Is The Parks & Recreation Commission Bigoted?

LAKERS VS. PARKS COMMISSION?
I completely forgot the Costa Mesa Parks & Recreation Commission was meeting today, so immersed myself in what would be a Lakers win. 3 down, 1 to go - Friday in Denver.

AZTEC BASKETBALL PROPOSAL
Anyhow, I remembered the commission was meeting and flipped over to see what was going on just as they were discussing the agenda item that dealt with the staff's recommendation to permit Aztec Basketball, an organized league of primarily Hispanic players from throughout Orange County, to use the Downtown Recreation Center court on Sundays for seven hours each day for a six month period.

ADDITIONAL $40,000 INCOME FOR THE CITY
Apparently Aztec Basketball is being displaced by facilities in Santa Ana that are being renovated, hence their request to use ours. The owners of the league have gone so far as to acquire a Costa Mesa business license. The proposal would generate nearly $40,000 in additional income for the city. It would also displace drop-in players who currently occasionally use the facility - approximately 22 on average per day.

SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA
The proposal by the staff seemed well conceived and made some sense. It certainly made better use of our facility and would generate some additional income to the city in these trying times. According to Jana Ransom, Recreation Director for the city, they come highly recommended by previous landlords.

THE MOUTH TORPEDOES THE PLAN
Then The Mouth From Mesa North stood to address the issue. During his three minutes he conjured up images of marauding ex-convicts storming into town every Sunday and endangering the children who use our park areas adjacent to the Downtown Recreation Facility. He planted that seed of intolerance that he carries on his hip like a loaded gun and it worked!

A SLOW, PAINFUL DEATH
Yep, at the end of the discussion Chairman Kurt Galitski paused and waited for another commissioner to make a motion - none did. So, treading carefully, he moved to approve the contract with Aztec Basketball as proposed and waited.... and waited.... and waited... for his motion to receive a second. He made the motion again and waited... None of his fellow commissioners seconded his motion, so it died a slow, painful death.

I WONDER WHY...?
I'd like to think that the commissioners actually had good reasons for denying this request, but there was no discussion whatsoever on this issue, so we'll never know. It's easy - and maybe accurate - to assume that The Mouth's presentation had an impact on the other four members of the commission - that it pulled off the scab of intolerance and caused the commissioners to show their true colors by their silence.

COMMISSIONERS SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES!
I rejoined the Laker game to watch their victory over the Nuggets, but found myself thinking about this decision - or lack of decision. Since none of the commissioners chose to let us know their views on this issue, I guess we're left to our own assumptions. It's another sad day for our city...

Potpourri For You And Me

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE STIMULUS
Over at the Red County Blog, which is undergoing a painful metamorphosis, by the way, there was a very clever post by Kathy Michael entitled, "Obama orders Steelers to forfeit half of their Super Bowl trophies". When you click on the title and read it I suspect you'll get a chuckle from it. Sadly, the point she makes is all too true.

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ADIEU, DON LAMM
As reported earlier, the Westminster City Council chose Costa Mesa Director of Development Services, Don Lamm, to be their new City Manager effective May 1st. Congratulations to Don and kudos to Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder for creating a nurturing environment that has produced so many current city managers around our county.

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TOLERANCE - A PARADOX
We have an interesting paradox going on here in the land of Newport-Mesa. On the one hand, we have the 8th annual Diversity Day celebration at Corona Del Mar High School, in which students ask probing questions on their views of gays and lesbians. Brianna Bailey's article, entitled "Tolerance is urged" may be found HERE.

A DISTASTEFUL CONTRAST
On the other hand, we have an influential guy in Costa Mesa who is the personification of intolerance and uses his blog and right wing web essays to preach his views. Much of what he says are simply untruths, conjured up to support his bias. For example, he frequently complains that the local news media doesn't publicize Latino gangs enough - that they, incorrectly, point at White gangs. He stated flat out in a recent blog posting that, "There are no white gangs in Costa Mesa". That, of course, is a lie.

HERE'S SOME TRUTH FOR YOU
Over at the new liberal blog, OC Progressive, one of the authors published a post entitled, "NeoNazi Skinheads in the OC - A Troubling Rise of Activity" You can read this article HERE and consider the information for yourself. Follow the embedded links to fully understand this problem.

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LOBDELL PLAYS TO A PACKED NEWPORT BEACH HOUSE
I attempted to attend the lecture/book signing at the Newport Beach Main Library by former Daily Pilot editor and Los Angeles Times religion writer William Lobdell this week. The event was standing room only and, although I arrived a few minutes before the scheduled start time, I was among three dozen or so disappointed individuals turned away. In his column Thursday, HERE, Joe Bell mentions this meeting with no small degree of pride. Bell was Lobdell's college journalism instructor a few moons ago and was mentioned prominently in the credits in the book. According to Bell, the book, "How I Lost My Religion", is in it's second printing and just flying off the bookstore shelves. Yes, I'm still working my way through it - I'm 2/3 done. It's a great read, but I have not had time recently to just sit and read anything and I want to plow right on through it to the end in one sitting. I'll report back when I've finished it.

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LAME EXCUSES FOR SNUBBING OBAMA
Much ado was made this week about the fact that 4/5ths of the Costa Mesa City Council snubbed the President of the United States during his recent town hall meeting at the Orange County Fairgrounds - right across the street from our City Hall. Only Democrat councilwoman Katrina Foley attended the town hall to represent the elected leadership of our city. In the Daily Pilot today the question was posed to each of the council members, "Why did you or did not attend President Obama's town hall meeting?" You can read their responses HERE. Every one of them, except Foley's, were lame and demonstrated one more time what happens when you elect small people to big jobs.

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FIREWORKS ISSUES EXPLODING - AGAIN
The whole "Costa Mesa Fireworks" issue has re-energized local youth group sponsors and parents, who seem ready to run Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece out of town on a rail because she recently proposed changes in the way fireworks sales are managed, including a hefty tax. Even though I agree with Leece that illegal fireworks are dangerous, the Costa Mesa public safety folks seem unable to apprehend those who break the law by discharging ILLEGAL fireworks - the really dangerous kind.

CITIZEN BOUNTY HUNTERS?
I suggested in a couple Daily Pilot comment threads that, perhaps, what we need is a cadre of citizen bounty hunters. Create a system whereby normal residents can collect a bounty by turning in their offending neighbors. Make them provide photographic evidence and at least one more witness to the crime, call the cops and perform a citizen's arrest in their presence. The penalties for false arrest are very significant, so this cannot be used to settle old grudges, but it might work as a deterrent to future use of illegal fireworks in our city. Award a hefty bounty - $200, $500 or more - and see what happens. While I suspect this plan will meet with a lot of opposition, it's very likely that those most vocal against it are offenders or close to some who do use illegal fireworks.

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THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!
That's all for now... I suspect I've managed to raise the blood pressure of more than a few folks this evening. This will give you something to chew on over the weekend....

High School Kids Outshine Costa Mesa Council

HUMAN RELATIONS AWARDS ANNOUNCED
Our amigo, Art Pedroza, over at the Orange Juice Blog posted an entry yesterday entitled, "O.C. Human Relations Commission announces 2008 Award Winners". If you click on that title you will be linked directly to his entry, which describes the awards and the 2008 recipients. This is the 37th annual presentation of such awards. I "borrowed" the graphic above from Pedroza's post.

CORONA DEL MAR HIGH SCHOOL RECOGNIZED
Once there you will find that among those recognized is Corona Del Mar High School. The paragraph describing CDM's achievement reads as follows:
"The school’s student-led Human Relations Council launched a campaign to promote student voices and unity by bringing diverse campus groups together to integrate a message of “Ubuntu” or the “spirit of community” into their programs and activities. The Council has made significant strides in institutionalizing an integration of human relations issues and student voices into many aspects of school wide policy."

Congratulations to the students of Corona Del Mar High School for their efforts, which demonstrate enlightenment and maturity uncommon today.

COMPARE COSTA MESA COUNCIL'S ACTIONS
I post this entry today as a contrast to the Costa Mesa City Council's approach to human relations. Readers will recall that, not too long ago, the council led by then-mayor Allan Mansoor first de-funded, then disbanded without so much as a thank you the Costa Mesa Human Relations Commission. That organization served as a communications bridge between the city's diverse population segments for almost two decades.

MANSOOR SHOWS HIS TRUE SELF
Then, quite recently, Mansoor showed his attitude about this subject again. Following the annual presentation by a representative of the Orange County Human Relations Commission on incidences of intolerance within our city, Mansoor stated emphatically from the dais that he no longer was interested in hearing such reports. When he was reminded by the City Manager that such reports are provided as a matter of course each year Mansoor reaffirmed his unwillingness to hear them in the future.

INTOLERANCE
Such is the sad state of affairs in our city - when the elected leader thumbs his nose at even the thought of improving human relations in our city you know we are dealing with a sadly unenlightened man with the power to enforce his will upon all of us. This is something to remember as the election grows near this year. Although Mansoor isn't running, his buddy, Mayor Eric Bever and possibly several other so-called "improver" candidates, may be on the ballot. Our city will not be well-served by perpetuating intolerance by electing people who share Mansoor's attitude and values.

THE PERFECT DATE
So, tonight - appropriately, April Fools Day - as you watch the city council meeting, think about them as they spend your tax dollars and set policy that will govern your lives. Think about their motives and ask yourself if they coincide with yours.

Life in the World of Editors

DAILY PILOT PUBLISHES MY COMMENTARY
This morning the Daily Pilot, our local newspaper of record, published a commentary I submitted to them several days ago in response to one published in that fine newspaper by M. H. Millard, local activist, gadfly and publisher of his own blog, CM Press. You can read that commentary HERE. You may read M. H. Millard's commentary to which I was responding HERE and the commentary by former mayor Allan Mansoor that Millard was addressing HERE.

ALMOST...
As occasionally happens, the editors of the Daily Pilot found it necessary to slice and dice my submission, eventually printing just about half of it. For those of you that might be interested, I've provided the entire submission as it was sent to the Daily Pilot. The text the Pilot used is in green. The unpublished remainder is in purple.

THE FULL TEXT OF MY SUBMISSION FOLLOWS:
Costa Mesa resident, prolific writer and gadfly M.H. Millard provided us with a view into his mind with his recent Mailbag contribution. ("Fix holes in city structure, not holes in the road," Feb. 20).

Millard begins by cautiously praising the current council majority, Eric Bever, Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece, for their efforts, then proceeds to criticize them for not doing enough to implement "structural change" in the city. He then provides them with a blueprint for that change, including reduction of industrial zoning, primarily on the Westside, removal of what he calls "barracks-style apartments", also predominantly on the Westside. He also suggests a change in the owner vs. renter ratio in Costa Mesa, which currently has 60% renter occupied housing and bemoans his perception that Costa Mesa looks more like Santa Ana than Newport Beach - literally.

Millard's message, as usual, is directed specifically at the one-third of our residents of Latino ancestry - and I don't mean only those here illegally. For nearly a decade he has been leading the charge to dislocate and cause discomfort to the Latinos among us. In addition to those subjects in his current column, the closure of the Job Center, his attacks on the charities on the Westside and his attempt to have the Orange Coast College Swap Meet shut down are among the many attempts he's tried to orchestrate to expunge the Latinos from our midst. His ideas of "change" in our city are anchored in changing the "complexion" of our residents - fewer brown faces, more white ones.

He has been trying to institutionalize intolerance in our city since the late 1990s, providing the song book for "improver" elected leaders and chiding them from the speaker's podium when they don't toe his line. It's clear that most are listening to him because they echo his comments from the dais frequently.

There may be no better example of the pervasiveness of this institutionalized intolerance than the comments uttered by former mayor, and current mayor pro tem, Allan Mansoor at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 19th.
Following the brief presentation by a representative of the Orange County Human Relations Commission - a group that tracks hate crimes and provides tolerance training throughout the county - which reported to the council recent activities in our city, Mansoor used part of his "council member comments" time to state categorically that he wasn't interested in hearing any further reports from the Commission. Apparently inflamed by unsubstantiated critical comments directed at the Commission by one Costa Mesa resident, he seemed angry that "some council member" invited them to speak. He wasn't any happier when told by the City Manager that, as a matter of practice, the Commission speaks before all city councils each year to report on instances of hate crimes in each city. Mansoor said that he won't support further reports to the city by the Commission, which tells me he is either ambivalent about hate crimes in our city or, even worse, supports them.

As distasteful as Mansoor's statement was, this is no surprise, since he led the move to unceremoniously disband the Costa Mesa Human Relations Committee not too long ago, ending nearly two decades of work done to mediate conflicts between factions in our city.

For nearly a decade M. H. Millard has been the source of racially intolerant views in this city. He is an articulate, persuasive speaker who rants before the city council and other official government bodies frequently. His local web log is widely read by many elected and appointed officials.

Millard has become an influential person in our city, a fact recognized by the Daily Pilot which has named him one of its 103 most influential persons two years running. He has been an insidious activist, wheedling his way onto important committees - like the 3R Committee, where he used his influence to attempt to de-fund charities on the Westside. In 2006, when his activities on that committee became widely known, he resigned under a cloud - apparently not wanting to hamper Mansoor's re-election campaign. Millard's prolific writings on far-right wing web sites have been embraced by such notorious racists as David Duke, former head of the Ku Klux Klan, who publishes and praises Millard's work on his own web site. The New Nation News web site archives hundreds of his repugnant essays written over the past decade. Millard has been tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a purveyor of hate for a decade - ever since one of his essays bemoaning the dilution of the American populace through racial interbreeding, creating what Millard referred to as "Tan Everyman", was widely denounced. I've read many of his essays - they make you want to puke.

I wonder how many of the residents of this city are comfortable knowing their elected leaders not only follow the drumbeat of intolerance as practiced by M. H. Millard, but seem eager to actually institutionalize the practice in our city. It's as though they've become willing pawns in Millard's plan to recreate our city into someplace found in the deep south during the middle of the last century, when intolerance was a way of life. What a sad commentary this is about our city - that we would elect leaders so easily led by the intolerant among us. One can only hope that most voters will see through the veil of Millard's rhetoric, understand the underlying motives and repudiate them. One way to demonstrate this repudiation is at the ballot box next November.

YOU BE THE JUDGE
I have no reason to think my submission was so severely edited other than for space reasons. Regular readers of this blog know that no one will ever accuse me of using too few words. I'll let you be the judge.

Your Neighbor's Songbook of Intolerance

YOUR NEIGHBOR?
Costa Mesa resident, prolific writer and gadfly M.H. Millard - a man who very much resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor - provided us with a view into his mind with his recent Mailbag contribution. ("Fix holes in city structure, not holes in the road," Feb. 20). You can read his comments HERE

GUARDED PRAISE, THEN MARCHING ORDERS
Millard begins by cautiously praising the current council majority, Eric Bever, Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece, for their efforts, then proceeds to criticize them for not doing enough to implement "structural change" in the city. He then provides them with a blueprint for that change, including reduction of industrial zoning, primarily on the Westside, removal of what he calls "barracks-style apartments", also predominantly on the Westside. He also suggests a change in the owner vs. renter ratio in Costa Mesa, which currently has 60% renter occupied housing and bemoans his perception that Costa Mesa looks more like Santa Ana than Newport Beach - literally.

CHANGING "COMPLEXION"
Millard's message, as usual, is directed specifically at the one-third of our residents of Latino ancestry - and I don't mean only those here illegally. For nearly a decade he has been leading the charge to dislocate and cause discomfort to the Latinos among us. In addition to those subjects in his current column, the closure of the Job Center, his attacks on the charities on the Westside and his attempt to have the Orange Coast College Swap Meet shut down are among the many attempts he's tried to orchestrate to expunge the Latinos from our midst. His ideas of "change" in our city are anchored in changing the "complexion" of our residents - fewer brown faces, more white ones.

INSTITUTIONALIZING INTOLERANCE
He has been trying to institutionalize intolerance in our city since the late 1990s, providing the song book for "improver" elected leaders and chiding them from the speaker's podium when they don't toe his line. It's clear that most are listening to him because they echo his comments from the dais frequently.

MANSOOR'S EXAMPLE
There may be no better example of the pervasiveness of this institutionalized intolerance than the comments uttered by former mayor, and current mayor pro tem, Allan Mansoor at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 19th.

HEAD IN THE SAND - OR WORSE!
Following the brief presentation by a representative of the Orange County Human Relations Commission - a group that tracks hate crimes and provides tolerance training throughout the county - which reported to the council recent activities in our city, Mansoor used part of his "council member comments" time to state categorically that he wasn't interested in hearing any further reports from the Commission. Apparently inflamed by unsubstantiated critical comments directed at the Commission by one Costa Mesa resident, he seemed angry that "some council member" invited them to speak. He wasn't any happier when told by the City Manager that, as a matter of practice, the Commission speaks before all city councils each year to report on instances of hate crimes in each city. Mansoor said that he won't support further reports to the city by the Commission, which tells me he is either ambivalent about hate crimes in our city or, even worse, supports them.

NO SURPRISE
As distasteful as Mansoor's statement was, this is no surprise, since he led the move to unceremoniously disband the Costa Mesa Human Relations Committee not too long ago, ending nearly two decades of work done to mediate conflicts between factions in our city.


HISTORY OF INTOLERANCE
For nearly a decade M. H. Millard has been the source of racially intolerant views in this city. He is an articulate, persuasive speaker who rants before the city council and other official government bodies frequently. His local web log is widely read by many elected and appointed officials.

INSIDIOUS INFLUENCE
Millard has become an influential person in our city, a fact recognized by the Daily Pilot which has named him one of its 103 most influential persons two years running. He has been an insidious activist, wheedling his way onto important committees - like the 3R Committee, where he used his influence to attempt to de-fund charities on the Westside. In 2006, when his activities on that committee became widely known, he resigned under a cloud - apparently not wanting to hamper Mansoor's re-election campaign.

HIS REPUTATION
Millard's prolific writings on far-right wing web sites have been embraced by such notorious racists as David Duke, former head of the Ku Klux Klan, who publishes and praises Millard's work on his own web site. The New Nation News web site archives hundreds of his repugnant essays written over the past decade. Millard has been tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a purveyor of hate for a decade - ever since one of his essays bemoaning the dilution of the American populace through racial interbreeding, creating what Millard referred to as "Tan Everyman", was widely denounced. I've read many of his essays - they make you want to puke.

WILLING PAWNS
I wonder how many of the residents of this city are comfortable knowing their elected leaders not only follow the drumbeat of intolerance as practiced by M. H. Millard, but seem eager to actually institutionalize the practice in our city. It's as though they've become willing pawns in Millard's plan to recreate our city into someplace found in the deep south during the middle of the last century, when intolerance was a way of life. What a sad commentary this is about our city - that we would elect leaders so easily led by the intolerant among us.

HANGING OUT WITH THE "WRONG PEOPLE"
Remember when your parents used to caution you about hanging around with "the wrong people"? They were concerned that those "wrong people" would lead you astray and get you into trouble. Someone should be warning our elected leaders similarly.

HOPE FOR ENLIGHTENMENT AND REPUDIATION
One can only hope that most voters will see through the veil of Millard's rhetoric, understand the underlying motives and repudiate them. One way to demonstrate this repudiation is at the ballot box next November.

Costa Mesa - Bastion of Intolerance

SURPRISE!
I don't know about you, but I've passed the age when I expect the world to be full of surprises. As an old coot, I figure I've pretty much seen it all. Sometimes, though, something pops up that you just didn't expect.

HOW BELGIUM VIEWS COSTA MESA
For example, late last week I received a telephone call from a fellow who identified himself as a correspondent for Belgian Public Television, seeking some face time with me. He's based in Washington, D.C. and had an assignment to do a story on racism in America. After researching this subject a little he decided to jump on an airplane and come to Costa Mesa, California, which he perceived to be a hotbed of racism in our country! I'm not kidding - that's what he said!

Well, as you might expect, that comment rocked me back a little.

INTERVIEWING BOTH SIDES
Due to social obligations over the weekend I had to beg off any personal, on-camera interviews, but did provide him with a few names of activists on both sides of the issue who might have time for him, including one he already knew of that writes his own blog here in town. I have no idea if he made contact with any of them. His piece was supposed to air sometime this week, but I doubt if many of us have access to Belgian Public Television, so we won't be seeing the results of his handiwork - at least not first hand.

MANSOOR'S LEGACY
I'm very disappointed that our city has become internationally notorious for the perception of it's position on race, but I guess I'm not surprised. Ever since former mayor Allan Mansoor attempted to cross-designate every Costa Mesa Police officer as an immigration screener two years ago and had his face plastered all over the national media as a "brave crime fighter" our city has become the tip of the lance wielded by the far-right-wing screamers in the battle of illegal immigration in this country.

GILCHRIST'S INSIDIOUS INFLUENCE
The presence and interference of Minuteman Grand Pooba, Jim Gilchrist, and his not-so-merry band of miscreants added fuel to that fire as they paraded around our city blockading businesses and stood before our City Council professing the righteousness of Mansoor's crusade against the invading brown hoard from south of the border.

HAM-HANDED HANDLING
Mansoor's ham-handed handling of the Benito Acosta affair, which was widely reported in the local and national media and can be viewed on YouTube ad infinitum, only exacerbated the situation. Mansoor's ill-timed and insensitive comments throughout the following summer when gang violence erupted amplified the perception of our city as a bastion of hate.

THIS IS NOT NEW
I've written many times about this subject. For most of this decade I've watched as frustrated residents followed the lead of a small knot of malcontents with racist views who guided them down this dark path. I've been amazed that the anti-Latino sentiment has been so widespread and pervasive in our city. I, naively, thought the residents of this town were more tolerant and intelligent - that it would take more than the rants of an articulate racist and the cherubic smile of our young jailer/mayor to direct them down this path. I was wrong.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
I look forward and see the year ahead, which will bring yet another election, and hope the voters of this city will not be swayed by the ongoing drumbeat of intolerance. The character assassination and lies that have become far too prevalent in politics - and our local politics in particular - has already begun. The City Council election in November could end up with a super-majority - a de facto absolute majority - of self-anointed "improvers" on the dais. That, in my view, would be catastrophic for our city. It would hand our future to the forces of intolerance and forever scar our city as a place where only white people need apply. It would eliminate any check and balance in our system of governance and permit them to, literally, plow the earth where Latinos live in our city and effectively expunge them from our borders.

TYPING WITH FINGERS CROSSED
I sincerely hope that does not happen. I hope the good voters of this city finally see what's going on around them and reject and repudiate those who would perpetuate this systematic march that has made our city a metaphor for racism and intolerance.

Pilot Profiles Bever - U. Know-Who Provides Direction

POSITIVE PRESENTATION
The Daily Pilot provided a very nice profile of new mayor Eric Bever today. You can read it HERE. It was a fairly benign piece which tended to be quite positive. Only one mildly negative comment was included, and it was more a generic criticism of the entire council than a shot at Bever. As you read the article scroll down to the comments posted for a view of a few suggestions I provided to our new mayor as he goes about leading our city.

MR. U. KNOW-WHO CHARTS THE COURSE
Meanwhile, in the north part of town, Mr. U. Know-Who responded to the profile with a set of specific instructions for the new mayor in a blog entry of his own, which can be read HERE. As you will see, in it Mr. Who bemoans the lack of sufficient action by the city council on issues he feels are important. As you read through his little rant you will notice the common thread in his "suggestions" is the displacement of the Latino population in our city. This, of course, is nothing new. What has changed is that he has a council majority that believes his crap and follows his lead on these issues.

FOUNDATION OF INTOLERANCE
For further amplification of Mr. Who's philosophy, just click HERE for a view of one of his most recent rants on the New Nation News web site - the repository of many of his "anti-blender" essays. It's just a darn shame that this guy and his perverted view of our society holds such a position of influence over our council majority. It's very sad, indeed.

WILL THE ELECTORATE WISE-UP?
I keep hoping the electorate will wise-up and realize what these people, under the direction of U. Know-Who, are doing to this city. However, as long at the illegal immigration issue gives them an emotional foothold in the campaigns I doubt we will see any change. As long as there are brown backs on which to climb I fear that the current majority will continue to control our lives here in Costa Mesa and continue to aim it backward to a time when discrimination was a way of life in parts of this country. It's very sad, indeed.

"Your Neighbor" Blows A Gasket - Again!

AND NOW, THE NEWS...
Over at Hypocrite Central, the CM Press, the guy who very much resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor, published a long, vitriolic diatribe about a column written today by Tony Dodero, Director of News and Online for the Daily Pilot and the Daily Pilot management in general.

CLEARING THE AIR
In response to recent and frequent critics - mainly in the Daily Pilot blog - Dodero goes to great lengths to explain the Pilot's position regarding the way they present news, rejecting the accusations of biased reporting. Typos notwithstanding, it was a good piece and certainly timely. I happen to agree with what he said.

RIGHT-WING RANTS
However, the guy at the CM Press - a fellow I've described in the past as The-Brain-Who-Ate-Costa-Mesa - uses his pathetic pulpit to shred Dodero and publisher Tom Johnson for his perception of their liberal bias. Keep in mind that this guy sits so far out on the right that ANYONE will seem liberal compared to him. This is a man who apparently has made it his life's work to spread his philosophy of racial intolerance as far as possible through his prolific internet essays, books and - closer to home - his crusade to expunge the Latinos from Costa Mesa's borders.

SEARCHING FOR DIAMONDS
A truly smart guy, he wastes his prodigious intellect appealing to the most base of human emotions. Every once in awhile he will come up with a good idea - like placing an airport at Camp Pendleton. However, discovering those infrequent good ideas is like digging through a pile of dog poo and discovering a diamond - the stench you must endure searching for it makes you retch and sticks with you a very long time. Apparently, though, there are more than a few folks in our town who don't mind all that doo-doo-diving - they just lap up (so to speak) the vile pontifications he purveys.

DEFINING "INFLUENTIAL"
I'm not surprised he's used this opportunity to give himself a literary enema and dump out this pile of criticism of the Daily Pilot. He's been the subject of criticism by the editors in the past - well-deserved, in my view. When you read his rant you'll find a little comment about him having been selected as one of the Daily Pilot 103 most influential persons last year. No matter what you think of his views - I actually detest them - no one in our city can refute the fact that he has been "influential" in matters concerning our town. That isn't necessarily good. But, as I wrote to the editors last year when I nominated him - the word "influential" is their word, not mine. To me, it's like saying Adolph Hitler was "influential" in world events in the last century.

ACTOR? HA!
He also mentions that he "appeared in a Woody Allen movie". Well, I've seen that "performance". Trust me, not only is this guy a "bad actor" when it comes to activities in this city, he's a bad actor, period.

TRAIL OF FAILURE
In fact, it seems that he's had a trail of failure in his life, because he crows about having been, in addition to an actor, a lawyer, real estate agent, author, Marine and who-knows-what-else. Perhaps that's why he seems to have chosen to become the reincarnation of the most despicable man in world history - he's looking for meaning in his life and has chosen the cause of Aryan purity. Perhaps he gets great satisfaction from being admired by the poster boy for racism in this country for the couple decades, David Duke. This quest has gotten him on the watch list of organizations that track hate groups - quite a badge of honor for him, don't you think? Yep, that's sure the kind of man I want "influencing" the future of our city!

DODGING DUCK DOO
In his diatribe he poo-poos the assignment of intolerant motives to actions he's taken or words he's written in the past. Well, my friends, if it waddles like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.... I don't know what he thinks, beyond what he writes and does. Actions certainly do speak louder than words, and this guy's actions scream racism at the top of their lungs. For those who follow his view, carrying that "duck" metaphor a little further, if you follow one long enough you will eventally step in some very gooey, slippery, nasty residue of his presence. Trust me, there is a great similarity between that duck and the guy at the CM Press. Watch your step.

NO ANSWERS ALLOWED!
The racist hypocrite ends his blog entry by asking several questions of his readers. Of course, he doesn't really care what they think. If he did, he would provide a venue for them to actually answer the questions - as I do here. No, this guy doesn't care - he has his own agenda and he's sticking to it. Just as he takes the coward's way out by posting comments on the Daily Pilot using several fake names, he won't give you a way to respond to his questions for fear that someone will tell him precisely what they think.

GOOD JOB, DAILY PILOT!
For my part, I'm grateful to the Daily Pilot management for providing us with consistently well-balanced reporting of important issues in our communities. They occasionally miss a story, and sometimes I disagree with an editorial position they've taken, but I still think they do an excellent job for us. I'm grateful to them for the opportunity to provide letters to the editor for their consideration and for the ability to post comments online. In that arena, they have been particularly tolerant of opposing viewpoints, as The-Brain-Who-Ate-Costa-Mesa knows all too well.

A LOSER'S LEGACY
As I read the pathetic rant by the guy at the CM Press I just have to shake my head. What a waste of an intellect. I find myself wondering if, once he's long departed from this earth, his children will sit back and say, "Yeah, I'm proud of my father because of the way he spread hate against everyone not white." That will be quite a legacy...

Mansoor Majority Creates Gang Haven

I'm still reeling from watching the City Council meeting Tuesday night. After many hours of watching and cogitating I've had an epiphany. Here's what happened:

CMPD PLAN GUTTED
In their deliberations on the Gang Initiative last night, the Allan Mansoor-led City Council majority chose to send our law enforcement officers into the battle blindfolded, with one arm tied behind their backs. They chose to approve only the enforcement element of this plan. Despite the specific, unequivocal statements by the Chief of Police, Christopher Shawkey and his strong right arm, Captain Ron Smith, that the intervention/prevention element was critical to the success of the program and despite the fact that it had been funded in the last budget session, the majority vetoed that segment.

TRUANCY ORDINANCE DISCARDED
Additionally, although several residents, including some students, rose to speak against the Truancy Ordinance and the police department recommended that element be referred to a subsequent study session so it could be thoroughly vetted before a decision was made, the majority ignored the recommendation, thereby pitching it into the trash can. I wasn't surprised about that, since both Mansoor and Bever had written publicly in the Daily Pilot indicating their displeasure with such a plan. Instead of taking the opportunity to hear more testimony on the subject by staff and residents they ignored that idea and chucked the whole thing. Their minds were already made up.

SHAWKEY, SMITH, GARLAND REJECTED
I listened as Chief Shawkey and Captain Smith presented their case to the council and answered questions posed by individual members for clarification. It didn't take long to see that Mansoor and Bever were opposed to the intervention segment. When Jane Garland, author of a recent Daily Pilot commentary and school district employee in charge of Project ASK, stepped up at the request of Katrina Foley to correct mischaracterizations by perpetually ignorant resident Mike Berry and to answer questions for the council about the interface between the district and the CMPD, it was clear that Mansoor and Bever view her as an antagonist, not a partner in the resolution of our common problem. I hoped Wendy Leece would understand the importance of the intervention segment, particularly when the chief and one of his top men stated emphatically that they felt it was essential to the success of their plans to eradicate gangs from our city. She didn't. When the votes were finally cast and only the enforcement element was passed I kind of just rocked back in my chair in disbelief.

TOP COP REBUFFED
This is the third straight police chief a Mansoor-led majority has rebuffed emphatically. Two years ago they rejected then-Chief John Hensley's ideas on the immigration screener scheme. A year ago Mansoor jumped the gun on the reward issue when Chief Staveley was on board and now Chief Shawkey has some idea of why he's the third Police Chief in the City of Costa Mesa in two years. This council majority, led by our young jailer/mayor, has no respect for the opinion of their highly skilled senior law enforcement leaders. Their idea of enlightened law enforcement is simply getting a bigger stick and swinging it harder and more often. Bever apparently is trying to right wrongs he experienced as a youth in a gang-infested neighborhood. You could see the bile boiling as he spoke about it.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH: MANSOOR MAJORITY WANTS GANGS!
As I sat here mulling over tonight's events a light went on. I've finally figured it out! Mansoor and his cronies don't really want to resolve the gang issue! They don't want to follow the advice of their top cops and include an element in their plan that can actually get to the root of the problem and nip the gang problem in the bud. They want this problem to persist because it gives them the wedge issue they need to expunge every Latino from this city! If you "fix" the problem through education and intervention that means that many young Latinos will be saved from a life as gangsters and will thrive in our city. That is precisely what Mansoor, Bever, Leece and their yapping cadre of followers do not want. They want the Latinos out and the gang issue can be the tool they use to accomplish that. They want more gang crime, because it will make the remainder of our citizens fearful and more susceptible to their plans for the ouster of the Latinos.

COPS SEE EXIT SIGN
In my opinion, this is a very sad day for our city. The elected majority on the council seem determined to grind this city into the dust with their arrogant "I-know-best" attitude. I give Shawkey two years, max, before he realizes that his position is one of supreme futility and he bails out. I sure hope he didn't buy a house yet. With this action tonight, by virtually spitting in the eye of our top cops, the Mansoor-led majority has insured the on-going departure of experienced cops from the CMPD. What honest, hard-working career officer will want to work in this city - where the marching orders are given by a bunch of racists?

INTOLERANCE CREATES GHOST TOWN
Without a change of direction this city is doomed to be known as a bastion of intolerance. Soon few people will wish to enter our town because the leadership has intentionally permitted it to become a dangerous locale. More bright, young families will seek homes and educational opportunities for their children elsewhere, leaving behind those of us who are too old, too poor or trapped by an equity imbalance to seek greener pastures. Thank you, Allan Mansoor, Eric Bever and Wendy Leece, for greasing the skids of this city. Your legacy will be the demise of this town.

Selma, Alabama - March, 1965

All the news coverage over the past few days about the anniversary of the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama dredged up some very painful memories for me - many of which I'd just as soon forget. As I watched the news coverage of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, here, pander to the black congregation in Selma last weekend, it reminded me just how shameless politicians can be as they campaign over the bloodied bodies from the past. As I heard Obama - an articulate man - break into his version of "black speak" and listened to Hillary "preach" to the crowd in her best "southern" dialect it made me sick.

At the time of the marches in Selma that Obama and Clinton fought for podium time to commemorate I was in the United States Army and was in the middle of helicopter flight training. On Saturday, March 6, 1965, the day before the first of three marches - what has become known in that part of the world as Bloody Sunday - a classmate and I drove through Selma enroute from the Primary Helicopter Training School at Fort Wolters, Texas (near Mineral Wells) to the Advanced School at Fort Rucker - where Alabama, Florida and Georgia join to form the armpit of the south. As we drove my 1957 Ford across the Edmund Pettus Bridge we saw a couple hundred State Police cars congregated at the headquarters at the base of the bridge. Since we had been immersed in flight training and a de facto Officer's Candidate School for several months, we were virtually unaware of the political climate around us at that time. We did notice the atmosphere, though. It was like a pre-lynching scene in an old B movie. If we'd been stopped that tense morning - two anglos driving a car with California license plates and a loaded 357 Magnum pistol under the passenger's seat - we'd have been lucky to be thrown in jail. Keep in mind that this was around the time when three civil rights activists had been kidnapped and murdered not too far away in Mississippi.

We drove on through Selma, leaving behind the violence the next day portrayed in the photo above, and went on our way to our new duty station and continued with our training to become what would be the nucleus of the first air mobile unit in the Army, the 1st Air Cavalry Division out of Fort Benning, Georgia - an organization which was shipped enmasse to Viet Nam in the fall of 1965. The experiences of that organization were featured in the movies, "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now".

Circumstances conspired to eliminate me from flight status - a health issue that remained un-diagnosed until well after I left the Army the end of 1965. As a result, I spent from March until December of that year assigned to Fort Rucker, so I got a real first-hand dose of what life was like in the bowels of the segregated south.

The closest town of any size was Dothan, Alabama. Occasionally, some buddies and I would venture into town to the lone movie theater to see the most recent releases. I'll never forget my reaction the first time I saw that theater, with a separate entrance for blacks, who were forced to purchase tickets at a separate window and were required to sit in the balcony, entering through a separate, outside entrance. This was a time where separate drinking fountains were maintained for blacks and whites. The KKK was still prolific and active. In Alabama at that time it seemed to me that the white residents of that state worshiped University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, Governor George Wallace and God, in that order.

Two weeks before I mustered out of the Army there was a cross burned on the lawn of a black sergeant - on post, in government housing. This was not a good time in this country.

I recall sitting in the day room on post during the summer of 1965, watching the Watts riots as they unfolded. Being from Los Angeles, I had a special interest because my best friend was a rookie Los Angeles Police Officer at the time and was up to his neck in that turmoil. Until the time of those riots our post seemed to be happily integrated, with black and white soldiers living harmoniously together. The riots changed that. From that point on, blacks and whites segregated themselves in our day room, watching the news of the day in small same-race clusters. When the news showed black rioters looting stores and setting them afire, the clusters of blacks would cheer. When it showed National Guard and police units firing on looters, the clusters of whites would cheer. You could almost chew the tension.

I mention this today because, for more than a year I have felt a similar tension building in Costa Mesa. There's a cadre of unhappy folks in our city who apparently feel that the Latinos among us are the root of every problem in our city. Among that cadre are the current majority on the City Council - Mayor Allan Mansoor, Mayor Pro Tem Eric Bever and rookie rubber stamp council member Wendy Leece. Because they now have the power to do so, they have been methodically taking steps to make the lives of Latinos in our community difficult in hopes that they will leave our city. They've used the lightning rod issue of "illegal immigration" as their wedge to attack every entity or program that provides support to the Latino community.

I'm saddened by what our alleged leaders are doing to this city, much as I was saddened while living in the south in the mid-1960s, watching up close and personal the inhumanity and violence that occurred. Many of you who will read these words were not alive at that time. If you had been, you would understand what a terrible time it was for this country and certainly wouldn't wish to have those days re-created here in Costa Mesa more than 40 years later.

If you read the coverage of that time in our country, I hope you will begin to develop a new perspective on current events in this city and involve yourselves in the correction of the course we seem to be on - a course infested with intolerance and bigotry. If you don't, who will?

The Beat Goes On And On

You know, some things never change. Over at the CM Press, the racist author continues with his drumbeat about Costa Mesa's under performing schools, which he blames entirely on the presence of children of illegal immigrants. He laments the relatively poor performance of some Costa Mesa schools when compared to schools in Newport Beach, again blaming the disparity on those children of illegal aliens. He, of course, ignores the socio-economic differences between the two cities. If you disregard the illegal immigrants in Costa Mesa - and no one really knows how many people that represents - Newport Beach is still far ahead of Costa Mesa in every economic measurement. The CM Press author says, "..you want the best education for your kids and you want them to have a leg up on life." That's undoubtedly true. However, many - probably most - of the kids living in Newport Beach don't just have a leg up, they start several rungs up on the ladder before ever throwing that leg up. That's just the way it is. Expunging the Latinos from Costa Mesa - the CM Presses ultimate objective, if you believe his rants on the internet sites for which he writes - doesn't resolve that disparity.

No rational person will deny that injecting students with limited English skills into a school system creates problems. It's one thing to insert new limited English students at the Kindergarten, First or Second grades - programs are available to manage those students and get them up to speed quickly. However, when students with those limitations are inserted at higher grades it will take Herculean efforts to keep them from failing. It takes hard work and dedication on the part of the administrators, teachers, students and their parents for them to succeed. Rather than expend that effort, the CM Press would rather just flush them out of the city.

Now, this would be bad enough if he was the only person in this city with such intolerant views, but he's not. Today, in our city, we have a majority on the City Council who are in lockstep with his views. As a result, anytime any issue that might, in the slightest way, involve students of Latino origins comes up, the New Majority on the council hammers it. And, since the minority on the council, Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon, seem willing to help craft solutions to the problems, the New Majority freezes them out - discarding almost every positive, progressive effort they propose. The most recent of these was the Youth in Government proposal that was trash-canned in a fit of pique by the New Majority instead of taking the time to flesh out their concerns and move forward with a program that was already in progress. Letters to the editor and online comments in the Daily Pilot reflected the disappointment of the children involved, and that of many concerned citizens, as well.

Steve Smith, in his Daily Pilot column, recently took the New Majority to task for that particular move and alluded to an insensitivity to children's issues on their part. Certainly, that cannot possibly apply to Councilwoman Wendy Leece who, in addition to being a mother and grandmother, spent several tumultuous years on the school board. Smith's assessment about Bever and Mansoor, though, may be more accurate. Childless, as far as we know, these two men continue to take actions that appear to be the result of insensitivity, ignorance or just plain stubbornness - maybe all three.

The New Majority has placed the welfare of the children of Costa Mesa squarely in the cross hairs of their misguided attempts to expunge Latinos from our city. Following the lead of the CM Press, they've made the children pawns in their petty political games. Shame on them.

Further in that same posting the CM Press author goes on to lament the fact that "We're not only not attracting upwardly mobile people, we're seeing many of those who already live here flee to safer communities with better schools and a higher quality of life". He then says, "And, it is people who make a difference. A city is its people." He's 100% correct in those observations.

I know a few of those young, upwardly mobile families who decided to leave Costa Mesa recently for what they perceived as a better place to live. They left not because of a problem with the schools - they were very happy with the educational opportunities available to their children here. They left because of the atmosphere in this city - an atmosphere of intolerance that not only festers on the Westside, but is encouraged by the actions of some of our elected leaders. They simply didn't want to raise their families in a city where such Neanderthal values thrive. They looked ahead and saw no light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel - so they moved on. How can you blame them? Do you really enjoy living in a city where such views control the agenda? This is a real tragedy for our community.