Hangin' with Mojo, Democrat

TODAY, I HAD A CHANCE to spend some time with Sunny Girl's son, Mojo, a cat and Democrat, residing in Irvine.

He's a handsome bastard, he is. Kinda looks like his mom. (Click on the pics.)

Turns out, he's kind of a nature boy. Does a lot of sniffin' and explorin'. He's adventurous.

I caught 'im pondering something for a second or two. That didn't last long.

He's really into grass.

He insisted on following me to the bathroom. Hopped on the sink.

Jan says the boy has a water fixation. Laurie's more direct: "He's a waterholic," she says. Maybe it was "aguaholic." Not sure.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that he is a fine young man, a credit to his species.

On my way home, I stopped by Modjeska grade and saw some deer. I said hello to 'em. They stared. Then they kept walkin'.

Deer are like that.

Republicans.



MOJO

Sunny and Mojo

SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO, I was married, living in Old Towne, in a house built in 1903, which later became a brothel when the neighborhood declined, or so some old guy told me one day. But the brothel era was 45 years ago, and I’m talking 1990, not 1960. Things were on the upswing in Old Towne in 1990.

Kathie loved cats, and this one skittish brat would come by now and again, and Kathie’d be still and patient and wait, not me. God, that weasely cat was skittish. Tiny and skittish, and way weasely.

One day we heard an odd and disturbing sound from somewhere outside and I was told to investigate, so OK. The sound came from our neighbor’s house, friends of ours. (He wrote for the Times; she was a pretty southern belle who sang like an angel. Saw her sing at the Coach House once. Years later, she called me, I dropped the ball.)

They weren’t home. Their house was old, too. So I opened the Wizard of Oz doors to their basement and descended with my flashlight. I found two dead kittens and two live ones, yammering from hunger, I guess. So we took in these two kittens.

Naturally, the weasely little cat soon came around, cuz she was the mom, though she was barely old enough—so said the vet who was nice and looked like Clark Kent and gave us lots of advice and freebies.

So I told Kathie, “OK, we’ll take care of these brats, but we’ve already got three cats, and we sure as hell aren’t keeping these three new ones! Let’s nurse these babies for a month or two and then find homes for ‘em!” Yeah, right.

We called the weasely cat “Sunny.” Kathie and Sunny were like a team out there, taking care of these two little brats. I made a nice big cage for ‘em, but I didn’t get close, cuz they were movin’ on, and, well, I just didn’t get close.

A few months later, I managed to find a home for one of the little brats. I had a student, Ken, who lived with a woman named Laurie in Rancho Santa Margarita, and they said they’d take one, maybe. So we brought 'em over there and Ken and Laurie fell in love with both weasels, and thus it was that Violet and Mojo came to live in Rancho Santa Margarita, which, as it turns out, is a stone's throw from where I ended up living.

Naturally, we kept Sunny. D'oh!

Later, Kathie and I split and off I went to live in Trabuco Canyon, and I took Buster the Magnificent Cat with me, plus Sunny, who remained skittish and weasely in the extreme, but loveable too. Buster later died, but I don’t wanna talk about that. (A nice gay couple bought our house and painted it like, well, an old prostitute, and the Old Towne Society gave 'em a ticket or something.)

Ken went off to graduate school and had many adventures. Eventually, he and Laurie split, and she kept Violet and Mojo. She moved someplace else.

Shit happens, boy, and you can’t figure it. Last spring, Ken, the new Ph.D., got a tenure-track job teaching Philosophy for Cal State San Luis Obispo, and so I gave him a party out here in the canyon, and waddyaknow, Laurie shows up, and my best friend Jan is there, too, and he notices Laurie.

So, long story short, now Jan is dating Laurie, and Laurie takes a trip to Hawaii, so, naturally, Jan offers to take care of Mojo and Violet, but Violet is all skittish and peevish, like Sunny, and so Jan gets to know Mojo, not Violet. The two become pals.

Laurie returns from the Big Island and recognizes that, like Kathie, she has managed to collect a crew of incompatible beasts (she’s got a dog, too), and so she tells Jan, “Hey, boyfriend, do you wanna keep Mojo?” and he’s a knucklehead like me and he says, “yes.” But he likes Mojo, who is a great cat, so why not.

So, tomorrow, I’m visiting Jan for his goddam birthday, and I plan to grab that Mojo and give him a big hug. And when I give him this hug, I’m gonna say, “Hey, dude, I’m your Opa, did you know that?”

Later, I’ll be home and Sunny will run around like she does, and she’ll get on her back and roll around on the carpet, as happy as a lark. And I’ll say, “Sunny Girl, you little weasel, your big knucklehead son says, ‘hey.’”

Red Emma’s War Diary: National Truth in Recruiting—OR Golfers Against the War

I’D BEEN GETTING a little weary of the analysis from liberals about the nation’s presumed estrangement from our brave women and men in uniform. You know, the one arguing that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan surge on because there’s no draft and nobody who is white, privileged, middle-class, educated, urban or who golfs personally knows anybody in the military and therefore doesn’t, can’t, or won’t do anything to stop the killing and dying.

Friends and comrades, Red Emma doesn’t know anybody who plays golf, but I am still opposed to golf. And, no, Red doesn’t know anybody in the military personally either, but still marched against the invasion and occupation, and with military veterans too, though those were, admittedly Veterans for Peace, which I guess don’t count.

By the way, where are the golfers on this one? I’ll revisit my take on the elite behavior-aping, anti-environmental, funny dressing, 1950s-retro American golf constituency when I see a Golfers Against the War or just one pro golfer take a public position against, say, torture, or Guantanamo, or even pesticide run-off.

I was in an empirical mood on Monday morning, and wanted to see if meeting a couple of red-blooded U.S. servicemen would change my position—maybe somehow make me more against this fucking awful war, which Americans say in useless polls that they oppose—so I showed up at the first ever National Truth in Recruiting Day, September 17, which is a great day indeed, in fact, the same day in 1787 that the U.S. Constitution was adopted, for what that’s worth.

Not much it seems. Think: 5,000 preventive detentions and zero convictions.

When I arrived at the Army National Guard Recruiting Station in Santa Ana at 11 a.m. on Monday, there was just one guy there, wearing a white on black t-shirt reading “Iraq Veterans Against the War.” I shook his hand and, finally, just like that, Red Emma had met a real-life American soldier, in this case a four-time tour-of-duty Marine named Jason Lemieux, 24 years old from Anaheim, who is handsome, articulate, and brave, which are probably all perfectly bitchin’ when you are an active-duty infantry dude shooting at the enemy or avoiding roadside bombs but even better, I observed, when you offer an analysis of the war while standing in front of a recruiting station being interviewed by reporters.

Then, bingo-bango, just like that, I met Kevin Stendahl, also an ex-combat Marine, and stood listening to them both, right out in broad daylight, on the lawn on Warner Avenue. Who knew it could be so easy, America? In five minutes I’d doubled the number of soldiers I knew and, yes, let’s see, right, okay, I was still against the fucking war and also feeling pretty darn good about IVAW’s call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, full benefits and adequate healthcare for returning troops, and reparations for Iraqis.

After a few more minutes of hanging with the ex-troops, I had the opportunity to meet even more service folks because, as it happens, this kick-off event was going down at an actual recruiting center, which turned out to be just chock-full of Army people. Soon two, three, four active duty folks came out, wearing camo gear and looking all buff and being polite, shaking hands with the anti-war veteran activists and their posse and—think of this!—all across our proud nation civilians like me with college degrees and mortgages could meet actual vets who were visiting recruiters and high schools, like these two fellas, offering their unshy analysis that Bush lies, recruiters lie and, yes, that lying is wrong.

Then, as if that wasn’t enough to beat the band, I met a local anti-war activist. Thu Trang of the National Lawyer’s Guild OC Recruitment Awareness Project showed up to remind everybody that her outfit helps active duty service people and Delayed Entry Program enlistees get out of the military without shooting themselves in the foot or pretending to be gay, and that parents of public high school kids can sign an “opt-out” form, which prevents recruiters from calling their kids to promise them money for college and that they’ll never, ever get shipped to Kandahar or Diyala where at least their odds of meeting an anti-war liberal, are mercifully small. — Posting for Chunk: Red Emma

Andrew Tonkovich

The district has a problem

WEDNESDAY'S "OPEN FORUM" concerning the SOCCCD's noncompliance with the “50% law" was good in every way that I can think of. Standing before a relatively large gathering of college personnel, Irvine Valley College President Glenn Roquemore briefly explained our situation, namely, that the proportion of our expenditures on “instruction” has dipped below 50%, contrary to requirements defined by statute.

He seemed to indicate that the DRAC (the District Resources Allocation Committee, which comprises faculty reps, among others) is the venue in which a “fix” will be developed, and that’s good news, for some of us had worried that Chancellor Raghu Mathur intends to blow off shared governance as per usual. Not so, apparently.

District Director of Fiscal Services, Beth Mueller, was on hand to answer questions, and, I have to say, she seemed to answer our queries forthrightly and to the best of her ability. And there were lots of questions, good ones.

IVC Director of Fiscal Services, Davit Khachatryan, gave a helpful PowerPoint presentation. Our district, he said, is out of compliance with Education Code 8462 for 2006/07, though not by much. According to the latest figures—provided by Beth—we’re at 49.76%. We're talkin' $257,000 — far less than, say, the Chancellor's inexplicably high salary.

That sounds like an insignificant amount in the grand scheme of things, but, for a variety of reasons, a fix will be very difficult, and the consequences of not fixing the problem will be serious.


If we fail to correct the matter, state apportionment funding will be withdrawn, despite our Basic Aid funding.

Davit listed numerous actions that could be taken by the college that would “help,” including faculty salary increases and new faculty hiring. Among the various other helpful actions, Davit seemed to favor adding more classes at ATEP, our district’s new instructional site in Tustin, though that suggestion proved to be somewhat controversial. There was lots of discussion and, for once, it wasn't silly.

The district is applying for a one-time waiver (re the 50% requirement), which is granted only in cases of extreme hardship or when faculty salaries are high compared to neighboring districts. Given our district’s healthy finances, we cannot plausibly claim hardship. When pressed, Beth opined that, if we seek a waiver, claiming the second condition would seem to be the more promising approach.

The audience looked skeptical.

Wendy asked Beth whether the district views our being granted a waiver as likely. Beth said she didn’t know.

But the facts seem to be clear enough. We likely won’t qualify for a waiver. So we have a real problem.

Some members of the audience (including me) pressed to learn how the noncompliance could have been allowed to occur, given that the district moved steadily downward toward the 50% line for the last five years. Our crossing over that line didn't just suddenly happen. But administrators generally deflected such questions.

(Recently, one of our readers [who writes often and knowledgeably] posted this remark:

All community college districts must file a budget report with the State of California each year. It's called the CCFS 311, and it's due every October 15. Part of this form — and your CFO and CEO must verify its accuracy under penalty of perjury — includes the 50% rule calculation.

If your Chancellor is unaware of this, then he hasn't been reading what he's been signing. (End)

— The State Chancellor's Office has this form. It's a PDF file. Check it out.)


It does seem clear that this "new" problem — the Chancellor insists that it was discovered "just last month"— is a DISTRICT problem.

It will be interesting to see whether and how the Chancellor will explain this nasty little predicament, come Monday night.

I’ll be watching Raghu’s pointing finger.

You know the one.

P.S.: I do believe that another "forum" will be held this morning (Thursday) at 9:30. LIB 213.

GRATUITOUS IMAGERY:

Kids whispering at last week's IVC 9-11 ceremony.

Sunny the cat poking around near my chifforobe.

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: visioning a world where none is lonely, none hunted

Because she feels like it and because she herself needs it, Rebel Girl offers a poem. She is short on her own prose due to grading the first essays of the semester, keeping up with her own reading and being the mother of a five-year-old rebel. And no, she still hasn't been placed on a jury. She is still playing a daily noontime game of phone tag with the recorded messages at the Harbor Justice Center. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.

A poem from Robert Hayden:



Frederick Douglass

When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues' rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.



Yeah.

What’s going on in the SOCCCD?

1. THE “50% law” EMERGENCY. The law (see Ed Code §84362.d, et seq.) requires of community colleges that at least 50% of expenditures be devoted to “instruction,” i.e., faculty salaries and benefits. Our district’s expenditures have dipped ever so slightly below the 50% mark (we’re at 49.65%). We need to adopt a plan—and soon—to move back above 50%.

2. THERE’S THE TRUTH AND THEN THERE’S THE OFFICIAL STORY. Evidently, the district has been heading downward toward the 50% mark for several years. If so, this emergency comes as no surprise to the district, whose job it is to adhere to the “50% law.” Reportedly, the Chancellor nevertheless insists that the district found out about this problem “last month.”

3. MORE DISTRICT UNILATERALISM. I’m told that faculty groups are supposed to be involved in the response to this particular difficulty. Nevertheless, evidence mounted last week that the Chancellor had already developed a plan to address the “50%” problem. If so, he (i.e., the district) seems to be moving unilaterally. As I understand it, special all-college meetings are now scheduled that will give to faculty and other groups an opportunity to weigh in on how to address this problem. Expect Mathur to press for reductions in “reassigned time.” (Do take a good look at Ed Code §84362.f. It's interesting reading.)

4. Re COLLEGES’ ACCREDITATION MIDTERM REPORTS, DUE NEXT MONTH. As we have amply reported, at the 11th hour, the district has produced an obnoxious, poorly documented and inflammatory “response” document ("responding," it seems, to the Accreditors and to faculty). The folks who have for months labored to prepare drafts of the Accreditation Midterm Reports (intended to satisfy the Accreds that the colleges are making progress re trustee micromanagement, the climate of despair, etc.) were ordered last month to “incorporate” the verbiage of the “response.” The colleges were not pleased, in part owing to the timing, and in part owing to the poor quality of the response (which contains factual errors and lacks adequate documentation). These objections were clearly articulated at the last board meeting. I’m told that the Chancellor continues to pressure the report authors, not only to include the “response” verbiage, but to weave that verbiage into their carefully produced reports, something they are not inclined to do (they would prefer to isolate the district’s misbegotten 11th hour contributions in some fashion). The last board meeting before reports are sent to the Accreditors is in one week.

L'affaire Chemerinsky: He's hired! He's fired! He's re-hired!

Enough said for now.

EVENING UPDATE:
Check out Matt Welch's editorial, posted Monday evening on the L.A. Times website:

excerpt:

So, all's well that ends well, right? Not so fast...

But even though Chemerinsky has now been hired back, the story is far from over as far as public interest is concerned, for at least two reasons:

1) We still don't know why Drake fired his new law dean in the first place. This would be a mere personnel mystery, if it weren't for the fact that...

2) Drake, while never giving a sensible reason for the dismissal, did tell people that it had to do with the content of Chemerinsky's political speech (specifically an Aug. 16 Op-Ed in the L.A. Times), and to the "pressure" and "opposition" he was receiving from unnamed Republicans. If an Op-Ed can truly get an academic — even an administrator — fired, then that's a data point about the erosion of our free-speech climate that we deserve to know about.

And if indeed there are Republicans powerful enough to scotch the hiring of a well-known liberal dean, we need to know who they are, and how exactly they wield their power, so that we can prepare ourselves for next time, or take measures to reduce improper influence...

...People who believe Orange County to be the home of knuckle-dragging neanderthals had their biases reinforced this week, as did conservatives embittered by double-standards of "academic freedom."...