OC Blog

Announcing Red County 2.0

We here in the Red County salt mines have been quietly toiling away at creating a newer, bigger, better version of the Red County media empire.  Starting today, Red County/OC Blog has moved here.

The new website has a home page, home pages for each sub-blog, a blog portal page that will aggregate content from all of our sub-blogs, and pages related to the magazine. It will bring the various Red County blogs together under one roof, where readers can follow them all in a single feed or just their favorite, local blog. In the coming days, we will be rolling in all of our local blogs and adding new communities as well -- but at the moment it house just OC Blog.

This new version will also enable us to expand the type of content we can offer. And to simplify your search for news beyond our Red County blog coverage areas, we've included several national news feeds.

And that's for starters. We'll be adding more exciting new features during the next few weeks.

PLEASE ADJUST YOUR BOOKMARKS AND HOME PAGES TO THE RED COUNTY WEB ADDRESS (www.redcounty.com).

We apologize in advance for any bugs readers encounter as we roll out the new site...and please give us your feedback.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO OCBLOG.NET?
OC Blog (www.ocblog.net) will continue to be a live site. However, from this point forward the publishing of new posts will be suspended and advertising and functionality will be removed. The new site will contain every post and comment from January 1, 2007 onward, and OC Blog will serve as a searchable Orange County political archive.

Also, we're closing the comments to the 2007 archived posts here on OC Blog. All the 2007 posts are over at RedCounty.com, and we encourage readers to continue their conversation over there, rather than here.

Coincidentally, we just past the 6,000 posts mark. Since OC Blog was born on June 17, 2004, we've had 6,007 posts and 43,178 comments since November 2004 (when TypePad began tracking it).

I had no inkling OC Blog would wind up where it is when I launched it three-and-a-half years, and I'm excited about the changes we've made and features we've added to make Red County bigger and better.

I sincerely appreciate the support, the enthusiasm, and the editorial contributions so many of you have  made over the years that has made this next step possible. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Matt Cunningham
Online Editor, Red County

Romney to Address the Issue of Mormonism

Tomorrow, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be addressing the issue of religion in politics, specifically of his own faith - Mormonism.  Here is Paul Schutzer's take on the upcoming speech in Time Magazine:

IS THIS ROMNEY'S KENNEDY MOMENT?

Whenever a presidential candidate decides to give a speech about religious faith, he is taking his political career into his own hands.

How the OC Sanitation Directors Voted on their 25% Pay Raise

Since there is an interest in knowing exactly how each Directors on the Orange County Sanitation District voted on Ordinance No. OCSD-23, which increased their meeting stipend by 25%, here is the breakdown:

Anaheim: Harry Sidhu voted NO
Brea: Roy Moore voted YES
Buena Park: Patsy Marshall voted NO
Cypress: Phil Luebben voted YES
Fountain Valley: Larry Crandall voted YES
Fullerton: Don Bankhead voted NO
Garden Grove: Bill Dalton voted NO

Huntington Beach: Cathy Green voted YES
Irvine: Steven Choi voted YES
La Habra: Tom Beamish voted NO
La Palma: Mark Waldman voted YES
Los Alamitos: Ken Parker voted YES
Newport Beach: Don Webb voted YES

Orange: Jon Dumitru was ABSENCE
Placentia: Constance Underhill voted YES
Santa Ana: Sal Tinajero was ABSENCE
Seal Beach: Charles Antos voted NO
Stanton: Dave Shawver voted NO
Tustin: Doug Davert voted YES
Villa Park: Rich Freschi voted YES

Yorba Linda: Jim Winder voted NO
Costa Mesa Sanitary District: James Ferryman voted YES
Midway City Sanitary District: Joy Neugebauer voted YES
Irvine Ranch Water District: Darryl Miller was ABSENCE
County of Orange: Chris Norby voted YES

Why would Steven Choi, who is running for Assembly, vote for a 25% pay raise?  I cannot imagine that would look good on any mailer.  At least Harry Sidhu, who is also a candidate for state office, have some common sense and voted 'NO'.

SD33 Watch: Mimi Won't Take The Raise

Martin Wisckol notes over at Total Buzz that Assemblywoman Mimi Walter's will refuse to accept the newly approved pay raise.

Smart move.

Mimi's heading into what promises to be a bloody, expensive state Senate primary against Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu. If she'd accepted the pay raise, Harry and his consultant Duane Dicharia would have beaten her over the head with it. Then again, they already have one pay hike stick to beat her with, but that is what it is.

And for the record, I support Mimi and plan to vote for her in June.

Three Santa Ana Commissioners Resign In Wake Of Gordon's Defenestration

In the wake of the Santa Ana Council's saturnine defenestration of EPIC Commissioner and blogger Thomas Gordon, three more city commissioners -- all former or current members of the Orange Juice blogpen -- have resigned there positions.

Art Pedroza, Ryan Trabuco and Luis Rodriguez have all resigned -- Art and Ryan in protest, Luis partly so  but mainly due to time considerations.

The OC Register has more here.

I sympathize with the message they're trying to send to this banana republic council, but my advice would have been to stay and fight it out. If the council wants them gone, make them pull the trigger themselves.

Nguyen V. Nguyen Round Two: It'll Be Trung v. Janet And The Registrar Of Voters

Busy day.

This came over the transom from Janet Nguyen consultant Dave Gilliard this morning:

The Court of Appeal today rejected Schroeder/Trung's motion to disqualify the registrar of voters from participating in the appeal hearing and granted Janet Nguyen’s motion to take judicial notice of various pieces of legislative history, including the Governor's signing statement which confirms the interpretation made by Janet’s attorney of the state statute.

Martin Wisckol has more over at Total Buzz. I presume that means we'll see Leon Page back in action for the ROV.

So they're getting the band back together. You can see video the cast of characters from the previous run of Nguyen V. Nguyen this past spring here, here, here and here.

AD73 Watch: New Majority Endorses Diane Harkey For Assembly

This came over the transom a few minutes ago from The New Majority:

New Majority Endorses Diane Harkey for State Assembly
Orange County Chapter Weighs in on Walters Replacement

COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA –– Today the New Majority, Orange County and San Diego Chapters, announced its endorsement of Diane Harkey for State Assembly District 73.  The New Majority is one of the most influential political action committees in the state of California, and a major player in state and federal candidate races.

Santa Ana Hits Light Rail Technology Barrier

Ex-city commissioner Thomas Gordon has this must-see post on the technologically-challenged City of Santa Ana's struggles with light rail.

Red County Radio: Interview With Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez

I just finished interviewing Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez for Red County Radio. We talked about her lonely battle to open up Santa Ana city government -- most recently by requesting that all council meetings be broadcast on television and over the Internet, and archived for five years on the city website.

Sounds reasonable. But it died for lack of a second and her colleagues found all manner of weaselly reasons to oppose it.

You can listen on the player below (the segment is about 15 minutes long).

Raymond Chandler Quote Of The Week: December 2-9, 2007

The voice on the telephone seemed to be sharp and peremptory, but I didn't hear too well what it said -- partly because I was only half awake and partly because I was holding the receiver upside down. I fumbled it around and grunted.

"Did you hear me? I said it was Clyde Umney, the lawyer."

"Clyde Umney, the lawyer. I thought we had several of them."

"You're Marlowe, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I guess so." I looked at my wrist watch. It was 6:30 a.m., not my best hour.

"Don't get fresh with me, young man."

"Sorry, Mr. Umney. But I'm not a young man. I'm old, tired and full of no coffee. What can I do for you, sir?"

"I want you to meet the Super Chief at eight o'clock, identify a girl among the passengers, follow her until she checks in somewhere, and then report to me. Is that clear?"

"No."

"Why not?" he snapped.

"I don't know enough to be sure I could accept the case."

"I'm Clyde Um--"

"Don't," I interrupted. "I might get hysterical."

-- Playback, 1958