Will Davy Doo Lang run up the middle and win the OC Treasurer's race?

Team Fuentes: Davy "Doo" Lang and Mike "Felon" Carona, at Irvine Valley College, smiling plasticly

     The Voice of OC’s Norberto Santana, Jr. posted today about the OC Treasurer’s race, which got seriously interesting three months ago, when Treasurer Chriss “Fraud Boy” Street got run down by a Fruehauf truck–in court.
     Back in 1994, Street and John Moorlach were just citizens, but they saw that abysmal hinkytude was afoot in OC’s investment pool, which proceeded to circle the drain and leave everybody bewildered and annoyed.
     Good times, man. I recall a colleague of mine dropped by the house. What’s up?
     “We’re bankrupt,” he said.
     “Uh, what?”
     Soon thereafter, Mr. Moorlach became the OC Treasurer and Hometown Hero (almost, kinda). But then, after a few years, he moved on up to the Board of Supes, and so, naturally, his protégé, Chriss Street, became the new county bean counter. Then this nasty Fruehauf trucking fubar finally came into view (I guess Republicans don't read the paper), and, soon, Moorlach was struck with a hideous Street-sign: the scandal could end up making him look bad. Ohmygod!

     So, right away, he turned on a dime and became Street’s biggest enemy (this is called “character” in Orange County), and it's been interesting ever since, reaching a climax a few months ago, when the Fruehauf thing finally crashed and burned and left Street in the street, dead and owing somebody a truckload of cash.
     So that set up the race for the new and improved county bean counter between Moorlach’s handpicked filly, Shari Freidenrich, and Street’s pony pal, Keith Rodenhuis.
     –And, oh yeah, SOCCCD trustee Davy “Doo” Lang, who’s wanted this Treasurer gig since 2004 and who even sold out his friends and supporters at the district to get the Big Fuentes’ imprimatur.
     Yeah, but you know how Tom Fuentes is: he was then advising Street, who had the makings of a “star,” and so Davy Doo would just have to wait for his big chance til after that star had shone!
     Tom has a history of backing GOP talent (think "Mike Carona") that, just under the surface, looks seriously dodgy–but, in Tom's world, being actually decent or honest is even lower on the list of desiderata than, say, niceness.


     The star has fallen and so, up steps Davy Doo Lang, sporting, at long last, the Big Fuentes' hand on his shoulder:

     Hoping to run right up the middle is South County CPA David Lang, who has served as a community college trustee for the last decade.
. . .
     A poll conducted this week by Voice of OC/Probolsky Research showed that Freidenrich and Rodenhuis are in a virtual tie, with Lang in third. Freidenrich is at 16 percent, Rodenhuis at 15 percent and Lang is at about 7 percent.
     Yet the vast majority – 56 percent – of the electorate is still undecided.
. . .
… [C]andidate Lang might end up benefiting the most from this good relationship [between Moorloch and Street] gone bad. He is the best-financed candidate in the race, having lent himself $100,000 to fund a series of slate mailers, and calls his candidacy is [sic] a direct reaction to the battle of the protégés.

     Who knows? Prima facie, Lang looks like a chump, spending a hundred grand in a race in which he comes in third. But maybe Tom has finally lent him his famous crystal balls, and so Dave knows exactly what he’s doing–and that multi-bean investment will end up paying off dividends.
     It’s possible. I guess.

Arizona Determined to Ruin Rebel Girl's Summer

...and it's only the first week of June!

Take a look at this latest report:

Wonkette : Arizona School Demands Black & Latino Students’ Faces On Mural Be Changed To White


It's true!

excerpt:

"Hard to find even the Gallows Humor in this story, so maybe we won’t even try. Maybe it’s time to admit that large chunks of America are in the hands of unreconstructed racists and vulgar idiots, and that the popular election of a black man as president just might’ve pushed these furious, economically doomed old white people into a final rage that is going to end very, very badly. Ready? Here you go: An Arizona elementary school mural featuring the faces of kids who attend the school has been the subject of constant daytime drive-by racist screaming, from adults, as well as a radio talk-show campaign (by an actual city councilman, who has an AM talk-radio show) to remove the black student’s face, and now the school principal has ordered the faces of the Latino and Black students to be changed to Caucasian skin."

From the New York Daily News:

     The mural flap comes amid growing tensions over Arizona's strict new immigration law that has drawn nationwide criticism and praise.
     The ranting of one city councilman seems to have revved up the controversy in the community.
     "Art is in the eye of the beholder, but I say [the mural] looks like graffiti in L.A.," Councilman Steve Blair said.
     "I am not a racist individual," Blair said on a radio show last month, "but I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who's President of the United States today and based upon the history of this community, when I grew up we had four black families — who I have been very good friends with for years — to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, 'Why?'
     The "black guy" in the mural is based on a student of Mexican descent, a school official said.

*
(photo from New York Daily News - Hinshaw/AP)




Blair defends himself

UPDATE: SCHOOL DISTRICT STANDS BY THE MURAL

Command performances

Did anyone go to this thang?

Give us a report!

There's another event (at Irvine Valley College) tonight. It's just the sort of thing that annoys some of President Roquemore's academic-minded detractors. Here's the announcement:

Irvine Valley College 25th Anniversary Celebration Kickoff


You're invited! We're going to be celebrating in style. On Friday evening, June 4, 2010, the PAC will be transformed into a glitzy New York City theatre off Times Square. At 6 PM you will walk up a red carpet into a glamorous lobby filled with twinkling lights and glittering stars, where you will be greeted with glasses of cold champagne and hot and cold appetizers served by professional waitstaff from Hyatt Regency Catering. You will wander through the lobby and adjacent tent sipping wine and signature "Laser" martinis from one of our three full service bars, eating gourmet small plates from our Little Italy pasta and California greens stations, schmoozing and listening to members of the IVC Jazz Ensemble playing some of their favorite musical selections.


There will be a variety of live and silent auction items to bid on, including fine art, wine and some fantastic travel opportunities. Then, at 8 PM, we will all move into the theatre for a fast-moving, razzle-dazzle salute to the hottest shows on Broadway, produced and directed by Professor Ron Manuel-Ellison and featuring IVC’s very own student performers, with a little help from some surprise alumni guests.


After the show, we will all move back to the tent and lobby area to sample gourmet Starbucks dessert coffees and teas and warm jumbo homestyle cookies at the Hyatt’s Afterglow Coffee Bar. Members of the Jazz Ensemble will again provide music and you will have a chance to have your photo snapped by a professional photographer with members of the “Broadway Stars” cast. Then, collect your auction items and call it a night or stay for the post-performance after-party.


Please save the date! This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity.


Sometimes, you'd swear this college is run by Republican fundraisers.

Our Founding Parental Units vs. defenders of the right and the normal

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     In this morning’s OJ Blog, the reliably lurid Mr. Art Pedroza offers a typically insubstantial post that does little more than state that, among candidates, only his boy Steven Choi has any chance of winning the 70th AD seat here in beauteous and sunny Orange County, California. He has harsh words for Choi's competition in the race, including Don Wagner, whom Pedroza dismisses as "an obscure school board trustee."
     Pedroza, who describes Choi as “popular,” seems to be one of those people whose rhetoric makes no distinction between “You oughta lose” and “You’re gonna lose” and that designates anyone who loses as a “loser.”
     I have no idea whether Pedroza’s case for the imminent and overwhelming success of Mr. Choi holds water. Don’t much care.

* * * * *

     But one of Pedroza's designated "losers" is Don Wagner, who happens to be on the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) board of trustees. Pedroza, who calls Don a "nutter," includes a Wagner campaign mailer. Upon an image of Don is written, “We need more faith in public life” and “Help defend Don from the attacks" (see above).

Who is the "attacker" here?
     Undoubtedly, in Don’s mind, I am one of those pesky attackers, for I am among a group of plaintiffs in “Westphal v. Wagner,” which asserts that SOCCCD has engaged in a pattern of actions, by trustees and other officials, that establish religion. The actions include religious invocations at the start of commencement ceremonies, scholarship awards ceremonies, etc.
     But just who is the “attacker” in this case? Don plainly views a routine imposition of religious invocations at a community college as the right and the normal. Occasionally, he even appeals to the supposed popularity of his view among South Orange Countians.
     So, in Don's mind, he represents the standard and the normal.
     Such a man inevitably regards anyone who would put a stop to those activities as a trouble-maker and a scoundrel. But one who reads and understands the “establishment” clause of the 1st Amendment, and who does not presuppose that the routine and normal are also the right, might well view Don as, if not the scoundrel, then the aggressor, for, despite our Constitution’s ban on the government’s establishing religion, Don and his pious friends, acting as the government, impose invocations and “Jesus saved our souls” messages on the community, students, and employees during SOCCCD events.
     Don is not alone in his failure to imagine that something else besides "faith" might be under attack here. Last week, the über-lurid Mr. Tom Fuentes, former boss of the OC GOP, was among the SOCCCD trustees who voted to reserve $2 million to continue to fight the "Westphal" complaint.
     Upon asserting his staunch support for this extraordinary expenditure (ultimately caused, of course, by the Bible-toting arrogance of people like him), Tom added, "I hope that we can go after those who have caused the district to spend this money...." Go after? (And go after how? He seemed to have in mind the winning of "repayment of ... attorney fees.” That's what he said. But I'm not so sure that's the only kind of "going after" he had in mind.)
     Clearly, in Tom's mind, as in Don's, this is a case of mere wrong-doers—"attackers"—coming down from the hills and into the peaceful village to violate the rights of the faithful. That these alleged invaders might have a legitimate grievance, or even an illegitimate grievance, does not occur to them. Scoundrels don't have grievances; they just have a desire to do evil.

* * * * *

     Don loves to say that people like me are attempting to prevent the faithful from praying and otherwise religionizing in “the public square.” But that’s nonsense. Don can pray there all he wants for all I care. The issue is whether he should be allowed to religionize there as an agent of the government. That’s all.
     Don also loves to ridicule the plaintiffs of this case, describing them as sensitive souls who seek not to have their "feelings hurt" by having to listen to prayers and such. (Yes, feelings really are silly things, aren’t they? I wonder if Don would experience any of those silly “feelings” if the government were to prevent him from praying at his church?)
     Listen. This ain’t rocket science. Our Founding Parental Units were aware of a particular kind of tyranny: the imposition of religion on people by that awesome force known as the government. These fine (and sometimes not-so-fine) Revolutionary Units long ago said “no” to that.
     And Don wants to say “yes.”
     I shall now await the utterly predictable.

Further up Sh*t Creek

★★★★

     Don Wagner watch: According to the always-underwhelming Matt Cunningham (Red County), trustee Don Wagner’s two Republican opponents in his bid for the 70th AD are embroiled in a slugfest over who is the dirtier campaigner. While Steven Choi and Jerry Amante smash each other in the face and pelt one another with slime balls, Don is in the audience, quietly eating his extra-buttered popcorn.

     Gary Miller is a creep: Even Republicans are jumping on the anti-Gary Miller bandwagon since the news broke that the notoriously corrupt Congressman (my Congressman) has long embellished his military record. Unlike me, he does in fact have a military record. He was at Fort Ord for seven weeks in 1967 and then was medically discharged. (Reasons for the discharge have not been disclosed.) Nevertheless, Miller seems to have spread or permitted the misinformation that he served in the military “from 1967-1968.”
     As Allen Wilson of Red County explained yesterday, Miller has written such prattle as: “The leadership skills which I experienced in the U.S. Army allow me to take the lead on issues which promote a stronger defense.”
     That stuff about his experiences preparing him to promote defense is, of course, pure horseshit. I suppose it’s possible that Miller “experienced” leadership skills (what does that mean?) during those seven weeks at Fort Ord. I recall that my late brother Ray experienced leadership skills during his training immediately after Marine boot camp. He also broke his foot kicking one of the soldiers he was leading. Maybe Miller's leadership experience was getting kicked in the head by a guy like Ray?
     In his post yesterday, Orange Juice Blog’s Larry Gilbert noted Gary Miller’s participation in Monday’s Mission Viejo Memorial Day ceremony. Miller made the opening remarks.
     I wonder what the soldiers and veterans in the audience were thinking about this guy?

Miller visits a Hollywood set, plays soldier

     City Council Red Meat Tossage: Meanwhile, last night, the City Council of the sleepy Nixonian city of Yorba Linda voted 3-0 in favor of supporting Arizona’s SB1070. Two Councilpeople essentially walked out on the vote, judging it a distraction. That left the three bozos and their red meat.
     As OC Weekly’s Matt Coker explains, an effort to support SB1070 at the Villa Park City Council failed last week (4-1). But, earlier in May, Costa Mesa declared itself a "Rule of Law" city—though, according to the Mayor, that had nothing to do with ‘Zona. Sure.
     Santa Ana condemned SB 1070. So, there you go.

UPDATE: late this afternoon, the Voice of OC’s Tracy Wood provides a fuller account of the Yorba Linda City Council discussion and vote. It appears that the discussion was very heated.

     Uncle Miltie's legacy: The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that there’s faculty resistance—in the form of a petition—to an administrative plan to develop a “Milton Friedman” institute at the University of Chicago.
     In part, the faculty complaint is that administration is pushing through grand educational projects without consulting them (in academia, faculty, not administrators, are assumed to be the experts on curriculum and teaching) and that it is embracing “corporatization”:

     The establishment of a Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics without a vote of the full faculty is hardly the only action by the administration that the letter cites as objectionable. It also objects to the university's decision to allow the creation of a Confucius Institute—a language institute sponsored by the People's Republic of China—on the campus without the Faculty Senate's approval.
     The letter argues that the university has risked having its reputation used to "legitimate the spread" of such institutions, which have been cropping up at colleges in the United States and other nations around the world.
     Among other complaints, the letter alleges that the administrative staff has experienced "metastatic growth," that the administration has been interfering with academic matters at study-abroad programs, and that the administration has been withholding information on the budget and other matters from faculty governing bodies. It argues that the university has assumed "a business mentality, in which academic units are understood—even designed—to function as product lines and profit centers," and that power over academic matters is being shifted "to the donors whose favor the administrators court."

Another, lesser, problem concerns Professor Friedman and his legacy:

A faculty group formed to oppose the institute, the Committee for Open Research on Economy and Society, played a central role in the latest petition drive. The letter its leaders are submitting … characterizes Mr. Friedman as "among the most partisan, most polarizing figures in the history of this university," and says his name is associated with "his relentless championing of a free-market fundamentalism now largely discredited" and with "the services he rendered to brutally repressive regimes in Chile, China, and elsewhere."

     In a tiny parallel universe: Naturally, our problems at Irvine Valley College are not so grand, though they to some extent parallel these U of C issues. In the last year, some faculty have grown concerned that administration is pushing through educational programs without fully consulting faculty—i.e., the Academic Senate, which is the voice of faculty regarding academic matters. For instance, IVC administration pushed through a highly problematic off-campus teaching arrangement with Crean Lutheran South High School (DtB helped draw attention to those difficulties—though we never reported the most worrisome problems). Also, the administration has pushed through an “Early College” program at local high schools that, according to an Academic Senate inquiry (essentially, a poll of faculty who have taught in the program), is highly problematical.
     As a long-time member of the IVC senate, it is clear to me that, had faculty been in a position to reject these programs, they would have done so, and for the reasons that are now becoming clear. Administrators seem to have their eyes on the wrong balls.
     No doubt, in the Fall, we’ll be hearing lots more about that.
     Corporatization? Well, as you know, some of our clueless administrative leadership across the state and even in our district seem to embrace and even promote for-profit college operations such as the U of Phoenix and Argosy University. Recently, the State Chancellor for the community college system entered into an agreement with one such outfit, yielding much grumbling from faculty.
     Much of this for-profit instruction is scamular, you know. It verges on the fraudulescent. Know what I'm saying? Such instruction is expensive, and students often pay for it using government loans. In the end, many of these students get nowhere and end up with huge debt, and then the taxpayer is further up Shit Creek.
     Check out the ads in Saddleback College's student newspaper, the Lariat.

Dennis Hopper: "I mean, what are they gonna say when he's gone?"

*

I mean, what are they gonna say when he's gone? 'Cause he dies when it dies, when it dies, he dies! What are they gonna say about him? He was a kind man? He was a wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom? Bullshit, man! And am I gonna be the one that's gonna set them straight? Look at me! Look at me! Wrong! You!

*

When Rebel Girl lived on the Westside, she'd run into Dennis Hopper here and there, the same way she'd see Miles Davis or the occasional movie star. Truth be told, Red would recognize them first and point them out to her. Look, there's Goldie Hawn. Hopper was hard to look at, had that kind of nervous junkie energy, always moving. Once, drunk, he took to the stage at McCabe's on Pico and insisted on singing along with the acclaimed Irish folk group playing that night except he wanted to sing Mexican rancheras. So he did. He wasn't bad.

Rebel Girl liked Hopper best in Giant, when he played Bick Benedict's quiet son who develops a social conscience, becomes a doctor and marries the Mexican girl. Yeah.

*

More hot air from Congressman Gary Miller, GASBAG

     The OC Voice’s Norberto Santana, Jr. just posted about my amazingly corrupt Congressman, Gary Miller.
     In a story that appeared today in Harper’s Magazine, Ken Silverstein noted that Miller’s military service was very brief: from Sept. 7 to Oct. 30, 1967. That’s seven weeks.
     But, as Santana explains, there's a problem: for many years, “Miller's biography in congressional publications … has stated that he served in the Army from 1967 to 1968.” That sounds like two years. It doesn't sound like seven weeks.
     Confronted with Silverstein’s unwelcome factoid, Miller launched some oddly dubious damage control: “… Miller's press secretary clarified his military record in an email, stating ‘Congressman Miller volunteered to the U.S. Army and was Honorably Discharged due to medical reasons within a matter of months.’”
     Well, no. Not months. Weeks. Seven of 'em.
     Naturally, reporters have pursued the relevant military records to learn the nature of the "medical reasons" for Miller's discharge. But there’s a problem: “…finding documentation on Miller's time in the military is difficult. Even with social security numbers, dates and places of entry and separation, workers at the National Archives say they can't find Miller's records.”
     Santana notes—as we often have—that Miller is accustomed to controversy:

He's been involved in some hinky land transactions in his district and the congressional watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has repeatedly listed Miller as among the most corrupt members of Congress.

     Three years ago, our own Red Emma made a trip to Miller’s office to confront him about his views concerning the war and his failure to hold a forum to discuss the war with his constituents: Meeting with Congressman Gary Miller, GASBAG (April 12, 2007).
     Check it out. You'll enjoy Red's colorful and hilarious account.