A couple of nights ago, I had a reading in San Diego so decided to visit the maniacal genius known as Dr. William Nericcio, head of the English department at San Diego State and keeper of the insane Tex(t)-Mex blog. Before knocking back drinks with him at some Mean Streets-esque bar, I headed to SDSU's bookstore to find some used books. Everything was discounted to begin with AND 75 percent off, which meant I bought about $200 worth of books for $20--and which meant I was privy to the worst insult Irvine assemblymember Chuck DeVore has probably ever suffered.

In 2000, DeVore co-wrote China Attacks, which the conservative magazine Human Events praised as "...a page-turner for those interested in Sino-American affairs... this commonsense approach to foreign relations couldn't be more timely." It must be somewhat popular, because Amazon.com still has its second printing in stock at $14.76, but it also can't be that popular since used copies can be had at Amazon for $8.36. However, nothing can compare to the ignominy that San Diego State paid DeVore: China Attacks was available for 99 cents. Since there was a 75 percent discount on all books available, I scored DeVore's book for 24 cents. What the hell can you buy with $0.24 anymore? DeVore's book. Sorry, Chuck—no author deserves their tomes to depreciate so much, but I guess that's the free market, right?

Many factors turned Orange County into the wacky-conservative wonderland it's been for decades, and one of the key instigators passed away this Monday. Former California State Assembly leader Joe Shell never lived in Orange County (although his daughter works at Cal State Fullerton in some capacity that currently escapes me), but his failed 1962 gubernatorial primary run against local boy Richard Nixon galvanized the county's conservative grassroots activists. The GOP infighting between its moderate (who supported Nixon) and caveman (who backed Shell) wings during the primary spurred a group of Orange County businessmen to create the Lincoln Club. And Shell's supporters went on to rally behind Newport Beach dentist Nolan Frizzelle when he sought the presidency of the California Republican Assembly in 1964. That year, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater lost badly to incumbent Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election—but Orange County's conservative cred was secured. And the rest, as they say, is historia.

'I Lit the Fire': Jared Petrovich claims he was just following orders when his words sparked a fatal jailhouse beating; April 3, 2008, By Nick Schou

An Open Letter to DA Tony Rackauckas Regarding the Jailhouse Murder of John Chamberlain; March 13, 2008, By Nick Schou

Tased and Not Confused: To lawyer in OC jailhouse-tasing incident, missing footage is no shocker; May 10, 2007, By Nick Schou

Thanks for the Work! An open letter to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, Sheriff Mike Carona, and the police chiefs and mayors of every Orange County city except Laguna Niguel; April 4, 2007, By Nick Schou

Blind Spot: For OC jail inmate John Chamberlain, jailhouse justice served as judge, jury—and executioner; March 29, 2007, By Nick Schou

The Trials of Billy Joe, White Supremacist: Gang leader and murder suspect says he was brutalized by jail deputies; February 16, 2006, By R. Scott Moxley

Carona Makeover: Another day, another jail beating in OC; October 6, 2005, By R. Scott Moxley

Justice Takes a Beating: OC court greenlights torture in local jails; August 11, 2005, By R. Scott Moxley

If ever a man looked like a sheriff, it’s Jack Anderson. The mustachioed man is tall and husky and, if he wore a cowboy hat, would cast an impressive shadow sitting on a horse.

Of course, the wild—ridiculously wild—west days at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) should be over. Ex-Sheriff Mike Carona and his evil sidekicks Jo Ann Galisky and Steven Bishop have found their rightful places in society. Carona teeters on the brink of prison if convicted later this year in a bribery/obstruction of justice scheme. Fired or forced out of their assistant sheriff jobs, Galisky and Bishop nowadays can soil only their plain clothes.

Sitting atop the OCSD is acting Sheriff Jack Anderson, a 47-year-old Illinois native who begs reporters not to tie him to . . . (in a Monday interview, he made a dismissive sweeping motion with his right hand, and then said) . . . “the previous sheriff and all of his problems.”

Anderson doesn’t have to be particularly wise to appreciate that Carona and his former inner circle at the department are politically radioactive. And yet—like Galisky, Bishop and ex-assistant sheriffs turned felons George Jaramillo and Don Haidl—Anderson can’t deny the truth: Carona put the stars on his uniform and welcomed him into an arrogant OCSD inner sanctum that prized deceit above all else.

But Jack doesn’t want to be in the Carona box. “I’m not part of all that,” he told me. “That’s the past. It’s unfair to tie me to it. I think I can take this department back to what it should be—a place where people are proud to work and the public can trust.”

What influence does Carona have today? I asked.

“None,” said Anderson. “That’s the way it should be. He is history.”

As evidence, he pointed to a wall near the sheriff’s inner office that once held photographs of a smiling Carona embracing Hollywood celebrities and fellow politicians. “It was all about him, you know?” said Anderson.

He replaced the photographs with a motto etched into the wall: “The men and women of the sheriff’s department are its heart and the institution is greater than any individual.”

Is Anderson merely telling outsiders what he thinks they want to hear? Skeptics say yes. They insist that the department needs a thorough break from Carona and his assistants. And they are none too keen on what they see as behind-the-scenes ties between Anderson and Carona adviser Mike Schroeder.

“Jack is a nice guy, but he’s not the independent leader we need,” said Bill Hunt, the high-ranking deputy whom a pre-indicted Carona fired because he’d challenged him in the 2006 elections. “Jack’s baggage is Carona and Schroeder. They wrecked the department. We’ve got to get beyond these people.”

Hunt, who scored the recent endorsement of the deputies’ union, is one of nearly two dozen applicants hoping to be selected June 3 by the county’s Board of Supervisors. The prize? Head California’s second largest sheriff’s department. Other local candidates include Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Commander Ralph Martin, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters and Craig Hunter, deputy chief of police in Anaheim.

From Schroeder's perspective, one candidate has zero chance of winning.

"Hunt claims that he is the corruption fighter but ignores the two 800-pound elephants in the room," Schroeder told the Weekly. "The first elephant is that the Attorney General determined that Hunt engaged in a cover-up relating to Don Haidl and George Jaramillo, including the altering of official reports. Mr. Hunt also claims that Anderson is tainted because he was promoted by Carona. This brings us to the second elephant in the room: Hunt was also promoted to all of his management positions by the former sheriff. Hunt may think he is a strong candidate, but with these elephants on his back, no one outside his inner circle seriously regards him as such."

Based on numerous interviews, it appears that Hunt's support is largely from the public. No surprise there. Hunt is the man who finished second against Carona in the last election. But views among members of the Board of Supervisors apparently differ. Depending on who you talk to, the top three local candidates appear to be Walters, Anderson and Martin.

A move by Supervisor Janet Nguyen to conduct a national interview process has had the effect of giving Anderson--once a dark horse, at best--a chance. He's effectively the incumbent now. On a daily basis, he's able to enhance his public image by speaking at crime scenes and issuing reforms. Perhaps more important, he’s got a powerful fan.

Is Mike Schroeder a bad lawyer? Or just a bad liar?

R. Scott Moxley recently announced Schroeder’s hackneyed effort to kneecap Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook’s election challenge to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Islamabad). It seems Schroeder took issue with Cook’s reference to herself on the ballot as “Mayor” because she was appointed by representatives. At the time, we had no idea just how hackneyed the effort was. In the marvelous words of the court document, prepared by Judges Rylaardsdam and Ikola:

The theory is that section 13107, subdivision (a)(1) of the Elections Code only allows reference to an “elective city ... office which the candidate holds at the time of filing the nomination documents.” (While we do not decide the issue now, we do observe that under this reading of the statute, the President of the United States, having been elected by the Electoral College or House of Representatives, would not qualify.) The theory was apparently to try to establish that the duties of a mayor in a major city in Orange County are ceremonial at best, so that Cook could not claim that being “mayor” was a principal profession, vocation or occupation under section 13107, subdivision (a)(3). That is a highly counterintuitive proposition at best, given that mayors of cities of the population of Huntington Beach typically are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to major municipal emergencies, have independent powers of appointment, receive extra compensation, serve on regional commissions and are under a duty, often spared ordinary council members, of attendance at ceremonial functions.

Highly counterintuitive at best? Howsabout at worst? Why would such a skilled strategist as Schroeder, allegedly a Machiavellian mastermind pulling the strings behind the Orange Curtain of the OC Republican power structure, make such a boneheaded claim? Not only that, but why would he fail to PROPERLY make such a boneheaded claim? It turns out Secretary of State Debra Bowen is required to make such a call in Congressional primaries, and thus she is what’s known as an indispensible party and must be named in any such complaint.

She wasn’t. Should Schroeder have picked up on that fact? The court seems to think so.

After pondering a posting tonight at theliberaloc.com by Gila Jones, I'm guessing that Orange County Republican pollsters have worrisome data that raises concerns about the safety of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's re-election chances in November.

An enigma wrapped in lies, a temper, quixotic brain functions, shameless self-promotion, questionable personal habits, margarita breath and a dress code likely suggested by a well-meaning but drunk Frank Mickadeit, Rohrabacher is, by any reasonable measure, the one GOPer county Democrats should be able to unseat.

Yet, Dem efforts to date have been pathetic. He's easily won election after election for nearly two decades. It didn't help that after the last U.S. Census Democrat Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez used her influence with Democrats in the state legislature to strengthen Rohrabacher's gerrymandered California coastal district in an behind the scenes game of incumbency protection.

Now, Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook is set to take on Rohrabacher and Michael J. Schroeder--Rohrabacher pal, GOP heavyweight and plotting political mastermind--is attempting to convince the court system that Cook can't call herself "mayor" on the ballot. His reasoning? Cook was elected to the position by the HB city council, not the public.

You don't say?

Perhaps Schroeder is just bored and waiting for the next USC football season. Then again, perhaps internal Republican pollings suggests local voters are finally tired of the pro-war, pro-status quo crew and Rohrabacher's campaign is looking for ways to put Cook on the defensive from the outset.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Parents of 7th, 8th and 9th grade boys can relax a wee bit more this afternoon. Jeffrey Ray Nielsen--a onetime congressional aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and a serial pedophile--is now in custody of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Superior Court Judge David Thompson sentenced the 37-year-old Nielsen, son of former Fountain Valley Mayor Ben Nielsen, to three years in an as-yet-to-be-named California prison. Read the full story of today's hearing in next week's edition of Moxley Confidential in the Weekly.

Click here for prior coverage of the Nielsen pedophile saga.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Holding a gun with both hands sent sensations racing down his spine to a semi-firm point between his legs. Gordon Dillow wanted to moan—purr, really—like he did in the privacy of his home. But he’d been warned twice before about fondling weapons inside Orange County Register headquarters. There was also the problem of his co-workers: in his mind, a bunch of unapologetic liberals, women, homosexuals, Jews and "gooks."** He knew they didn’t sympathize with the depths of his love for men in uniform, weapons, badges, boots, steel neck collars and cop domination techniques—particularly ones performed on young brown people who haven't yet learned to quickly salute state authority.

Dillow’s memory flashed to the time in the men’s room when he had reached out to another Register employee in hopes of finding an ideological soul mate. The man flushed, called him a “sick douche bag” and stormed out. Weeks later the Pentagon’s PR unit sent Dillow to Iraq under the ruse that he was an independent embedded journalist. Men. Uniforms. Weapons. Heat. Torture. Dead civilians. He felt so blessed he tried to stay indefinitely.

But that was several years ago. Dillow gripped the gun tightly, squeezed his eyelids and recalled his favorite photograph: a smirking, erect Heinrich Himmler, dressed spectacularly in a Nazi uniform and surrounded by shirtless males ready to obey. He sighed and let his mind wonder about the possibility of a master race.

A tingling returned. He rolled his chair over to his office door and quietly locked it shut. Deadline for his next column was 15 minutes away. What could he write about? Cops? Soldiers? Cop/soldiers? A coin flip wouldn’t help.

His eyes searched his office in hopes of sparking an idea. A Donna Summer song played softly in the background. There--partially hidden underneath his prized copy of a My Lai massacre movie (actual footage!) and a stack of photographs he’d secretly taken of men entering an Army recruiting station in Stanton on successive Saturdays--he found inspiration: a Register crime story. I’ll let him tell describe his excitement:

“It happened earlier this month in Irvine,” Dillow wrote for today’s column. “Police were looking for a man suspected of raping an 18-year-old woman in her home. As the cops searched, the fleeing suspect, a 27-year-old L.A. gang member, tried to hide by breaking into another home. Inside, the homeowner, a man who had recently undergone defensive firearms training, heard the commotion, grabbed a handgun and confronted the suspect.”

Men. Uniforms. Gun. Action.

Dillow swiveled repeatedly in his seat, purred and looked over his shoulder. Yes, the office door remained shut. In the distance he heard Tony Saavedra snoring, Frank Mickadeit bragging about his own popularity and Martin Wisckol slowly repeating a series of orders from GOP boss Mike Schroeder. Even for Dillow, those noises were troublesome. He re-focused his attention on the rapist article.

“Well, I don’t have enough space to go into all the Second Amendment arguments,” he wrote. “But to me it’s obvious that a homeowner in Irvine or any other law-abiding citizen has a constitutional right to have a firearm.”

Dillow finished typing and smiled. His left hand dropped to his lap region. Nobody—not a single person on the entire planet—had argued that this homeowner wasn’t legally entitled to possess a gun or use it in self-defense. The 57-year-old columnist marveled at his ability to produce imaginary dilemmas. And get paid! For the first time since the California Supreme Court strengthened police secrecy and lethal force laws, Dillow laughed out loud, packed up and went to CVS to buy more hand lotion.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

**In a column, Dillow once admitted "there was a time when I called [Vietnamese] gooks without so much as a second thought." Repentant? Nope. Later, in 1999, he defended--imagine this!--caucasian police officers in Orange County's Little Saigon calling Vietnamese Americans "gooks."

In February 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Orange County Republican Lynn Daucher as director of California's Department of Aging. At the time, Daucher--a 2006 campaign loser to Lou Correa for a state Senate seat--uttered a predictable line about the elation of public service.

“I am excited that Governor Schwarzenegger has chosen me to serve aging Californians,” she told reporters.

To be cynical—like we are about the 61-year-old Fullerton resident's credibility, there were $117,997 annual reasons for her joy.

But winning a cushy government post may not have been good enough for Daucher. Sources tell the Weekly that Daucher is embroiled in a behind-the-scenes controversy. The issue, we're told, pertains to Daucher's travel bills. Specifically, there are concerns that she's been improperly charging California taxpayers for personal travel and then attempting to mask the expenditures.

A Schwarzenegger administration official declined to address the issue on the record, but admits Daucher's days could be numbered in the Sacramento-based post.

Sarah Ludeman, spokeswoman at the Department of Aging, did not respond to two days' worth of phone calls.

In 2006, we named Daucher Worst Candidate in Orange County based on a campaign of shameful lies about Correa, a conservative Democrat, and an alleged unspecified plan by homosexuals to take over the world.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

On the fifth anniversary of U.S. involvement in the Iraq War, 500 protectors engaged in a silent, single-file march down Main Street in Huntington Beach.

Members of dozens of peace organizations under the Orange County Peace Coalition gathered near the Huntington Pier armed with folding card tables, flyers and bold signs. Among the groups present were Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Cal State Fullerton Students for Peace and Justice, Code Pink and the Grey Panthers.

Carefree beach goers swatted volley balls on the sand and white crested waves disintegrated in the background as organizers rallied members of the public to be a part of this local stance against what has become a wildly unpopular war.

Children and adults of all ages huddled together to cross the intersection from the pier to Main Street as the procession began to form. There were parents wheeling strollers, elderly people shuffling with canes, teens and twenty-somethings sporting colorful, neo-hippie garb.

During the slow, tedious walk up and down the street, curious and cynical patrons darted glances from cars and cafe tables or in passing as they darted by on foot.

In May 2006, OC Weekly broke the news that then-Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona had allowed fellow con man Joseph M. Medawar to film the county's top secret anti-terrorism training procedures three years earlier. (See "Department of Homeland Stupidity.") A native of Lebanon, Medawar used the footage and personal endorsements from Carona and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Skipped Vietnam combat duty, pictured), to bilk more than $5.5 million from unsuspecting Republicans and religious conservatives. Medawar claimed the money would fund a new television series called DHS, but the FBI discovered the cash had been diverted to personal use including a $40,000-a-month Beverly Hills mansion. (Rohrabacher grabbed $23,000 of the loot under the pretense that Medawar, 46, paid him for a decades old, worthless script.) Since then, Carona's been indicted in a separate bribery scam, Rohrabacher continues babbling about whatever and Medawar's gone to prison. But last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the con man's punishment. Federal sentencing guidelines called for Medawar to get 57 to 71 months in prison. Los Angeles-based U.S. Judge Manuel L. Real, an LBJ appointee of dubious ethics and temperament, had ignored the cries of 50 victims and—without explanation—given Medawar a light 366-day sentence. The appellate justices told Real to try again.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

With apologies to Orange County Register sports genius Randy Youngman, notes, quotes and observations from yesterday's Orange County Hispanic Bar Association annual fundraising dinner:

*Greeting the well-dressed, well-coiffed crowd as they drove toward the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel were about eight anti-Mexican whackjobs--and we don't add the "anti-illegal immigrant" qualifier like other journalists because they told more than one cute attorney of Mexican descent to "go home." Spotted was Lupe "Mexicans are Nazis; Americans are Jews" Moreno, the wab with the "Viva Minutemen" sign and other Know Nothings, whose sartorial sense showed that you don't have to be an illegal immigrant to dress swap meet-chic.

*Spotted: State senator Lou Correa, assemblyman Jose Solorio, and SanTana councilmembers Claudia Alvarez, Michelle Martinez, Vince Sarmiento, and David Benavides (Sal Tinajero was announced but I didn't see him). When Martinez and Alvarez sat at the same table, it sparked the coldest chill since the Ice Age.

*Winning bid for a dinner with yours truly and an autographed copy of my pinche book: $50. Damn cheap Mexicans...

*Course: so-so ceviche salad, delicious prawns paired with a too-tender tenderloined rubbed in a tasty adobo, and a soft, yummy chocolate ganache cake. Everyone could've been better served down the street at Bentoss.

*KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Dave Lopez served as emcee, and the legend was ornery. Twice, he browbeat people into shushing, at one point uttering "Gimme a break!" Love your stuff, Dave, but never imagined you to be such a diva.

*Somehow, I ended up with the business card of Los Angeles Times legal reporter Henry Weinstein. Bizarre...

*Your taxpayer dollars at work: all 560 attendees received two small chocolate bars (more like bites) wrapped in foil labeled with "University of California, Irvine." The chocolate was gross.

*In fairness to UCI, its new law professor Erwin Chemerinsky was the keynote speaker. Didn't stick around to hear his spiel, but betcha Mickadeit'll be all over it tomorrow.

*Special thanks to the folks at Rutan and Tucker for letting me sit at their table. When I asked about the whereabouts of their pendejo co-worker, Patrick Muñoz, they nervously laughed and move the conversation to polite topics.

Over at the Orange County Register, ace reporter Peggy Lowe writes tonight on Orange County Sheriff's Department blog news that two of indicted ex-Sheriff Mike Carona's Yes Folks (YF) quit today: assistant sheriffs Jo Ann Galisky and Steve Bishop.

Somehow the third and final major YFer embarrassment, Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson, remains . . . sitting atop the massive police agency, repeatedly uttering four words: "I am the sheriff' and waiting, nervously, for guidance from Carona/GOP operative Mike Schroeder.

Can the public and the honest people at OCSD ever get decent leadership? I ask this to you, Janet Nguyen.

Today's developments prefaced an upcoming unflattering grand jury report on the brutal killing of a man in pre-trial custody in October 2006. The Carona-Galisky-Bishop lie, oops, line was that a deputy standing feet away from the lethal beating (that lasted, perhaps, 20 minutes) suffers from severe ADD. They proposed that he remained clueless to the gory killing because, drum roll, he was too busy watching TV.

According to the new public employee union contract, jail deputies are required to work only during regularly scheduled TV commercials and not at all during sporting events or the airing of porno.

There's good news though. Galisky--who recently hired a criminal defense lawyer (no, really!)--won't join the unemployment line. She's announced that she will head a new private detective firm with Carona and Bishop: Blatant Liar, Screw Em & Duh, LLP.

They'll specialize in sexual harassment, illegal eavesdropping, misuse of public property and unnecessary government employee travel abroad cases. Galisky's focus? Evidence elimination and grand jury preparation tactics.

The ultra-trustworthy Full Disclosure Network reports that other notables are set to participate in the firm too. Don Haidl will supply employee perks--free boats, cash and Bible-based pep talks, but only if he gets to wear a Blatant Liar, Screw Em & Duh badge. Thanks to a grant from a mysterious individual with mysterious interests, Brian Sun and something like nine other Jones Day lawyers will work as, uhhh, "free" employees. Incarcerated Las Vegas titty bar owner Rick Rizzolo and ex-federal prosecutor Wayne Gross, a Carona apologist, have already signed on as clients. Meanwhile, Reg columnist Frank Mickadeit--who lives with Gross!?!?!--is waiting for final instructions from Schroeder before he writes a flattering column on Galisky's new business.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Not exactly as sexy as water for chocolate, but still.

Those crafty bastards over at Sunlight Foundation have cranked out the latest version of their watchdog tool for the Senate, Congress, committees, lobbyists and legislature: Open Congress.

We've recently added more ways to access the info created by the public on OpenCongress: helpful comments, votes on hot bills, social networking about your interests, and more.

To find out how these new features bring you closer to what's really happening in Congress, visit today's announcement on our blog:

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/431-New-Features-on-My-OpenCongress

Even if you haven't joined "My OpenCongress", you can help make our
site more useful. We hope you'll take a few minutes to fill out this
new user survey, your feedback is really important:

http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/11719/opencongress.htm

It's been exciting to watch the "My OpenCongress" community grow over
the past weeks and start discussions on just about everything in
Congress. We have lots more features to release in the months ahead,
so please stay tuned and let us know what you think!

Thanks,

David & the "MyOC" Team

Get it? See the relevance? OC Weekly, MyOC? That's right, baby. Copyright infringement. Just kidding.

The site is quite cool in that within minutes you can not only tabulate how a particular representative has voted or track not just the passage of a bill through committees but details on the sponsorship of said bill as well. For professional and citizen journalists, that's like talking about the texture of the lace teddy you're going to wear to the Equestrian Suite at the Madonna Inn. Or maybe that's just me.

Just in case there are any others out there...

As expected, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney were the overwhelming #1 and #2 choices. Both candidates also appeared on ballots for the Peace & Freedom Party, and came out #1 and #2 there as well. West Virginia actor Jesse Johnson got my vote...and exactly 23 others in OC.

Final tallies, from the LA Times:

GREEN PARTY

Nader 940
McKinney 237
Elaine Brown 59 (despite having dropped out of both the race and the party)
Kat Swift 34
Jared Ball 25 (also despite having dropped out of the race)
Jesse Johnson 24
Kent Mesplay 24

In other words, not only am I a member of a party that nearly always loses, I voted for the guy within that party who was tied for last place in my precinct.

Still, even Johnson wasn't the losing-est candidate of the day. That honor goes to the Peace & Freedom Party's Stanley Hetz, a Pennsylvanian who ran for Senate against Rick Santorum as a member of the Socialist Party, and is the author of a book about Joe Montana. Hetz's grand total in Orange County?

Zero votes. Statewide, a grand total of 88. I think even I could do better.

Meanwhile, a guy actually named Mad Max, of the right-wing American Independent Party, got 999 votes locally. Go figure.

I previously posted about all the Green Party primary candidates HERE, but that field has since narrowed. Jared Ball, the professor of African-American studies and hip-hop who most likely would have been my choice, has dropped out of the race, though his name will still appear on the ballot.

Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney will probably take it based on name recognition alone. But you can still cast a valid vote for actor/filmmaker Jesse Johnson, environmental engineer Kent Mesplay, or Texas-based activist Kat Swift.

And since Nader only associates with the Greens when it's convenient for him, think carefully before picking him. He seems to treat the party like his personal booty call. Remember how he promised to start building the party into a viable progressive movement after 2000, then didn't even run in its primary in 2004?

Yes, I know that's a long-overused joke. But it fits here -- there's a presidential primary coming up, and nowhere in any media outlets have I seen any discussion of the Green Party's presidential candidates.

I understand why: in 2004, Peter Camejo won most of the primaries but the Party gave the nomination to David Cobb anyway, and Camejo bolted to run with Ralph Nader independently. Still, as I am a registered Green, I'd like to know which primary candidate I should support.

So I looked into who's actually running. . .

First, Ralph Nader. Well, his name's on the ballot, but he hasn't officially decided to run yet, and he even kinda-sorta endorsed John Edwards a while back. But now Edwards is gone, so Ralph may run again, despite the fact that almost nobody wants him to.

We like Arizona Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain much more than his automaton flip-flopper (and Hugh Hewitt favorite) main opponent, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. But we've never been able to understand why Little Saigon's power brokers never asked McCain to apologize back in 2000, when he appeared before thousands in Westminster's Asian Garden Mall a couple of weeks after referring to Vietnamese as "gooks." McCain offered spin prior to appearing, explaining he only used the slur in reference to his former Communist captors during the Vietnam War, and Vietnamese politicians accepted his worm-out. That didn't placate young Vietnamese-American activists, who protested McCain's appearance and...well, you'll have to read our R. Scott Moxley's disheartening take on it.

Now word comes that State Assemblymember Van Tran and his elected cronies are supporting McCain's campaign. "I am very proud to support John McCain, a man who has done so much for America and for Asian-Americans across our nation," Tran said in the press release. "He clearly is the best candidate to represent all Americans in the White House." The Trannies can support whomever they want, of course, but can you imagine the howls of laughter if Latino politicians endorsed a candidate that used to call Mexicans wabs and beaners, then recanted only upon pressure coming from other people and then claiming they only used the word to describe cholos?

So, this has nothing to do with Heath Ledger's overdose, but it's news that broke today and we've been with this story for a while now, so what the hell.

Last September we spent some time with the CUSD Recall Committee, a feisty, frustrated group of parents and South County residents who pledged to collect enough signatures (read: 60,000) to recall two long-serving trustees on the beleaguered Capistrano Unified School District board. They've done it, they announced today. But they're hoping the two trustees will avoid the recall election by resigning. Soon. By next week.

After five months of signature gathering, the group announced today that they'll be submitting more than 32,000 signatures per trustee within the next week to the Registrar of Voters. "Our message today is resign or face certain recall," Recall Committee member and Rancho Santa Margarita city councilmember, Tony Beall told a group of television, radio and print reporters. Eight boxes containing a bulk of the 60,000 signatures were stacked high around Beall in front of the district headquarters in San Juan Capistrano.

While the rest of Orange County hit the beach today or watched the San Diego Chargers upset the Colts (Yes!), Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez showed one reason why she keeps winning elections and annoying the local Republican Party. A clipboard-toting Sanchez--and three accompanying aides--registered new voters in her district that's gerrymandered through Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove. Wearing black pants and a red and white striped rugby shirt not befitting the 80 degree SoCal heat, our county's lone congressional Democrat, knocked on doors and chatted with residents with the enthusiasm of a rookie candidate. We haven't always been fans but it was nice to see that Sanchez, who doesn't appear to have a primary challenger, remembers the folks who send her to DC. Can you believe it was more than a decade ago that she defeated fiery conservative Robert K. Dornan?

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Last month's edition of The Atlantic profiles Barack Obama in several articles. One of them, "Teacher and Apprentice," a must-read piece on the Obama-Clinton relationship by Marc Ambinder, contains a couple of theories about what lit a fire under the man's ass and made him decide to seek presidency.

One such theory involves our fair county:

Many Obama friends and advisers believe that the realization he actually could be president first hit Obama on December 1, 2006, which happened to be World AIDS Day. Obama appeared at the megachurch in Orange County, California, run by Rick Warren, the best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life and an emerging force in national politics. Sam Brownback, the Republican senator from Kansas, spoke first. “Welcome to my house,” he said to Obama, as the crowd laughed. When Obama rose to speak, he replied, “There is one thing I’ve got to say, Sam: This is my house, too. This is God’s house.” Before an audience of socially conservative evangelical Christians, Obama then called for “realism” and advocated the use of condoms to control the spread of AIDS. As the next day’s Orange County Register described it, Obama received a “hearty standing ovation.” Could any other Democrat, Obama wondered, talk to evangelicals about condoms in Africa?

Read the entire piece here.

So Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee won Iowa. As of 10:30 pm Eastern time and according to CNN projections, Obama picked up 38% of the Democratic vote while Clinton and Edwards each got about 29%. Meanwhile, Huckabee apparently cleaned up with 34% (although Hugh Hewitt's biographical buddy Mitt Romney managed to come in second with 25%).

Your mission, should you choose to accept it - go to cnn.com and find Mike Huckabee's victory speech, which I'm listening to live at the moment. Watch the film. Stare at it. Become fixated by the floating, grinning head of Chuck Norris. Chuck looks like he just kicked the shit out of a whole boatload of al Qaeda, then used Castro's beard to wipe the blood off his boots. See if you can catch the moment when he switches from Huckabee's left-hand man to his right-hand man.

Obey Chuck Norris!

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona--indicted by federal prosecutors for public corruption--claims that surreptitious wires worn by co-conspirator Don Haidl, a former assistant sheriff, prove his innocence.

Indeed, the sheriff's lawyer says that Carona “is so anxious to fight these charges that we have to hold him back.”

If this is true and not just shameless spin, I challenge Carona to do something in his power: play the contents of the tapes in their entirety for the public now.

Show us that FBI agents are liars, as you claim. Show us that you didn't try to get Haidl to perjure himself about bribes you took for years. Show the Orange County Republican Party that your character is pure. Show the Orange County Sheriff's Department that I've been wrong about you all these years.

Or, as I suspect, are you afraid--no, terrified--of what those tapes reveal?

We're waiting. . . .

P.S. We're familiar with your PR playbook, sheriff. Playing select portions of the tapes for a friendly OC Register reporter/columnist won't meet the challenge.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

...isn't the everlasting battle between the Weekly and Orange County Register, Register staff and the new publisher, or even the Hatfield-McCoy madness that happened at this rag earlier this year and still persists (read a coming Hey You! for further details!) but the fight between two of our favorite local blogs: The Liberal OC and Orange Juice!. Late last year, The Liberal OC stole South County Democratic stalwart Gila Jones from Orange Juice!; this week, they swooped in and offered SanTana activist Sean Mill a home after Mill had a falling-out with head Juicer Art Pedroza. Liberal OC blogger Chris Prevatt announced the new development but couldn't resist taking a shot at Pedroza; in turn, Pedroza blasted Mill and continued the fight at the Liberal OC. Best part of this? All sides were at Memphis at the Santora last Thursday for Liberal Drinking, with Mill clutching a stogie, Pedroza working the crowd, and the Liberal OC guys bidding adios to own of their own.

It was like the scene in The Godfather when the Five Families meet and decide how to carve up New York--except remember this is Orange County, Juicers and Libs, and ustedes are far away from being Corleones. All of us fighting the good fight are still mere Johnny Fontaines, for that matter. So stop the bickering, get your wartime consiglieres, and go after the Turk!

(Sorry for all the Godfather references, but I've seen it three times over this long weekend...)

The Republican Party of Orange County's Weekly Squeeze e-letter (guys: drop the cutesy orange metaphor, por favor) tells me today that longtime local GOP activist Kathy Tavoularis is now Executive Director of the California Delegation to the 2008 Republican National Convention. "A well organized delegation is extremely important for our candidates and delegates, and Kathy is uniquely qualified to take on this role," California GOP chairman Ron Nehring tells the Squeeze. Not only that, but Tavoularis also exemplifies the bigotry and elitism that wins the OC GOP elections in their home turf but proves to be a disaster again and again in the state and nation.

In 2003, Tavoularis told Ron Reagan (son of the Great Gipper) for a Salon.com piece that central County, populated mostly by Asians and Latinos, was "the armpit of Orange County." Minorities'll surely love that quote, no? Go spread our ethos to the rest of the state GOP, Kathy--and do you have any bananas?

• Did Carona Create Yet Another Monster? If I was indicted Sheriff Michael S. Carona, I might be getting tired of Jo Ann Galisky, Kool-Aid Queen. This acting sheriff bit has swelled her mullet. Six weeks after she became temporary head honcho, she's still telling everyone she can that Carona's absence "has had no impact" at the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Galisky (pictured busy at work) barked the line again yesterday, according to Peggy Lowe at the Register. Galisky's wrong again. At a minimum, dozens of married, slightly overweight, emotionally-needy, low-level female department employees are safe from sexual harassment at work. Lowe also reports that county counsel told the board of supervisors that they are powerless to alter Carona's self-imposed paid-leave absence. Board Chairman Chris Norby then declared Carona "still sheriff in every sense of the word," which is a funny thought given that our indicted top lawman is spending his days trying to get folks to participate in his coverup hopes. Oh, sure. I'm kidding. Mikey wouldn't do that himself. Cowards always get slap-happy morons to do their dirty work.
• I've done something terrible: Jeffrey Ray Nielsen--the Orange County Republican activist pedophile and ex-Dana Rohrabacher aide--finally admitted he's guilty of pleasuring himself sexually with a 12-year-old Virginia boy and a Westminster high school freshman boy. You've read the pathetic tales here. But some folks at the Register are disturbed by my Nielsen coverage. In my most recent story a week ago, I noted that the Reg had celebrated Nielsen as a compassionate hero allegedly saving homeless kittens from the Katrina disaster WITHOUT EVER MENTIONING THAT HE WAS AT THE TIME AN ACCUSED PEDOPHILE. "Nowhere did [our story] mention kittens," read an email from a staffer. Yep, it was homeless puppies the paper claimed Nielsen was aiding WITHOUT EVER MENTIONING THAT HE WAS AT THE TIME AN ACCUSED PEDOPHILE. I apologize for my error. [Editor's note: Actually, our story did say puppies, not kittens. So we're right, and they're wrong. Again.]
• Christian Broadcasting Network Finds OC "War": Pat Robertson's CBN folks went looking for villains and found--oh, Jesus, no--"homosexuals" once again. Of course, it's not good enough that the Sodomites want equal protection under the law. According to CBN, they've cleverly infiltrated schools as teachers and want to wear dresses to work. If a student voices opposition to the garments, they'll be sued by the homosexual teacher, according to Jose Gonzales, "a concerned Orange County resident." Gonzales told CBN, "We're in the middle of a big culture war and what's at stake right now is the traditional family." Jose, please let me know when the first lawsuit is filed.
-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

In a couple of months, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen will seek reelection in the First Supervisorial District. The race will be brutal, as Nguyen will have to fend off Trung "Don't Call me Tan" Nguyen (whom she beat earlier this year in a special election by a scant three votes) and whomever the Democrats trot out to the abattoir. OC Blog reports Janet will kick off her fundraising efforts on Nov. 5, but she's already scored one of the most prestigious endorsements in Orange County--the 22 Freeway.

Amid gifts of flowers, hand-made placards and shouts of "We love you Loretta!" from a crowd of approximately 20 people, Rep. Loretta Sanchez--Orange County's lone Democratic voice in Congress--returned from a trip to Vietnam.

A website, perhaps tied to Sanchez, has posted a video of her arrival celebration at Los Angeles International Airport. You can see it here.

Details of her trip aren't yet know. Hell, I didn't even know she was gone. Communist Party officials, who govern Vietnam, haven't always been happy with Sanchez's focus on human rights abuses.

With the growing influence of Vietnamese American voters in central Orange County elections, Sanchez can't lose by challenging Vietnamese government officials to make democratic reforms and allow greater religious freedom.

An Orange County judge granted a new pretrial hearing date for ex-superintendent of Capistrano Unified School District, James Fleming and ex-assistant superintendent, Susan McGill. The pretrial hearing was scheduled for this morning, with a jury trial set to begin Oct. 29, but lawyers for both McGill and Fleming requested the new date of Dec. 7. A new jury trial date will not be set until after the Dec. 7 pretrial. Both Fleming and McGill were indicted in late May for conspiring to commit acts injurious to the public and misappropriating district funds to create lists of proponents of a recall election intended to oust the seven school board trustees. McGill was additionally indicted on a perjury charge. (See "Hard Knocks", Oct. 5).

A majority of Irvine voters are Republicans and yet for years Larry Agran's progressive political machine has controlled the mayor's office. It's a reality Republican city councilwoman Christina Shea hopes to shatter next year. This morning Shea announced that she will run for the job herself.

Shea will face Agran's Sukhee Kang and whatever shell Republican campaign Agran also secretly sponsors to the divide GOP voters.

Over the years, Shea has been the bee in Agran's bonnet, especially on ethics, secrecy and government spending. Republicans hail her as a competent watchdog. Large numbers of Democrats often seethe at the mention of her name, believing she is an obstructionist to Agran’s lefty ideas. Still others in Irvine say Shea is a political lightweight.

Beth Krom, the current mayor and a member of Agran’s political machine, will exit the job next year due to term limits.

Shea served terms as mayor from 1996-2000 and has worked on the city council since 1992.

In the last mayor's race, the Agran machine run an unknown Earl Zucht as a fake Republican candidate. It was a slimy but effective move that siphoned several thousand critical votes from legitimate Republican candidates and allow Krom to win.