Plagiarism Published?
Tonight the Daily Pilot published online a commentary by a person named Kent Mora, who says he lives in Costa Mesa. The title of that piece is, "Charter would reduce Sacramento's hold" and begins with the following sentence - "Can you remember the last time Sacramento passed a law that made our city better off? Neither can I."
When I read that opening line I had a feeling of deja vu - I knew I'd read the same line somewhere else recently, so I investigated.
On September 18, 2012 Costa Mesa councilman and candidate for re-election Gary Monahan had a commentary published in the Daily Pilot titled, "Charter would free Costa Mesa from state control." and his opening sentence read this way - "Can you remember the last time Sacramento passed a law that made our city better off? Neither can I."
You can see what's coming here, can't you? Yep, somebody is a plagiarist.
So, I went back to the Daily Pilot archives and found Monahan's commentary, HERE. I then copied and pasted (that's an old Jim Righeimer move) the text into a Microsoft Word document so I could use the word counter feature. I then did the same thing with Mora's current commentary, HERE, and compared them side-by-side. With the exception that Mora's commentary has about fifteen more words than Monahan's, they are identical!
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?So, neighbors, what are we to take from this act of plagiarism? Do we assume that Monahan and his pals - Kent Mora has recently become a strong, strident advocate for the "3 M" position on municipal governance as measured by his comments posted on Facebook and elsewhere - have simply run out of ideas and are having to resort to regurgitating them? Do they have a publicity machine geared up to produce commentaries and they simply forgot they'd already used this one?
INTENTIONAL AND/OR STUPID?Whether this gaffe is intentional or simply a mistake, it certainly makes both Monahan and Mora - and their cronies by association - look pretty darn stupid. And what does this say about the integrity of those folks who are so feverishly supporting the 3Ms in this council race? You decide...
Labels: Charter City, Gary Monahan, Kent Mora
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 10/02/2012 12:23:00 AM
23 Comments:
Oh my God, this is worse than the plague in Odessa but frankly Mr. West, I don't give a damn. Somebody call the police, a grave crime has been comitted. I am mad as hell and I can't take this anymore. Wait tell your mother reads this. There is no place like this angry blog. I'll be back.
Geoff, you know these morons have no integrity. They will lie when the truth suits them better. Kent Mora isn't capable of a free thought. Gary probably copied that article from somewhere else in the first place.
Let's get rid of these guys!
sounds like they agree. nothing wrong with repeating a message is there? when is the last time Sacramento passed a law that benefitted Costa Mesa? Facts can be friends.
Kent chastised me in the online comments for pointing out that the OCR's endorsement of the Charter misspelled John Stephens' name several times (with a V instead of PH, no less - go figure even the Reg is forcing Vs on us), and he said 'is that the best you can do?'
So I counter with, Kent, is that the best you can do?
Wow. Who is REALLY in charge over there?!?
Guilty.
Typical extremist propagandizing.
Has Mr. Canalis been informed/queried?
They question the opposition's ability to come up with an original thought and talk about facts (but rarely use them) ... and then pull this. Quite humorous, actually.
Apparently they are running out of arguments in favor of that poorly written charter. They don't have much support for it anyway. I'd think their best efforts would be to put their time into hanging onto what they have so far, their appointed seats. But then again, they just aren't that smart.
NEW FLASH - Said commentary is no longer on the Pilot site.
Awww....come on Geoff,
Kent's version did come up with the original line "Measure V would also take an additional step toward fiscal responsibility."
He also managed to throw in 2 additional "Union" references and updated Gary that there are evidently 123 Charter cities vs. Gary's 120.
Other than that, only a newly edited and re-branded package. I highly doubt either of these tools wrote either version. I just hope its not Bill Lobdell writing it for them, wouldnt that go against that ridiculous form the other city employees had to recently sign?
I think someone or multiple someone's should read both versions into public comments at the next city council meeting.
Great catch Geoff...
This was my response to Mora's regurgitation ,but it was deleted.....
Mr. Mora states," I can think of plenty of laws Sacramento politicians have approved that imposed costly mandates on our city", yet fails to mention ONE.
Here's from the State constitution,"Sec. 6. State subvention of funds. (a) Whenever the Legislature or any state agency mandates a new program or higher level of service on any local government, the State shall provide a subvention of funds to reimburse that local government for the costs of the program or increased level of service.." They do make some exceptions for when the bill is overdue or a regulation is grandfathered in before 1975, but "State Mandates" are paid for by the state.
Next Mr. Mora claims that city charters are "each specifically tailored to address and protect their local needs." and in many cases this holds true, unfortunately, for Costa Mesa , this is not the case. Our charter was designed to fit the needs of the current city council NOT the residents. The Council showed ineptness at following rules to fulfill their political goals. Millions later, with very little to show for it. This Council has now decided, what they don't like are,.. the "Rules" and so this Charter was specifically designed to throw out the protections provided under General Law Cities. A charter should be written to benefit the residents NOT the Politicians.
Mora states, "fair and open bidding" but what isn't in the charter.. , the "no-bid" clause recommended and implemented by many cities following the "Bell scandal". So Everyone can bid, but there are no protections in who, or how the jobs are rewarded. Cronyism, with a capital "C".
The City will be exempt from prevailing wage only on jobs using no federal or state funds....which is almost NOTHING.
Residents will now have to set to set wage levels, which is actually something we vote in city council members to do. Now we have an onerous process to hamstring efficiency and competitiveness in the employment market.You couldn't design a more unwieldy and badly written tool for city governance. By requiring City wide voting on employee compensation, we would be implementing the same type of Charter provision that ill-served Bankrupt San Bernandino.
It prohibits employee contributions to their labor associations. Which joining an association in the city is voluntary already. All "contributions" to those associations are voluntary already. So we are creating a Charter to fix a problem that doesn't exist, all to fulfill the political ambitions for Jim Righeimer who tried this on the State ballot twice and it was voted down twice by the residents of this State.
Vote "No on "V" because this "Charter" doesn't begin to fix many of the problems this city now faces, but it would create many, many, more.
Just a guess, Geoff, but my opinion is that neither of these two actually wrote either piece. Gary's not smart enough (Remember his "no-brainer" comment about Coyotl Tezcatlipoca and his attempt to cloture me during my three minutes in council chambers), and Mora's obviously too inarticulate to pen this, else his voice would be heard at council time, sucking up to the Soviet Four on the dais. My thought is that one of the Ock-Gopp hacks wrote it and slipped it to these two, thinking that a thirteen-day hiatus would dull the memory of even the most astute citizen.
Well, what else can we expect from a 3M Scotch-Tape dispenser than sticky stuff, post-it notes, and cut-and-paste?
V is for vile. V is for vacuous. V is for vassalage. V is for vaunt. V is for vex. V is for vigorish. V is for violent, and also for violate.
Also, interesting point, "fitz" means "son", but more properly, a bastard offspring of somebody too high-and-mighty to acknowledge such a peccadillo... Perhaps that's why one of them hides behind pseudonyms when he calls me "homeless"...
Terry,
Ignore the town fool when he calls you homeless. The bootlicker just doesn't understand the concept of how real men work and take care of their families. He thinks being Riggy's ponyboy is enough.
I'm wondering if Napoleon Righeimer or one of his gang has Mora on the payroll:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kentmora
Entity Name: BLACK FOREST BRANDS, INC.
Black Forest Brands, Inc.: SUSPENDED LICENSE
Entity Number: C3078737
Date Filed: 03/07/2008
Status: SUSPENDED
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Entity Address: 1901 NEWPORT BLVD, SUITE 350
Entity City, State, Zip: COSTA MESA CA 92627
Agent for Service of Process: LEGALZOOM.COM, INC.
Agent Address: 100 WEST BROADWAY SUITE 100
Agent City, State, Zip: GLENDALE CA 91210
More importantly, what does it say about the editors of a newspaper that publishes the same commentary under different names.
We show old Kent in an apartment on Vanguard. Like so many poor saps, he supports the extremists hoping they'll give him a few crumbs from the banquet table. Fat chance after Riggy sits down..
what's a ponyboy? or a bootlicker. i see many commenters on here say these terms. are the commenters mentally ill and this is some kind of fetish on their part? should they be away from children?
It's back! Better than ever! What on Earth does this mean?
FOR THE RECORD:
This commentary features multiple passages that originally appeared in a Sept. 19 commentary written by Costa Mesa Councilman Gary Monahan. The similarities between the two commentaries were not detected during the editing process.
http://www.dailypilot.com/opinion/tn-dpt-1002-commentary2-20121001,0,4762262.story?fb_comment_id=fbc_500946873249179_109787590_500947446582455#f13411826
Many readers have detected similar style patterns and writing habits among “authors” of pro-council litterature. It’s been speculated they don’t write much of their own stuff. Here’s proof. The big question is who is writing it and why? Good writers don’t come cheap, so the next question is whose money and why?
The challenge is to let all Costa Mesa know what’s going on, not just the readers of this blog talking or sniping amongst ourselves. We need to spread the good news that there is a positive alternative to this kind of stuff. If you want to do something practical to defeat V and elect new council members please volunteer through the CM4RG website www.cm4rg.org or message CM4RG through face book. Lots of opportunities, free training provided. We’re on a mission here but we make it fun. Hurry -This is a limited time offer, it expires Nov.6!
And, of course, Madam President, there will be a nominal charge for the recruitment advertising here. ;-)
Troll:
"what's a ponyboy? or a bootlicker"
An underemployed "man" over 40 who takes daily orders from a whiny politician instead of taking proper care of his wife and kids.
Hikes, old people stay up late and talk about crazy things.
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