“Man is something that shall be overcome.Man is a rope,tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss.What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.”-- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra --Nothing scientific can be racist and nothing racist can be scientific. (c)2000-2017 CM PRESS.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
CM PRESS # 598
STUPID PARTY GETS EVEN STUPIDER--IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT (Photo of convicted rapist Mike Tyson--a supporter of Steele)
Yesterday, the GOP picked Michael Steele to be the new head of the RNC.
This was a big mistake and we doubt he'll last the two years of his term.
Steele has shown no ability to rally voters to the GOP, and his abrasive public persona, his positions in favor of gun control and his support of affirmative action, among other things, will more than likely alienate millions in the party and lead to more losses.
In his victory speech, Steele blustered, "It's time for something completely different and we are going to bring it to them."
Steele's manner was arrogant to the point where, no matter what his actual words were, his speech came across as being a little like the hate speech of Joseph Lowery at Barack Obama's inauguration when Lowery said "Lord...we ask you to help us work for that day when...white will embrace what is right."
We've said it before and we'll say it again. The U.S. really needs a viable third party that will stand for something and not just try to win by having no positions or positions which change with every breeze.
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SPEAKING OF A THIRD PARTY, AND SOMEONE WHO COULD PUT IT TOGETHER IF HE HAD THE RIGHT SUPPORT, HERE'S PART OF A COLUMN BY PAT BUCHANAN (Thanks to GP for reminding us)
by Patrick Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation.
White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these: First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American. Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the 1960's on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks. We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, or ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids.
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent? Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times m ore common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Reverend Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. All turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing. Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
LINK to Pat's blog.
# # # Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Friday, January 30, 2009
CM PRESS # 597
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All the news that fits their lefty world views and agendas
Thursday, January 29, 2009
CM PRESS # 596
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
CM PRESS # 595
We believe that all relevant descriptive information should be given in newspaper stories about outstanding violent or major criminal suspects and that there should be no PC hiding of such identities. Just report the facts and let the chips fall where they may.
In the present case, the OCR at least showed consistency with its PCitis policy by not stating in writing the race/ethnicity of the suspect, and instead let the photo speak for itself.
The DP, on the other hand, seems to have really wanted readers to know the suspect is white by not only publishing his photo but also by describing him in the body of the article as "white."
The OCR thus gets good marks from the CM PRESS and the DP get's a failing grade on this story.
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Those are our unPC opinions as we do the job that local newspapers used to do.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
CM PRESS # 594
Monday, January 26, 2009
CM PRESS # 593
INTERESTING CHANGES IN BOLIVIA
As the world rushes headlong into a massive falsely utopian homogenization and conformity of nations, peoples and religions, some nations are taking different paths.
Bolivia may be one of them. According to this article in the Los Angeles Times, a new constitution for Bolivia was apparently voted in by the citizens of that nation over the weekend.
One of the things we noted from the article is that under the new constitution, indigenous peoples will be able to "eschew the traditional court system and resort to their own 'community justice.'"
Doing this and similar things should tend, over time, to increase the identity of the various indigenous peoples and strengthen individual rights while weakening the power of the central government.
In other words, such changes work to put people and their often centuries long natural affinities before the artificial entity of a cobbled together national identity and state that is often ruled by a few powerful people who demand allegiance to their particular world views, religious views and social views and who memorialize such things in laws and force these laws down the throats of people who may already have their own world views, religious views and social views.
Those who are opposed to such changes will argue that what is also being done in Bolivia is socialism and the nationalization of private industries by the central government. And, they'd be right. There is some of that in the new constitution. However, if a central government truly is a government of the people (And, isn't that what it's supposed to be?) and not just the tool of a few rich and powerful people, then the nationalization of some massive industries may be a necessary correction to stop a few robber barons from stealing the riches of the nation.
To those who argue against such moves by Bolivia, we'd just point out some of the excesses we constantly read about right here in the USA. How many more stories of fat cat executives of failing companies looking for bailouts with our tax money, who are squandering our money on expensive office furniture and perks, do we need to read about to know that we need some serious corrections to our present so-called free market system right here in this nation?
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NATURE OR NURTURE?
(Is a Pit Bull just a Poodle with bad rearing?)
LINK
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NOW IT'S THE JAPANESE WHO ARE TOLD TO MAKE MORE BABIES
They understand some of nature's lessons.
LINK
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MEANWHILE NANCY PELOSI HAILS BIRTH CONTROL
She doesn't get it.
LINK
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BASKETBALL TEAM WINS 100-0 AND APOLOGIZES FOR WINNING
Even in sports, nature's lessons are ignored as winners apologize for winning.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
CM PRESS # 592
Friday, January 23, 2009
CM PRESS # 591
Thursday, January 22, 2009
CM PRESS # 590
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
CM PRESS # 589
Since all the Commissioners serve at the pleasure of the City Council, this full resignation idea would set up a codified process that would tend to ensure that the Council has Commissioners who share the same general philosophy as the Council and wouldn't be working against the wishes of the Council.
Whether the Council will fully explore such a process or not is anyone's guess.
When Mayor Pro Tem Leece tried to investigate, she apparently hit a stone wall.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
CM PRESS # 588
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Monday, January 19, 2009
CM PRESS # 587
The City Council is going to make some appointments to the Planning Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission at the Council's regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow night.
Both of these commissions are the farm teams for the City Council.
We always find it interesting to look at the lists of those who apply.
Just as is the case with some who run for the City Council, there are some people who have applied who seem to have fallen out of bed one day and decided to put their name in the hat without ever doing any of the grunt work that activists should do. Our guess is that there are some on this list who don't even know where City Hall is located.
Hopefully, the City Council majority will appoint serious people who will continue improvement in the city and will weed out some turncoats and improvement obstructionists.
The Westside still needs improvement, and we need people on the commissions who understand this and who have the right vision for the worst part of Costa Mesa.
We noticed the names of two people on the list who are against having homes built on the Westside Bluffs. If the Council appoints either of these improvement obstructionists, get ready for fireworks from the Improvers.
Here's a link where you can read all the applications and resumes of those who want to be appointed.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
CM PRESS # 586
Saturday, January 17, 2009
CM PRESS # 585
(Expensive toy or necessary tool to keep Costa Mesa safe?)
Friday, January 16, 2009
CM PRESS # 584
Thursday, January 15, 2009
CM PRESS # 583
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CLOSING IN ON THE CREEPS
The local creeps are starting to squirm. Stay tuned. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Maybe we'll soon see another one suddenly leave the area.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
CM PRESS # 582
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
CM PRESS # 581
POLICE TAKE STALKING CRIMES SERIOUSLY
Here's an article about stalking that deserves a read.
The CM PRESS has received reports of a stalker in Costa Mesa who may be targeting some local politicians and others.
If you are a victim of telephone, mail, Internet, or personal harassment or smears, be sure to report it to the CMPD at (714) 754-5252 or email the CMPD at PDADJUTANT@ci.costa-mesa.ca.us.
The harassment may start with subscriptions to magazines that you never subscribed to or similar seemingly minor things, and then escalate to hang-up telephone calls and on and on.
If you're on our email list, feel free to send us your tips in this regard. Be sure to document everything as much as possible in case of legal action.
Generally, stalkers are cowards with psychological problems who try to remain anonymous.
Some of these nutcases start blogs in order to harass others. It is important to drag these slime balls out from under the rocks where they hide, and shine some bright light on them. Some may then face criminal charges as well as civil penalties.
Phony letter on the Westside
According to an article in an alternative weekly newspaper recently, a phony letter to the editor was composed and sent to the newspaper falsely claiming it had been written by someone involved with the Minutemen anti-illegal immigration group.
The letter contained various ethnic smears and said the letter writer had defecated in the trash can of a restaurant near 19th and Placentia.
To the credit of the weekly, they checked on the facts and quickly realized that the letter was phony and was meant to discredit the supposed writer.
Some activists in Costa Mesa believe the letter was written by a local Costa Mesa blogger and/or his associates who go to great lengths to remain anonymous.
This anonymous blogger has implied that he has contacts within the CMPD, and he seems to have inside CMPD information that the general public doesn't have.
Perhaps internal affairs should look into this.
--DEVELOPING--
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Monday, January 12, 2009
CM PRESS # 580
The CM PRESS is receiving messages from many activists, mainly on the Westside, but not only from that part of the city, about more gang graffiti that seems to be popping up.
Unfortunately, some on the City Council seem to consider the graffiti itself to be the problem as though we live in a Disneyesque world and the graffiti is sentient and just put itself on walls. Their attitude is to cover it up as quickly as possible and pretend we don't have a gang problem that the Council is not adequately addressing.
Hey City Council, the problem is the people who put the graffiti on the walls. And many of these people are gang members. The graffiti is only a symptom. It is not the disease.
Rid the city of the gangs and the graffiti will go away.
To those who have asked the CM PRESS if the gang detail is doing the job it should be doing or if it is still laboring under the delusion that Costa Mesa has a white gang problem, we can only say that we don't know
We know that liberal mindsets are very resistant to change and they are sometimes reinforced by liberal newspapers which hide the race/ethnicity of violent criminals except when they're white and then emphasize the race of criminals when they are white. This causes some with the liberal mindset to be blind to the truth. To them, the Earth is still flat.
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ANOTHER BROWN RACIST TERM FOR WHITE PEOPLE
Here's your urban dictionary word for today. If you hear brown racists using this word, they're not being friendly toward you.
Bolillo
The term "bolillo" is a very racist term used throughout certain Latin American speaking countries to describe a white person. The word “bolillo” is almost always negative, implying that the person described is a small little white bread roll.
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STILL NO ARRESTS IN PAINT BALL ATTACK
As far as we know, there are still no arrests in the paint ball attack on a homeless man.
As you may remember, the attack either occurred in a gang infested alley behind Vista Center near 19th Street and Placentia or at Lions Park.
Maybe the problem is that the gang detail is trying to find white attackers and they're not white.
Maybe the gang detail should be looking for suspects in the Shalimar slum and in the slum on Center Street behind Vista Center. Just a thought.
Of course, as we wrote before, the suspects could be whites; maybe even fraternity types (from Harvard?), who just thought it would be fun to commute to the worst part of Costa Mesa on one of the darkest nights of the year and roam the dangerous alleys and parks looking for people to shoot with their paint ball guns (which are usually about the size of a small rifle and are difficult to conceal, especially if there are several of you carrying them) and no one saw them as they were roaming about looking for victims.
It seems more probable, however, that turf sensitive Latino gang types who live in that area and who hang out in the alleys and the park just took a few steps from their apartments, shot the guy, and stepped back inside their nearby apartments. This scenario seems to cover more bases than the other one does it not?
Naturally, probabilities don't prove anything, so we'll just have to wait until the CMPD makes some arrests to know exactly who shot the guy.
We will say again, though, that we're surprised that the CMPD hasn't made any arrests yet.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
CM PRESS # 579
SHOW DOWN LOOMING BETWEEN CITY COUNCIL AND THE COSTA MESA SENIOR CORPORATION?
The short version
This past week, the City Council voted to set up a committee to take a look at the Senior Center. However, the Council gave the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation the option to nix the committee.
If the CMSC does nix the committee, and in effect yells for the Council to get off the lawn, what will the Council do, since the City owns the lawn? Get ready for some drama.
The verbose version
Here's what you need to know about this to wade through the he saids, she saids:
Unlike most cities which run their senior centers with city employees, Costa Mesa decided several years ago to "hire" an outside corporation--called the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation--to run our senior center.
To make it a viable operation, the City leased the building to the CMSC for a dollar a year, does all janitorial and maintenance on the building for free, supplies transportation for seniors and also gives the CMSC more than $ 240,000 per year in cash. In other words, it's a sweetheart deal supposedly between sweethearts who tacitly agree to get along and cooperate for the benefit of the seniors.
So far so good. Then, a couple of months ago, some seniors; the exact number is in dispute--Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece says about 30 seniors, while some associated with the CMSC say it's about 5 or 6 malcontents--apparently had some complaints about the operation of the center and felt, rightly or wrongly, that their complaints weren't being handled correctly.
These seniors then took their complaints to Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece who had the thankless task of being the City Council liaison to the center and who was thus the City Council's Johnny-on-the spot.
Ms. Leece tried to get to the bottom of the complaints to see if they had any merit and she did this the same way any responsible person would do it: she started asking questions.
All that had to happen at this point was for someone to give Ms. Leece complete answers to her questions. That probably would have been the end of the issue and you wouldn't now be reading about this every day in the Daily Pilot or in various blogs.
Instead, Ms. Leece was apparently seen by some as an interloper. Also, at some point, City Councilperson Katrina Foley's law firm was apparently hired to advise the CMSC. We don't know if this hiring of Foley's firm was done before the present controversy or in reaction to it, but that fact will eventually come out if it's relevant.
The question that many observers are asking is why would Ms. Leece be treated as an interloper, if in fact, this is what is going on?
There are several possible explanations. Here's three of them.
1. For some unknown reason, the CMSC doesn't want the City Council to know much about the operation of the Center and wants the Council to let the CMSC handle everything--including complaints from seniors. In this last regard, don't forget that the Council became involved because some seniors said their complaints weren't being taken seriously and they "appealed" to the Council for resolution.
2. The CMSC is afraid the City Council will decide that the City or some other corporation should run the Senior Center instead of the CMSC.
3. Politics. Two of the CMSC board members--Bruce Garlich and Mike Scheafer--were defeated in the 2006 election by Ms. Leece and her political ally Mayor Allan Mansoor; and several other members of the board were vocal supporters of Garlich and Scheafer as well as Katrina Foley.
No doubt, we'll see pro forma denials that politics is involved now that we've broached the subject. Still, it would be naive to not at least raise this issue for a public airing.
At any rate, it seems that once Ms. Leece started asking questions, things began going sideways. Letters and blog posts (mostly anonymous) started appearing in the Daily Pilot claiming that Ms. Leece was on a witch hunt and that the complaining seniors were just a few malcontents.
Then, this past Tuesday, the City Council voted to set up an ad hoc committee, as suggested by Councilmember Monahan, to take a look at the Senior Center.
Mr. Monahan went to great pains to say that this proposed committee had nothing to do with the controversy as outlined above, but that it was just time to take a look at the center.
Notwithstanding Mr. Monahan's comments, and the perhaps coincidental timing of his committee idea, there is still a chance that more drama is forthcoming in the days ahead since the City Council staff report on the committee formation has the following proviso which allows the CMSC board to unilaterally put the kibosh on the committee: "Should the City Council choose to support the implementation of the proposed Committee [it did with its vote on Tuesday], it will only move forward with the support of the Board of the Senior Corporation."
So, as we say in tennis, the ball is now in the CMSC's court. Will the CMSC go along with the committee idea? Or, will they open a second floor window at the Senior Center and yell down to the City Council: "Get off our lawn!"
And, to ask again what we asked at the top of this column, if the CMSC does tell the City Council to buzz off, what will the Council do?
Stay tuned.
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Saturday, January 10, 2009
CM PRESS # 578
[NEW STORY ON THE SENIOR CENTER--7:15PM, Saturday--Scroll down]
ADAPT OR DIE
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper has been put up for sale. Owner Hearst Corp. says if no buyers show up in the next 60 days it'll shut the paper down or only let it continue online.
Most owners of newspapers like to make a profit. That's not happening with many newspapers these days as those who run them seem to be having a difficult time in adapting to modern realities.
Take a look at the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot as an example of a newspaper that is simply not adapting or is adapting too slowly. It seems those running the KFADDP still think they can bore people into reading the paper and that they can move things as slowly as they once did.
For example, the newspaper is carrying blogs to attract readers, but at least one of these blogs is dated June 25, 2008 and another one is written by a local crackpot who most serious people don't read.
When people comment on stories at the KFADDP it's usually the same five or six people who do so. And, this includes some who are clearly barely literate.
Come on KFADDP, you can do better. We're rooting for you to adapt and stay in business. We really do like having an almost daily newspaper in the twin cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.
(Okay, so one twin is slightly prettier than the other--hey, we didn't say they were identical twins. Maybe, like, they're fraternal twins. Well, geez, maybe they're not really twins but are sort of related like cousins or maybe they had different fathers. Come on, you get the point.)
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THE LATEST ON THE SENIOR CENTER (Saturday, 1/10/08, 7:15 PM)
In a column today in the OCR about the Costa Mesa Senior Center and the committee that the City Council approved to take a look at the center (but only if the Senior Corporation's board approves of the committee), we read this:
Board member Scheafer said the board never had a breakdown in communication with the city until Leece stepped in and that having a committee may be a lost cause."Gary (Monahan)'s comment was that he wants to do it to enhance and maybe increase the funding from the city - he's not getting any support for that," Scheafer said. "There's already animosity for us among the big three (referring to Leece and councilmen Allan Mansoor and Eric Bever)."
Maybe we have it wrong, but does it sound as though failed City Council candidate Scheafer doesn't want to go along with the committee idea?
You may recall that Scheafer and Bruce Garlich (who is also on the Senior board with Scheafer) were defeated in the 2006 City Council election by Wendy Leece and Allan Mansoor.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
Friday, January 9, 2009
CM PRESS # 577
Here's a story from the OCR today about a pillar of the community who volunteered his time to serve on a public schools foundation.
Now he's admitted stealing $2.7 million from his clients in a case that is not related to the foundation.
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OVERSIGHT IS NEEDED WHEN PUBLIC MONEY IS INVOLVED
How many stories do citizens have to read about various pillars of the community being caught with their hands in the till to understand that proper oversight is needed and that "trust me" being said by respected pillars of the community who are near piles of citizen money is not enough?
Remember the case of Stephen A. Wagner the pillar of the community and chief finance officer of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District who stole $3.7 million from the district? That was OUR money that this crook put in his pocket to pay for his lavish life style.
Where was the oversight? Why wasn't somebody asking questions?
Be especially wary when some pillars of the community get upset and rude when you ask a few questions about public money.
It is your right to know that your money is being handled correctly and is being used for proper purposes. Don't let them blow you off because they think they're big shots.
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THE COSTA MESA SCHOOLS FOUNDATIONS
The CM PRESS continues to ask when the Costa Mesa High School Foundation will file its tax returns. The Foundation is two years behind and may face huge penalties from the IRS.
We also continue to ask when the Foundation will start filing its required annual reports with required independent audits--which it has never done.
As you may recall, it was the CM PRESS asking a few questions that led to the discovery that the Foundation wasn't doing the required paper work that would give transparency.
The City is supposedly now trying to get both this foundation and the other one at Estancia/Tewinkle up to speed on what needs to be done.
We'll have more to report on this later after we take a look at what the City has been doing relative to the foundations.
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THE SENIOR CENTER
Hmmmm. Is the City Council trying to run Latinos out of the city by setting up a committee to look at the Senior Center?
Sound absurd? Of course it is, but that's what some local crackpots trot out every time improvement minded citizens try to make our city nicer or when they try to get transparency from our institutions. So, don't be surprised if you hear that nonsense again.
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COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
Here's a curiosity piquing story that popped up in the OCR today about the district's chancellor, Ken Yglesias, suddenly being sent home on administrative leave while investigators have been hired to look into unnamed allegations concerning Mr. Yglesias.
Sometimes it's just better to reveal in very general terms what the unnamed allegations might be. Do they relate of financial matters or something else?
All we can piece together at this time is that one of the investigators is big on computer forensics.
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Those are our opinions as we continue to do the job that local newspapers used to do. Thanks for reading them.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
CM PRESS #576
HERE'S ONE SENIOR CITIZEN THE CITY COUNCIL SHOULDN'T LISTEN TO (He doesn't live here and he's wrong)
Newport Beach resident and uber-liberal Joe Bell has one of his predictable columns in the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot today in which Bell shuffles to the defense of the corporation that is currently running the Costa Mesa Senior Center for the City of Costa Mesa. Yawn.
You've seen Bell's opinions before. They're the typical liberal laundry list of likes and dislikes. You know what this guy thinks before he even taps out a word on the page.
Bell doesn't know much about the Costa Mesa Senior Center and apparently hasn't researched the subject, but that doesn't keep him from opining.
What he does is cobble together some things he's seen in the Katrina Foley Almost Daily Daily Pilot along with some things said by his fellow libs, as he argues, essentially, that the seniors at the center who are complaining about conditions there don't have legitimate gripes and that the City Council shouldn't listen to them and should butt out. Bad seniors, bad, bad, bad.
Before writing his column, Bell should have contacted Mayor Pro Tem Leece to learn more about the complaints she's received from senior citizens and he should have done some research on the subject. Sometimes, when you write a column, even an opinion column, it helps to learn all the facts.
Instead of seeing the Senior Center as a business with customers and with complaints about customer service, Bell swerves off into flag-wrapped cliches about how the majority should prevail and about freedoms--both of which are no more relevant to this issue than they would be to a customer at Moe's Bar complaining about poor service. We were half expecting to read about Bell walking through 30 miles of snow in his bare feet to get to school.
According to Bell, the City Council should listen to failed City Council candidate Mike Scheafer and the rest of the board of directors (which looks a little like a meeting of Return to Reason and has more than a few members who are the political adversaries of Mayor Pro Tem Leece and the majority on the City Council).
And, speaking of Scheafer, here's part of what he apparently told Bell:
“I thought that we were doing a pretty good job of managing our own affairs and dealing always with valid complaints. If the city doesn’t think so — especially on the basis of these complaints — then we would have no other option than to dissolve our center and turn it over to the city.”
If the present corporation did stop running the center, the City could either run the place itself (as do most cities) or form another corporation to do it for the city.
Think about it this way...
As with any vendor that contracts with the City, it behooves the Costa Mesa Senior Corporation to provide good customer service and to listen to the wishes of the City Council.
And, let's be clear. Costa Mesa, as is the case with most cities, has decided as a matter of policy that it is desirable to have a senior center. However, Costa Mesa, unlike most other cities, decided to see if it would be better to have an outside corporation run the Senior Center for the City. That's right, the corporation is doing a job for the City. Hold that thought because we're coming back to that "job" concept in a few paragraphs.
To make it work, the City entered into a sweetheart deal with this outside corporation that gives the corporation a City owned building for a buck a year, free maintenance, free janitorial service, free transportation services and more than $ 240,000 in cash each year.
Because the City is so invested in the Senior Center, and because the present corporation is running the center for the City, the City Council has a right and a responsibility to make sure there is good customer service and that citizen money is being spent wisely. This means the City Council should listen to complaints from senior citizens to see if they're legitimate and should work to make sure our seniors are happy with the service and make sure that all is going well at the center. That's what responsible City Councils do.
Try this analogy...
Suppose you contract with a gardener to mow your lawn. Further suppose that you let him use your lawnmower for free, because he doesn't have a lawnmower. Suppose also that your wife isn't happy with the job the gardener is doing. Then, suppose when she complains to him he doesn't take her complaint seriously and ignores her. So, she next complains to you. Being a reasonable person, you'll probably try to speak to the gardener about it and ask him a few questions to learn why he's doing things a certain way and to see if he can change some things so your wife will like the job.
What would you do if the gardener told you that you shouldn't listen to your wife because she's a malcontent and she's just one person. "Hey, have your kids complained? No? See, your wife just doesn't like me. Don't listen to her. The majority should rule. This is about freedom."
And, what if he acted as though he's doing you a favor and told you that if you don't like the job he's doing, too bad?
How long would that gardener have your business or the business of anyone else? Gardeners are a dime a dozen.
The Senior Center needs to be thought of as a business, and as such it needs to remember two rules of most successful businesses: 1. The customer is always right. 2. If you think the customer is wrong, go back and read rule 1.
Our guess is that those who keep writing and saying things that the City Council might interpret as attacks on the authority of the Council aren't doing the present corporation any favors.
All that most people want is a cost effective, open and transparent Senior Center operation and happy senior citizens along with cooperation between the Senior Center and the City Council.
After the committee formed by the City Council completes its work, we may find that the Senior Center is doing a great job and that some or all of the complaints are unfounded. But, as with any business, the complaints should be investigated. Customer service is important.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
http://frankspeech.com/
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http://frankspeech.com/
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CHICAGO: GANG OF BLACK GIRLS CHOKING AND ROBBING CAB DRIVERS Interestingly, the above news report does give the race of the attackers. ...