Red Emma in Orange Coast Magazine

The June issue of swanky Orange Coast magazine features an essay written by our own Red Emma. In it, Red reflects on the 2007 wildfires, community and our neighbors who rebuilt their home in the aftermath.


excerpt:

To live happily in the canyons below Santiago Peak, you have to really, really like oak trees. And olive trees, those hundred-year-old, out-of control giants that drop their scrawny, inedible fruit. You have to accept that well-intentioned newcomers will promise that they’ll finally harvest the olives, cure them, or set up a press and produce oil—but, of course, don’t. You curse the reckless drivers on Santiago Canyon Road and grow accustomed to junker cars, dead since the Nixon administration, parked under the olives and oaks. You have to care for your neighbors, even if you don’t like or even know them.

That’s life in a canyon, with its single road in and out.

And when disaster hits, as it did in October 2007, you find you have to know and appreciate and celebrate where you live, perhaps in ways that less rural residents cannot.

To read the rest, click here.

Don's competition

.....With regard to trustee Don Wagner’s bid for the 70th AD seat, as someone who cares about the future of the SOCCCD, I just don’t know what I want to happen. I’m not sure losing Don on the board of trustees—a necessary consequence of Don’s securing the Assembly office—would be a good thing for the district. Somebody's gotta stand up to Pontificus Maximus.
.....So how is Don doing? I’m not sure. Don’s chief competition (among Republicans) seems to be Steven Choi of Irvine. So how is Choi doing?
.....Today, the always mediocre Matt Cunningham of Red County posted about Choi: AD70 Watch: Steven Choi's Campaign Goes 'Round The Bend.
.....The gist seems to be that Choi’s new campaign literature highlights the endorsement of anti-Republican gadfly Art Pedroza, who rants and spews indecorously over at the popular “Orange Juice” blog.
.....So what?
.....So, says Cunningham, Pedroza is so toxic that “Whatever pretense Choi has to respectability has been flushed down the figurative toilet.”
.....Choi’s campaign, says Matt, has gone “insane.”

Hair in the butter

COWBOY LINGO FOR A SATURDAY MORNING

....OK, cowpokes. It’s pretty clear that Tom Fuentes was raised on prunes and proverbs. Meanwhile, Don Wagner tends to be all horns and rattles. Still, I’ve gotta say that, at this here ranch, Raghu Mathur has been clouding the trail and generally making it a town with hair on it, and somebody just had to put a stop to it.
....Well, yipeekiyay! –That Gooey varmint will soon leave Cheyenne and that’s ‘cuz the Gooster got all swollen like a drowned horse and so Dandy Don took out his cutter full o' beans. But Goo was too slow to live, and it’s been hair in the butter ever since. The sooner he decorates a cottonwood (chancellorwise), the sooner every bull around these parts can take his tail off the dashboard and go back to carryin’ the dang thing. Then, finally, we can go back to the tall grass, cuz this gang of waddies has been narrow at the equator for a coon’s age.

....(–Still, when Goo finally cuts his suspenders, it'll be as hot as a whorehouse on nickel night around these parts! Yippee!)

.....It’s a great day here in Orange County. We had a little breeze for a while, but that’s settled down. The air is cool, the sky is bright. Chirp, chirp.
.....Living out in the country, you hear lots of sounds, and after a while you don’t pay attention to them anymore, but, this morning, just below my bedroom window, something was rustling, and it seemed to be big.
.....Even that wasn’t enough to get me up to have a look. I was reading the news on my laptop. I couldn’t be bothered. (My sister has often claimed to see UFOs at night—right there below my window. I pay no mind to that either.)
.....But the sounds continued. Sounded like a very large creature walking around. And then the sound got more complicated, as if there were several creatures, all large. So, finally, I got up and checked out these noisemakers.
.....Cows. Three of ‘em. Big cows. I see cattle all the time along El Toro Road, and sometimes along Live Oak Canyon, but you get the wrong idea about their size unless you get up close. They’re huge. Each cow had its own colony of flies. I could see ‘em buzzin’.
.....One of them varmints was especially large. Maybe he was a bull. Dunno. He seemed to be in charge.
.....I said hello to the cows from my balcony, and they didn’t like that much, so they started to wander down the dirt road behind my place down to the rock bridge and the canyon entry. It's not far from old Hamilton Trail.
.....Then the cowboys showed up.
.....“You seen some cows?”
.....“Yep. Three of ‘em. They’re headed down the canyon, toward the road.”
.....“Good! That’s what we want.”
.....I nodded.

That got me interested in cowboy lingo. I found an old article from the Corpus Christi Caller Times (There was nothing like cowboy lingo) that offered some examples, including these (here is a fuller lexicon):

• On a trail drive, every man had to do his own job or, as a cowboy would put it, every bull had to carry his own tail.
• A man in a fit of temper was all horns and rattles.
• Someone who was confusing the situation, or getting in the way, was clouding the trail.
• A farmer was someone who turned the grass upside-down.
• A man with a big ego was swollen up like a drowned horse.
• Someone overly pious was raised on prunes and proverbs.
• A depressed cowhand was down in his boots or had his tail over the dashboard.
• A hungry waddy [cowboy] was narrow at the equator.
• A delicate situation was hair in the butter.
• A wild cowtown was a town with hair on it.
• A loaded gun was a cutter full of beans.
• Someone killed in a gunfight was too slow to live.
• To be hanged was to decorate a cottonwood….
• Someone departing for other places was leaving Cheyenne.

All I gotta do is loan myself one hundred grand

.....Today, Tracy Wood of the Voice of OC gave us the low down on campaign cash reports, including those for Treasurer candidates. Naturally, denizens of the SOCCCD want to know how our own Dave "Quisling" Lang is doing:

Campaign Cash Reports: Sheriff's and Treasurer's Races

.....Candidates in the June 8 primary were required to file campaign reports by yesterday for all money raised and spent as of May 22. Here are the numbers turned in by candidates for Orange County … treasurer/tax collector.
.....Huntington Beach Treasurer Shari Freidenrich raised $85,806.09, including $54,000 in loans she made to her campaign. She spent, as of May 22, $83,697.68 and reported a cash balance of $29,828.91 and outstanding debts of $81,720.50.
.....CPA David Lang received $118,300.22 and spent $108,835.15. His contributions included loans totaling $102,073.08 he made to his own campaign. He ended the reporting period with cash of $17,448.76 and outstanding debts of $110,056.66.
.....Deputy Treasurer Keith Rodenhuis raised $9,690.00 and spent $34,109.78. His ending cash balance was $422.20, and campaign debts totaled $25,041.98.

.....As we reported earlier (here), trustee Don Wagner, who is running for 70th AD, loaned his campaign $122,000. No word yet on whether he's paid himself back. If he's a true fiscal conservative, of course, he will not be in debt to himself for long.

UPDATE: Candidates for Local Offices Are Digging Deep into Their Own Pockets (Voice of OC; May 31)

Joe Arpaio endorses Don Wagner

From DISSENT the BLOG

.....According to Zorro (?) over on the Orange Juice Blog, Don Wagner, candidate for 70th Assembly District (and SOCCCD trustee), has been endorsed by Tea Party hero Joe Arpaio: Mexican hater Joe Arpaio endorses Don Wagner for the 70th Assembly District.
.....According to the Z-Man, “As if there weren’t already plenty of reasons NOT to vote for Don Wagner, the knuckle-dragger Republican running in the GOP primary, over in the 70th Assembly District, now we have one more. Wagner has announced that he has the support of Mexican-hating Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.”
.....From Wagner's campaign website:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Endorses Wagner for Assembly
“America’s Toughest Sheriff”
. . .
.....“I’m proud to support Don Wagner, a strong advocate for law and order and a common-sense conservative leader,” said Arpaio in giving his support to Wagner.. . .
.....Sheriff Joe is known around the country for his toughness and we need that kind of toughness in Sacramento if we are going to change things,” said Wagner. “Decades of mindless spending has created a fiscal mess that continues to destroy our state’s economy. You can bet I am going to approach our spending problem the way Sheriff Joe approaches law enforcement.”

SEE Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Reign of Terror Becomes Arizona State Policy, Thanks to State Senator Russell Pearce and Governor Jan Brewer (OC Weekly)

The long and lurid FUENTESization of the SOCCCD

.....Politics do get complicated.
.....Circa 1998-1999: Back during the days of the Frogue recall—a project fueled by the notion that the trustee was a Holocaust denier—the chair of the state GOP, Mike Schroeder, came in from out of left field (er, right field) to support us. We were glad to get his support, though it made for some weird parties. (See State GOP joins Recall Effort.)
.....Why did he do that? Was it mere politics? Was it an action born of conviction? Despite Schroeder’s wily reputation, I do believe it was the latter. For his action, Schroeder caught a lot of flak within the party. He didn’t remain state chair for long.
.....The recall people gathered a very impressive number of signatures—over 30,000. Still, the number fell short of what was required.
.....Then, in the summer of 2000, Frogue suddenly resigned. To everyone’s amazement, the board selected Tom Fuentes, county GOP kingpin, as Frogue’s replacement.

The Lang people meet with the Fuentes people:

.....I was a part of the core group that, in the election of 2000, promoted the (trustees race) slate of Bob Loeffler, Trustee Dave Lang, Bill Shane, and Bill Hochmuth. As I recall, Loeffler was up against Tom Fuentes, Hochmuth was up against John Williams, Shane was up against Dot Fortune (who later resigned from the board amid a cloud of suspicion that she was no longer a county resident), and Lang was up against a guy named Davis.
.....Despite our efforts—I think we did a good job—that election went to hell in a handbasket; only Lang, the incumbent, prevailed. Voters were (and are) brainless.
.....At some point—just after the election, I think—the Fuentes people asked to meet with reps of the Lang people. Our guy with connections, Don R, was selected for the meeting. But (as I recall) Fuentes’ crew asked that I participate, too. (When Fuentes was selected to replace Frogue, I was quoted in the OC Register as saying that “we’ve replaced a crude Neanderthal with a slick one”—or something like that. Fuentes remembered.) So off we went to somebody’s fancy office somewhere.
.....The idea seemed to be that some sort of give and take was possible. –You know: “What can I do to get us past all this hostility?” –that sort of thing. We didn’t go there just to hang out with the rich and powerful.
.....I’m not sure (memory fails me), but I think removing Raghu Mathur as IVC President was high on our list of desiderata. I can’t imagine what would have been higher. ("World peace" maybe.)
.....A secretary led us into some sort of conference room with a long table. At the far end of the table, sitting comfortably, was Tom Fuentes, who, at that point, had been the chair of the county GOP for maybe 15 years. I remember that he had some kind of pink butterfly button on his lapel.
.....Standing next to him was Mike Schroeder, who either was (or who had just been) the state GOP chair. I don't think he ever sat down.
.....Don and I talked and talked. Schroeder said a few things. (A year earlier, he had sent me a thank-you note for my efforts to bring down Steven Frogue.) Fuentes smiled. He hardly said a thing.
.....Maybe then—but probably later—it occurred to me that we were spilling our guts and Fuentes was giving us exactly nothing.
.....That was my first taste of local realpolitik. Whatever Schroeder had in mind, Fuentes arranged for the meeting entirely for the purpose of scoping us out. He had no intention of working with us in any way. I remember the smile. Always the smile.
.....Deception, exploitation, machination: these are the contents of Tom Fuentes’ political toolbox.

The Fuentesization of the SOCCCD:

.....Nowadays, Fuentes’ most loyal ally on the SOCCCD board is—Dave Lang! As you know, Lang was turned about five years ago when he got the notion to become the county Treasurer/Tax Collector.
.....And there, only a few feet away, sat Tom Fuentes: wheeler and dealer, local kingmaker.
.....It had looked like the days of Raghu Mathur's curious ascendency were numbered; Mathur's support had dwindled to only 3 of the 7 trustees. But then Dave Lang, Mr. Goo's greatest detractor, became the Goo's greatest champion! WTF! 
.....And the rest is history. 
.....At Monday’s board meeting, when the question of whether to set aside $2 million for continued efforts to defend the board’s promiscuous prayerfulness came up, who was there, sans argument, to vote for the expenditure?
.....Why, that would be Dave Lang! –I say "sans argument" because the only “argument” he offered was an ad hominem: the suggestion that critics of the expenditure are “disingenuous.”
.....But I know Dave. I’ve been watching him since 1996. I worked closely with him on campaigns. Of all the trustees, in his heart, he is the least supportive of the often sectarian prayers that have become the norm in the SOCCCD. He used to be explicit about this.
.....And now? This self-discribed “fiscal conservative” is happy to spend $2 million toward an end which, if achieved, would do absolutely nothing to improve the colleges. And he doesn't even bother with arguments.
.....Why, he's been Fuentesized!
.....Fuentes has been busily Fuentesizing the board since he arrived there in 2000. Despite the lack of any qualifications, in 2002, trustee John Williams secured a minor political office that, somehow, he immediately parlayed into a substantial one, with all the trimmings. Soon, trustee Nancy Padberg was working with Williams down at the County, bossing people around. Meanwhile, trustee Don Wagner made two bids for 70th AD—and he got a big boost from Fuentes this go round, until their Mathurian falling out late last year. Until the bitter end, Sheriff Mike Carona would grace Irvine Valley College with his potent America's Sheriffitude once or twice a year. (You shoulda seen the groupies.) Trustee Lang, of course, is running for Treasurer, and he’s got Fuentes’ full backing, now that Tom’s boy Chriss Street is dog meat (Mr. Family Man turned out to be very Fuentean).
.....Fuentes even tried to finagle an appointment as California’s Secretary of Education for Raghu Mathur, though that got kiboshed. And on it goes.

* * * * *

“Republicans have been frustrated with the [GOP] central committee establishment because they refused to go against Mike Carona long, long after we knew he was a serious problem,” said [Mission Viejo Tea Partier Mark] Dobrilovic. “That was astounding! And then they refused to give a vote of no-confidence in Sheriff [Sandra] Hutchens when they should have after she did some stupid things like take on gun rights and bring an LA mentality to the department.”

—From OC Weekly’s Tea Time! Will the boiling-mad tea-party crowd sweep sheriff's candidate Bill Hunt to victory?

.....The crowd that engineered the Party’s endorsement of Carona in the last election was—you guessed it!—Mike Schroeder’s crew, associated with Tom Fuentes.
.....It is worth mentioning, however, that that endorsement overturned an earlier decision not to endorse the reckless fellow. Schroeder’s crew finagled the endorsement, to the chagrin of many on the Central Committee. That hurt the crew’s standing.
.....Then Carona went down. And then Street went down. And now we’ve got this Tea Party mob, which might just vote in their candidate: Bill Hunt, pal of Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Where the boys aren't

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Men's Share of College Enrollments Will Continue to Dwindle, Federal Report Says (Chronicle of Higher Education)

“Women now account for a disproportionate share of the enrollments of higher-education institutions at every degree level and are likely to become an even more dominant presence on campuses over the coming decade, according to results of a study released today by the U.S. Education Department….”

At Saddleback College, women account for 59% of students. At IVC: 58%.

The Humanities Go Google (Chronicle of Higher Education)

“…at Stanford, legal and technical headaches may be worth the sweeping rewards of becoming one of perhaps two places in the world to host the greatest digital library ever built. The university is planning to chase that prize—and the prestige, recruitment power, and seminal research that could come with it. So is HathiTrust, a digital library consortium whose leaders include the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Indiana University at Bloomington, and the University of California system….”