They're Back! (Amended)*

ONCE AGAIN...
You will recall that, back in May, I told you about a probable infestation of our City Council meeting by outside agitators from the Orange County Young Republicans, HERE.  We'll, they're back at it again.

CALL TO ACTION
In an Action Alert sent out this week those rabid young misguided folks are being asked, once again, to flood our city council chambers at the meeting tonight - when the council WILL vote to place Jim Righeimer's Charter on the November 6th ballot.

IMPORTING YOUNG ELEPHANTS
This time the flames of this Action Alert are being fanned by a guy named Dave Everett, HERE, who apparently recently left his position as Executive Director of the OC GOP for a position with the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).  In correspondence provided to me he exhorts the troops to rally at City Hall at 6:30, luring them there with the promise of pizza and a chance to visit the Fair.  Well, the Fair is dark on Tuesdays, so these gullible, easily-manipulated young folks will be disappointed.  That's a lesson they'll learn more than once in their young lives if they don't begin thinking for themselves instead of following the OC GOP script.
 
LEAVE BRAINS AT HOME
Speaking of which, in his correspondence Everett asks these young people to wear RED shirts in a show of solidarity - they wore black last time - and tells them that he will provide them with SCRIPTS to read to the council.  Oh, yeah, Young Republicans... just leave your brains at home... we'll provide everything you need - pizza and a script!

"TRANSPARENCY" AT WORK HERE
In his correspondence Everett says, "For ABC, we are trying to get charter's up and down the state for cities, so that our members are not excluded from bidding on contracts for those cities...".  It looks to me like Everett has become the reincarnation of Kevin Dayton - the shill for the ABC who almost incited a riot in council chambers back in February, HERE and HERE.
 
MARCHING ORDERS ARE CLEAR
I've mentioned many times that the changes being attempted in Costa Mesa by Jim Righeimer and his pals on the council are actually being guided by marching orders from Scott Baugh and the OC GOP.  Here is yet another example of them trying to influence the APPEARANCE of broad public support for these schemes.  One could interpret this as a recognition by the current council majority that this bogus scheme does NOT have broad community support so they're trying to stack the deck purely for appearance purposes - to make it appear that folks who will actually be impacted by Jim Righeimer's Charter are supportive of it.  Personally, I find it offensive that these guys think it's necessary to import agitators with no skin in the game - especially when NOTHING that will be said tonight is going to change the fact that the four members of the council WILL vote to place the charter on the ballot.

ARRIVE EARLY
If you plan to attend the council meeting tonight - it begins at 7:00 p.m. - I suggest you plan to arrive a little early if you want to have a seat.  Everett has rallied his young troops for 6:30.

MY CHUCKLE FOR THE DAY
I had a chuckle when I read the Action Alert mentioned above because they linked to two of my previous posts and referred to my blog as a "liberal blog".  Me, a lifelong Republican, being painted by the FAR RIGHT wing of my party as a liberal makes me smile.  These guys just keep doing the same things over and over again, failing every time, and getting closer and closer to the cliff of irrelevancy.  If they don't soon change their tactics the Republican Party in California will be only a memory - and that's not a good thing for any of us.

I'll report on the meeting later tonight.  See you there.


*STILL NOT SHOWN ON WEB SITE!

By the way, despite several telephone calls,  at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon - less than 6 hours until the Charter meeting time and less than 5 hours for the Special closed session at 6, the City still has NOT shown the two council meetings on their schedule of events on the City home page.  Instead, they continue to show the following image.  So much for transparency, huh?

Infestation Alert!

Attention Costa Mesa Residents!

ORCHESTRATED OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE
It has come to my attention, HERE, that the spawn of the OC GOP, the Orange County Young Republicans, are planning a mass presence at the Costa Mesa City Council meeting tonight "supporting the Costa Mesa City Council as they look to take great strides to cut back on excessive government spending on pensions that have damaged state and local governments nationwide."
 
BLOCKING OUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE
So, that "support" will come in the form of hijacking seats in what will already be a crowded auditorium prohibiting actual real, concerned Costa Mesa residents (and voters) from finding a place to sit and hear the council deliberate important issues.  It seems somehow so appropriate that these misguided young lock-step lemmings will be wearing black shirts.

  AN INTERESTING TACTIC
This is a pretty interesting tactic on the part of the Republicans.  Since the council majority is obviously very tired of being criticized by concerned residents from the speaker's podium, I guess they figure they can block them from participation by packing the auditorium with their sycophants and keep the real, actual concerned residents from getting a seat.

ARRIVE EARLY
If you're planning to attend the meeting tonight that begins at 6:00 p.m., get there early if you want a seat.  If you want to speak about the Starbucks on 17th Street or any of the five Outsourcing RFPs that will be discussed you're probably going to have to arrive early to be sure of having a place to sit.

WE WILL REMEMBER
If you get to the meeting and find no seats available because many are occupied by intense young people in black shirts, please be sure to thank them for blocking you from participating in the governance process in our city.  You might remind them that this kind of action will cause many of us to Remember in November.