Everybody Cares About Musical Chairs
Well, the mayor's most recent misstep (of many) last Tuesday night has gained notoriety for our fair city far and wide. Both the Daily Pilot, here, and the Orange County Register, here, took shots at the council for the mayor's clumsy attempt to shuffle the deck on the dais and force Linda Dixon over to the hinterlands with Katrina Foley. Orange County blogs were buzzin' with it's own special brand of speculation. Byron De Arakal, over on Itchingpost.com, said it best - as usual.
Simultaneously, the two main posters on the Orange Juice! blog, Claudio Gallegos and Art Pedroza (who resigned from the Orange County Republican Party Central Committee after the recent elections because of his disenchantment with the organization) have made Costa Mesa their cause of the week. Gallegos continued his three-part interview with a "Westside Improver", and promises a more incendiary finale next week. Pedroza wrote a blog entry, which included input from our young jailer/mayor, regarding the differences between Costa Mesa and Santa Ana - of which there are many.
Both sets of postings have generated several comment threads of the type we've come to expect on that blog - dominated by heated raves by gutless anonymous posters. I guess if you're part of the SantaAnaCentric inside group you've learned to deal with it, but from an outsider's standpoint it sure does seem non-productive.
There's a lot of speculation going on around town right now on 1) whether the mayor will actually agendize the issue of the seating chart for a future meeting and 2) just who is Gallegos' anonymous westsider?
As to the first question, I wouldn't be surprised if he continues to display poor judgment and actually require the staff to prepare an agenda item for consideration. History has shown us that he's capable of such lapses. In fact, using poor judgment seems to be his normal mode.
I doubt we will ever find out the identity of the anonymous Westside Improver. I suspect the poor person fears for his or her safety, so will choose to remain unidentified. I guess I can't blame him or her. There has been enough information provided for at least one person involved to guess the identity - the guy who runs the CM Press. Since his broader writings on the various far, far right wing web sites panders to the worst side of people, it's likely that he has some very rabid followers who have not taken kindly to the fact that their guru has been exposed, so to speak.
So, I guess we'll just wait for next Tuesday's finale to see what surprises might be in store for us. In the meantime, we can only hope that our elected leaders wake up and start acting like adults one of these days.
Labels: CM Press, Mansoor, musical chairs
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 3/08/2007 11:55:00 PM
5 Comments:
the secret improver fears for his/her safety ? As a long time improver I am interested in who this person is since he/her obviously has no clue as to what is going on with the improvers. Millard is in no way the guru of the improvers. This is 100% accurate! Anyone stating the contrary is blowing smoke for some unknown reason. Millard does come up with some good ideas and some bad ideas. The good ones, we run with. The bad, we reject. We would do the same for you, Mr. West, if you ever had any ideas. But you do not seem to ever have any ideas, just criticism with no alternatives given--except that the youth committee should have been illegally formed just cuz it was a good idea.
Dear Anonymous Insect,
I'm sure you are interested in just who source of Gallegos' posting might be - you're not alone. You can deny the relationship with the the guy over at the CM Press all you want - history does not support your claim. Heck, I don't blame you - I wouldn't want to be associated with him and be saddled the stench of intolerance, either. Thanks for writing. I appreciate you buzzing around this site and anonymously depositing your words of wisdom/denial for our readers to consider.
One more thing, insect, I didn't say the guy at the CM Press was the guru of the improvers specifically, although some may fit that category. I was referring to the broader reach of his racist rants on sites like the New Nation News and National Vanguard. He obviously is sympathetic to those folks, as witnessed by his rant today about the plan by the police department to address gangs in our city. He took offense that white supremacist gangs were specifically mentioned. Explains why he and the mayor were silent following the sweep late last year that snatched up 20 white supremacists from 17 locations in Costa Mesa. Not a word from those "crime fighters" on that issue, but the jump up and crow anytime someone with brown skin is arrested for jaywalking. These guys are hypocrites, or worse.
flyonthewall,
I am an Improver. Of course, I am the only one officially in my Improver group. I feel your pain - if you happen to agree with the good ideas Millard comes up with, and conscientiously ignore the loony ones, you are still marginalized and ignored. This guilt by association is pretty disappointing, and I hope that everyone who reads or posts on this site makes an effort to avoid throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Millard's controversial opinions and writings do not render all those who share some of his visions for an improved Westside irrelevant.
I don't agree with most of his visions for the Westside. I find the desire to rid the Westside of industrial and commercial businesses idiotic, un-American, and incredibly short-sighted. The call to do so via eminent domain is truly offensive. The campaign against "odors" should land Millard in court for defamation and intentional and unjustifiable interference with trade - those businesses are regulated and have been consistently proven clean.
We should be grateful to these businesses for employing people in our community and contributing to the economic viability of our great city. A great expanse of gated mansions will contribute nothing to Costa Mesa.
Overcrowded "slums"? Call code-enforcement. Don't compare human beings to swamp creatures. Illegal immigration? We've got ICE in the jail. If that's not enough - call Rohrabacher, Boxer, Feinstein and Bush. If you feel really, really angry, try and convince the council to pass a law similar to Escondido. I don't think it would pass, but who knows.
Whatever you do - do it legally and in full view of everyone.
To "improve" Costa Mesa, we need consensus. You won't get the City to buy the apartment buildings that constitute "slums" in certain neighborhoods - so STOP bringing it up all the time. If they are really that bad - get serious about code enforcement and police department solutions.
Costa Mesa is like a seriously dysfunctional family - we all have visions for how to make life better, but we are too busy fighting over the details to actually accomplish anything.
Seriously - agendizing council seating?!?!
Mr. Dickson is correct. Millard is going to spew a lot of ideas and occasionally one or part of one may be useful. Unfortunately Mr. Dickson is also correct that the non-offensive ideas are easily dismissed because of the source. It is hard for someone who despises the core beliefs that his ideas flow from to not attack every one of his offerings. There is, in my mind, a very valid reason for doing so. He has so few good ideas that throwing all of them out tells him and anyone who has the same core beliefs that they will not be listened to and there is no place for them at the table.
If a person with more reputable credentials wants to repackage any of his non-repulsive ideas, so be it. Bring them forward and champion them. The fact that some of us will see them as tainted by the fact that he spoke them first is just part of the challenge. The new presenter’s credentials will have to be strong enough to outweigh the taint of the original source. Is this fair? No. But then again, I don’t expect that anyone would be very receptive to an idea if it was prefaced it with the statement: “I would like to propose for consideration an idea first suggested by Adolph Hitler…” The prejudicial effect of that preamble would turn off most audiences, as it should.
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