This coming Thursday, make sure to pick up the dead-tree edition of your favorite infernal rag--scratch that. EVERY Thursday, make sure to pick up the dead-tree edition of your favorite infernal rag--but this one in particular will be a special one, as it's devoted to Arrested Development, the greatest thing EVER to come out of Orange County.

All the hipsters that love the show sometimes forget its OC roots, and that's what the cover story will deal with--and that was the subject of my KCRW-FM 89.9 commentary yesterday.

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It's never too early to shameless self-promote an appearance, so guess what I'm doing? If it's the end of the month, that means I'll be appearing on the last Wednesday of the month on The Tom Leykis Show from 3 p.m to 6 p.m.--the first hour devoted to Tom and I discussing the news of the month, the 4 o'clock hour devoted to a live version of "¡Ask a Mexican!" and the third hour to some of the best ethnic jokes around on the weekly "Beeeeee Funny!" segment.

What happened last month? Funny you ask!

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Blackface merriment at UC Irvine

People who have read this infernal rag long enough know that I feel OC's most embarrassing fact of life is our embarrassingly low African-American community, and all the juvenile incidents that come with growing up sans blacks, whether it's offering fried chicken on MLK Day or having a 50% off black items sale for MLK Day or driving out a family of cops from Yorba Linda or putting on the ol' blackface. In fact, we're working on a special issue involving the subject--but before that, I did a commentary for KCRW-FM 89.9 as part of my ever-Monday "Orange County Line" commentary.

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I still remember the day two activists told me about the proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant. It was 2003, and I had just been minted a staff writer for this infernal rag. They handed me a stack of documents; knowing the story was important, I punted them to Weekly managing editor Nick Schou, who proceeded to put a bullet in the damn thing.

So imagine my surprise about two years ago, when Poseidon decided to try again with the desalination plans. Amazingly, they seem to be on the fast track to do it, which was the subject of my latest "Orange County Line" commentary that aired yesterday on KCRW-FM 89.9

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You'll remember earlier this month my story about how Kenton Beshore of Mariners Church in Irvine has become an Aztlanista, much to the concern of his super-wealthy flock. With the amnesty talks in Congress currently backed up due to the Boston bombings, it'll be interesting if Beshore and his other OC evangelical leaders will continue to fight as hard for immigration reform as they did before.

That was the subject of my latest "Orange County Line" commentary for KCRW-FM 89.9.

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Last week, the Orange County Grand Jury came to a remarkable conclusion: OC is a cesspool of corrupt government, and something needs to be done about it. It was remarkable not so much for its findings (where had the Grand Jury previously gotten its information from--OC Metro?) but for advocating for change. Of course, the usual suspects began blathering--Supervisor Todd Spitzer enthusiastically agreed and tried to take the idea as his own, John Moorlach emphatically laughed, while the District Attorney's office said there was little political corruption in OC, and whatever little there is they're on it and can you please not bring up Mike Carona?

The Grand Jury's report was the subject of my latest "Orange County Line" commentary for KCRW-FM 89.9.

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If it's the last Wednesday of the month, it means that it's time for me to trek up to Burbank and spend the afternoon with Tom Leykis. Lemme explain how it goes, as it's now part of the show's tradition. The first hour (starting at 3 p.m. PST) is devoted to Tom and I shooting the shit, on conversations that can go ANYWHERE.

Hour Two is the ¡Ask a Mexican! hour, where I people's questions on Mexicans LIVE. And Hour Three? Even better. More »

Insane but true: I do everything possible to avoid the 73 and 241 toll roads. For the former, I'll go down PCH or the 405 if I ever have to get to Aliso Viejo, which is thankfully almost never; for the latter, a simple drive east on Oso Parkway or El Toro Road forever will do. Really: why would I want to support such a waste of asphalt at the TCA roads? And it's no longer just crazy lefties like us, who have been ranting about this sham for 17 years, who are now ranting. Last week, the right-wing Pacific Research Institute put out a paper blasting the TCA for their unmanageable debt (now in the billions of dollars) and for fleecing taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars over the years when promising never to cost the public a dime.

And that's what I talked about yesterday on my weekly "Orange County Line" for KCRW-FM 89.9.

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The cover to Nick Schou's 2000 cover story on El Cargadero

Early last week, the New York Times did a so-so story about how there's so few Mexicans left in rural Mexico that any amnesty would probably not motivate more of them to migrate to the United States. I say "so-so" not just because I think the reporter, Damien Cave, is an apologist for the Mexican elite, but because the story was better reported by Los Angeles Times reporter Sam Quinones about 15 years ago, as documented in his awesome True Tales from Another Mexico.

But if the Gray Lady did a middling job, then the Orange County Register just fucked up the story royally, and proved yet again that you can throw all the money you want on a laughable publication--and it'll still be a laughable publication if you don't solve the problem that makes it a laughable story in the first place. See, the Reg republished the Times' piece, only adding a flourish noting that a lot of OC residents came from the region mentioned in the article: Zacatecas.

Um, no shit.

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As everyone knows, I live in a P.O. Box in Anaheim. If I ever buy a shack, it'll probably be in some rundown barrio or other--can't exactly afford much making pesos, you know? But if I ever did buy a place, no way in hell would I ever go for a neighborhood with a Mello-Roos tax on it. Who the hell is dumb enough to want to pay extra taxes on top of property taxes just to live the excluded life?

Half of South County, that's who. And that was the subject of my latest "Orange County Line" for KCRW-FM 89.9.

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