I just had a peek at our Sitemeter, which is available for public viewing here, and noticed we experienced more hits in February than any previous month. Prior to this month our greatest number of hits was in October during the wildfires, when our coverage drew a lot of readers.

Thanks for being with us. I know those of us who write here have a great time doing it, and we’re glad to know others are enjoying the work we do as well.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 11 Comments »

The Orange County Sanitation Districted voted a fee increase on Wednesday night and it was not without a bit of controversy.  At the center of the storm is La Habra Councilwoman Rose Espinoza and her changing her vote from an “abstention” to a “yes” vote.  The local blogosphere has weighed in on the issue from Thomas Gordon at the Orange Juice to Jubal at Red County.  Even Chris Prevatt discussed it here at the Liberal OC.

Some of the folks in blogosphere have decided to get creative and simply make up a story as to how Rose Espinoza came to change her vote from an “abstention” to a “yes”.  Not surprisingly the most creative of these folks was Art Pedroza from the Orange Juice.  Rather than sticking to the facts he chose to make things up as he went along. According to Pedroza Rose Espinoza is not responsible for her vote and he explained it with this, “But don’t forget the real villain in this story. Sal Tinajero talked her into changing her mind.”

I have spoken to people that were there including Thomas Gordon and Sal Tinajero and both deny that Sal talked her into changing her mind.  In an effort to get the whole scoop I just called Sal Tinajero again and asked if he could clarify for me exactly what happened so that I can clear up any confusion that folks may have.  Sal voted “yes” and he is not ashamed of his vote in any way, shape or form and he has no problem with people if they want to take him to task for his vote, he does however deny that he urged Rose Espinoza to change her vote to a “yes”. (more…)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 18 Comments »

Here’s a message I got from the Democratic Party of OC:

Right now, a group of well funded “Rovian” strategists are attempting to put a discriminatory marriage initiative on the ballot in November. This coalition of conservative groups hired 200 paid signature gatherers to spread out around California and have begun gathering signatures at shopping malls and grocery stores all over.

A coalition has formed to stop them - EQUALITY FOR ALL.

But we can’t do it alone. We need your help!
Every Saturday, between now and April 20, Equality For All will be hosting leadership briefings in Orange County. We need people who care about protecting the constitution and who believe that fairness is a core value to stand up against those who would continue to divide our populace.

If we defeat this measure now, we don’t have to worry about spending the 20 million to defeat it later! [...]

Equality for All Leadership Meetings
Saturday at 10:00 am
1700 East Garry Ave, Ste. 120
Santa Ana, CA

If you can help or know of people who can help, then pass this along. To RSVP for the leadership meeting then contact Sarah Scanlon (sarah.scanlon@hrc.org) at 202- 459-3298 or Terry McGuire (Terry.mcguire@hrc.org) at 202-294-0784.

We have other ways to help as well:

Join the Rapid Response team for Equality for All - you will learn how to get plugged into the campaign. http://gal.org/EFA/join.tcl If you see signature gatherers or receive information about the paid signature effort, send a message to our tips line at tips@equalityforall.com

Tell your friends about our effort - send this email to your entire list of family and friends, or call all of your family and friends and tell them how to get involved.

We can’t afford to let these Rovian tactics succeed. I hope that you can join us in fighting back!

Filed under: California, Orange County - Local | No Comments »

While researching my next story I ran across a story on MSNBC that talked about Republicans in Texas crossing over to vote for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary being held in that state next Tuesday. Some estimates have as much as ten percent of the electorate in the Democratic primary actually being Republicans. In my opinion this is just wrong and if you want to vote in the Democratic primary you should have to be a registered Democrat.

Of course the only reason these Republicans are so enthused about voting in the Democratic primary is because of their hatred for Hillary Clinton and the Clinton family. In fact on one Republican website in the Lone Star state has a posting that reads, “Even James Carville admits that if Hillary loses Texas, ‘she’s done!’ Republicans can help make this a reality!!! Just think, no more Clintons in the White House!”. That’s just great, the Republicans are going to help decide who our nominee is going to be.

It’s not just in Texas that this is happening, it has happened all across the country and right here in California. If you are not a registered Democrat you have no business voting in the Democratic primary. I don’t care if you are a Republican or Decline to State. If you aren’t a registered Democrat you should not be allowed to vote in our primaries. Allowing this to happen disenfranchises those of us that are loyal Democrats. Shame on those that have allowed this to happen.

Filed under: National-US | 24 Comments »

The New York Times had an interesting story yesterday that question’s Senator John McCain’s eligibility to even be a candidate for president. McCain was not born in this country. He was born on a military base in the Panama Canal zone to an American military father and mother. And there’s considerable legal grounding that military bases, like embassies, are American soil.

But that argument should also hold true for the military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Is it American soil or not? If so, the detainees should be entitled to all of the rights provided under the Constitution for those on American soil. With military tribunals set to begin, and some of these prisoners being held for as long as six years without being charged, why can’t we put these detainees into the U.S. Criminal Justice system? If the evidence against them is as overwhelming as our government says, getting convictions shouldn’t be a problem. The lead prosecutor in the tribunals recently resigned because of the people the government placed in charge of oversight for the tribunals, leading me to believe the Bush administration is far more interested in convictions and punishment than in justice.

At issue for John McCain: is Gitmo a military base? And if its not, then how are you eligible to run for president?

Filed under: Orange County - Local | 4 Comments »

Some guy from another blog got all “Juiced” up last night whining that we missed the story about the increase in OC sewer rates. No, we didn’t miss it, we simply covered other crap.

The blogs have been all in a tizzy over the increase in sewer fees, so I figured I should check out what they were complaining about before I flushed my thoughts on the topic.

Yes, the Orange County Sanitation District Board did indeed vote to raise sewer fees. The increase is a whopping $19 a year, or just under $ 1.60 a month. Wow, Crap Costs Money. (more…)

Filed under: Orange County - Local | 3 Comments »

Yikes! Check out the new February DataQuick housing data. But oh yes, let me warn you first that this isn’t for the faint of heart.

DataQuick’s freshest stats show this will certainly be the 29th straight month where buyers bought fewer O.C. homes than the year-ago period as mid-February O.C. home sales were off 49% from a year ago. If that pace for the 22 business days ended Feb. 13 holds for the full month, this month will mark the steepest year-over-year sales drop in DataQuick’s books that date to 1988. Pricing, off 14% from a year ago, [now at $524,500] runs at early 2004 levels.

Sorry, but this thought keeps popping up in my head: YIKES!! Home prices are fallen 14% over the last year? And home sales have tumbled down 49% over the last year? Is this a sign of more hard times to come?

What do you think about these terrible housing numbers? Is this yet another sign of the weak OC economy? Does this mean no chance of recovery any time soon? Can home sales & home prices fall some more? And if so, how will this affect people working in real estate-related industries (mortgage, construction, interior design, furniture, etc.)?

So what’s up… Or more accurately, what’s down with real estate? And how long can we expect to stay down? Go ahead and have your say.

Filed under: Orange County - Local | 1 Comment »

The silly season in politics is in full swing; Senator Barack Obama had to reject and denounce an endorsement from former Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, even though the Illinois senator never sought or accepted such endorsement (and you can bet the Republicans will use that against Obama if he wins the Democratic nomination).

Senator John McCain accepted the endorsement from controversial Texas megachurch pastor, John Hagee, today.  Hagee is considered to be a leading anti-Catholic voice and Bill Donohue of the Catholic League wasted no time blasting McCain for accepting the endorsement.

From Salon: According to Donohue, Hagee has “made a lot of money off bashing the Catholic Church and blames Catholics for the Holocaust.” What does it say about McCain that he would embrace such a figure? “This doesn’t speak well for him. He’s tolerating an endorsement by an inveterate bigot, and it’s been brought to his attention.”

Here’s a video clip of McCain on the endorsement.  http://blip.tv/file/703427 

Filed under: National-US | 10 Comments »

I get four newspapers in my driveway every morning; The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the LA Times and the Register. I read every one of them with that morning cup of joe.

The Register has a number of columnists, but they just cut loose my favorite one; Mayrav Saar. Mayrav had a way of connecting with readers so you felt like you were one of her close friends and the columns had this lunchcounter or happy hour gossipy feel to them. She let you into her life, her family and her friends and made you laugh. Here’s a woman who could discuss toilet training her toddler, while commenting on a friend’s ugly sweater and planning that trip to Vegas …and sometimes all in the same column.

For those who miss her work, go here: http://www.mayravsaar.com/ for your fix.

So the Register has no dedicated humor/lifestyle columnist any more (unless you count FILL IN THE BLANK HERE___________).

And they kept Jenny Sokol’s column, that whimsical “military mom” column that was relevant when her husband was stationed in Iraq, but he’s stateside now and quite safe, and the family has relocated to Kansas. So if this is the new standard, Register editors, bring back Jeff Kramer.

Filed under: Orange County - Local | 1 Comment »

No matter where you go in OC, local schools and school districts are feeling the pain of hard times. In Capistrano Unified, Coastal South County schools are preparing for $27 million in painful budget cuts. Santa Ana Unified is preparing to possibly lay off some 573 teachers in the 2008-09 school year. In Saddleback Valley (Inland South County), some 170 teachers may be laid off. Basically, the pain’s being felt everywhere.

So why all the pain and suffering in our local schools? Is it just incompetence and the wasting of our tax dollars on the part of administration? Is Capo making a HUGE mistake by giving Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter a $324,000 salary (with benefits)? Is Santa Ana just wasting all the bond money that voters keep approving for the district on admin salaries?

Or can it be more than just that? Is it also a problem of the State of California being unwilling to fully fund Prop 98 funds for our schools? Is it a state problem in shying away from the necessary tax reforms to keep the state budget (including education) afloat? Is the state budget crisis finally trickling down to our local schools?

What do you think about the state of our schools today? Why can’t we fully fund our kids’ education? Is this a local problem of administrative incompetence? Is this a state problem of imprudent budgeting? Or is this a combination of the two?

I want to hear what you have to say about all the cuts at all our schools. Why are we feeling all this pain? Go ahead and have your say.

Filed under: California, Orange County - Local | 3 Comments »

Senator John McCain, the probable Republican presidential nominee, is the beneficiary of at least $10,000 in campaign donations from trash hauler/scofflaw Judy Ware and her family.  According to FundRace 2008 on the Huffington Post Ware and company have given 4 seperate donations totalling $10,000 to McCain’s presidential campaign.  It certainly appears that McCain is a beneficiary of the suffering that Ware has inflicted on the Logan Neighborhood.

Here is a list of the Ware donations to John McCain:

1. Christy Ware   $3100   2/2007


2. Jay Ware         $2300   2/2007


3. Judy Ware       $2300   1/2007


4. Ben Ware        $2300   1/2007

I certainly hope that McCain would not want to accept Ware’s filthy money and he would give it back.  Ware likes to throw money around to politicians and feels that this should allow her to operate on her own terms.  She is dead wrong about that.  No matter how much money she gives the laws apply to her just as they apply to any other business or resident of Santa Ana. (more…)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 26 Comments »

Remember when OC Weekly did an expose last year of controversial extreme right “minister” Lou Sheldon? Oh wait, you don’t? OK, that’s right, it’s a different Sheldon! OC Weekly wrote about Lou’s Developer son Steve trying to game the system in Garden Grove to build condos… Even though it may put dozens of Downtown Garden Grove businesses at risk due to lack of parking!

OK, you should remember this oldie-but-goodie from last April:

… [A]long Garden Grove’s Main Street—one of the last relics of small-town America in the suburban sprawl that has engulfed Orange County—Sheldon the younger is rapidly becoming a celebrity. Just not in a good way. Last October, the longtime consultant to the City of Garden Grove convinced city council to give him the exclusive right to develop a $40 million condominium project adjacent to Main Street. In approving the deal, the city sold him the land—currently a city-owned parking lot serving Main Street businesses—for just $1.5 million.

So what’s been happening since then? Follow me after the flip to take a look…

(more…)

Filed under: Orange County - Local, Uncategorized | 8 Comments »