Peevitude 'bout Warren's switcheroo

.....Looks like I'm not the only one peeved about Rick Warren/Saddleback Church's handling of tickets for Saturday's Obama/McCain forum. (See our It's the old Saddleback Church shuffle.)
.....The OC Register just posted about the anger that it has inspired (Saddleback ticket distribution angers some):

.....When...26-year-old [Greg Burger] found out about the John McCain-Barack Obama forum at Saddleback Church this Saturday, he did what a lot of people did: He checked the church Web site as often as he could to get the most up-to-date ticket information.
....."I knew my only chance to receive tickets would be to act fast," Burger said.
.....For the past couple of weeks, the general public had been told via the church's Web site that ticket information would be forthcoming.
.....Then last week, the message changed and said a limited number of tickets would be available this Wednesday. Monday night, the message was revised again, saying all tickets had been distributed.
.....The switcheroo left many people like Burger feeling like they were deceived.

.....You bet. Nobody likes a switcheroo.
.....And what about those absurdly high ticket prices ($500 for the cheap seats)?
.....According to the Reg, "The high prices raised eyebrows."
.....Warren had better get his act together. Soon, he's hosting an event with former British Prime Minister Tony B. Watch 'im mess that up too.

Thinking about Sterling Hayden

Perhaps you’ve heard about the release, today, of tens of thousands of top-secret personnel files for the OSS—the WW II forerunner to the CIA. (Newly released files detail early US spy network.)

Naturally, we’ll hear lots about Julia Child’s file. But I wanted to focus on another former agent: character actor Sterling Hayden (1916-1986).

Most will remember him, I suppose, as the actor who played General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove. He was a good actor, a terrific screen presence. He did a fair amount of film noire and lots of westerns.

Hayden started out a seaman, but, after nine years at sea, somehow, he switched to modeling and acting, which he hated. According to Wikipedia:

His first film starred Madeleine Carroll, with whom he fell in love and married. But after just two film roles, he left Hollywood to serve as an undercover agent with William J. Donovan's COI office. He remained there after it became the OSS. Hayden also joined the Marines under the name John Hamilton…. His World War II service included running guns through German lines to the Yugoslav partisans and parachuting into fascist Croatia. He won the Silver Star and a commendation from Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito.

His Yugoslavian experience led to his briefly joining the Communist party. According to his IMDb biography,

he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee, confessing his brief Communist ties. Ever after regretted this action, holding himself in enormous contempt for what he considered "ratting".

I always assumed that Hayden wasn’t interesting except as an actor and squealer. But a perusal of his biography debunks such notions. He was obviously a complex, literate man. Loved sailing. Acted to pay for that.

IMDb lists some Hayden quotations:

• [On his films] Bastards, most of them, conceived in contempt of life and spewn out onto screens across the world with noxious ballyhoo; saying nothing, contemptuous of the truth, sullen, and lecherous.

• [On confessing his Communist ties] I don't think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since the day I did that thing . . . It's the one thing in my life that I'm categorically ashamed of.

• [After shooting Johnny Guitar (1954)] There is not enough money in Hollywood to lure me into making another picture with Joan Crawford. And I like money

• [On acting] You don't need talent to star in a motion picture. All you need is some intelligence AND the ability to work freely in front of the lens. Why do I always freeze? I went through the war. I jumped out of bombers. I played kick-the-can with E-boats when all we had was a lousy 40-foot dragger with six machine guns and a top speed of six knots. Yet whenever I get a closeup in a nice warm studio, I curl up and die.

• [On the Yugoslavian Partisans] It seems to me the people in the [Communist] Party not only know what's going on in the world but they have the guts to determine a course of action . . . In Yugoslavia . . . when the going got rough and it was time to be counted, it was the Communists who stood up and fought.

• [On director Stanley Kubrick] By the time of [Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)] [Kubrick] had become very human -- maybe it was the power that came with successes like Lolita (1962) -- for he is now very strong. My first day was torture. I was nervous, scared, did 48 takes. I expected Kubrick to explode but instead he was gentle, calmed me, convinced me that the fear in my eyes would help the character.

• [On director Bernardo Bertolucci] Bertolucci is not like most directors I've worked with; there's something beautiful, crazy, special about him. He's funny, too. He operates like a writer. No one knows what he's going to do. Several million dollars are riding on him alone. He has the power, he goes ahead, upsets those who plan schedules, takes his own time, follows his own genius.

Hayden in Strangelove: "precious bodily fluids" (1964)


Trailer for "Crime Wave"/"The City is Dark" (1954)

"Welcoming O.J. Simpson to Orange County"

• The OC Register (Cheney confronts San Clemente protesters with a smile) reports that two dozen or so people participated in a peaceful protest outside the gate of Casa Assh*le in San Clemente yesterday, where Vice President Dick “S & W” Cheney attended a private fundraiser honoring Ken “Hooker” Calvert. Maybe 200 people attended the fundraiser, checkbooks in hand.

I guess it was a kind of auction.

Meanwhile, outside the gates, protesters yelled “war criminal” and such. One sign read, “McCain=Bush III.” Referring to Cheney, one protester opined, “It was almost like they were welcoming O.J. Simpson to Orange County.” That’s pretty good, although Simpson only killed two people, y’know, and he didn’t make any money doing it.

The Reg reporter talked to that rat bastard Calvert, who explained that “the president has kept us safe the last eight years.”

OC Register video of protest


• Yesterday, the Reg (Thief took computer, then called to ask for parts) told the delightful story of a thief who stole a computer and then came back to buy parts for it.

Well, at first, the guy just phoned the store, ‘cause the computer had missing parts. Turns out this computer is pretty distinctive, and the parts it needs are distinctive too. So employees got suspicious; they asked for the serial number. Bingo.

The next part of the story helps explain why I read the paper each morning:

Employees called the police, who were present at the building when the man showed up, but were unable to make it to the entrance before he left the scene.

• This next story is pretty special too. According to Inside Higher Ed, some guy is in the hot seat over a situation that arose when he was chancellor of North Carolina Central University, in Mayberry. During this fellow's chancellorship, the university

started a degree-granting program in a church outside of Atlanta, run by a donor and board member, without the permission of North Carolina officials or accreditors.

That nobody was told about this program is special all by itself. That it was at a church is good, too. But that this thing was run by a trustee and donor puts this way over the top.

• Meanwhile (again, according to Inside Higher Ed), “San Jose State University’s English department has announced the 2008 ‘winners’ of its Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which honors the worst possible opening lines for fiction.”

Here’s the winning entry:

“Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped ‘Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.’”

I don’t get it. That’s a great opening line. Imagine the illustrations!

Tom Fuentes and the SOCCCD's accreditation crisis

(A local political blogger asked me for some background on our district’s accreditation situation. I provided him with some notes and sources. I’ve provided an edited version of those notes below:) 

     What follows is a brief account of the accreditation situation of the South Orange County Community College District—SOCCCD, which comprises Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Irvine Valley College in Irvine, and the ATEP facility at the old Tustin helicopter station (this money pit has yet to fully launch). 

     To avoid confusion, I should mention that districts are not accredited; rather, individual colleges are. Nevertheless, individual colleges can run afoul of the Accrediting Agency’s standards owing to problems or misconduct at the district level. (Compton College’s recent loss of accreditation largely concerned trustee and administrator misconduct.) 

OUR BOARD 

     Our board is dominated by right-wing political ideologues—Tom Fuentes and Don Wagner—who, to differing degrees, buy into right-wing stereotypes regarding state employees and unions—especially “teachers unions.” You know: college faculty are lazy and overpaid and they teach students atheism and homosexuality. Fuentes is more extreme, more ideological, and craftier than Wagner. Wagner, however, does sit on the board of Education Alliance, a group whose roots are in the early 90s effort to reduce faculty unions’ political muscle in California and whose original funding came from Christian Reconstructionist Howard Ahmanson, Jr. The following is a TV interview that illustrates the contempt with which Fuentes holds district faculty (he makes false claims 

about faculty workloads and pay): Fuentes’ (and to a lesser extent, Wagner’s) prejudices re faculty help explain why the board has stood by their man, the stunningly unpopular Chancellor Raghu Mathur, a conniving and ambitious incompetent, whose chief qualification is his willingness to do the board’s bidding. (Ironically, Mathur became an administrator when he was a member of a corrupt clique that controlled the faculty union in the 90s. In 1996, using the union’s political war chest, the clique paid for deceptive and homophobic fliers to secure the election of a “board majority.” In exchange for this support, the board maintained high faculty salaries, settled the clique’s scores, and promoted the administrative wannabes among them, including Mathur, who was made President of IVC. All of this is fairly well documented. See, for instance, the OC Weekly’s Adventures in advertising.) If you know anything about former OC GOP chair Tom Fuentes, then you know that he pursues politics strategically, maintaining and adjusting a networks of friends, allies, patrons, and prospects. Fuentes clearly regards Mathur as a member of Team Fuentes and Fuentes’ multi-faceted, endlessly creeping machine. That machine meshes with the machinations and agenda of OC "Republican Mafia" chief Mike Schroeder, who counts among his advisees OC DA Tony Rackauckas and former OC Sheriff Mike Carona (who nowadays awaits trial for corruption). Both Rackauckas and (especially) Carona have made appearances at the colleges, apparently at Fuentes' request.

     Mathur and Fuentes have a history that goes back to before Fuentes’ entry onto the board in 2000.

ACCREDITATION: 

     I won’t review our district’s chronic troubles with the accrediting agency, which trace back to 1997 or so. I’ll stick with recent events. In 2004, each college underwent the usual accreditation review process, which involves the filing of a report (by each college) followed by receipt of an Accreditation action letter. That time, unsurprisingly, the Accreds (ACCJC/WASC) tagged the colleges essentially for 

• Trustee micromanagement 

• A continued plague of fear and despair at the colleges (caused largely by Mathur’s reliance on fear and his unremitting micromanagement) 

• Unclearness about roles and responsibilities (of groups such as trustees, faculty, et al.) 

     Now, in truth, the Accreds (I mean our particular agency, ACCJC) have been all bark and no bite for quite some time. And so it is understandable that some denizens of the community college scene are skeptical of Accred threats and concerns. Such skepticism combined with the board majority’s dismissive attitude toward the Accreds and the Accreds' standards set the stage for ongoing trustee shenanigans and game-playing, especially by Fuentes, yielding the demand for further “progress” reports. (This story is told in the documents listed below.) Fuentes routinely expresses contempt for faculty; but, at least until 2008, he also routinely and openly expressed contempt for the accrediting agency (ACCJC/WASC) and the accrediting process, apparently even adopting the wacky notion that the system is fixed and that, in reality, “the faculty” write everything, including the agency’s findings. (I overheard him say this myself. Others will report similar Fuentean comments.) The following 9-minute video from 2006 presents Fuentes as open contemner of the ACCJC and its charge that SOCCCD trustees engage in micromanagement: Mathur, a man who knows little but who knows how to exploit others' prejudices, by all accounts has for years worked to portray faculty leaders (to largely clueless and absentee trustees) as seeking to “control" the colleges and the district. And so we should not be surprised that Fuentes—in the above scene and elsewhere—has asserted, contrary to the Accreds, that the problem with the district is not so much board micromanagement as it is “the macromanagement of others,” namely, faculty. At bottom, Fuentes is a conspiracy theorist, and like most of that ilk, evidence to the contrary of his view is invisible to him. (I’ll mention only in passing that, since December of ’96, members of the board majority, none of whom are educators or intellectuals, have embraced a “top-down” model of management and have often applied the language of business to our colleges. Meanwhile, the Ed Code and statutes are meant to give to faculty considerable authority over such matters as hiring, course development, and program development.) Unfortunately, during the writing of our last “progress” reports in 2007, trustees meddled with the process, violating various standards and guidelines. Wagner insisted on inserting incompetent and defensive language into the report, to which the faculty senates objected mightily on grounds of accuracy and professionalism. Nevertheless, Wagner (and Mathur and Fuentes) had their way, and so, late in ’07, the reports were submitted, complete with undocumented and poorly written elements. In January of ’08, the colleges received the harshest Accred action letters to date. 

THE D.O.E. 

     In recent years, the Bush Department of Education has pursued its peculiar reforms, and this eventually led to, among other things, a harsh review of ACCJC/WASC, much of it deserved. In particular, the DoE tagged the Accreds for failing to enforce their own standards, allowing institutions to write progress report after progress report. The Accreds clearly failed to enforce in particular the “two year” rule, according to which problems (e.g., board micromanagement) are to be “addressed” (i.e., fixed) by a college within two years. Or else. (See Community colleges in California feel the heat and The two-year rule.) Thus the action letters received in January (this is the last we’ve heard from the Accreds) stated in no uncertain terms that all problems must be “addressed” or else accreditation would cease. Final reports from the colleges are due (to the Accreds) in October (i.e., in two months). The Accreds will make their decisions in January . 

DOCUMENTS: 

     All of the relevant documents (including the colleges’ “progress” reports, the Accreds’ “action letters,” etc.) are readily available at the two colleges’ websites: Saddleback College: accreditation Irvine Valley College: accreditation For each site above, the first document listed is the crucial Accred action letter of January ’08: January 31, 2008 ACCJC letter to Saddleback College (pdf) January 31, 2008 ACCJC letter to Irvine Valley College (pdf) I quote from the Saddleback Accred letter (page 2): I also wish to inform you that … institutions out of compliance with standards or on sanction are expected to correct deficiencies within a two-year period or the Commission must take action to terminate accreditation. …[T]he college has lapsed significantly beyond the … two-year rule and needs to ensure that these recommendations are completed resolved at the time of the October 2008 report. Essentially, the “recommendations” (i.e., problems cited) are: • The college needs to complete writing of “student learning outcomes.” (SLOs are absurd requirements born of educationist twaddle and conservative “performance” demands. Saddleback failed to take care of the requirements on time.) • The board must cease its micromanagement. (Examples of micromanagement include the board's ending the colleges' memberships in the American Library Association because the AAA are a bunch of "liberal busybodies" and the Fuentes-led action of denying approval of a Study Abroad trip to Spain on the grounds that Spain had withdrawn its troops from Iraq and had thereby "abandoned our fighting men and women." After a public outcry, the board reversed its decision.) • All groups must come together to overcome “hostility, cynicism, despair, and fear….” (The hostility, etc., of course, is largely created by Mathur, who rules with fear, as various recent actions illustrate.) The “recommendations” listed in the IVC letter are similar, though they do not include mention of “student learning outcomes.” 

THE ACCREDS SEEM TO MEAN BUSINESS 

     There are indications that, in the last year or so, the ACCJC is more stringent in its demands and much less tolerant of college foot-dragging re accreditation “recommendations.” See, for instance, this recent LA times article: Los Angeles Southwest College is put on probation: District officials call the move by the regional accrediting agency 'an overreaction' and 'completely unprecedented.'. I should add that, upon receipt of the ’08 Accred letters, the politically ambitious Wagner apparently saw that the board’s (and especially his own) arrogance had now placed the colleges in danger of losing their accreditation. Since early ’08, Wagner, now president of the board, has worked hard to deal with this crisis. In the spring of ’08, each college formed a “task force” to address the crisis and to write the report. Wagner joined the IVC “task force,” and, by all accounts, he has worked hard and in good faith with faculty (and administrators, et al.). They’ve done great work. (See "All college meeting" video, Part 1 and Part 2.) Owing to his task force experience, which has stretched for many months, Wagner seems to have gained considerable respect for the faculty he has been compelled to work with. During board meetings, he now refers to their excellence and dedication. It would seem that he no longer embraces the daft notion that faculty leaders seek to “take over” the district or its colleges, whatever that was supposed to mean. Meanwhile, as near as I can tell, Fuentes remains an unrepentant demonizer of faculty. If, in the end, our colleges are reaccredited, it will be in spite of Tom Fuentes.

Neanderthals were slicker than I thought

• I’m as guilty as anybody of using the term “Neanderthal” to suggest coarseness and loutishness. In fact, back when Tom Fuentes replaced Steve Frogue on our board in 2000, I was quoted as saying, “We’ve gotten rid of a crude Neanderthal but replaced him with a slick one” (OC Register, July 13, 2000). I now realize how horribly I maligned Neanderthals with that remark.

According to a piece that appeared in the Guardian over the weekend (In praise of ... Neanderthals), we've grossly underestimated our hairy brethren. Recent research suggests that Neanderthals likely could speak (they sang). Plus their brains were bigger than ours.

Here’s an interesting factoid: there were never more than 10,000 Neandos, or so new genome evidence suggests.

I have no doubt that just one Tom Fuentes can stink up things better than all the Neandos who ever lived rolled together into one hairy ball.

• Amanda Parsons of the OC Weekly updates us on the Democratic protest of Dick Cheney and today’s San Clemente “GOP hobnobery.” Evidently, we’re all invited:

If interested, bring a sign and join the OC Democratic party and friends today at 2:15 p.m. at Trestles State Beach parking lot (5 South to Christianitos Rd.; Left at stop sign and go over the freeway. Make a left at the next stop sign and the parking lot is on your right-hand side). At 3:00 p.m. the group will march to La Casa Pacifica [aka Nixon's "Western Whitehouse"].

• The OC Reg also reports on the protests ( Vice President Cheney's visit draws differing views), noting that things sure have changed since 2001:

The Bush administration’s approval ratings are near the lowest of his presidency, at about 30 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics Website. ¶ And Cheney’s rating is at its lowest in a June Harris poll. After peaking at 69 percent at one point in 2001, only 18 percent now approve of the way the vice president is doing his job, with 74 percent disapproving.

• The Times has a story about Pastor Rick Warren’s “prominence.” (See Visits by McCain, Obama to Orange County church underscore Pastor Rick Warren's prominence.) Too bad they don’t have a story about Warren's dishonesty—or whatever it is. After weeks of telling the public that tickets for the “civil forum” would soon become available, yesterday, he announced, just four days before the event, that no tickets will be made available to the public after all. They’ve been distributed to congregants, at from $500 to $2000 a pop. —It’s a fundraiser, folks, and it's raising millions.

Here's what you get for your $300,000

I managed to snag a copy of an email sent yesterday by Chancellor Mathur to the membership of the “District Leadership Council,” which comprises all administrators and classified managers.

What a chirpy crew that must be. (It's no secret: they fear and loathe their "leader." That's why I've got the email.)

Mathur was reminding everyone about Thursday’s DLC “retreat.”

Our Chancellor has a real weakness for New Agey bunk and educationist twaddle. (Mathur’s education degree came out of a Cracker Jack box, namely, Nova Southeastern University, academically the very lowest of the low.) And so recipients of Mathur’s email are told to “Bring with you a one-sentence leadership quote that has meant a lot to you.”

Evidently, in Mathur’s mind, wisdom is expressible in a “quote,” i.e., a sound bite.

No it isn't.

The ever-helpful Mathur then explains that this kind of “quote” would be “key leadership guidance” that a mentor might give to a newbie. He offers an example: “The first task of a leader is to keep hope alive.”

Keep hope alive. What a f*cking idiot. This man makes $300,000 a year, and all he can come up with is a hackneyed political slogan. (No doubt Mathur got this nugget from management writer Joe Batton. Perhaps he is unaware that, thanks to Jesse Jackson, the phrase "keep hope alive" is just another overly-familiar catchphrase.)

Finding a leadership quote is just the first part of Thursday’s exercise. The “second part of our exercise,” he explains, “will be to transform the top 10 quotes into ‘I will’ statements.”

‘I will’ statements. I swear this man has sh*t for brains.

Mathur offers an example: “I will strive to instill hope.” So, I guess the idea is that hope is good, and so, if you stick “I will strive to instill” in front of that, you get this fabulous chunk of educationist "science." Are you not dazzled?

What is the matter with these people? Obviously, hopelessness is an unproductive and unpleasant state for employees to be in. I mean, c’mon. Why say that in terms of the architectonic-water of “leadership quotes,” “leadership guidance,” and “I will” statements? 

And “hope” isn’t even the right concept here. Hope is something a country has when the Nazis are invading it or prisoners have when the Bush administration has 'em in Gitmo. The denizens of English departments and maintenance yards don’t need hope. They just want to know that the college—or the dean or the President—has a decent plan.

Essentially, Mathur is the merest of politicians. He has nothing to say. He understands nothing. He offers slogans and flag pins.


It gets worse. In the email, Mathur next informs these “leaders” (wrong word again) that the top ten “I will” statements “will be used by all management throughout the year.”

Wow, that's quite a plan. 

I’ve got a few “I will” statements for the Chancellor. How about

I will leave people alone to do their jobs.
I will treat people honestly and honorably.
I will cease ruling with fear and treachery.

and last of all

I will try each day to have just one good thought expressed in one clear sentence.

* * * * *

See also "CIVILITY" & RAGHU'S TOUCHY-FEELY SIDE—where we learn that, at IVC, Mathur once distributed a list of ways to “appreciate yourself and others,” which included:

• Keep track of your achievements in a “win” journal.

• Give yourself one compliment per day.

• Have a “Brag Buddy” to share successes with.

• Say to yourself at least ten times per day, “I love myself” or “I like myself.”

• Make a photo copy of the palm of your hand and give yourself a “pat on the back."

—$300 freakin' thousand dollars a year for "Doctor" Raghu P. Sh*t-for-Brains. Think of it!?

Thank you, Tom and Dave and Don and John. On behalf of all the lovely "taxpayers" out there in the dark, I thank you!

The ending of "Sunset Boulevard"


• FOR CAT LOVERS. Steve just sent me this URL for a video. If you love cats, you'll love this:

Cats on a treadmill

McCain/Obama event—for the faithful only; Dems to protest Cheney fat cat hairball

YEAH, LIKE WE FIGURED.

Just as I feared. (See our It's the old Saddleback Church shuffle.) In the OC Reg:

Saddleback charged some members for presidential forum: No public tickets will be available for Saturday's event with McCain and Obama:

For the past couple of weeks the general public had been told via the Saddleback Web site that ticket information would be forthcoming. Then last week the message changed and said a limited number of tickets would be available tomorrow. Last night the message was revised again. This time it said all tickets had been distributed.

Why didn't they say straight away that nobody but the faithful was invited to this thing? Why all the endless talk of making tickets available to the public? In the end, the so-called public forum is a fundraiser (the cheapest seats are $500) inviting only congregants. 

At best, Rick Warren and Co. are looking mighty disorganized. At worst.....

BIG RAT BASTARD HONORS LI'L RAT BASTARD.

Meanwhile, according to the Reg, some Democrats plan to protest Vice President Dick Cheney’s fundraiser tonight, an event in honor of Republican Congressman Ken Calvert. (See our earlier What's the matter with us?)

Who is that? Why, Ken Calvert is yet another corrupt Republican! According to Wikipedia,

Calvert went with businessman Thomas Kontogiannis and now-convicted Congressman Randy Cunningham on a … 2004 trip to Saudi Arabia. They were accompanied by Rancho Santa Fe businessman Ziyad Abduljawad, who paid for the trip. Kontogiannis is currently an unindicted co-conspirator…in the Cunningham scandal. ¶ The activities of lobbying firm CLJDW…is currently under investigation by a federal grand jury. On May 23, 2006, the FBI obtained Calvert's financial records at the same time it pulled the records of Representative Jerry Lewis, who is at the center of the [CLJDW] lobbying controversy. Calvert helped pass through at least 13 earmarks sought by CLJDW in 2005, totalling over $91 million. ¶ In May 2007, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the [House] sent Calvert a letter stating that his earmark request for $5.6 million for the Corona Transit Center did not, in the committee's opinion, constitute a "financial interest". The transit center, a hub for rail commuters and a transfer point for bus connections, is in the vicinity (from .1 miles to 1.7 miles) of seven properties in which Calvert has an ownership interest. Calvert had successfully obtained earmarks of $700,000 in 2004 and $500,000 in 2006 for the transit center.

Yeah, and one more thing. 15 years ago, Calvert was arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Wikipedia provides all the sordid details. Calvert now claims that he has "matured."

That's what I'm afraid of.

Back to Cheney: Well, Democrats plan a “protest march” in San Clemente. I'm glad to hear it. 

Cheney’s office won’t say where the fundraiser will be held, but everybody knows it will be at Casa Pacifica, aka President Nixon's "Western White House." 

As usual, it's FAT CAT CITY with the good ol' GOP.