Independence Day - 2010

REMEMBER AMERICA SAFELY
We here at A Bubbling Cauldron want to wish you all a very happy and safe Independence Day. Many of you will celebrate this holiday with fireworks - so-called "safe and sane" and others that certainly are neither safe nor sane. I hope you will do so responsibly. The last thing you want to have marking this holiday is the loss of an eye of a child or severe burns on yourself or loved ones.


IN CASE YOU FORGOT
In case some of you forget what this holiday is all about, you can refresh your memory HERE.

AMERICAN SPIRIT
I'll leave you to enjoy your holiday with these two video clips, to give you a feel what it was like in this country more than sixty years ago, when patriotism was strong and Americans were not afraid to show it. These were the kinds of things that inspired my parent's generation - Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" HERE - to fight for our freedom in World War II and to build this wonderful country in the years that followed.

IT'S A GRAND OLD FLAG

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

HAD ENOUGH? NO?
If that's not enough for you, click HERE to view my Independence Day post from last year, which includes several other patriotic video clips. Have a wonderful, safe holiday weekend.

Cedillo Says, "Not So Fast!"

JUST WHEN YOU WERE FEELING SECURE...
So, did I get you feeling all safe and secure about the Fairgrounds Sale with my last entry? Did you think that, based on Assemblyman Jose Solorio's comments, the threat of a Latino Caucus attack on the deal was no longer a possibility? Well, not so fast there, pardner!

CEDILLO ISN'T SO SURE
In an article titled, "Latino lawmakers still may block fairgrounds deal", on the Total Buzz blog, Orange County Register's Brian Joseph, reporting from Sacramento today, HERE, refutes at least part Mona Shadia's Daily Pilot article I quoted yesterday. He went straight to the horse's mouth, State Senator Gil Cedillo, the chairman of the Latino Caucus, for confirmation and had it batted right back to him.

JUDGE FOR YOURSELF
I'll leave it to you to follow that link, but Cedillo's concerns sounded anything but amicable. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this drama plays out.

THE "SANDY AND RIGGY" SHOW
Last night I watched moderator Rick Reiff lead a discussion between former mayor Sandra Genis, President of the Orange County Fairgrounds Preservation Society, and Planning Commission Chairman Jim Righeimer on the Fairgrounds sale on Inside OC on local television station KOCE. No streaming video is available as I write this, but you can view it on KOCE, Channel 16 on Time Warner or 416 on HD at the following times: Friday, 6:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.; Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and Monday at 8:00 a.m.

WORTH WATCHING
The Genis/Righeimer segment is the first one on the show and lasts just under 15 minutes. It's worth a peek. I'll provide you with the streaming video clip when it becomes available. Although I don't think there was a "winner" last night, Genis seemed to get mired in technical minutia.. you be the judge.

Solorio Won't Block Fairgrounds Sale!

GOOD NEWS TONIGHT!
At just before 6:00 p.m. today Mona Shadia reported in the Daily Pilot that Assemblyman Jose Solorio has stated that he will not block the sale of the Orange County Fair and Event Center based on Mayor Allan Mansoor's "Rule of Law City" resolution. You can read her entire article HERE. As you know, there has been much speculation that the Latino caucus of the legislature would, in fact, block the passage of legislation required for the deal to go through.

SOLORIO DIDN'T SAY HE WOULD SUPPORT THE SALE, YET
Solorio did not state that he will support the sale, though. He hedged that bet, indicating that he will do what he feels is right for Orange County residents and the State of California.

VAN TRAN ALSO ON BOARD
Lame duck Assemblyman Van Tran, whose seat Mansoor is trying to acquire this November, is quoted in the article as having the opinion that his colleagues in the Assembly are concerned about the City's resolution, he does not believe they will oppose the sale of the fairgrounds because of it.

STILL MUCH WORK TO BE DONE
This is good news at a time when there certainly is a need for some. There's still a long row to hoe in this process, including finalizing the nuts and bolts of the agreement between the Orange County Fairgrounds Authority and Facilities Management West. The clock continues to tick as we await the legislation to be passed and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger so this deal can be completed.

Daily Pilot "Comments" Are Back!

FINALLY!
Yahoo! The Daily Pilot has re-activated the "comment" feature in the online version. So, now we can get back to hollering back and forth at each other on that venue.

DELAY MAY HAVE BEEN COSTLY
Actually, the delay in activating the "comment" feature probably cost them a lot from a revenue standpoint - most online advertising is based on "hits" - the number of times a reader visits the site. Without the "comments" and the lively discussions that have been carried there in the past I'm sure the old hit counter slowed to a crawl.

RE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED
On new thing you'll find is the requirement to re-register before participating. Although they don't require a strip search and full body cavity investigation, they do ask questions some may find too intrusive. I guess we'll see as this feature gets up to speed.


SLOW POSTING FOR AWHILE
And, don't expect there to be a rapid turnaround on comments posted... the staff is still being trained on how to screen them - every comment will be screened BEFORE publication. This is very different than, for example, the OC Register, where every comment - even the most vile and egregious - and are not removed until someone complains. This makes for long, sometimes very unpleasant, comment threads which become difficult to follow when offending comments are deleted.

BRING IT!
So, sharpen your wit, think of a new screen name if you won't use your own name when posting, and get ready to rumble! See you there....

Fair Deal Percolates & Other "Hairy" Issues

SANTANA SIGNS ON
As the Fairgrounds issue continues to percolate with no news today, over at the Voice of OC, editor-in-chief Norberto Santana, Jr., has signed on with his take on the meeting last week at which the Sale agreement with the State and the Memorandum of Understanding with Facilities Management West were both approved by the City Council. He played a little loosey-goosey with some of the numbers, but generally got it right. You can read his report HERE.

KOCE VIDEO CLIP
And, the Voice of OC also includes a link to a nearly 10 minute video clip from KOCE, their news partner, in which moderator Rick Reiff presents video interviews with some of the main players in this drama - Jim Righeimer, Katrina Foley and Sandra Genis - and discusses the Fairgrounds plan with Santana, Nick Berardino, head of the Orange County Employees Association and Karen Lugo, a Constitutional Lawyer. You can watch this very interesting video clip HERE.

THE LEGISLATIVE CLOCK TICKS...
So, we really don't have any good news about the deal. I do know that the legislature is just about due to take it's summer break and the deal cannot be consummated unless and until it passes the necessary bills to facilitate the sale. More when we know more...

***

"THE MOUTH" IS SLIPPING
In the meantime, over at the CM Press, our old pal, The Mouth From Mesa North, continues to demonstrate signs of serious mental health issues. Apparently, as Costa Mesa's racist-laureate, he's decided to morph his pathetic blog into a aggregation and repository of incendiary racist articles and links. I mean, does he really think both of his Costa Mesa readers want to peruse the pages of Al Jazeera, for goodness sake?

FOLLICULAR FIXATION
And now the poor man seems to have developed a serious case of follicle envy. Yep, he clearly has a fixation on a full head of hair to the extent that he has decided to violate copyright laws using a protected image from my blog to illustrate the hair style he covets. I kinda want to help him out a little, I mean beyond him having that photo pasted to his mirror to admire each morning. Heck, we know he had flowing locks when he was in that awful movie, The Second Coming of Suzanne, for 19 seconds 35 years ago, as you can see here. I'm sure he could grow a nice mop of hair if he would just stop asking for that prison-style haircut when he sits down in the barber chair.

COULD BE WORSE...
I suppose it could be worse, though... he could have an obsession about what's IN my head instead of what's ON it, right? Only kidding... we all know - because he reminds us of it frequently - that he's a Mensa member and the smartest guy in town. Come to think of it, we've not seem much of him lately. In the past he was a regular infestation at most city meetings. Perhaps he's staying home to grow some hair! We wish him well - but not too well. We really don't want him to come back to the meetings to hawk his books again, now, do we?

Barrett-Jackson A Success

AUCTION WEEK A ROUSING SUCCESS
So, from all accounts so far, the Barrett-Jackson event was a rousing success. No, I did not attend - too many other things on my plate over the past few days - but I did sneak a peek at the television coverage of the auction from time to time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Wow! There were some spectacular cars on the block. If, as has been speculated, the sales generated around $20 million, that could mean a healthy infusion of sales tax dollars for our city at a time when we really need it.

MICKADEIT'S TAKE ON IT
Register columnist Frank Mickadeit wrote an interesting column about the auction, HERE. Unfortunately, the headline writers created a minor stir with their interesting choice of lingo, which was later modified to it's current form. Seems the phrase "B-J" isn't universally recognized as a contraction for "Barrett-Jackson", but rather a contemporary coarse reference... I'll leave it to you to figure it out. It did generate lots of hits on the column, though.

TRACTOR BRINGS $25,000
One of the highlights of the auction was the tractor made available by the folks at Facilities Management West. That old John Deere drew a winning bid of $25,000 from, according to the Daily Pilot article HERE, a gent from Orange Park Acres named Matt Tachdjian. Tachdjian apparently owns a couple of Honda dealerships in southern California. As mentioned in my previous post, the entire proceeds will go to the Centennial Farm Foundation.

ROEDER AS "FARMER JOHN"?
I especially liked this photo of the tractor being driven by Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder... can you envision Roeder in coveralls, plowing the south 40? Nah, neither can I.


FOLKS STILL ANGRY ABOUT THE SALE
The pending sale of the Fairgrounds to the City and subsequent land lease to Facilities Management West have more than a few folks unhappy. Of special interest may be a posting over at the Pacific Progressive blog, HERE.

PROCESS CONTINUES - HOPEFULLY
As I understand it, the City and FMW are still hammering out the final details and the State is proceeding with it's part of this process, including the legislation necessary to actually facilitate the sale. No more recent word from the Latino Caucus in the past couple days. We continue to hope that they will set aside their squabble with our lamebrain mayor, Allan Mansoor, and do what is right for the City, the County of Orange and the State - sign the legislation so the sale can move forward. We'll see...