Orange County News Blog

Californians in November passed Proposition 2, which requires animals raised for food be provided sufficient space to turn around and stretch their limbs. Now a group calling itself Operation Prop 2 Follow-Through wants to extend the protections to include not eating the critters as well. Its slogan? "You favored Prop2 - Now Go Vegan Too!" 

The campaign is spreading the word through bus cards, billboards and "coordinated massive leafleting and tabling in California's metropolitan areas." It hopes to get a big boost from Saturday's 25th anniversary Meatout, the world's largest annual grassroots diet education campaign.

In an email to the Weekly, Costa Mesa resident Christopher Tait says he joined Operation Prop 2 Follow-Through because though the voter initiative made living in cages more comfortable for the animals we eat, "the new law does not prevent deprivation, mutilation, suffocation and other atrocities perpetrated in factory farms and slaughterhouses." Read more about the campaign here.

Nine days after R. Scott Moxley, with an assist from TheLiberalOC.com, blogged that Irvine City Councilwoman Beth Krom was "putting the pieces together" to seek the 48th Congressional District seat occupied by Republican John Campbell, Krom made it official.

"On issues that matter to this district, the economy, jobs and economic development, education, the environment, public safety and transportation, John Campbell has no record of accomplishment either as a congressman or as a state legislator. My record on these issues is clear and one with multiple accomplishments. I hope to bring my experience as a accessible public official at Irvine City Hall to the halls of Congress," Krom says in what is characterized as a preliminary announcement.

A formal one will coincide with an official campaign kickoff event from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, March 22, at the Shady Canyon home of Dr. Mansoor Shah. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), the only other woman or Democrat among OC's congressional delegation, is scheduled to attend. More details are here.

Local and statewide proponents of Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban approved by voters last November, have a message for local and statewide politicians: stop trying to overturn the election results and get back to work fixing your cities and/or California.

State senators and Assembly members "are authoring meaningless nonbinding resolutions that take up the time of legislators and legislative staff who should be focused on appropriate legislative priorities such as solving the state deficit," claims ProtectMarriage.com--Yes on 8 Campaign.

"Proposition 8 was adopted with over a 600,000 vote margin, gaining approximately the same vote percentage as Barack Obama did nationally," said Ron Prentice, chairman of the group that takes credit for the measure's success, in a press statement. "It passed in 42 out of California's 58 counties, including the five largest counties in California. It is wrong for legislators to disrespect the vote of the people and attempt to substitute their values for the decision of over 7 million voters."

The Register's John Gittelsohn blogs on Mathew Padilla's Mortgage Insider about House of Cards, a CNBC documentary that names Orange County as the birthplace of the sub-prime loans that infected the world financial system. Gittelsohn notes that among the locals featured in the 90-minute program, which first airs Thursday, are Bill Dallas, founder of Ownit; Lou Pacific, a Mission Viejo real estate consultant; Daniel Sadek, founder of Quick Loan Funding; and . . . drum roll, please . . . John Gittelsohn.

Mr. Gittelsohn, when it comes to shameless self promotion, I remember Gustavo Arellano. I know Gustavo Arellano. You, sir, are no Gustavo Arellano!

More interestingly is the fact that Gittelsohn's post got linked to lefty Atrios' Eschaton blog. And what's more interesting than that are some of the 188 comments (at this writing) the Atrios post generated.

Krom: DON'T read my lips

At the Oct. 21 Irvine City Council candidates forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Councilwoman Christina Shea, in the middle of an unsuccessful campaign for mayor, said that Lennar Corp., which is building homes ringing the future Great Park, would be allowed to triple the 3,200 units called for in its original agreement with the city to develop parts of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Termed-out mayor Beth Krom, a political foe of Shea's who was in the middle of a successful campaign for a council seat, later that same evening denied there were plans to triple the number of Lennar units, characterizing the claim as a late campaign fear tactic. Remember this Krom quote, it's why Clockwork bolded it: "We are working with 3,200 homes and that's what there will be."

Two days after the Nov. 4 election, the Irvine Planning Commission – which is packed with Krom cronies -- backed Lennar's plan to up by 1,200 the number of Great Park Neighborhoods units. No, even using new math 4,900 units are not triple the original 3,200. But neither does it represent “3,200 homes and that's what there will be."

Is your activist streak feeling unloved after watching footage of yesterday's protests in LA against the passage of Proposition 8? Well, here's your chance to vent (peacefully, people, peacefully...).

Tonight (Friday), the Long Beach Gay & Lesbian Center is organizing a protest march down Broadway, starting at 7 p.m., and beginning on the corner of Broadway & Redondo. The march will head westward along Broadway, ending at Hamburger Mary's.

Then on Sunday, an OC march/rally is being planned in, of all places, Rancho Santa Margarita - y'know, that bastion of LGBTQ culture and nightlife (sorry, but my snark just had to get a word in there). The event starts at 5 p.m. at Rancho Santa Margarita Lake.

What I wanna know is, when will Prop 8 protest fever hit Stanton? (OK, sorry, sorry, couldn't help m'self...)

Almost from the day I moved to Seal Beach four months ago, my eyes have had to endure the visual pollution of campaign signs begging for either a Yes or No vote on Measure Z. The Yes people gave the No folks a serious ass-kicking on Tuesday, as you can see:

Z-Seal Beach, Measure to Establish Uniform Height Limit on Residential Development in Old Town Area
Completed Precincts: 35 of 35
Vote Count Percentage
Yes 8,202 73.0%
No 3,029 27.0%

What this means is that the height limit on new construction projects in the city's "historic old town" area (basically the part of Seal Beach that's south of PCH) will be limited to no more than two stories, or 25 feet. Backers of the measure - the Yes peeps - have claimed that they wanted to assure that Seal Beach retains its quaint, old-fashioned charm, particularly along Main Street, which, unlike the Huntington Beach Main Street, isn't yet overpopulated with skate-logo-clad teens and meth-addled Nazi skins.

Sounds good to me, so I voted Yes. But the Yes on Z people didn't earn my vote as much as the No on Z backers convinced me what a bunch of idiots they are.

Particularly when I eyeballed a No on Z flier that called attention to a Yes on Z flier. the Yes flier had an illustration of a pair of three-story cartoon houses - they had creepy eyebrows, even! - hovering on either side of a small, terrified-looking one-story house. Scary! Yet an effective way of showing the perils of over-development - the whole point of Yes on Z.

But the No on Z flier screamed that the cartoon three-story houses were actually five-story houses, complete with full attics. They're cartoons, for chrissakes.

Strike one: No on Z people see shit that doesn't exist.

Then there was the No crowd's consistent use of deceptive and confusing wording, such as the No signs that read DON'T CHANGE SEAL BEACH and KEEP THE HEIGHT LIMIT, both slogans that you'd think would be favored by the Yes on Z backers. Even the No on Z web site addy was seemingly thought up to confuse voters: saveoursealbeach.com.

Strike two: Stop dicking around with the language, assholes.

Gradually, I also noticed on my daily dog-walking excursions that No on Z signs almost always shared lawn space in front of people's houses with McCain/Palin and Yes on 8 signs, as well as crimson and gold banners trumpeting the superiority of the University of Spoiled Children.

Strike three: USC sucks!

And, judging by all the signage and fliers and door-hangers and full-page ads I saw, it seemed that the No on Z people had endless amounts of cash to propagate their POV (local real estate agents were some of No on Z's biggest backers).

Strike four: Rich people are evil.

Final note to both Yes and No Z people: Can you please take all your signs down ASAP? Talk about lowered property values and blight - that shit's the definition.

. . . and if that happened, would the righty Red County blog have to change its name?

Final election results from OC:

PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT
Completed Precincts: 2109 of 2109
Vote Count Percentage
JOHN MCCAIN / SARAH PALIN (REP) 430,360 50.8%
BARACK OBAMA / JOE BIDEN (DEM) 401,605 47.4%
BOB BARR / WAYNE A. ROOT (LIB) 5,884 0.7%
RALPH NADER / MATT GONZALEZ (P-F) 5,470 0.6%
ALAN KEYES / WILEY S. DRAKE, SR. (AI) 2,672 0.3%
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY / ROSA CLEMENTE (GRN) 1,720 0.2%

McCain/Palin only won the county by 29,000 votes. For this former Republican stronghold we live in, that's pretty huge (or small, whatevs). Could the Dems actually win OC come 2012?

Also noted: the ticket of Alan Keyes and Buena Park preacher Wiley Drake, they of the Batshit Crazy Party ('scuse, "American Independent") garnered a mere 2,672 votes here, enough to fill a couple of theaters at your local multiplex. Orange County Register employees, meet your key demographic!

I spent my Election Night trying to find non-existent parking outside Hamburger Mary's in Long Beach. The celebration inside sure looked like fun, though, but I don't think I would have stuck around past midnight to watch all the tears turn from Obama joy to Prop 8 despair. Failing that, I instead drove up Cherry to another gay bar, Pistons, the local leather/bear hangout, to check out the scene - which really wasn't much, just a handful of guys shooting pool. I left when a couple of inebriates started hitting on me. And they weren't even cute!

About Prop 8: though the homo-hating measure looks like it's passed, no way in hell is this over. As of this writing, at least two lawsuits, one by the San Francisco City Attorney, another by the first lesbian couple married in Los Angeles County, have been filed in an attempt to block the measure from being added to the California constitution. More lawsuits are certain to follow, especially from the pool of 18,000 couples who've been legally hitched in the nearly five months since the state Supreme Court green-lighted queer nups. Are those marriages - like the one below between Rich Videgain and Jim Carroll, the first legally married gay couple in OC - valid or invalid now? All I know is, if I were married, I'd want to sue somebody over this . . .

Points of annoyance: the Yes on 8 people who are clucking about how "the people of California have spoken." Bullshit. They won by just a few percentage points, with the help of huge amounts of Mormon money imported from Utah, and a sleazy, fear-based ad campaign that brought children into the mix when the initiative itself said nothing about "teaching gay marriage" in schools. As I've said ever since I first heard about the gay marriage movement some 15 years ago, there will be speed bumps along the way, but the outcome is inevitable: gay marriage will be legally recognized, "whether ya like it or not," as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom put it in that unfortunate Yes on 8 TV ad.

How do I know this? The full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution; a younger generation of voters for whom the way which one swings just isn't a big deal; the fact that we live in a democracy and not a theocracy (why do the Yes on 8 folks always cite the Bible in their arguments - especially Leviticus - but they never get their knickers in a knot over other pesky abominations Leviticus rails against, like eating shellfish?); protection by the tyranny of the majority, which is basically the definition of the lame California initiative process (people shouldn't be able to make laws - that's what elected officials and judges are for, because if it weren't for "activist judges," we'd all still be drinking from colored- or white-only drinking fountains).

To paraphrase Tony Kushner in Angels in America, the world only spins forward - it never spins back. And if it does, it's only temporary . . .

*Update: They just announced Papi Pulido beat out Michelle Martinez for the SanTana mayoral seat. Not much cheering. Everyone's busy bumping and grinding.

*Update 2: A mean trick played by accident on congressional candidate Steve Young led him and his campaign team to believe, for a brief, exultant moment, that he'd beat incumbent John Campbell. A television blip around 10:30 p.m. flashed Young and Campbell's numbers in reverse. Champagne was popped and victory cheers were unleashed but it was all short-lived. By the end of the night the 48th Congressional District race had gone decidedly to Campbell (R-Newport Beach), 129,436 (55.4%) to Young's 95,683 (40.9%).

Loretta’s doing the shimmy-shimmy and high-fiving black guys on the dance floor. Patricia Arquette just announced that there’s a press person here from Dubai; an old Vietnamese couple was just bumpin’ to the "Obama Obama" A Milli remix and Wee Man (of Jack Ass fame) said to me not too long ago, after inhaling a big dose of oversized election-night-balloon helium: “It’s going fucking awesome!”

That's how important everyone feels right now at the drunken-hot-spot-club-party masquerading as the Democratic election night celebration. This late night entry confirms one thing: it’s definitely a party over here. No one’s paying attention to whether animals will be allowed to roam around on their farms cage-free or whether or not gay people can still get married (there is the occasional pause at one of the big screen T.V.s, a nervous sigh or two, and then back to dancing). Obama’s won and that’s all that matters right now.

For a lot of the evening gobs of Democrats with teeny “I Voted” stickers on their sweaters spilled drinks on each other as they stood, nearly crushing each other, at two different entrances waiting to get into Sutra Lounge (the lounge factor is key here, and says a lot about the confidence and yes, more than just a little smugness, the OC Dems felt going into tonight's election).

During Obama’s acceptance speech Wee Man’s friend almost got into a fight with someone who apparently pushed him. Leave it to alcohol (which people are imbibing like Moses’ tribes in the desert) to collapse the politics of unity. Anyway, the Dubai reporter (who I haven’t spotted because it’s hard to move in here) is apparently here covering not only the biggest news in U.S. presidential history, but also, and possibly more importantly for every Democrat who seems convinced of it here tonight, OC's transition from red to blue. You could hear it earlier after Obama’s speech ended, after Loretta Sanchez took the stage and you can hear it now: a collective, drunken sigh of relief. Steve Young has won. [Or so his campaign thought because of a television blip: see update above.] And, not surprisingly, so have Loretta and Jose Solorio. Debbie came not quite as close as everyone may have hoped, but the big news is that thousands of new Democrats have been registered in the county while only a handful of Republicans were registered.

“We’re opening the party all the way out to the courtyard!” Loretta screamed a short bit ago. And then, not-so-unpredictably: “I’m gonna be out there first, selling my book…!” A Vietnamese television station just interviewed Mexican Jose Solorio about the ascendancy of the country’s first black president. In Orange County? I hate to bring up the word “change” but, well, there you have it.

KCAL just did a short live broadcast. Someone's shoving mini-burgers, martinis, champagne, and the official Democratic drink of the night: a kind-of synthetic deep-sea blue mystery shot, in my face. “I’m Bringing Sexy Back” is rattling election signs off their balcony posts. At this point, everyone's reaching across the aisle, exclaiming the one resounding message of hope: "Your place or mine?"

Not everyone that matters in Orange County can vote, of course. I ran into Chepe while scarfing down overpriced tacos at a taco truck outside China-Mex Super Buffet in SanTana. He came to this country illegally in 1987 as a scared 20-year-old from Michoacán, promptly knocked up some chick, and spent the following 20 years crafting a good life for himself despite his alien status as a construction worker. Is paying off his home--bought it in 1995, years before the subprime mortgage scandal--and his four kids "son puro pochos," Chepe says with a laugh. Although he can't vote, Chepe's oldest children--22-year-old Andrés and 19-year-old Yuliana--registered long ago and voted earlier today.

Chepe didn't agree with all of their positions--he doesn't think gays should marry and is fiercely anti-abortion--but he did agree with his children's vote for Obama. "El negrito is going to be a friend to Mexicans," Chepe says, hopefully. "There's just too many of us who are still undocumented. He's smart--he'll give us amnesty." He says this as he orders a burrito to go for his lunch break later tonight when he cleans offices somewhere in Aliso Viejo.

MSNBC just called it for Obama, and the crowd at Memphis at the Santora—the New Immigrants of this city: the hipsters and artists and yuppies (scratch that, Chuppies, and buppies and guppies) go wild. But down the street, the Gomorrah that is SanTana—its power structure—gears up for what will inevitably be a victorious night for them as well. All of Don Papi Pulido’s anointed—Busty Bustamante, Vincent Sarmiento, Claudia Alvarez on the council, Rob Richardson and others on the school board—are expected to win. Will report soon from Hell—if I don’t come back, give my regards to Broad Street…

*UPDATE: The best sense I can give you gentle readers of the Banana Republic are the different scenes outside the official campaign headquarters for the incumenbts and for upstart Michelle Martinez, who challenged Don Papi Pulido for the mayor’s seat. At 8:52 p.m., I passed by her campaign offices and found no one—just a discombobulated voice alerting someone about the coming results. Everyone was returning from last-minute GOTV efforts.

Contrast that with the scene outside Don Papi Pulido headquarters on Broadway and Third Street—suits. Lots of them. Men and women, mostly Latino, looking spiffy in a sickly sort of way, exuding the type of aura teenagers possess when coming out in a quinceañera. The crowd was too thick for me to properly peer in, but outside were councilmember Sal Tinajero and state assemblymember Jose Solorio. Both of them are relatively good guys, so one must ask—why support Don Papi Pulido’s regime?

Straddling the center was councilmember David Benavides, who was hanging out with SanTana gadflies at Tommy Pastrami and who I have criticized in the past. He was dressed sharp, but not ostentatiously so—slacks, long-sleeved pinstriped shirt and a Blackberry. “Where’s my hug and kiss” he cracked after I saluted some ladies. He might very well hang with Don Papi Pulido’s serfs, but at least he spent some time with dissidents. Methinks this man might actually be bueno…

*UPDATE 10:00 P.M. SanTana politics is full of it on all sides. Don Papi Pulido is currently, comfortably leading--but with only about 52 percent of the ballot. How so? Because challengers Michelle Martinez and George Collins are splitting the rest of the ballot. I like both of them, but you fools: couldn't one of you drop out for the sake of the other? Same goes with Ward 3, where Busty Bustamante is winning with about 49 percent of the vote at this early point because three challengers--Steve Rocco, Becky Valencia-Verdin, and Art Pedroza--split the vote. Rocco is a recluse, while Valencia-Verdin did nothing except erect signs and operate out of a mostly vacant home. Pedroza could've pulled the upset, if not for the other two.

The Banana Republic lives for another two years, and challengers are already eying Martinez's seat. Indeed, the city has become Animal Farm: as I drove off to a long night of drinking (hooray for Obama, but Prop. 8 is winning big time, and the Don Papi Pulido machine goes on), the scene that I described above remained, now joined by a stretch limousine. Laughter, cocktails, all around. Meanwhile, just a block away up Broadway near Fifth Street, a Latino man used a flashlight to scour for recyclable. He found a can and handed it to his wife as their young son shivered in the night.

Currently at Costa Mesa's Tin Lizzie—Deep Purple's "Knocking At Your Back Door" is playing overhead, heh—where CNN just projected Barack Obama as president and where a loud round of "Woooooooo"s, "YEEEEEEEAH"s and claps just erupted. Sure we knew this was coming (sort of), but a packed-in Tin Lizzie and yours truly are now more concerned about Proposition 8, which would amend the State Constitution to limit marriage between a man and a woman. And if Prop 8 passes, it will take effect next Wednesday, questioning the legality of tens of thousands of gay and lesbian marriages that have taken place since May of this year.

Keep watching this space as California results start rolling in and hear reactions from Tin Lizzie patrons.

Orange County's most prominent conservative commentator is losing it. Earlier today, he urged listeners to vote for Al Franken, the celebrity challenger to Baby Hughie's longtime man-crush, Minnesota senator Norm Coleman. Hughie quickly corrected himself, but still.

But the strangest slip happened a little bit after, when Hewitt--usually a very articulate man--said this twice:

"...nothing nobody didn't...

Sorry I can't remember the rest of this sentence--I was driving. But he said this twice. A triple negative! Man, even Mexicans--where double negatives are not a no-no--don't commit this type of sin. Wonder what'll happen if Obama actually pulls through--we might have the first on-air explosion in history...

Over the weekend, Johnny Sampson freaked me out. I spotted some tall, gangly gabacho at SanTana's Día de los Muertos event who looked just like the beloved Memphis at the Santora bartender but had his hair dark--and he looked mean. Sampsons later explained that his dye job to his naturally redhead foliage was because he was prepping to serve as Abe Lincoln on Election Night, but the fucker freaked me out.

It was all for a good cause. Sampson was manning the Memphis bar early in the Election eve, decked in a tuxedo, stovepipe hat and bow tie. The only thing off was the smile--Lincoln was perpetually grim for the obvious reasons, while Sampson never stops smiling. Well, except for the night that freaked me out.

Cheers ring out--Ohio goes for Obama. Sampson carefully pours out a Grand Marnier, pops open a Stella, and even serves coffee. But where's his "I Voted" sticker?

"It's on my other coat," Sampson replies with a laugh. "I did vote!" But before I could ask anything more, off he went to ring up another order. And I directed my attention to the free, delicious pulled-pork sliders and free buffet (mac 'n' cheese, buttermilk-fried chicken wings, cornbread) whipped up by Memphis chef Diego Velazquez for the evening. Honest Abe is a good man.

By Sandy Rose

Any liberal voter living in Orange County wouldn’t hesitate to tell you that theirs is an uphill battle against the county’s McCainiac majority. But young people living and growing up in Orange County, who have long-endured the Republican bubble that has defined who we are, seem to have had enough. For the first time maybe ever, a majority of young people, like myself (which includes those of us at UCI who did vote and wore our sticker today), are voting squarely against our parents, specifically on the presidential candidates and key issues like Proposition 8.

High school freshmen, college seniors and first-time voters are questioning authority and refusing to replicate their parents’ political philosophies. Student-organizers like Arya Boghraty, Vice President of the Freethinking Atheist and Agnostic Kinship at Capistrano Valley High School, were behind the big “No on Prop. 8” rally last week. The OC Reg article on the student protest had more than 1,200 comments today and has sat at the top of the hit list since last week. The showing of 200-plus students, most with “Vote No on Prop 8” signs, and the smattering of student protests in various cities over the past week, have been significant given that supporters of the proposition outspent those opposed to it by $6.4 million in Orange County. Students probably weren’t the ones throwing down that kind of cash.

“We are surrounded by a huge Republican base and a Christian foundation [in Orange County] so most parents are going to be both religious and Republican,” says Capo Valley High’s Boghraty.

"Who wants stickers for No on Prop. 8?" yelled out Jon, a young Vietnamese student at UC Irvine before the start of a Orange County history course in which I was to lecture. His enthusiasm was heartening--up until then, Anteaters where the epitome of the ever-elusive youth vote.

As I walked to the Social Ecology II building, I made a note to notice everyone who displayed the "I Voted" sticker that proved their commitment to American democracy. Out of hundreds of students, I noticed no more than a dozen. Perhaps they voted absentee; perhaps they were voting later. But the fact Jon didn't distribute all of his No on Prop. 8 stickers, and that few of his fellow students sported the "I Voted" stickers just seemed further proof that, save for the eternal war between conservative students and Muslims, UC Irvine is about as political as pudding.

When local Democratic Party activists showed up at their west county office in Huntington Beach this morning, they found evidence of some last-minute desperation among local McCain supporters: a plywood sign calling Obama a "racist" and equating the "liberal media" with un-Americanism.

One of our freelancers, Nancy Powell, spotted the sign this morning and shot the picture before the Obama folks put the display in its proper place.

"We don't know who did it but it was here in front of our door," says one Obama volunteer. "If you want to see it, it's in the trash can now."

One of the first stories I ever published wasn't in the Weekly but rather the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles—I wrote a story about a then-obscure website called La Voz de Aztlan that was bashing Jews and gays in 2001. Thus began a years-long war between myself and Hector Carreón, the website's publisher and sole author, and a man whose Orange County connection was that he worked for Buena Park for a couple of years and occasionally opines on Orange County issues.

Carreón has toned down the bile these past couple of years, as Chicano activists railed against the pendejo for his vile views and the fact Know Nothings began using his website as somehow being representative of Mexicans in this country. So it warms our heart that La Voz de Aztlan published a pro-Prop. 8 screed alleging a homosexual, California Teachers Association, AND Jewish conspiracy to turn Latino kids into homosexuals. You know someone's not right in Carreón's head when the editorial starts railing about "sapphic tendencies" and "sodomites." We missed you, Carreón!

...Mucho drunkenness this weekend!

Ben Dayhoe over at Life at the Santiago Lofts (great blog about the positive side of SanTana) did a bit of genius guerrilla campaigning for his Santa Ana Pub Crawl, a monthly tour of downtown SanTana bars (the genteel ones--the wabs didn't want to participate) that happens again this Saturday. Seems he did mock campaign signs with his name, posted them around town, but put the URL of his pub crawl at the bottom. Funny stuff from a funny guy, and much better than the shit SanTana Unified School District Gregory Barraza and his wife pulled. We hereby endorse the Santa Ana Pub Crawl--as long as it's not on the taxpayer's dime, of course...

Got my dinner ruined yesterday when local blabbermouth Hugh Hewitt called me--or, rather, his recorded voice. He was urging me to vote yes on Proposition 8. Given the Baby Hughie curse, it gives me hope that this sexual Know Nothing initiative might go down.

On his blog, Hewitt seems to be admitting defeat. Remember how Republicans laughed at those libs who threatened to leave the United States after the 2004 election? Baby Hughie links to a David Brooks story about the coming new change (cross fingers) and leaves readers with this:

Read the whole thing. Then flee the country.

LAME.

*Moved up, because the conversation is fun. Non-Armenians and non-Turks encouraged to comment!

The Los Angeles Times had a fascinating story yesterday about how Turkish businessmen held a fundraiser last month in Orange County for the opponent of Glendale-area Congressman Adam Schiff. They don't like Schiff because he dared tried to pass a House resolution that would acknowledge the Armenian genocide, a historical fact that only Turkish nationalists and their apologists deny. Leading the charge is Coto de Caza resident Ergun Kirlikovali, who hosted the buffet fundraiser that notched about $15,000, "opposes the resolution and has written for websites that deny the genocide," wrote reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske.

As usual, the dailies put it too lightly. Kirlikovali is one vile man--"Just because we [Turks] sit quietly and grieve [about their losses in World War I] instead of making noise about it does not mean we haven't suffered," he told the Pasadena Star-News. But we'll save the totality of his writings for another day--the purpose of this post is to show his disingenuous reasons for supporting Schiff's opponent, Charles Hahn.

Kirlikovali left a comment on the Times blog trying to argue that one of the reasons he supports Hahn is because the Republican opposed the recent Wall Street bailout. Problem is, Florida Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen voted for the bailout. So why did Kirlikovali donate $500 to her last year? Could it be because she voted against Schiff's Armenian genocide resolution? Illinois Republican Congressman Peter Roskam opposed the bailout--so why did Kirlikovali fork over $250 to the campaign of Roskam's Democratic opponent, Jill Morgenthaler? Could it be because Roskam--a Know Nothing in every other sense--is a cosponsor of the Armenian genocide resolution and member of the Armenian Congressional Caucus?

Kirlikovali drew another Armenian genocide-denier to donate cash to Hahn: Irvine resident Erdal Atrek.

To thank all you politically conscious citizens, several businesses are happy to hook you up on Election Day (which is TOMORROW, so get out and vote).

Ben and Jerry's will be giving out free ice cream:
http://www.benandjerrys.com/features/i_voted/

Cristophe Salon in Newport Beach will be taking 50% off all salon services:
http://www.cristophe.com

Krispy Kreme will be giving one free star-shaped doughnut with red, white and blue sprinkles to each customer wearing an "I Voted" sticker.
http://www.krispykreme.com/

Normally a horrible campaign fund-raiser, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Skipped Vietnam War Combat Duty) is showing real signs that he's worried about winning re-election to his 20th and 21st years in the House of Representatives.

Since Oct. 18, Rohrabacher—a Huntington Beach resident—reports grabbing $106,500 from large donors, including Wall Street-related political-action committees (PACs); banking interests; oil-company individuals; out-of-state real-estate developers; musician Sammy Hagar; a business seeking NSA contracts; and Lloyd Kaufman, a Hollywood producer of raunchy sexploitation and slasher films.

In comparison, Democratic challenger Debbie Cook, who was already substantially trailing Rohrabacher in campaign financial activity, has disclosed raising $31,675 from large donors since Oct. 22. Some of these contributors include the Sierra Club, union PACs, Democrat-leaning groups and a novelist, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Both campaigns are airing local cable-TV commercials. Rohrabacher's are accidentally funny. One man appears in an ad claiming the congressman has been—get this—a champion for the environment. (He supports oil drilling near California's beaches.) One eye-twitching elderly woman also asserts that Rohrabacher, one of the most narrow-minded members of Congress, enjoys listening to citizen concerns. (He reacted to citizen concerns about the Iraq War by telling them he hopes their families die in a terrorist attacks.)

One big disappointment: No word in the Rohrabacher ads if his active investigation has solved the already-solved June 1968 assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in a Los Angeles hotel.

And finally, a note to KOCE reporter David Nazar: You recently stated something about Rohrabacher having fought in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. Really? Do tell.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Sorry for the last-minute notice, but I'll be interviewing Huntington Beach mayor Debbie Cook--who's running against Dana Rohrabacher (R-Did Not Serve in Vietnam) in the 46th Congressional District race--today at 2pm on KPFK-FM 90.7 for about 20 minutes.

You can hear it on the Internet at KPFK.org. If you want to hear all of Dana's sins as covered in the Weekly, tune in!

From our favorite Know Nothing geriatric, sent on Friday:

Hitler demanded "change" using innocent CHILDREN as his "voice": He got it and millions suffered and died.
Castro demanded "change" using innocent CHILDREN as his "voice": He got it and millions suffered and died.
Obama demands "change" using innocent CHILDREN as his "voice": Will he get it and will millions more suffer and die?
YOUR decision on November 4th.

Babs was talking about the video below, which is creepy--but why hasn't anyone dredged up the video of young people singing Ronald Reagan songs during his 1966 gubernatorial race?

*Update: Garden Grove Unified is stricter with the book than earlier reported. See after the jump.
The proposition that was once about the state constitution and a ban on same-sex marriage has been whittled down to an argument over schools, sex education and, most entertainingly, a little children's book by a Dutch author called “King & King.” In the story, a prince falls in love with another prince and they wed happily ever after. A few weeks ago, after a teacher and her princess bride were wed in San Francisco, and her students showed up to surprise her, the Prop. 8 campaign – which is seeking to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage -- launched a series of ads with the little book as its central lethal weapon. Television, radio and mail ads feature a Massachusetts couple who made headlines two years ago when they sued their school district because their son was read the book in class (the court ruled against them, writing: "Diversity is a hallmark of our nation"). A version of the ad featuring the book has also run in Spanish throughout the state.

If the pro-Prop. 8 camp was so desperate to make sure the subject of same-sex marriage – and more importantly, that damn little book! -- was never broached in the classroom, why didn’t they just draft a proposition spelling this out? Instead they have underhandedly made the unfounded assertion that same-sex marriage will be “mandated” (as my mailer stated) and forced into the classroom if Prop. 8 doesn't pass. Now we have a surreal situation where the little-gay-book-that-could is making headlines and the state superintendent is showing up on T.V. to remind parents that they have total control over the sexual health education their kids receive in school.

Locally, none of the three biggest districts in the county, Santa Ana Unified, Capistrano Unified or Garden Grove Unified carry “King & King” on their library shelves. But gladly, it doesn't seem like the anti-King & King campaign will hurt the book's chances of showing up on bookshelves in the future.

*Updated, with new info on the bottom...

I will always be a fan of Art Pedroza, the county's original political blogger and the man behind Orange Juice!, because he's living proof that people's political philosophies can change—in Art's case, he went from a homo-hating, MEChA-bashing Republican to a Prop. 8-opposing virtual Aztlanista who tells it like it is, damn public opinion. Nevertheless, Art has an uphill battle in his campaign to wrest the SanTana City Council's Ward Three seat from Busty Bustamante—Busty has far outraised Art (more on Busty's campaign donors super-soon) and has the advantage of his incumbency, as incompetent and plain-pendejo Busty may be.

But hopefully, Busty has committed the error of this political season with a flier he sent out to SanTana declined-to-state voters attacking Pedroza. First off: is Busty that scared of Pedroza—a man with no institutional support—to spend thousands of dollars on a flier attacking what Busty's handlers label a "gadfly"? As much as I love Orange Juice!, the vast majority of SanTana's voters haven't heard of Pedroza or his blog—until now. Busty's flier is really just an advertisement to visit Pedroza's blog—shit, Busty's folks should file their effort as a donation to Pedroza.

Worse than that, though, is the flier itself: a picture of Pedroza buried under nuts with the legend "Is This Nutty [Gustavo's note: "nutty" is in Halloween-squiggly font] Or What?: Political Gadfly Art Pedroza Wants to Get Elected to the Santa Ana City Council." On the back, Busty & Co. gathered some Pedroza quotes over the years at Orange Juice!—but none of it is damning. So Art once talked about how the California State Constitution was written in Spanish—who cares? And who cares if Pedroza says that Cesar Chavez's illegals-hating ways will never get much publicity? It's true. The other quotes, if you read them carefully, show why the Libertarian Party endorsed Pedroza, which Busty's handlers ridiculously characterized as a party "which seeks to legalize prostitution and hard-core drugs." HA! Libertarians are much more committed to liberty than the OC GOP, a collection of self-hating gays, hypocrites, and felons—and those are the reputable folks.

It remains to be seen if Pedroza can pull the monumental upset, but one thing is clear: Busty is the stupidest politician this reporter has seen since the days of Harald Martin—and given that Busty works in the Banana Republic, which has spawned Papi Pulido, Nativo Lopez, Claudia Alvarez, and Ted Moreno, that is quite the accomplishment. Good luck, Art—at least this campaign has been as entertaining as the wackiness that passes for political discourse in Irvine!

*UPDATE: Trying to find out all the morons who wasted their money giving Pedroza a free ad for his blog, but one of the people behind it was Matt "Jubal" Cunningham of OC Blog, who openly despises Pedroza. Geez, Matt: You're supposed to be smart when it comes to political consulting. On one hand, I give you credit for being able to convince people to give money. On the other hand, if you're really trying to publicly smack Art, it landed with the equivalent force of a Vlad Guerrero postseason hit.

In my latest book, I devote a chapter to the many sins of the Orange County Republican Party but also hinted that they were finally evolving from the slimeball campaigns of the past when it came to scoring easy points off of demonizing Mexicans. Specifically, I pointed to the 2006 Tan Nguyen affair, where GOP chair Scott Baugh fully repudiated Nguyen and only the farthest extremes of party activists (i.e., the CCIR crowd) stood by their Tan.

So much for that goodwill. As noted by OC Blog, the OC GOP recently mailed out a hit piece on Fullerton City Council hopeful Karen Haluza, whose day job is planning manager for SanTana. Over pictures of apartment slums and the proposed One Broadway Plaza Freudian tower are these ominous words: "Stop Urban Planner Karen Haluza from Turning Fullerton Into Another Santa Ana!" (underlined in the original). If you still don't get it, the flier retells the same point on the other side: Will Karen Haluza Turn Fullerton into Another Santa Ana?"

The OC GOP plays its hand against Haluza with a racist brilliance not seen since the days of Tom Fuentes and his poll guards. "Santa Ana," of course, is code in Orange County for "Mexican" and all their supposed ills. I'm amazed the flier didn't show mango ladies and cholos, although it also had in caps the non-sequitur "LOW INCOME HIGH DENSITY APARTMENTS."

The statement is a non-sequitur, because Haluza isn't what the GOP makes her out to be. Indeed, if she wasn't a Democrat, they'd love her, as her vision is gentrifying Mexicans outta towns.

In the new issue of the Weekly, you'll find Greg Stacy's list of 25 reasons why John McCain sucks. To this, I'd like to add reason #26: He once referred to Bridget, his adopted Bangladeshi daughter, as "this ugly, black thing."

Maybe. Or probably? You be the judge, and read this first-person story from one Ana Dubey, a San Francisco psychologist, who had a creepy close encounter with McCain when she was on vacation about a decade ago. I found it on, of all places, Neil Young's website.

What was I doing on Neil Young's website, prey tell? Looking up some minor details for this Heard Mentality blog post....