The nation is polarized into two clear groups: Republicans and Democrats.  It is nice to know that in the Orange County political blogosphere, that is not the case.

We’ve been acquired by Red County magazine!

Our new editor is Matt Cunningham, and our new blog name is “The Blue Minority.”  Our web domain will be changing before Wednesday.

The press release regarding this exciting new partnership is available here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 19 Comments »

A source who has provided reliable rumors to me in the past says that Cheney is preparing to step down. Poor health will be the reason given. The source further states that Bush will name Fred Thompson to replace Cheney, thereby giving Thompson a leg up in the race for the Republican nomination to the Presidency.

If this turns out to be true I expect full attribution. If not, I’ll deny everything.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

We have two get togethers to support Tim.
The first is Sunday April 1st 3pm til 5pm at Alicia’s Party Pad - Contact Alicia alibwdem@yahoo.com
The second is Thursday April 5 6:30pm til 8:30pm at Pangea Restaurant (next door to Memphis)
Brad, Joey and Justin have wanted some Drinking Liberally business and plan to knock themselves out for us. I tild them they would have to steal Jjohnny away from Memphis to seal the deal though. Contact Susan at sngfreeze@yahoo.com

Tim has done so many wonderful things for us in Orange County so I hope you will be able to come to one, the other or both.

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Last night the Garden Grove City Council conducted public interviews in a special meeting that was called to help fill the seat that Janet Nguyen vacated when she moved to the Board of Supervisors.

A dozen candidates applied and spoke during the special meeting.  Some of the candidates have run for or served in public office previously, and others have never been in the council chambers before.

The council decided to postpone their decision until Monday, April 16th at 5:30 p.m.  If any GG residents would like to give the current council their input, they can write: City Clerk, 11222 Acacia Parkway PO Box 3070, Garden Grove CA. 92841 or call 741-5040.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

HT to Peggy Lowe at the Total Buzz.

Team Trung is appealing; Mike Schroeder says they are waiting for transcripts from the recent trial to file papers and an appeal with the State Court of Appeals.

 

 

Filed under: Board of Supervisors, 1st District Supervisor, Orange County Government | No Comments »

[ev type=”youtube” data=”ByLqJD36F7E”][/ev]We had a streak earlier this week with a lot of accusations flying over whether or not a certain conservative blogger/party official/aspiring TV star had a thin skin.  Of course, I don’t know, but it does seem that a lot of conservatives do, and oddly enough it seems like the ones who sling the most mud don’t like having it slung right back at them.

I came across an old story from the Irvine World News about Christina Shea “retiring” from the Mayor’s office to enter the private sector.  It’s actually a pretty good story about her career up to 2000.  And there’s a quote from her about not being able to develop “a thick skin.”

“One thing that never happened ­ I never developed a thick skin. You get to where you can deal with such attacks, with your life being made public. But I’m still very sensitive, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.”- C. Shea, IWN, Nov 23, 2000

So I started to search for topics on “thin skinned” Republicans or “thin skinned” Conservatives.  And I found this gem from Max Blumenthal of The Nation from the recently completed CPAC event. Its in the YouTube file up above.  Warning: some bad language.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

The OC Weekly’s R. Scott Moxley has a piece in their paper this week about the Republican-dominated Orange County Board of Supervisors approving a $61,000 a month contract to an “OC GOP sugardaddy” without analysis or putting the contract out for a bid:

So what would cause supervisors to spend a massive sum of money without pausing for a single comment, question or explanation? Sensitive homeland-security equipment? A vital new road? Additional teams of private lawyers to handle our frisky sheriff’s sexual-harassment and ethics issues?

No. They spent the money to lease “file storage space” for court records.

Moxley comes up with quite a few questions that do not have any good answers.

But isn’t the lease practical because the new storage space is in close proximity to court administrators based in Santa Ana?

Sorry, no. The supervisors ignored more than a dozen nearby properties and instead chose a building 8.2 miles away in Campbell’s district.

Read the entire story here.

Filed under: Republican mistakes, Board of Supervisors | 1 Comment »

While Orange County Democrats are (tied for) the second largest block of Blue Voters in the state, its time to start organizing, registering new voters and winning elections. 

PartyBuilder is a new social network for Democratic voters and it’s easy to join.  Add me to your network (my username is DanC2161).

Here’s the note I got via email a short time ago.

Back in 2004, we were constantly looking for new ways to organize and motivate people. The Internet helped us reach and energize people like never before, but the Democratic Party’s suite of tools is a huge step forward.

No matter who wins the nomination next year, PartyBuilder will allow you to easily continue your work to help elect a Democratic president. That means the Democratic nominee can hit the ground running with the largest online network of support ever built.

PartyBuilder combines some of our most powerful online outreach resources into one central place, where every Democrat can use them for free. It’s a permanent part of the 50-state strategy and an integral piece of our plan for taking back the White House in 2008.

Thousands of Democrats have already joined, including all of our presidential candidates. Their campaigns are waiting to connect with you:

http://www.democrats.org/PartyBuilder08

PartyBuilder thrives on this sort of do-it-yourself openness that drives Republicans crazy.

They have their own “social-networking” program where every move you make is carefully monitored by their leadership. As one Republican strategist put it: “There is a great fear of open systems in GOP circles.”

PartyBuilder is much more than a simple social networking tool, and our approach would never work in the GOP’s top-down model of control. Gov. Dean came to Washington with a promise to put our Party’s power back where it belongs: in the hands of regular people in every state across the country. PartyBuilder offers the technology we need to make such a distributed model work.

People-powered politics takes one important ingredient: people. Join the PartyBuilder network:

http://www.democrats.org/PartyBuilder08

In 2004, Gov. Dean used the Internet to revolutionize politics. Now, with PartyBuilder, you can connect with others on the issues that matter most to you, and you can keep that momentum going into 2008.

Sincerely,

Tom McMahon

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Event Alert!!!

Orange County Democrats, you are invited to “Defining the New Direction: Orange County Democrats Voice Their Views on the War in Iraq.”

This is a countywide forum organized by Dr. Richard Lara and hosted by the Laguna Woods Democratic Club. (A free ticket/flyer is available by clicking “Handouts” at: http://occonline.occ.cccd.edu/online/rlara

Then click on “Forum Flyer Handout Page.”

Orange County delegates to the April 2007 Democratic State Convention will listen to Orange County Democrats and respond in a town hall meeting. All Orange County Democrats and other interested people are welcome to attend.

ADMISSION TICKETS ARE FREE. Simply go to the link above and print out a flyer. Then show the flyer to the guard at the Gate One entrance to Laguna Woods
Village, corner of El Toro and Avenida Sevilla and ask to be directed to Club House.

DATE: March 31st

TIME: 2:00 - 5:00 pm

Place: Laguna Woods Village

Filed under: Iraq, Democratic Party of Orange County, Progressive Values | No Comments »

Santa Ana Schools accused of phantom classes.
Officials made false rosters, misused substitutes to qualify for class-reduction funds, teachers say. State vows to investigate.

 

The LATimes had this interesting piece today about Santa Ana Unified School District falsifying records to show smaller class sizes in order to get more money.  What the heck do these people think they’re doing.  The administratoors have some splainin to do and then the Board may have some firing to do.  And if they don’t take action maybe it’s time for another recall, this time of the entire Board.

Santa Ana Unified School District administrators created false class rosters and misused substitute teachers to qualify for state funding earmarked for small classes for elementary students, according to eight teachers, school documents and state officials.

At Washington Elementary School, for instance, documents reveal that school officials created a second-grade roster showing students in a class that didn’t exist. The phantom classroom diluted the number of second-graders in existing classrooms — allowing the average class size to fall below 20.5 and giving the district an additional $1,024 per student per year.

Read More!

Filed under: Santa Ana Schools | 10 Comments »

The editorial section of the OC Register, LA Times and New York Times are the first things I read each morning.  Usually, the Register’s political cartoon or lead editorials get my blood boiling, but not today.

This thoughtful editorial effectively praises the Democrats passage of the new Iraqi war funding measure and tells me that setting deadlines for action by the Iraqis is directly at odds with what Congressman Campbell had to say about it.  The legislation appears to be headed for a Bush veto.

But the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart has an inside take on what Bush would veto.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Janet Nguyen was sworn in yesterday as the first Vietnamese-American elected Supervisor in Orange County and the youngest as well.  This election has been a roller coaster ride for both Janet and Trung Nguyen.  Both candidates have held the lead at different points in time.  

Both candidates have also been accused of promoting anti-Latino sentiments, Trung Nguyen pretending to be a border guard, and Janet Nguyen calling on Vietnamese voters to vote for her with this comment “She also has votes from other ethnic communities, women, seniors, Republicans who do not like Mexicans”.

Now is the time for healing and repair.  Janet Nguyen needs to reach out to the Latino community and demonstrate that she is not the racist that her comment to the Vietnamese community portrays.

It is also time for Trung Nguyen to accept defeat at the hands of a woman.  Mr. Nguyen, the only way to save face now, if that is even possible, is to accept your defeat gracefully and fade off into the shadows of history.

In their Editorial today, the Orange County Register said it best…

Mr. Nguyen ran a good race, but he should put an end to any more legal action. The county should wish Ms. Nguyen the best as she becomes the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor.

Filed under: Board of Supervisors, Elections, 1st District Supervisor, Orange County Government | 21 Comments »