Amendment lawsuit. They lost the suit but appealed. During the appellate process—I essentially prevailed there, too—Rutan and Tucker had two attorneys on the case: Dave Larsen and Robert E. King.

Robert E. King? That would be the guy just hired as the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources!


ave you ever played the trivia game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”? According to Wikipedia, the game is

inspired by the stage play Six Degrees of Separation. [It] requires a group of players to connect any film actor to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible.

I play a variation on the Bacon game. It’s called “Six Degrees of Fuentes Nation.” Essentially, to play, you’ve gotta find patches of the fabric of Fuentes Nation, aka OC Right-Wing Republican Web o' Cronies.

OK, so far, I’ve got

Young → Houston → Fuentes and

Fuentes → Rutan & Tucker → Larsen → King → SOCCCD → Fuentes.

Let’s start from Mr. King, who, as I said, is our new VC of Human Resources.

Human Resources? As you know, Teddi Lorch is the district's Director of Human Resources. (How come we've got both a Vice Chancellor and a Director of HR? What's next, a chief petty officer?) Back in 2000, Teddi ran for a seat (representing the 73rd Assembly District) on the OC GOP Central Committee. That would be Fuentes’ OC GOP. (He was the chair at the time.) Teddi came in dead last.

Who represents the 73rd Assembly District these days? That would be Teddi’s best pal, Nancy Padberg, who, of course, accompanies Mr. Fuentes on the SOCCCD Board of Trustees.

Teddi, too, was on the SOCCCD board, until she was replaced in 1998 by—you guessed it! Nancy Padberg!

OK, so that’s King → Lorch → SOCCCD → BOT → Padberg → Fuentes.

While hangin’ with the OC Republican leadership, no doubt Nancy rubs elbows with conservative pollster Adam P, the guy who assisted Mr. Fuentes so ably on that night five and a half years ago when Fuentes made his successful bid to replace Steve Frogue on our board.

Remember the Frogue Recall? The leader of that effort among Republicans was close Fuentes associate Michael Schroeder, who just happens to be the chief legal advisor of both Tony Rackaucus and Mike Carona. (Schroeder’s wife is Carona's spokesperson.)

Like I said, Central Committee member Nancy P might run into Adam, cuz Adam is on the executive group of the Committee.

Adam, of course, can also be found, along with Fuentes’ wife Jolene, on the board of governors of the IVC Foundation, as can John Fleischman, who is also on the GOP executive leadership group and, by day, works for Sheriff Carona.

Confused yet?

The executive director of the local GOP is Kathy Tavoularis, another Fuentes crony, who also sits on the IVC Foundation board.

Paul Hernandez, another Foundation board member, is ex-officio alternate on the OC GOP Central Committee.

Foundation board member Anthony Kuo, a Mathur apologist during his student days at IVC, is now Jo Ellen Allen’s alternate on the Central Committee.

IVC Foundation board member Keith Carlson is the alternate for Scott Baugh, who represents the 67th Assembly District on the OC GOP Central Committee.

Baugh, of course, replaced Tom Fuentes as chair of the OC GOPers back in 2004.

I could go on like this forever.

But you get the idea.

h—one more thing. Did you know that Nancy Padberg is running for Superior Court Judge? See

Nancy runs for Judge (a pdf file)


MARCH 18 UPDATE:
in TODAY'S REGISTER

Yesterday's Times article didn't reveal who was behind the legal challenge, aside from Young and his lawyer Houston. I implied that Fuentes or his crowd (Schroeder, Fleischman, Probolsky, et al.) were behind it.

But today's Register article ("Carona wants phrase barred," by Peggy Lowe) "connects the dots," owing in part to a misdirected email between Schroeder and Fleischman. Some excerpts:

...Carona's top two advisers – Jon Fleischman and Michael Schroeder – recruited a voter with no name recognition to challenge it [i.e., inclusion of language referring to "scandal" and "failure"] in court.

In an e-mail inadvertently sent to The Orange County Register, Fleischman reported to Schroeder on Wednesday that the campaign's lawyers were working with someone named Ron Young "to challenge the questionable language (on) Bill Hunt's campaign statement."

To connect the dots: Young is the husband of Mary Young, a GOP activist, and was found by pollster Adam Probolsky, according to Fleischman's e-mail. Further connection: Probolsky has worked with John Lewis, Carona's campaign manager.

"We'll all have to thank the Youngs – and also TY (thank you) to Adam for calling them and getting them to agree to this!" reads Fleischman's e-mail from a personal account.

Schroeder responded to Fleischman in an e-mail that "Hunt may stipulate to removing the offending language in order to avoid an attorney's fees hit." [Classic hardball tactic!]

Reached Friday, Fleischman said he was working at his county job as the sheriff's spokesman and must keep politics separate.

..."What we're seeing here is a very concerted effort from a select few behind the scenes from one party that is controlling and manipulating what happens in the office of the sheriff," Hunt said. "That should be problematic for anybody, especially with the string of scandals coming out of that office."

...Carona has faced many controversies, including the firing of an assistant sheriff and his chief of staff, George Jaramillo, who has since been indicted on several charges, including bribery.

Carona, who is seeking a third term, has also weathered reports of questionable campaign contributions and one case of money laundering through his campaign. The attorney general is investigating three issues surrounding the sheriff's department, including a claim of sexual harassment against Carona.

The issue will be heard in Orange County Superior Court on Monday.

Also, check out an article in today's Register concerning Fuentes crony Chriss Street:

Trustee: Official abused firm funds

O.C.'s assistant treasurer is accused of fiscal misconduct as a bankrupt trailer firm's asset manager.

By MARTIN WISCKOL

Chriss Street, the leading candidate to become county treasurer-tax collector, has been accused of "mismanagement, conflicts of interest and greed" in a bankruptcy-court document filed this week....