Sunday, December 31, 2006

CM PRESS # 48



IMPROVERS ARE DEMANDING CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN 2007 FOR COSTA MESA!

We predict that there will be no rest for
improvement minded citizens in 2007 and that with their support, the good folks on the City Council (you know who they are) will continue to bring ideas forward that will help make Costa Mesa more like our coastal neighboring cities.

This is not a time to sit back and relax.
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Those are our opinons. Thanks for reading them.

Friday, December 29, 2006

CM PRESS # 47


THE WAY OF ALL LIVING THINGS--GURU PRESS SPEAKS

All living things seek conditions where they are comfortable, young Grasshopper. There is no exception to this.

If you have a swamp full of alligators in the middle of your village, and if the alligators are attacking the people of your village, you can hire alligator police to do what they can,and you can hire alligator social workers to intervene to try to make the alligators nicer, but if you do these things,Grasshopper, you'll have to pay and pay and pay and you'll still have alligators.

However,if you drain the swamp,Grasshopper, the alligators will feel very uncomfortable and will move all on their own accord.

Then, without harming the alligators, you will have solved your alligator problem and made your village safe once and for all.

Take understanding from this, Grasshopper.

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WE GET MAIL ABOUT A JOB CENTER FOR SANTA ANA HEIGHTS



Dear CM PRESS:

In # 46 you wrote about Newport resident and Daily Pilot columnist Joseph N. Bell not being happy that Costa Mesa has closed down its job center, and you said you would be willing to help Mr. Bell with getting a job center opened in his Newport Beach neighborhood of Santa Ana Heights.

Even better, there is a ready source of funding. Santa Ana Heights is a redevelopment area.

They were going to use their redevelopment money for a community center at the YMCA, but the Y has pulled out, so now they can use the money to build and run a job center. Perfect!

Name Withheld by CM PRESS
------------------------------------------------
THE CM PRESS COMMENTS:

We emailed a copy of # 46 to the Daily Pilot with our offer to help Mr. Bell bring a job center to his neighborhood, but so far Bell hasn't replied. Probably busy.

We'll send # 47 over with your suggestion.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

CM PRESS # 46

JOB CENTER FOR SANTA ANA HEIGHTS?

In his column today (12/28) in the Daily Pilot, Joseph N. Bell, who lives in Santa Ana Heights in Newport Beach, lets readers know that he's not pleased with the closing of the job center in, ah, Costa Mesa.

This is an old tune sung by Bell and other liberals who live far from the closed down job center on the Westside of Costa Mesa. It seems the further away you live from the place, the more you support it. Funny how that works.

But, the CM PRESS is a good listener. Accordingly, we herewith offer Mr. Bell our support in opening a job center in his neighborhood in Newport Beach.

Let us know how we can help bring a job center to your neighborhood, Mr. Bell. We stand ready to go with you around your neighborhood to gather petition signatures to demand that a job center be put there.

And, if we're successful in getting the job center opened, perhaps we can call it the Joseph N. Bell Job Center just so your neighbors will always know who to thank.

Bell is also concerned that some of the charities in Costa Mesa might not receive as much tax payer funding as they would like.

Again, we stand ready to help Mr. Bell move some of these charities to Santa Ana Heights. Then, he can ask the City Council and the taxpayers of Newport Beach to fund them.

Since, as we've written before, some of the charities and the job center go together in a symbiotic relationship, it would make sense to put them together in Bell's neighborhood.

We're sending a copy of this CM PRESS over to the Daily Pilot via email so Mr. Bell can let us know when he's ready to circulate petitions in his neighborhood.

We're ready to help you Mr. Bell.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

CM PRESS # 45

WE GET MAIL ABOUT POLITICAL COPS

Dear CM Press:

Why is my tax money going to pay for police staff to collect money at the CM police station that is then used to influence the election?

I have a copy of a cashed check that was made out to the Costa Mesa Police Officers PAC that was hand delivered to the CM police station.

The Police Officers PAC used their money to attempt to defeat Mayor Mansoor and Wendy Leece.

What can we do to stop having our tax money used to influence our elections?

Name Withheld by CM PRESS
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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.


CM PRESS # 44




MR. FURIOUS AND THE ROOSTER

(Steve Smith gets angry and finds some more false causes)

Steve Smith never seems to let logic and facts get in the way of his opinions as he writes his columns for the Daily Pilot.

In his latest outing (12/27), Smith gives us yet another example of a lack of understanding of the real world.

Now, to his credit, Smith at least cares about the schools and is keeping the issue of failing schools in Costa Mesa on the front burner.

Unfortunately, Smith reminds the CM PRESS a little of Mr. Furious in the movie Mystery Men, combined with the rooster who falsely believes that the cause of the sun rising each day is the rooster's crowing.

Mr. Furious, played by Ben Stiller, had one superpower. It was the ability to show super anger at just about anything, but often over the wrong things, and just as often his anger was aimed at the wrong targets.

Of course, showing anger was all that Mr. Furious could do. In every other way he was powerless. One scene in the movie had Mr. Furious showing all his superpower anger as he attacked an automobile.

Never fear, the automobile was safe. For all his anger, Mr. Furious couldn't even rip off the flimsily attached hood ornament and there was a hilarious scene where he was lying on the hood of the car with his eyes bulging, his mouth frothing, his veins popping and with his face beet red as he strained with all his might to rip the hood ornament off. The hood ornament didn't budge an inch.

In today's column, Smith gets really, really angry at the failing schools in Costa Mesa, posits a false cause, and then offers no solutions. It's all very voodoo, as we say in the swamps.

Mr. Furious Smith's incorrect explanation for the failing schools in Costa Mesa: They're failing because of his arch enemy, that evil Mr. Schoolboard. Yup, that evil Mr. Schoolboard is causing kids in Costa Mesa to perform poorly on tests.

But, remember, contrary to what Smith may think, it is the performance of students (not the school board, not the teachers, not the physical school facilities) that determines whether or not schools are failing or not.

Here's more, directly from Smith, stripped of surplusage where possible:

"Westside parents...do not have the clout of their Newport Beach counterparts...and the dirty little secret of this school board...: The board pays more attention to the Newport Beach schools than it does to the schools in Costa Mesa."

Smith doesn't tell us how having evil Mr. Schoolboard paying more attention (even if true, which we doubt) to the tykes from Newport Beach helps those kids score very high on tests, while kids in Costa Mesa are failing. It's probably best that Smith not try to explain it. His contention is nonsense, unless evil Mr. Schoolboard is slipping the answers to the Newporters or is in some devious way causing them to score high on standardized tests given to all kids.

Smith then whines that there is "no open communication" between evil Mr. Schoolboard and parents, and that the school board isn't publishing "dropout rates or zero-tolerance violations in this newspaper." Smith goes on, "The reason you don't see the school board being forthcoming with their challenges is because it will ruin their constant message that everything is roses and rainbows."

Okay, on this last point, Smith gets something right, but for the wrong reasons, again.

Yes, the school board does appear to be trying to paint a rosy picture of everything, but that may be to avoid saying the truth that might cause numbnuts in the community to call the school board names.

And, what is the truth of why Costa Mesa's student scores are so low--a truth that Smith apparently doesn't understand?

Here it is. Here's the real cause opposed to a false cause: It's not because the school board favors Newport Beach and it's not because of a lack of communication or for failing to try to raise the scores. The hard truth is that Costa Mesa's schools are full of the children of illegal aliens and Newport Beach's schools aren't. That, Mr. Smith, is why Costa Mesa's schools are on a par with Third World schools. Third World city equals Third World school scores.

And, just to be clear, this isn't a school board, or school, or teacher problem, it's a city problem.

A failing city makes for failing school scores.

But, maybe the CM PRESS has it wrong. We're ready to listen to other facts.

Smith writes that "Dramatic reform [in the schools] is needed, not lip service. I've made many recommendations in the past. If any board member is interested in really thinking outside the box and making progress, I'd be delighted to discuss it with them. Just leave a message at the Daily Pilot."

Well, Mr. Smith, we at the CM PRESS aren't school board members but we are interested in reading your recommendations. Really.

We have open minds and we're always willing to change our views on matters if it can be shown that our views are wrong.

So, we're sending a copy of this CM PRESS over to the Pilot via email. If you have recommendations that you think will improve the school scores in Costa Mesa, please feel free to send them over to us. If they are solid, and make sense, we may publish them and give them some exposure with our growing throng of happy readers.

Of course, you could just write another column and put your recommendations in the Pilot.

Either way, please don't just give us the same type of fluff, but with a different perspective, that we're used to seeing from the school board. Give us facts and statistics and real world examples.

But, enough of Mr. Smith for now. Below is a letter we sent to the Pilot about a column written by the NMUSD superintendent.

We wrote and sent this letter before Smith's column appeared, and it has facts and figures. Yes, dear readers, the writers at the CM PRESS, unlike some who write for other publications, actually do base their opinions on hard facts.

Because we are fact oriented, we have no trouble changing our opinions if the facts are proven wrong or if there are facts to support a different opinion.
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Editor Daily Pilot:

Re: Column by Jeffrey Hubbard, Pilot, 12/26/06

With all due respect to Jeffrey Hubbard, the Newport Mesa Unified School District (NMUSD) superintendent; his column in Tuesday's Pilot was just more happy face fluff.

This isn't difficult. There are two cities in the NMUSD: Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Newport Beach has high performing schools and Costa Mesa mostly has failing schools. Anyone who has been paying attention probably knows that, but my guess is that most casual readers buy the euphemism that it is the "schools" that are high performing or failing, when in fact it is the students who are high performing or failing.

I know that's a hard pill for many to swallow and that it sounds nicer to blame an inanimate object such as a school, and then by implication in our subconscious minds, a school building, but the reality is far different.

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach both have very similar school buildings and facilities and the teachers are also about the same and often transfer between the two cities.

The one difference in the equation is that Costa Mesa's schools are full of the children of illegal aliens and Newport's aren't.

Why is this the case? Because Costa Mesa is full of illegal aliens and Newport isn't. And, why is this also the case? Because, for the past two decades, Costa Mesa's so-called leaders have turned Costa Mesa into an illegal alien sanctuary city.

The results of this racist policy are all around us. We have failing schools, we have drive-by shootings, we have gangs, we have increasing violent crime, we have home values that are less than they should be, we have a fleeing middle class, and we have conditions that are dropping to inner city levels.

In the Pilot the other day there was another column about the failing schools in Costa Mesa, and one could see the bureaucratic say-something-nice talk from a committee that was studying three schools. For example, Wilson, we were told, has "high-after school participation," and Pomona has "quality parent education."

Isn't that nice? It's like being told that your blind date loves to cook.

The NMUSD can come up with all sorts of bright sounding plans and it can sidestep the truth all it wants, but the truth is still there.

We need to face that truth and we need to speak it aloud: Unless Costa Mesa stops being an illegal alien sanctuary city, the schools in our city will not even be close to performing like those in our sister city, Newport Beach, or in any other First World city.

For those capable of critical thinking, here are the statistics from the aforementioned Wilson and Pomona schools and for comparison the ones from Newport Coast. You draw your own conclusions.

Wilson
is 94.2% Hispanic (581 students) and 2.8% White (17 students). This is a failing school. Only 34% of students in the 3rd grade met or exceeded state standards in math on the 2004 Star tests.* Don't worry, though, it has "high after school participation."


Pomona
is 93.5% Hispanic (435 students) and 2.8% White (13 students). Only 15% of students in the 3rd grade met or exceeded state standards in math on the 2004 Star tests.* This is a failing school, but, hey, it has "quality parent education."

Newport Coast is 1.7% Hispanic (10 students) and 81.5% White (492 students). This is a high performing school. A full 81% of students met or exceeded state standards in math on the 2004 Star tests.*
Bad schools are the result of a bad city. Fix the city and you fix the schools.


/s/ CM PRESS
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

CM PRESS # 43


WE GET MAIL--ARE STORES IN SOME AREAS DIFFERENT THAN SIMILAR STORES IN, OH, NICER, SAFER, MORE UPSCALE AREAS?


DEAR CM PRESS:

A few days before Christmas, I was looking for a power saw that had been advertised in an ad for a certain hardware store.

The Huntington Beach store, a well lit, well kept store, had nice displays of all the saws and their various blades, drills with the various drill bits, etc. Almost immediately, I was approached by a staff member asking if I needed help. They had only the display model left of the saw I wanted, but the young man checked and said their branches in the Tustin Marketplace and in Garden Grove had some.

The Tustin store also had nice displays of the complete tools including blades and bits, helpful staff, etc. Unfortunately, by the time I went there, they were out, also. They were reluctant to sell me the floor model because they didn't have the case for it and were missing some of the spare blades. They checked the computer and assured me that they had several of the saws at the Garden Grove store.

The Garden Grove store was not in the nicest area, and the parking lot was trashy and poorly maintained. The store itself was pretty shabby, with narrow aisles, poor lighting, messy displays, and few sales people around.

In the power tool section, it one couldn't find the right shelf to look for a specific tool at a glance because none of the display tools had blades or bits. All one saw at first was a bunch of orange (Black & Decker) and yellow (DeWalt) handles. The blades and bits had all been removed, so as one looked down the aisle, the power drill handle looked sort of like the reciprocating saw handle, which looked sort of like the chain saw handle, etc. Considering the area, I wondered if they did that because of high theft rates or concern about gangs taking the parts to use as weapons.

It did not increase my comfort level in the store. I was glad to complete my purchases and get back on the road for home.

Today I went to the Costa Mesa Target. None of the power tools on display had the blades or bits inserted.

Name Withheld by CM PRESS

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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS

Sunday, December 24, 2006

CM PRESS # 42


TWO LONG BEACH COPS IN CRITICAL CONDITION. ILLEGAL ALIEN SUSPECT--STILL ON THE LOOSE--HAD BEEN DEPORTED MULTIPLE TIMES

Here's the link to a news report about the shooting of two cops in Long Beach the other day: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4894831

According to the news report, the suspect, who is still outstanding, had been deported a number of times. What's that mean? He's an illegal alien. Why was he still on the streets of Long Beach? Because that city is an illegal alien sanctuary city and the cops there aren't supposed to take illegal aliens off the streets. Instead, they're supposed to wink and nod unless they commit a major crime.

Who should these two seriously wounded cops and their families blame for this crime? First, they should blame the suspect himself, and then they should blame the local liberal Long Beach establishment for letting criminals like this roam free. The enablers of criminals like this need to be dragged out from under their rocks so everyone can see them.

This is important for Costa Mesa because we still have a liberal establishment in this city, including some left-over cops from a previous liberal police administration, who would rather give free turkeys to suspected illegal aliens than arrest and deport them.

If any of the good, decent cops who work for Costa Mesa--and, we have many--end up being shot by an illegal alien on our streets, some of the blame should (but probably won't be) laid at the feet of the liberal establishment and the small clique of overly political cops who some believe tried to intimidate citizens into voting against Mayor Mansoor and Councilperson Wendy Leece in the just past election and who seem to turn a blind eye to "minor" crimes and violations of illegal aliens lest these illegal aliens get into the system and be deported.

One wonders if those few cops who sneer at citizens when they report minor traffic violations such as suspected illegal aliens parking in front of red curbs near grade schools and elsewhere and thus endangering kids, and those who smirk when citizens say that suspected illegal aliens are endangering citizens in our small parks, and those who laugh at citizens reporting graffiti, abandoned shopping carts, gangs congregating on street corners, loud music disturbing the sleep of kids, and various and sundry other things, will still be sneering, smirking and laughing if any of these suspected illegal aliens, who these cops gave a pass to, start shooting at cops?

Think it can't happen here? The CM PRESS hopes not, but unless Costa Mesa stops being an illegal alien sanctuary it's probably inevitable.

Now, we're not saying the local cops should put out a dragnet and grab and check everyone on our streets at random, but we are saying that when cops, in the normal course of their duties, interact with people, that the cops should expect, at a minimum, to be able to see valid identification and, where appropriate, drivers licenses, auto registration and proof of insurance, so they can know who and what they're dealing with.

And, if no identification or other papers are presented, or if any identification or other papers presented appear suspicious, then the cop should hold on to the person or persons until they are properly identified.

In addition, if the cop is reasonably suspicious of anyone he or she comes into contact with and if he or she can articulate that suspicion, then the person or persons should be taken to the police station for further questioning by the ICE agent who is now stationed there.

Let's get the criminals off our streets before anyone else is harmed by them.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

CM PRESS # 41


BAD CITY = BAD SCHOOLS

The Daily Pilot is leading today (Saturday, 12/23) with an article about three schools in the Newport Mesa Unified School District that are failing and which have one year to improve student scores or face sanctions (And a possible takeover by the state?).

If you've been paying attention to the decline of Costa Mesa, you won't be surprised to learn that none of these schools are in the Newport Beach part of the district.

Why is that? Both Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are part of the same school district. Both have school facilities that are about the same. The same teachers work in both parts of the district.

Again, why does Costa Mesa have students who score poorly on tests while Newport Beach has students who score high?

The three schools with failing students are Pomona Elementary School, Wilson Elementary School and TeWinkle Middle School.

So, why are those schools failing?

Can you stand the truth? Are you ready? Here's the answer: For the past two decades so-called city leaders in Costa Mesa have been turning our city into an illegal alien sanctuary city.

Illegal alien sanctuary city means illegal alien sanctuary schools.

But, maybe we have it wrong.

You didn't read the following demographic facts in the Pilot. Wonder why? Might they not offer some scientific clue about the schools? We won't bore you with all the demographic information of these and other schools but could the following demographic information offer a clue?

Pomona is 93.5% Hispanic (435 students) and 2.8% White (13 students).

Wilson is 94.2% Hispanic (581 students) and 2.8% White (17 students).

TeWinkle is 68.2 %
Hispanic (781 students) and 26.8% White (307 students).

By comparision, Newport Coast is 1.7% Hispanic (10 students) and 81.5% White (492 students). It's a top performing school.

Draw your own conclusions.

Here's the link to the NMUSD Web site where you can get all the demographics: http://www.nmusd.us/schools/

If the above doesn't make you mad, then consider the following intelligence insulting crap that should go in the column marked "try to find something nice to say even if you have to stretch to do so": The Pilot tells us that the report prepared by those studying the schools says that TeWinkle has "dedicated counselors," and that Wilson has "high after-school participation," and Pomona has "quality parent education."

Do those last fuzzy sentiments make you feel better that your home values are depressed by having school scores that make Costa Mesa look like slum central?

To improve the schools, we need to improve the city. There's no other way to do it.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Friday, December 22, 2006

CM PRESS # 40

HMMM, WHAT CAN IT ALL MEAN?


TWO CLUES FOR IMPROVING COSTA MESA

1.SANTA ANA--THE MOST UNAMERICAN CITY IN THE U.S.?

After all the gang related shootings in Santa Ana, including the killing of two 14-year-olds the other day (see CM PRESS #38), the libs in Santa Ana held a group hug in which they blamed the City for not providing opportunities for youth.

That's the usual sop offered by libs and it never works. Of course, that's what you might expect from Santa Ana, which is essentially part of Mexico, and from libs who, while preaching about humanity, always remove humans from the equation and posit inanimate objects and faceless forces as the cause of problems. People being killed by guns? It's the fault of bad Mr. Gun. Gangs? It's the fault of bad Mr. No Midnight Basketball.

And, after almost every gang shooting you read about some parents of the shooters or the victims saying that their kids are good kids and aren't in gangs. If you believe them, then we must have no gangs, no shootings, no killings, no graffiti. It must all be a figment of our imagination or, if real, these things must be caused by some inanimate thing or other.

How about this as an alternative answer: The parents and the community aren't acting responsibly or are too stupid to see what's plain to see and can't connect up the dots to understand why some communities are nice and safe and why some aren't. And, as a result, they look for false causes and posit false cures to solve the problems and only make the problems worse.

And, we have plenty of dopes in Costa Mesa who fit in with the characterization in the paragraph immediately above. Why, we even have a few of them in positions of power in our local government.

As you may have read in the main stream press, Santa Ana even let the schools out early so kids could go to their real country, Mexico, for Christmas.

Santa Ana has become a no-go city for most citizens and the only reason many citizens even go there these days is because, as the county seat, it remains the locus for many government agencies.

As long as Santa Ana remains an illegal alien sanctuary city, the problems will not only not abate, but they'll increase. There will be more gangs, more shootings, more crime.

2. NINE YEAR OLD GIRL IN SERIOUS CONDITION AFTER SHOOTING

There's a report in the LA TIMES today (12/22--page B5) about a 9-year-old girl who is in critical condition after a stray bullet fired by suspected gang members passed through the wall of her house and struck her in the head.

Here's something else from the above LA TIMES article that might be of some interest to Costa Mesans interested in improving our own city and avoiding the type of tragedies that we're seeing in Los Angeles and Santa Ana:

"News of the shooting frightened residents [of the neighborhood] where well-off newcomers have restored...old homes. Even as some of these homes sell for more than $1 million, a handful of apartments and old homes house gang members."

What lessons can be drawn from the above?

1. You can't be tolerant of some illegal activity, such as allowing illegal aliens to occupy your city, and then hope to stop major illegal activity such as shootings. The two things go together.

2. You can't improve neighborhoods if you allow slums to remain in the neighborhoods. The slums just act as breeding grounds and safe harbors for criminals.

Costa Mesa has many slums mixed in with expensive single family homes and we're seeing the same result as we see in Los Angeles.

Mesa del Mar-- (where Katrina Foley lives) has the Mission-Mendoza slum that is a densely packed couple of streets of functionally obsolete barracks style fourplexes. They're overcrowded and they're a breeding ground for crime and gangs. There have been many shootings and murders with a nexus to this small slum area.

Mesa North-- has the Coolidge-Fillmore slum that has densely packed barracks style triplexes. There have been many shootings and murders with a nexus to
this small slum area.

The Westside-- has many slum areas that are too numerous to list here. Shalimar, and the Wilson/Placentia area are two of them.

As we've written many times before, we believe that the City of Costa Mesa should act to thin out these slums by buying up individual buildings when they come up for sale and then tearing them down to provide parking in the short term and to develop the vacant lots into sports fields as parcels are assembled into large enough sizes.

This will reduce crowding and other pressures that lead to these areas being breeding grounds for crime.
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JAN DAVIDSON

As long time readers know, Jan Davidson was one of the first Improvers in the city and she was an activist even before the current crop of big "I" and little "i" improvers started their activism. She was also in at the start of the Improvement movement that led to election victories in several past elections.

Because of a car accident several years ago, Jan has been in almost constant pain and this has kept her from being as active as she would like. However, the buzz is that Jan wants to get active again.

Watch out City Council if you don't agressively pursue improvement!
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COMMISSION APPLICANTS

The names of those who have applied to be on the Planning Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission should be available around December 29. When we get them, we'll post them.

Hopefully, the City Council will appoint people to these commissions who want our city to become the great coastal community it should be.

In the past, City Council members have appointed some people to these commissions who have never been active in the city and who have no clear idea of how to improve Costa Mesa. Even worse, some people have been appointed to these Commissions who actually oppose improvement.
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REMEMBER TO PUT THE CM PRESS IN YOUR LINKS OR FAVORITES FOR EASE IN VISITING US OFTEN.

http://cmpress.blogspot.com/

We now publish something new almost every day and we only send out a few of the many issues. All of them can be read at the above link.

Also, don't forget to pass on copies to your friends who want a nicer Costa Mesa.

Merry Christmas Costa Mesa.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.


Wednesday, December 20, 2006

CM PRESS # 39


MISSION POSSIBLE: MAKE COSTA MESA THE NICE COASTAL COMMUNITY IT SHOULD BE

Here are a few of the things that we've written about before and which we hope the City Council, and where appropriate, the Planning Commission, the Parks and Recreation Commission, and various committees will bring to the fore this year and at least start the public discussion on them.


1. 55 FREEWAY: Underground the 55 to about 15th Street to bleed off beach traffic. Then, cap over the trench and turn the topside into a pedestrian friendly true downtown with Triangle Square as the hub of a commercial wheel whose spokes would be West 19th Street, Harbor Blvd. Newport Blvd and a few other streets in the area.

2. JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT: Help find a location to replace John Wayne Airport. Our opinion is that the northern part of Camp Pendleton would do the trick. The City should begin talking to our Congressmen and others about this.

3. OCEAN: Bring the ocean to Costa Mesa by developing a marina and/or beach in the area below the Westside bluffs to make Costa Mesa into a true coastal community. The City should begin talking to Newporters and County officials about the benefits to them in this.

4. POLLUTION/BLUFFS: Reduce pollution from the Westside bluffs and start developing a proper balance between the amount of industrial zoning and single family residential zoning in the city by encouraging home building on some of the industrial land on the bluffs. Costa Mesa presently has a whopping 14% of its land zoned for industrial uses. This is out of whack. It should be reduced to around 7%. (Newport only has 2% of its land zoned industrial)

5. SLUMS: Thin out the barracks style apartment buildings. Many of these are now obsolete and are serving as breeding grounds for crime and are creating health and safety problems because many of the individual apartments (and the apartment garages) are housing far too many people. At the present time, Costa Mesa is upside down as far as our homeowner vs. renters ratio. Our ratio is 60% renters and 40% homeowners. It should be just about the opposite.

Chicago finally woke up to the fact that as long as you have a habitat for criminals, you'll have criminals. That city tore down its massive Cabrini-Green complex that had once been touted as the modern solution for decrepit inner city housing.

In fact, Cabrini-Green just made matters worse by concentrating criminals in an area that then became a safe harbor for criminals and an area from which they could sally forth to victimize people in other areas. We have similar habitats and safe harbors for criminals in Costa Mesa.


6. SPORTS FIELDS: Bring in more neighborhood sports fields by buying up properties in neighborhoods with a high demand for such sports fields. No eminent domain, please. The City should put on its developer hat and just buy the properties at fair market value as would any property developer.

7. NEWPORT BEACH: Develop a better working relationship with our true sister city so that both cities can cooperate for the mutual benefit of their citizens. Both cities need to work together on airport, marina and similar issues and both cities benefit if more playing fields can be brought on line.

8. NON-PROFITS: Reform the way tax money is doled out to non-profits so that any hint of racial or ethnic discrimination is removed.

That's just for starters. We cannot afford to have a caretaker government in Costa Mesa at this time.

We need bold leadership and big visions to go along with the fixing of potholes. That's the only way we're going to overcome two decades of do-nothing governments that have failed to do the things necessary to keep Costa Mesa the great place it should and can be.
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CM PRESS # 38


THE LIE: IF ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE TURNED OVER TO ICE, THE POLICE WON'T BE ABLE TO GET TIPS FROM THE "COMMUNITY" THAT WILL LEAD TO THE ARREST OF CRIMINALS AND MAKE EVERYONE SAFER.


THE TRUTH: DEPORTING ILLEGAL ALIENS WON'T CUT OFF THE NON-EXISTENT TIPS, BUT WILL DRIVE DOWN CRIME.


If you've been reading the LA TIMES or the OC REGISTER you're aware that Santa Ana, which is perhaps the most illegal alien occupied city as well as the most illegal alien friendly city in the nation (those two things go together), has almost nightly killings on its streets.

This past Sunday, two 14-year-old kids were shot to death on East Camile Street in Santa Ana.

Fourteen years old! The police say that the 14-year-olds had gang affiliations. This is as if to say, "See, your own kids are safe. This was just a gang matter. Don't worry about it."

Well, this is something to worry about. Santa Ana's illegal alien fueled gangs, illegal alien crimes, and other problems are spreading to Costa Mesa. Our schools are failing. Our middle class is fleeing. Our slums are growing. We now have gang shootings on our streets. Gang graffiti is common.

(By the way, there was more gang graffiti this morning (12/20) in Mesa del Mar where Katrina Foley lives. Libs are probably confused about this. Didn't they just spend about $ 200,000 of our money to pave a slum alley near that graffiti? Why didn't that solve the gang problems in Mesa del Mar? Hmmm? Maybe the libs will next suggest we plant some flowers in front of the slum buildings. That's sure to solve the gang problems. )

What do the libs want to do about illegal alien crime in Costa Mesa? They want to give our tax money to some midnight basketball type charities that many citizens believe are part of the problem, not part of the solution. And, they want to make Costa Mesa even more friendly for illegal aliens.

Most intelligent citizens realize that this is going in the wrong direction and will just act as a magnet for more problems for Costa Mesa.

But, what about that lie that opened this column about making nice with illegal aliens to drive down crime? It doesn't work and it won't work.

Here's a quote from a column today on page Local 2 in the OC REGISTER about the shooting of the two 14-year-olds: "As detectives try to figure out who wanted the teenagers dead, they must wade their way through a tight-lipped community snapped shut with fear."

Forget that part about "snapped shut with fear." That's nonsense. There are plenty of opportunities for people to talk to the police anonymously; and in Santa Ana--the most illegal alien friendly city in the U.S., remember--there is no fear of being deported if you do talk to the cops.

So why aren't people coming forward to help the police find the killer of the two kids? Again, the cops in Santa Ana are the new best friends of illegal aliens and won't turn them over to ICE, so why are the non-citizens silent?

Haven't the libs been telling us that we'd better be nice to illegal aliens or they won't help drive down crime (that they cause)? Haven't the libs been telling us that Costa Mesa would have more crime because of a meanie Mayor and his policies to turn illegal aliens over to ICE?

So, how do the libs explain the silence of illegals in Santa Ana? Could it be the libs are wrong? Yup. They are dead wrong. And, their liberal views, which have been in effect in Costa Mesa for at least the last two decades, have driven our city down to levels just above the very low levels of Santa Ana.

But, the answer to the larger question about why "immigrants" don't talk to the cops lies in the fact that there is a different culture at work than we are used to in the U.S. Most people in such cultures just don't talk to the cops or most other government officials--even in their own countries.

It would take too long here to go into all the complex reasons for this and we'd have to discuss anti-European racism that sees most authority figures as part of the European type's perceived innate cultural and social norms (The "You kids get off my lawn," phenomena.) and a fatalism based on religion and other factors, as well as the noblesse oblige racism that often underlies various liberal do-good programs that actually make things worse.

But here's a tantalizer and a dot to connect up if you can: There's a reason why so many pedestrians are hit and killed by cars as the pedestrians cross the streets in Santa Ana, and it's not usually because the pedestrians are unaware that cars use the streets or because the pedestrians are drunk.

There's a correlation between the high pedestrian fatality rate in Santa Ana and the fact that people don't talk to the cops and various other things we see in Santa Ana and increasingly in Costa Mesa. Human beings aren't fungible. If you think they are--if you deny their true humanity--you'll never get things right.

Take understanding from this, Grasshopper.

The cops can schmooze with the "immigration" population all they want and they can look the other way when they come into contact with illegal aliens with no identification, drivers licenses, auto insurance or registration and it's not going to lead to tips--except in rare instances--to drive down our crime in Costa Mesa anymore than it has in Santa Ana.

The way you drive down crime is by making your your city intolerant of crime and by removing the habitats and magnets for a criminal element.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

CM PRESS # 37

THE SKY IS STILL FIRMLY ABOVE US

During the recent election campaign, there were some libs in Costa Mesa who did pretty good imitations of Chicken Little as they warned of dire consequences if the citizens of Costa Mesa didn't defeat Mr. Mansoor and Ms. Leece.

We're happy to report that the sky is still where it should be. Not a smidgen of it has fallen.

Also, from all reports, the three improvement minded members of the City Council (Mansoor/Leece/Bever) are hard at work trying to get Costa Mesa back on track to being the great coastal city that it should be.

Of course, some of the usual Chicken Littles are still run
ning around with their dire and vague predictions of the sky's impending fall. These perennially unhappy sad sacks might want to seek professional help to get over their negative thoughts and self-destructive obsessions.

As for Mr. Mansoor, Ms. Leece and Mr. Bever; you have a mandate. It's up to you to lead Costa Mesa forward. The parade is there. You just need to jump in front. If you don't do this with all the political power the citizens have given you...well, you may remember a former City Councilmember.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.


Monday, December 18, 2006

CM PRESS # 36


CITY COUNCIL MAJORITY SHOULD BRING IN THEIR OWN TEAM TO GET THE JOB DONE

BACKGROUND AND BASICS

In the best of all worlds, people run for public office because they have things that they want to accomplish--they have a big vision.

Of course, there are some who run because they just want to pad their resumes or for other reasons and they really have no desire to do anything except collect their pay checks and avoid controversy.

We've had some candidates in the past who told the CM PRESS, when asked about their big visions for our city, that they didn't have any visions and would just listen to the people. This was an empty suit and an empty head answer.

It goes without saying that elected officials should listen to people, but these officials should come to the table with big visions that they want to see implemented. We don't need empty suits with no ideas to be our political priests to intercede on our behalf between us and government. We can all talk directly to government ourselves.

We need elected officials with big visions for our city who will tell us what these visions are and who believe strongly enough in their visions that they will argue for them, but who will be open minded enough to listen to other arguments.

In other words, let's have our elected officials run their big visions and major ideas up the flagpole to see if we salute. Note that the CM PRESS isn't saying that all decisions should be run up the flagpole. Many things that are decided by government are routine in nature. Under our representative form of government, the citizens have delegated certain of their authority to our elected officials to handle these routine matters for us. Notwithstanding this, however, citizens need to keep a watch on these routine matters to make sure someone hasn't slipped in something major among the routine matters so it won't be seen.

THE TWO COMMISSIONS

How do our elected officials in Costa Mesa implement their big visions? It's often through many small decisions made by the Council and by the two Commissions appointed by the Council. The cumulative effect of many bad small decisions over the years by liberal City Councils has caused Costa Mesa to become less like our sister coastal communities.

The good or bad decisions often start with the two Commissions we have in Costa Mesa that are appointed by the City Council.

Each Commission is composed of five people: The Planning Commission (often called the no-Planning Commission by the CM PRESS), and the Parks and Recreation Commission. All Commission members serve at the pleasure of the City Council.


The Planning Commission is the second most important body in this city after the City Council. There are five Planning Commissioners. Planning Commissioners receive about $ 400 per month and some other benefits for their service. The current members of this Commission are: Bill Perkins, Bruce Garlich, Eleanor Egan, Donn Hall and Jim Fisler.

In third place in importance is the Parks and Recreation Commission. Parks and Recreation Commissioners get paid about $ 100 per month (if memory serves). The current members of this Commission are: Mark Harris, Bob Graham, David Stiller, Byron De Arakal, Wendy Leece ( Ms. Leece was just elected to the City Council so her seat is open).

It is important to note, here, that neither Commission requires that its members come to their positions with much specific knowledge or expertise. They are, however, supposed to have at least average intelligence and be able to reason logically based on the facts presented to them so that they can arrive at proper conclusions about matters that they decide. For example, a Parks and Recreation Commissioner doesn't have to know Elms from Palm trees.

The Commissioners are there for their judgement. Staff supplies specific facts and expertise. In the above example, Staff will tell the Parks and Recreation Commissioners the difference between an Elm and a Palm tree.

The Commissioners are a little like a judge and jury in a courtroom. They hear the pros and cons of various matters and make decisions about the things that come before them.

The City Council has a right to expect these Commissions to carry out the will of the Council and not go against the Council consensus especially as the consensus relates to the direction our city will take (the aforementioned big visions).

If you see the City Council constantly overturning decisions by either of these two Commissions, you have a clue that the Commission involved may not be in sync with the majority on the Council.

In the just past election, some of the members of both Commissions took political sides that give a clue as to whether they're for genuine improvement or not.

In simplest terms, some Commission members were on the side of improvement and some went with the anti-improvers and supported candidates who lost in the just past election.

Two visions. Improvement or anti-improvement. The lines were more clearly drawn in this just past election than in any election in recent memory.

Improvers took note of which side the Commissioners were on (and also of their past comments and decisions) and are telling the CM PRESS that on the Planning Commission, the two Commissioners who are most likely to help with genuine improvement are Donn Hall and Jim Fisler.

On the Parks and Recreation Commission the two Commissioners who Improvers feel are best for genuine improvement are Mark Harris and Bob Graham
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COMMITTEES

There are also a number of Committees whose members are appointed by the City Council.

These Committees consist of volunteer citizens, who receive no compensation, and their role is advisory. We'll get into these Committees in a future issue of the CM PRESS, but what you should keep in mind is that the Council has actually appointed people who don't even live in Costa Mesa to some of these Committees and has also appointed people to some committees who are strongly against genuine improvement of Costa Mesa.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Friday, December 15, 2006

CM PRESS # 35

TOO MANY REHAB HOMES IN COSTA MESA?

The Current has a good article about rehab homes in today's paper. http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sections/news/local/communities/costamesa_newport/

According to the article here's how Costa Mesa and other cities in the ring of cities stack up against each other for state-licensed homes. There could be hundreds more that aren't licensed because they have six or fewer residents and don't need to be licensed by the state.

Costa Mesa----------20
Santa Ana-----------20
Newport Beach------11
Huntington Beach----2
Irvine----------------1
Ft. Valley------------No info available.

So, in yet another statistic, Costa Mesa is joined at the hip with Santa Ana.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

CM PRESS # 34


WHAT ARE YOUR KIDS BREATHING COSTA MESA?
(Another part of the Mansoor/Leece mandate)

According to news reports today, the European Union has just passed a tough chemical law that regulates about 30,000 toxic substances. (See LA TIMES, pg A9, 12/14)

This law is far tougher than any we have in the U.S.

It seems the Europeans are getting fed up with their citizens dying of cancer and other diseases caused by toxic substances.

Switch now to Costa Mesa.

As we've reported many times before, the way Costa Mesa has developed is backwards.

Our best land for homes is on the Westside bluffs. This land has some ocean views and almost constant moist ocean breezes. Instead of homes, Costa Mesa has a massive industrial area on these bluffs.

In fact, of the cities in the ring of cities (those cities that surround Costa Mesa and which touch some part of our land), only Santa Ana has more of its land zoned for industrial uses than Costa Mesa and Santa Ana doesn't have its industrial buildings on view bluffs between the ocean and people.

Here's a comparison that should make Costa Mesan's shudder. Costa Mesa has a whopping 14% of its land zoned for industrial uses and much of it is on our Westside bluffs.

Newport Beach only has 2% of its land zoned this way, and much of the industrial zoning in Newport Beach is on the Westside bluffs right next to Costa Mesa. Huntington Beach only has 8% of its land zoned for industrial uses and most of that is far inland.

The CM PRESS has long maintained that Costa Mesa needs a proper balance and that we should only have about 7% of our land zoned for industrial uses and most of this should be downwind of most of our population, not upwind as it is now.

In the just past election, many of the out of town industrialists tried to elect Bruce Garlich and Mike Scheafer to the City Council. They failed.

The voters of Costa Mesa gave a mandate to Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece to clean up and improve this city. Part of that mandate is to move at warp speed to revitalize the Westside and make it a nice and safe place to live--with clean air.

We'll be watching to see if Mr. Mansoor and Ms. Leece, along with Mr. Bever, can finally break the stranglehold of out of town interests that have been screwing up Costa Mesa for many years and if they can turn our present Slum on the Slopes into the Shining City on the Hill that it should be.

For all their PTA type cooing talk, Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon have been very silent about cleaning up our bluffs. Could that be because some of their pals are the out of towners who tried to defeat Mansoor and Leece?

Could it be that Foley and Dixon really don't care about what our kids are breathing? Are they as much in denial about toxic chemicals as they are about illegal alien crime in our city?

No doubt, they'd give their usual lip service to saying that we should have a clean and safe city. The problem is that when it comes time to actually do something about it, they always seem to be on the side of the improvement obstructionists.

If you get a chance, ask Foley and Dixon why they don't seem concerned about what our kids are breathing. If they give you a phony PC answer (which is likely), ask if they'd like to see homes built on the bluffs to replace some industrial buildings as a step toward the transformation of Costa Mesa into the great city that it should be.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

CM PRESS # 33


DISCRIMINATION? WHAT DISCRIMINATION?

At tonight's City Council study session, the CM PRESS once again told the City Council of a non-profit in Costa Mesa that got caught by the feds discriminating based on race/ethnicity.

We even held up a copy of the official federal consent decree from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, that we obtained about the case.

We also told the Council that in our opinion there are other non-profits that the Council is funding with our tax money that may be discriminating in a similar fashion and should be looked into.

Oh, did we forget to mention that the discrimination is against White citizens and favors some who may not even be in the country legally?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 32


WHERE WILL THE NEW POLICE CHIEF LIVE?

Improvers are telling the CM PRESS that they hope that Costa Mesa's new police chief, who starts work the first week of January, will buy a home in Costa Mesa when he moves his family here from Arizona.

The last two police chiefs chose not to live in our city that pays them so well.

Even though they didn't live here and couldn't vote here, these last two police chiefs tried to use the innate influence that goes with the title of police chief to defeat Mayor Mansoor and new City Councilmember Wendy Leece in the recent election.

Most Improvers agree that having our high ranking city employees--such as the police chief-- actually living here, under the same conditions as we live under, would be a good thing for the improvement of Costa Mesa.

We'll let you know if the new chief chooses to live in Costa Mesa or not.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Monday, December 11, 2006

CM PRESS # 31

ICE AGENT AT JAIL ALREADY HAVING AN EFFECT!

One Quarter of arrestees so far are illegal aliens

The buzz on the streets is that twenty-five percent of recent Costa Mesa arrestees have been discovered to be illegal aliens by the ICE agent who has just started work at the Costa Mesa jail.

Our guess is that, if the CMPD doesn't play catch and release on the streets, this percentage will rise to something probably a little shy of about fifty percent.

Why didn't you read about this in the Daily Pilot? The Pilot has access to the same information and should be able to hear the same buzz as the CM PRESS.

Could it be that this information doesn't fit the Pilot's agenda? Could it be that the Pilot is putting too many of its resources into trying to get quotes from Katrina Foley about whatever meaningless thing she's doing now?

Long time readers might remember that a long time Daily Pilot employee was murdered by an illegal alien who had been living in a one bedroom apartment in the Shalimar slum with twelve others.

You'd think that murder, that wouldn't have happened had the illegal alien not been welcomed here in Costa Mesa, would have caused some of the liberals at the Daily Pilot and their pals who are trying to stop improvement of our city to realize that Costa Mesa has to stop being a sanctuary city for illegal aliens.

But, the liberal mind is a closed mind, dear friends. It is full of bigotry and hate masquerading as compassion. It is a mind that can't accept facts that don't fit its closed mind worldview. It is a mind full of neuroses. It is a mind that denies the truth in favor of sweet nothings.

Examples of this constantly appear in the editorial and opinion pages of the Pilot as some of these libs write in and say they've never seen crime in Costa Mesa [and, therefore, there must be none]. One recent letter writer wrote just such nonsense--and we've had five murders in the last few months. "Crime? What crime? I don't see any crime."
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

DON'T FORGET TO BOOKMARK THE CM PRESS SO YOU CAN CHECK BACK OFTEN: http://cmpress.blogspot.com/
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AN EASY WAY TO ACCESS THE CM PRESS

Here at CM PRESS HQ we find that using Firefox as our browser for the CM PRESS makes it easy to access. Firefox is a completely free and easy to use browser that you can download in a few minutes. It won't interfere with your regular browser and you can put an icon on your desktop so if you want to check back with the CM PRESS often, you can do so with a click or two. If you don't want to use Firefox all the time, it'll just sit there on your computer out of sight.

Here's how to get Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/about/

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Sunday, December 10, 2006

CM PRESS # 30



DAILY PILOT, DUH!

We searched the editorial and opinion pages of the Sunday Daily Pilot today to find something worthwhile to comment on, but there was nothing intelligent there.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Saturday, December 9, 2006

CM PRESS # 29




WE GET MAIL ABOUT KATRINA FOLEY




Dear CM PRESS:

You know that "Keep Kids Alive, Drive 25" campaign that Katrina Foley keeps getting press coverage over? I seem to remember that former Mayor Sandy Genis came up with that idea, or something very similar, years ago.

The council majority at that time decided instead to go with the existing, boring "slow down you are entering a residential neighborhood" signs. If I remember correctly, Ms. Genis wanted the plan to start on the Eastside and then expand city wide, while Foley is apparently just doing it in her own Mesa del Mar neighborhood (naturally).

I also noted the coincidence that Foley "happened to" see the Pilot reporter at South Coast Plaza the day after Thanksgiving, per recent new story. Isn't it amazing that with over one hundred thousand people at SCP on Friday, the reporter ran into Foley? Pilot reporters and Foley seem to keep running into each other, just by coincidence, at all kinds of places. Does she have a hired publicist or do the Pilot reporters fulfill that function for free?

Name Withheld by CM PRESS

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WE COMMENT

Anything that makes our city nicer and safer is welcome.

However, it seems to the CM PRESS that many of the things that Foley does are noncontroversial window dressing sorts of things and then the Pilot gives her maximum press coverage as though she's just done something very major and substantive when she hasn't.

We half expect to see a headline in the Pilot that reads: "FOLEY BAKES COOKIES--SAVES COSTA MESA!"

Meanwhile, the Pilot is largely silent or downplays the meaningful things that Mayor Mansoor and Mayor Pro Tem Bever have done and are doing.

Mr. Mansoor and Mr. Bever are responsible for closing down the job center and for the Westside Residential Overlay and for many other substantive things that are already starting to make a real difference in our city. What they are doing is mostly not window dressing.

And, for their genuine efforts to make our city nicer, they're often insulted in the pages of the Pilot. Of course, maybe that's to be expected. If you really do something substantive, it's easy to be criticized. If you do nothing but fluff (such as what Foley usually does) you get little criticism--except from improvement minded citizens who realize that we can't sit on our hands in Costa Mesa anymore.

After years of bad decisions and neglect, we now have to move boldly to fix things to make Costa Mesa more like our coastal neighboring cities. Foley and Dixon won't do it.

If our city is to be improved, it'll be Mansoor and Bever and now Leece who will have to lead the way and do the heavy lifting to get things done.

Meanwhile, if the recent past is any clue, Foley and Dixon can be counted on to sit on the dais, collect their checks, and try to block real improvement while offering nothing new or innovative to fix our broken city.

We'll be watching and we'll report as things develop and we'll let you know who is doing what.

It's our belief that City Councilmembers are supposed to be leaders and they're supposed to initiate things that are then implemented by staff. We'd like to see more of this and we'd like to see more major things being done at every City Council meeting.

Cities don't stand still and they don't fix themselves.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.


Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

Friday, December 8, 2006

CM PRESS # 28


LUNCH AT THE POLONIUM 210 CAFE

[Tom Johnson has a column in the Daily Pilot today that we comment on below. What does Katrina Foley think about this? Get ready for more quotes from her in the Pilot.] http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2006/12/08/columns/dpt-fairgame08.txt]

So, first, Tom Johnson--known around the HQ of the CM PRESS as Waving Johnson (more about this a little further on)--pulled out all the stops to try to defeat Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece by inflicting paper cuts on them with the Daily Pilot, and now he's going to make nice and have lunch with them.

Mansoor
and Leece should remember what the Libertarians say: TANSTAAFL. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

What's with Johnson? This is the sort of stuff reminiscent of barroom fights in cowboy bars in 1950's movies where everyone shakes hands and becomes new best friends after trying to beat each other's brains in with balsa wood chairs.

The difference from those old fake barroom fights is the fact that this just past election wasn't a meaningless barroom dispute among Hollywood extras pretending to be drunks, and the head beating wasn't with balsa wood.

This election was about Costa Mesa's future--no, really--not in the cliché and glib way that this expression is normally used, but in reality. There were no phony drunks duking it out. There were very sober people trying to convince voters that their way was the best way.

Had Johnson's pals won this election, Costa Mesa would have had a new job center for illegal aliens, and the welcome mat for criminals would have been extended even further. In addition, the Westside Revitalization would have been aborted and our city would have reversed direction and headed away from being more like our coastal neighbors and more like an inner city to our north.

Now, if Johnson really wants to mend his ways, and get on the path to making Costa Mesa the Shining City on the Hill instead of the Slum on the Slopes, by having the Pilot be more even handed--not just with Mansoor and Leece--but also with the improvement minded citizens who elected these two, then that's a great thing.

A daily newspaper actually helping improve Costa Mesa would be something new in our city.

Could it be that this just past election was the equivalent of a Zen slap that opened Johnson's mind? Anything's possible, Grasshopper. However,
Johnson has probably telegraphed his true intentions with some squirrel phrases in his column.

For example, Johnson writes: " I respect Mansoor and was happy that he was elected mayor of Costa Mesa for a second term. In my mind, given the council make-up, he was far and away the best choice."

TRANSLATION
: "Mansoor is the mayor, damn it, and I have to live with it and try to at least be civil or the only two people on the city council who will talk to the Pilot will be Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon, and they were on the losing side in the election and have been sent to the sidelines. And, if the council had not selected Mansoor as mayor, the job would have gone to Eric Bever who has publicly said that he doesn't even read the Pilot and who mostly won't talk to us at all."

Johnson then writes, of Wendy Leece: "I also believe that she's open to people's ideas and thoughts."

TRANSLATION:
"Maybe she's not as tough as Mansoor and Bever, and maybe she's not as focused on improving Costa Mesa and can be turned against improvement with a little sweet talk. This will destroy the three person improvement majority on the Council. Maybe I can romance her to side with Foley and Dixon. Hey, maybe her gender will trump her desire to fix broken Costa Mesa. I'll
give her some flowers or something."

If Johnson and his pals think they can turn Ms. Leece's head, we think they'll be in for a shock. We've watched her on the school board for several years, and she's no one's weak sister. Think Margaret Thatcher without the accent. No smoke is going to be blown up her skirt.

Now, about that Waving Johnson appellation for Tom Johnson. Sometime ago, Johnson went to the now closed job center and sat there in a crowd of day workers and later gushed in a column how wonderful the place was. Oh, the humanity of it.

We thought the whole thing was funny. When he was at the job center, it looked like a Where's Waldo scene as a goofily smiling pale faced Johnson sat there in a sea of day workers. We then spoofed the whole thing in the CM PRESS and we had Johnson waving and yelling "Yoo-hoo" to potential employers from Newport Beach as he tried to find day work as a publisher based on his resume from the Daily Pilot.

In the end, we had Johnson being rejected in favor of an illegal alien whose publishing experience was far more extensive than Johnson's in that the illegal alien published fake ID cards to be used at the very job center where Johnson was sitting.

If Johnson, as he seems to indicate in his column, has heard the will of the voters in Costa Mesa, and if he now wants to be on their side in helping turn Costa Mesa into a first rate city that is more like our coastal neighbors, we'll know that in the direction and the tone of the Pilot over the next few months. Johnson is Mr. Big at the Pilot, and he's told us as much in an email, so what you see in the Pilot is coming from Johnson.

And, of course, if he isn't on board with this, we'll also know that.
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 http://frankspeech.com/