Normally, I’d save this for Friday, but this being a short week and all, please enjoy this video from the folks at http://www.barelypolitical.com/ as McCain girl Hulks out against Obama Girl.

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Hey, everyone! I just got this reminder from the Obama OC grassroots team about two very important events happening this week. If you’d like to learn how to register new Democrats to vote and make sure Barack Obama and all our great local Democrats win, please stay tuned below for more.

Obama OC Voter Registration Training

As most of you know, the campaign is in full swing here in Orange County. In addition to the 400+ supporters that attended our Unity Rally at Hart Park in Orange, we recently trained over 140 volunteers on voter registration on Saturday. In preparation for this weekends Voter Registration events, we will are scheduling 2 more trainings for those of you who could not attend this weekends event and still want to work to elect Barack.

The trainings are as follows: (more…)

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On Sunday, July 27th, ECCO will be celebrating Full Marriage Equality at our Nuptial Bliss Wedding Reception.

Brian Chase, Senior Staff Attorney for Lambda Legal, will be welcoming guests at the home of Retired Senator Joe and Diane Dunn from 3pm to 5pm.

The festivities will include champagne, hors d’oeuvres, dancing, and favors. The event will be $55/person or $100/couple.

Sponsorships are available at three levels: Gold Sponsor ($1000) admits 8 guests; Silver Sponsor ($500) admits 4 guests; and Bronze Sponsor ($250) admits 2 guests. Sponsorships also include one ceremony* (if desired), one toast, one framed 5×7 photograph, mini photo album (6 photos) and one song choice for that special dance.

*Ceremonies will be performed by an ordained nondenominational minister or credentialed official. Non sponsoring couples may also have a ceremony if desired. These MUST be arranged with Susan Freeze prior to the event!

Come celebrate and help ECCO raise funds to defeat November’s Proposition 8.

Contact us at eccopac@yahoo.com or (949) 975-0866.

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Just one more example of How Orange County CEO Tom Mauk lets managers off the hook for errors that cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to fix. Be it managing personnel OC CEO Mauk condones Bustamantes’ sexist remarks!, or contracts here, he just keeps getting it wrong.

County IT task force fails to audit computer contracts
A committee set up two years ago falls short of its original mandate to oversee the county’s computer contracts

Friday, June 27, 2008
BY NORBERTO SANTANA JR.
The Orange County Register

In the wake of the latest county computer contracting scandal, attention has refocused on the lack of performance from a county organized task force formed two years ago that was supposed to keep an eye on the myriad of multi-million dollar computer contracts throughout the sprawling county bureaucracy.

This week, County Auditor David Sundstrom revealed that he had terminated a small portion of a contract with ACS State and Local Solutions after problems arose with the company’s work.

With an overall contract valued at more than $25 million, ACS is the county’s largest Information technology contractor.

That has left some wondering why a county task force – formed in the wake of a different ACS flap three years ago – didn’t spot the latest problems and hasn’t done much to shed light on the county’s computer contracts.

“The committee has not accomplished its mission,” said panel member Nick Berardino, general manager of the Orange County Employees Association. “The meetings have been reduced to staff updates on various projects and justifying more lavish contracts to outside vendors.” 

(more…)

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Hey, everyone! We have just over 24 hours left to make a HUGE impact in this election by making sure our Democrats have enough resources to kick some Rethug behind this fall. So what can we all do to help Obama win the White House and Democrats win more seats in Congress?

Follow me down below for more… (more…)

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On June 19th I wrote about the response from the Orange County CEO’s PR person regarding Carlos Bustamantes’ now notorious comment to Red County Blogger Matt Cunningham/Jubal and LATimes reporter Christian Berthelsen regarding the appointment of Sandra Hutchens as Sheriff over Santa Ana PD Chief Paul Walters. They responded that they could not comment on personnel matters. I followed up on Sunday June 22nd to make sure that they knew my request for clarification was a request for public records.

Well in Tom Mauk’s ever spinning world of bull-sh*t, I received a response late Friday afternoon. I’ve got to say this is the best load his office has dumped yet.

“Carlos Bustamante was present at that beginning of the Board Meeting during the vote for Sheriff on his personal time and in his capacity as a Santa Ana Council Member.  The remainder of the June 10 Board Meeting involved the annual budget hearings, which Mr. Bustamante attended in his capacity as a Director of Administration for OC Public Works.”

I had asked: (more…)

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Dear Friends and Supporters,

Today, I contributed $2,000 to Debbie Cook’s campaign for the US House of Representatives, in her challenge against Dana Rohrabacher in the 46th Congressional District.  I did so as a demonstration of how fully committed I am to Debbie’s race.  I am devoting my time, efforts and resources to ensure her victory in November.  It is that important to me.

I believe Debbie can and will win.  We have an excellent opportunity, with Debbie, to pick up this seat, held far too long by a Representative who has ignored his District.

I am strongly urging you to join me in my support of Debbie.  If you contribute a minimum of $200 within the next 48 hours to Debbie’s campaign, you will be invited to attend a very special luncheon, being held on Sunday, Juy 13th, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), on behalf of women candidates.

Contribute Now
Debbie Cook for Congress  (more…)

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Red County Online Editor Matthew Cunningham/Jubal has a Facebook page. I do, Dan Chmielewski, Gila, Susan, and Ed have accounts, as well as about half of the online public. Many of us have friends. I have discovered the Matt does not have any friends.

So to all readers of TheLiberalOC I ask that you take a moment, log into your Facebook account, and make Matt one of your friends. I know that we can liberally spread our love to our conservative friends ;) in the blogosphere. You can also add any of us if you feel so inclined.

Filed under: Orange County - Local | 9 Comments »

You can certainly check out the reviews in today’s Register and LA Times, but WallE from Disney and Pixar is not your standard Pixar summer flick.  I suspect our friends on the right wing side of the aisle will soundly criticize the movie on a number of fronts.



The film is set 700 years in earth’s future.  The globe is awash in waste and rubbish and the planet is no longer inhabited by humans who are all on a massive spacestation cruise ship.  WallE, a small robot that compacts and stacks trash, is working to clean up a dirty world.  Sine we’re led to believe that WallE has been working for 700 years (solar batteries and lots of broken WallE’s around for replacement parts) and the city he toils in is still filthy.  The humans, who were supposed to be in space for five years while a giant corporation (think Halliburton) cleans up the planent for their safe return, have been is space for several centuries and simply don’t know what “Earth” is anymore. (more…)

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Have you seen this? Dana Rohrabacher has just sent a reply a letter to the Huntington Beach Independent after they wrote a scathing editorial on his recent crazy behavior. Well, one would think that he actually thought about what they had to say to him. But alas, “Crazy Dana” would rather just dismiss this latest critique as “liberal left silliness”.

(more…)

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Before attending the weekly Drinking Liberally gathering at Memphis in Santa Ana, I attended the re-launch celebration reception for Orange Coast Magazine. In the gift bags they handed out was the July issue featuring their 2008 Best Of Orange County feature.

I am pleased to announce the The LiberalOC.com was named the Best Liberal Blog in Orange County.

The article should be up on their website at some point in the near future. But I suggest that everyone get a copy when the issue hits the newsstands and check out page 95.

“First-time visitors to the The Liberal OC site should understand that the blog, run by 10 local libs, is not a joke, and the blogged-about stories are, in fact, real.”

Congratulations to our entire blog team, past and present. You have contributed to the creation of what, in my not-so-humble opinion, is the Best Blog in Orange County.

And thank you to the editors and staff at Orange Coast Magazine for selecting TheLiberalOC.com as 2008’s Best Liberal Blog in Orange County. We are humbled and honored by your recognition.

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After the GOP Flag Day event, Frank Mickadeit published State Senator Dick Ackerman’s denial of the rumor Ackerman would run for Mayor of Irvine once his term in the State Senate ended.  I thought (and so did Red County’s Matt Cunningham) that Frank was two weeks late to a story we broke in the blogs.

Or was he?

I have several emails today from reliable sources close to Irvine politics that Ackerman will indeed run for Mayor but will deny it up to the filing date.  Tom Collins, Ackerman’s spokesman in Sacramento, said, “I have no information on this to comment.”  Ackerman’s Tustin office denied the rumor but will be getting back to me tomorrow with more details.



Photo courtesy of the Sacramento Bee. More after the jump….

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