CM PRESS # 452

Last updated: August 11, 2008, 11:00 AM


AN IMPORTANT MOVE

See the almost-daily Daily Pilot today. LINK

Also see CM PRESS # 447 dated August 6, 2008.
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LHC TO BE CRANKED UP ON SEPTEMBER 10.
LINK


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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS. Check back often for updates during the day.

CM PRESS # 451

ICE REPORT FOR JULY 2008

Ice detainers were issued for 33 criminals in Costa Mesa in July 2008.

By contrast, Ice detainers were issued for 54 criminals in Costa Mesa in July 2007.

Source: CMPD

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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

CM PRESS # 450

LAST UPDATED: August 9, 2008, 1:35PM--New material about the candidates--scroll down

DIXON MOONS THE CITY?

About five hours after the CM PRESS broke the story in CM PRESS # 449 about Dixon not running for reelection for the city council, the almost-daily Daily Pilot ran a similar story under the headline: Dixon leaves her seat open. LINK

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THE GAME IS AFOOT

In today's paper, the almost-daily Daily Pilot has a smattering of biographical information on each of the City Council candidates along with a few lines from the candidates themselves about why the candidates think voters should vote for each of them.

Below, from the ADDP article, we've extracted just the answers about why each of the candidates thinks you should vote for him or her. We've put our comments in red. Be sure to read the whole ADDP article for the full details. LINK

Name: Nick Moss

Why should people vote for him: “I’m dedicated to the free market, individual liberty and small government.”

Moss is a complete unknown among the political chattering class in Costa Mesa. His above statement is right out of the Libertarian Party play book. As far as we know, Moss has never spoken before the City Council or the no-Planning Commission or served on any city committees. Just popping up to say you want to run for office is his right, but come on....
 
Name: Katrina Foley

Why should people vote for her: “I will continue my work to keep crime low, protect our neighborhoods from traffic and encroaching development, improve playing fields and maintain a balanced budget.”

Foley is an ultra liberal. Around the CM PRESS we call her the Snow Bunny or Flopsy because she seems to take a lot of time off to go skiing instead of showing up for City Council meetings.

And, her statement about working to keep crime low is laughable. What has she done? She planted flowers in front of the Mission-Mendoza slum in her Mesa del Mar neighborhood. Give us a break! Don't ever let Foley get away with giving you an answer such as "I will continue my work to keep crime low." Always ask for specifics. Then, when she answers, she'll give you some liberal psychobabble and nonsense.

However, in our opinion, Foley gave the best answer to the question and it'll get her votes. Too bad it isn't true.

Name: Gary Monahan

Why should people vote for him: “With my family and business in Costa Mesa I have a big stake in its future, and I believe I bring common-sense leadership.”

We run hot and cold about Monahan. During his last stint on the Council he seemed to vote more for improvement goals than in the past. If he continues this, he'll be good. His above statement is garbage and says nothing.

Name: Eric Bever

Why should people vote for him: “Over the last four years I’ve initiated projects to: fix our downtown traffic, waive permit fees for home improvements, revitalize the Westside and create a new 10-acre sports complex. With the support of the community I would be honored to continue improving Costa Mesa.”

Bever was one of the first Improvers and impressed us as being a hands on guy who didn't mind doing grunt work to improve the city. Long before he ran for public office, he was working hard to improve the Westside, and he didn't just fall out of bed one day and decide he was going to run for office.

As we wrote before, it was Bever, all by his lonesome, standing in front of Home Depot, way back when, handing out improvement fliers to anyone who would take them. And, this was at a time when no one had heard about the Improvers.

However, Bever needs help in stating what he's done and what he wants to do. His above statement is weak. He didn't even mention working to drive down crime, and this is a top issue.

Name: Jim Righeimer

Occupation: Real estate developer

Why should people vote for him: “I think I bring a skill set to the city that’s needed to bring forward the big visionary things that we need to do.”

Righeimer is a newby to the city but is well connected to county politicians. He's probably using Costa Mesa as a stepping stone to higher office. Nevertheless, if he does some good along the way, that's okay. Does tend to pepper his statements with current cliches such as "skill set." As with Bever, he needs help in stating some specifics that will let voters know what he has in mind.
 
Name: Chris Bunyan

Why should people vote for him: “I will put forth a bold and audacious plan to cure our overwhelming traffic crisis and remove street gangs once and for all. Costa Mesans deserve the best, and I will provide them with the lifestyle that they deserve.”

Bunyan's main issue is trying to keep Banning Ranch free of homes and strip centers. We've seen the plan he and those of like mind have for Banning Ranch--if they win out over the developers (not likely)--but we aren't impressed and think their plan looks as artificial in its own way as the plan of the developers. In fact, we've written that the "natural" plan for Banning Ranch being pushed by Bunyan and his friends looks to us like an overly manicured miniature golf course made large.

We told Mr. Bunyan that we might get behind a natural approach if his group would come up with a plan to dredge a wide channel from the ocean all the way up to Victoria to let the ocean flow in to mingle with the Santa Ana River and make a small beach or beaches for Costa Mesa. This would make Costa Mesa a true coastal community and improve our home values throughout the city. We're not holding our breath.

We do like Bunyan's first sentence: “I will put forth a bold and audacious plan to cure our overwhelming traffic crisis and remove street gangs once and for all."

We'll judge if it's bold and audacious once we hear the details. We'll also judge whether or not it makes any sense.

Name: Bill Sneen

Why should people vote for him: “If elected I will apply my many years of professional business experience in a non-partisan approach to build consensus with other council members to achieve the expressed goals of Costa Mesa residents.”

Sneen is another unknown like Moss. And, what's this crap about "non-partisan approach to build consensus"? Get out of town. Where the hell has this guy been? Why hasn't he been speaking out over the past years? No one even knows who he is. Don't do us any favors by showing up and trying to be anointed. And, forget these canned and vague cliches. Tell us specifically what you're going to do to make life better for citizens of Costa Mesa. Cut the crap.

Name: Lisa Reedy

Why should people vote for her: “I am a problem solver. It’s time for a change: new faces, fresh ideas and clear perspectives.”

Reedy is another liberal in the mold of Katrina Foley. She's also one of Foley's neighbors in Mesa Del Mar. We wrote about Reedy's head in the sand approach to the Misson-Mendoza slum in her Mesa del Mar neighborhood in CM PRESS # 369, May 21, 2008 and CM PRESS # 380, June 2, 2008.

"Fresh idea and clear perspectives"? Give us a break, Reedy. What fresh ideas and clear perspectives do you have? Maybe plant a different variety of flowers in your slum?

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Those are our opinions. They may change as we hear more from the candidates.

CM PRESS # 449

B R E A K I N G N E W S

August 8, 2008, 5:10 PM--According to the Costa Mesa City Clerk's Office, LINDA DIXON DID NOT FILE HER NOMINATION PAPERS BY 5:00 PM TODAY.

Ms. Dixon is therefore out of the race for the City Council this year.

Because Ms. Dixon, as a Council member up for reelection, has apparently opted out, the deadline for all others to file nomination papers is now automatically extended to Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 5:00 PM.


Those filing their nomination papers by 5:00 PM today are: Eric Bever, Gary Monahan, Jim Righeimer, Chris Bunyan, Lisa Reedy, Nicholas S. Moss, Bill Sneen and Katrina Foley.

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HOLD THE PRESSES, CHIEF!

There are lot's of "real"newspaper people complaining these days about changes to the biz that are now taking place. Damn internet, don't you know.

We are, of course, at one of those times in history where a sea change is upon us, and this always causes a lot of disruption to the old ways.

Like life itself, one adapts or one dies. The internet (and its yet to be developed progeny) is the latest mutation of mass communication. But, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

The internet is replacing the older animal that lacks these adaptations. It is, as Darwin might say, evolution and survival of the fittest.

Frankly, when I read talk from some "real" newspaper people about "real journalism" I can't help but thinking that horse and buggy manufacturers probably said similar things when automobiles started taking over.

Oh sure, the metaphor isn't exact, but you get the point. And, it would take me too long to come up with a better metaphor. Hey, I know, let me think about it for about 24 hours and then I'll publish a better metaphor in the next newspaper 24 hours from now and drop it on your driveway. Will you wait around for that? I didn't think so.

We're in an age where quick thinking and nimbleness is required. There's no time for a 24 hour news cycle. You can't just deliver the news or commentaries once a day. You have to do it all day long or you're going to lose readers.

And, if you lose readers, you're going to lose advertisers, and if you lose advertisers, you're going to lose your job.

MY TIME WITH THE GRAY LADY

As I've written before, I once played a reporter in a movie. Got paid about what a reporter gets paid too because it was under a special SAG contract. Richard Dreyfuss was probably the biggest name in the movie, but when the movie was made, he was a nobody. Anyway, that's a digression.

I have a tiny bit of additional experience with newspapers (other than the time I was trying to start an alternative newspaper) that informs some of my opinions on the subject these days.

In between acting jobs, I once had a nothing job at the New York Times at their then headquarters on 42nd and Broadway in New York City. Hey, I didn't like being a waiter.

As part of my new employee orientation I got a tour of the building. I can remember thinking at the time that the place must have cost a fortune to build, operate and run.

The picture that still comes to my mind of the place is of a big fat balloon like lumbering man talking in big lumbering fashion: ANNNNNNNNND OVEEEEEEER HEEEEEEERE WEEEEEEEE HAVVVVVVE OUUUUUUUUR PRRRRRRRRRRINNNNNNTTTTTTTINGGGGG PRRRRRRESSSSSEES.

Everything about the place was larger than the human scale. Think Citizen Kane.

First, we went way down into a sub-sub basement full of gigantic and very noisy (I SAID, VERY NOISY. NO, NOT POSEY...NOISY...NOISY!) printing presses. We were told that the presses caused so much vibration that they were bolted to the bedrock beneath the building lest they shake the building down. The closest analogy to the place was what you see in movies in a large steamship's engine room with catwalks and bunches of grease stained sweaty people running around with big wrenches fixing various things.

Then, we went up through vast open halls full of desks of workaday reporters. The star reporters may have had private offices, but I don't remember seeing any.

At one point we went into the private kitchen used by the food section of the newspaper. My memory is that we were told that it had been custom built for the exclusive use of the food critic who was a big national name at that time.

Then, we went into the morgue which was a very large room full of the obituaries of famous people not yet dead. If someone died, the obits could be pulled and used quickly for a special edition.

And, so it went. Everything was big and the Times building was like an ant hive full of people.

Once upon a time there were very many large dinosaurs...those were "real" animals, not like these damn mammals that are showing up now. Mammals are probably just a fad.

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CITY COUNCIL FIELD IN COSTA MESA WILL BE SET AT 5:00 PM TODAY

Check back later. We'll try to get the names of those who actually file their nomination papers.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 448

A SAD BUT TINY TALE OF COSMIC DESPAIR MADE SMALL
(Kilroy was here, but few notice and even fewer care.)

It is no great task to write of great men, for they are often three-dimensional and have complex personalities such that there is not too little of interest to write about, but far too much. It is easier to whittle than to build.

A great adventure, a great insight, a great invention, a great deed often gets lost in the sheer volume of the things that great men have done and accomplished in their far too short lives. Theirs are lives with chapter headings that are written in neon. The world misses them when they pass on and is the lesser for it. However, the great and existential task today--for those who so choose--is not to write of great men, but of little men.

This is so because little men offer an archetype as distinct, but opposite, as the archetype offered by great men.

When we look for examples of how a meaningful life has been lived, we naturally look to the great men.

But, as instructive as this may be, it fails to teach the subtle differences that often exist between greatness and littleness. In so failing, it leads those who might aspire to greater things to mistakenly live little meaningless lives.

In contrast to great men, little men are often one-dimensional and have simple characters and would go largely unnoticed save for the fact that in this age of the internet some of the little men now share their littleness with us in the form of blogs as they try to find meaning in their otherwise meaningless lives.

They raise high their standards of shallowness and unoriginality.

In prior ages, it was only great men--men of high intelligence--who wrote their thoughts and passed them on. This was so, because it was often both costly and difficult to pass on thoughts with primitive printing methods. Few would want to just print meaningless babble.

Today, however, the little men--men of low intelligence--can and do pass on their little meaningless babble via blogs. These are the prophets of the ordinary and the obvious. Due to their dim intellects they are often spared the embarrassment of realizing how trite they often are.

Some of these little men--these sad little computer exhibitionists--spread the electronic graffiti of their littleness far and wide in the hope that this will leave their mark before the great nothingness turns them back into dust. These are the bathroom-stall writers of the internet age.

In many cases we can silently pity the little men and feel sorry that they have wasted their lives.

But in some cases it is not pity we should feel,but enmity. This is so because some little men have turned bitter and angry and they attack others out of their bitterness and anger at having wasted their lives. This striking out puts them, by their own words and deeds, in the arena where they are not only fair targets but necessary ones.

The little men can be found all over the internet with blogs bearing names that the little men think are clever, but which are mostly just as predictable as are their musings about whatever new shiny thing has caught their fleeting attention for the moment.

As with most things in existence, there are degrees of littleness among the little men--a relativity in flesh--such that one might actually, and odd as it may sound, posit a great little man among many less great little men. But, the greatness of a great little man is found not in any desirable traits or qualities, but in undesirable ones. The use of the word "great" to describe them is both a burden and a deficit of the language; for by greatness is meant that a little man is more of a little man--is more of a nothing and a nobody.

We come now to specifics; for we have under our microscope a little worm of a man who has crawled out from under his rock where he hides with the other loathsome creatures and who deserves to be dissected; not for any good qualities, but precisely because he lacks such good qualities and because he is as vapid and vacuous as any wine-and-cheese-sweater-over-his-shoulders-impotent-self-indulgent-yuppie-scum-little man as can be found.

This mewling little man whines out to an uncaring universe and asks to be noticed, but he is generally unnoticed except by his fellow little men. The thoughts he thinks that spur the words he writes are pedestrian and small and have been thought a million times a million times before by other little men. But, as with most little men with deficient brains, he thinks what he writes is original.

So, since little men are so little, why then would anyone want to write of little men or of this particular little man? Surely, such people silently fill the graves of the earth and are like undifferentiated grains of sand on a beach. Why are they of interest? And, how has this one particular little man come to our attention such that we would write of him?

The answer lies in an accident of time and place and the fact that this little man offers us a glimpse of what can quietly go wrong in lives that are not led intentionally. This little man is a walking parable for teaching others how not to live one's life.

Our Little Man--for let us now turn him into a proper noun, but let us also keep him anonymous with that sobriquet (a fitting position for one so little)--is a "Hey you," and "What's his face" non-personality Willy Loman of our time and place. But, unlike the fictional Loman, our Little Man is in even a worse state of decomposition.

For Loman, for all his seeming littleness,had at least succeeded in nature's single most important command to all living things--he had children; but not so our Little Man.

If Loman didn't get it right in life, his DNA would carry on to give it another try; and thus did Loman escape from littleness. Not so with our Little Man.

Is it not instructive to write of the quiet despair that such little men face as they grow old and who on rare lucid occasions realize for a moment that everything they have done in life is for naught and that every thing that ate up the years that they thought was important is not, and was not important, and that they might as well not have lived at all and that they are complete dead ends?

Read on, but look for no great drama or adventure here with the Little Man. There is nothing out of the ordinary. He is the human version of Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can.

If the great men pose archetypes to which we might aspire, then the little men pose archetypes from which we must recoil. But lest we be thought to be too harsh and too grounded in the mundane, let us quickly say, without a hint of new ageism muddled philosophy, man, that we are all star dust.

For are we not, each of us, including the Little Man, ultimately and finally made of the same stuff that was sent forth from the Big Bang? Are we not the product of that seminal event that created the universe and all that is in it? Was not the trajectory of existence set at that precise moment that has led to the start of life and to the eventual birth of both the few great men and the many little men?

But what solace can be found in such thinking of star dust is thin gruel to those who ask Why? and find no answers from the bearded gurus of what's happening now. And such thoughts do not cross the mind of the Little Man at all.

Is there comfort found in knowing that ultimately we are all, both great and little, just animated dirt, and that our lives are mere chemical reactions whereby the inanimate is lifted up to a degree of animation for a short time? Are we comforted by knowing that the still quiet voice within is little more than the fizzing of the baking soda and vinegar that we call life or that we become, as we age, a bottle of soda that has gone flat because the cap was left off?

But, again, these are not the things considered by the Little Man, for he is content to focus on the latest shiny thing that he has seen in the gutter where he runs out the clock on his little meaningless life.

This Little Man living--no, not living, existing--right here in our tiny speck of a place in the universe, who would otherwise go unnoticed except for the fact that this place is the subject of this story of despair, might serve as a lesson on the nature of existence for those with the ability to see and the brain to understand that there is more to life than what is on the dinner plate in front of them.

And, from time to time we may write of the Little Man and we may call him by a variety of names; not dictated by any complexity of his character, for as already set forth, there is no such complexity. No, we use the different names because they appeal to us and they flesh out this poor sad creature of despair, this one-dimensional man--this archetype of dissolution and non-beingness.

The Little Man is a picture of quiet despair and alienation from self. And, it needs repeating that the Little Man has failed the only real task given to all living things by nature--survive to go forth and make more like yourself. .

The Little Man goes home to a house with no laughter of children--it is a house that never knew such laughter--no photos of grand children, no memories of being a parent, no one to follow when the vinegar and baking soda have run their course.

The Little Man is a dead end and he has reached an age where there can be nothing but a dead end with no way to turn around and proceed down other roads. Time has caught up with him.

And, while such despair drives great men mad it has a lesser effect on little men because nature has dimmed their wits so that, except on rare occasions, they do not understand these things.

The despair of the Little Man is the despair of the DNA within that does not speak in more than a whisper to the hard of hearing Little Man. "What's that? Did someone speak? What did you say?"

And, while out of kindness we might hold our pen from the page and simply let the Little Man pass quietly into the great nothingness, this particular Little Man is owed no such kindness, for he is a bitter and angry old man who made his yuppie choices in life and now finds that the wine and cheese parties where he shared empty conversations with his fellow vapid souls have not led to an old age of meaningfulness, but to one of emptiness. It is a time of waiting to die and nothing more.

The fruit that ripens on the tree, ripens but once and is then gone forever.

Set out dear friends to live your lives intentionally and with purpose, lest you become the next generation's Little Man.

If you are out one day pushing your kids down the sidewalk in a stroller and you see the Little Man drive by you with a bumper sticker on his car reading "The one who dies with the most toys wins," just smile knowingly to yourself, for you know the truth and you are living it.

And, you have succeeded, no matter what else you do in life, in escaping from littleness.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 447

Last updated: August 6, 2008, Wednesday, 2:19 PM--SCROLL DOWN





CLUE TO THE ELECTION IN COSTA MESA THIS YEAR











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GIRL WITH TAIL MAKES CHEER SQUAD?

Look at the girl on the far left. LINK

Say, maybe the almost-daily Daily Pilot can check some of these photos and photoshop them a little before publication.
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JIM RIGHEIMIER--A POLITICAL OPPORTUNIST?
As reported in the almost-daily Daily Pilot today, no-Planning Commissioner Jim Righeimer is going to make a run for City Council this year. LINK

This is no surprise to Improvers who have long realized that the bigs in the GOP have noticed with increasing interest that Improvers have been helping elect unelectable candidates in Costa Mesa against overwhelming odds since the Improvers first came on the scene in 1999.

We find it ironic, however, that Righeimer is Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's campaign manager.

Back when Improvers first came on the scene and were working to elect Chris Steel, the CM PRESS contacted Rohrabacher's office and asked if the Congressman would endorse Steel. Rohrabacher's staff member told us that the Congressman wasn't interested in backing people who didn't have a chance of winning.

Then, as you may recall, with the help of the Improvers and their grassroots campaign, Steel won with more votes than anyone else in the race that year. This was after he had been trounced in his nine prior runs for the Council. The only thing different in Steel's winning campaign as opposed to his earlier failing ones, was the Improvers.

The experts scratched their heads and decided it was a strange fluke.

Come the next election, the Improvers helped an unknown AllanMansoor get elected. Just another fluke, they said.

Then came Bever. A fluke? Well...there sure are a lot of flukes in Costa Mesa these days.

Then came Mansoor 2 and Leece.

Geez. Maybe it's not a fluke at all. What are these Improvers doing?

And, along the way, the nobody candidates backed by the Improvers, learned the political ropes and made the bigwig contacts that candidates must make, and ran increasingly more professional campaigns.

But out in the streets, it was still the Improvers doing the grassroots work.

So, knowing a little of the history of local politics, it was no surprise to the CM PRESS that Righeimer moved to Costa Mesa where political magic seemed to be the order of the day; even though most people couldn't (and still can't) explain the mojo at work any more than they can explain why electricity works.

We've listened and watched
The CM PRESS has listened to and watched Righeimer since he came to the city. In that time, we've seen him start to understand what the Improvers are all about and we've seen him vote the right way on improvement issues without any prompting that we know about. In other words, it appears that he may have his head screwed on right to help Costa Mesa improve.

And, since he does reportedly have a Rolodex full of contacts with some of the bigs, having him on the Council could be helpful to the improvement of our city.

However, we weren't pleased about some of what we read in the almost-daily Daily Pilot today
(Pilot story in blue italics, [CM PRESS comments in red with brackets]:

A real estate developer by trade, Righeimer’s main agenda is to encourage new development in the city. [OK, good so far, so long as it's the right kind of development.]

He said friction among council members has kept the council from uniting to achieve goals.
[Dead wrong. This is a tired cliche. The truth is that it only takes three votes to achieve goals and the majority on the dais right now generally vote for improvement goals.]

“There has been a lack of a big vision as to where the city should be. [Right to a point. The majority generally have a pretty good big vision, but seem to lack the sparkplug personalities and focus to know how to really get moving by putting certain pieces in place.

In other words, the majority on the Council seem to be playing a game of tactics rather than one of strategy and they're more on the defense rather than offense. Or, to put this in even more colorful terms, it's like the picture above where one buzzard says "Patience my ass, I'm gonna kill something." Unfortunately, our present majority are like the buzzard who has too much patience.]

I don’t think the City Council gels together.
[It doesn't have to gel. Again, it only takes three votes to get things done. Foley and Dixon are philosophically very different from the majority, and to try to gel with them would require compromises that would hurt improvement.]

I get along with everyone up on that dais,” Righeimer said.
[Ah, that's too bad. We're not electing a kumbaya chorus. To get along with everyone means that one has to compromise on some very basic issues and we don't need that.

That was one of our problems with Gary Monahan (who is also running). While politics is the art of compromise, some things can't and shouldn't be compromised just to get along and be everyone's pal. We don't need people on the Council who want to be voted most liked by lefties.

We need hard headed, pushy people who don't want to be politicians and who have a clear vision of how to improve Costa Mesa and who won't give up until that's done.

Also, Righeimer's statement seems to indicate that Righeimer wants to run a Lone Ranger campaign and wouldn't care if he knocked Bever or Monahan off, because he'd get along just fine with Foley and Dixon or any other lefty who might get elected. Big mistake. That's not a winning strategy this year and it won't help improvement. See the first article in this issue for a clue.

We don't mind a little political opportunism so long as it works for the improvement of Costa Mesa. But, if it's just to advance a single person's political career, and to hell with improvement, we're not for it.]

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SON OF LATINO ACTIVIST ARRESTED IN SHOTGUN ATTACK

Salvador Hilario Burciaga, 19, the son of failed City Council candidate Mirna Burciaga was one of three individuals arrested in connection with last week's shotgun wounding of a 15-year-old girl in the Shalimar slum. LINK
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 446

WE GET MAIL

Dear CM PRESS:

I recently misplaced my MENSA membership card, and I'm afraid that, because it's shiny, the tiny brain squish may have picked it up and may be trying to pass himself off as sentient. What do I do?

Mensa Bob
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Dear Mensa Bob:

No need to worry. Anyone who reads anything the tiny brain squish has written knows he's strictly from the petri dish.

He writes the most pedestrian and obvious tripe with no insights and no internal logic.

Laughingly, he can't seem to resist reflexively commenting on every item that comes down the pike. It's all brain stem stuff from the tiny brain squish. No higher thought processes. No understanding of subtle differences or shadings and no ability to distinguish this from that except in a ham handed way.

If the tiny brain squish were in a forest, for example, he would see no differences among the many trees. "Duh. There a tree, there another tree, there one, too. Just all trees, samey same. Me see trees. All same."

Take a look at the tiny brain squish's latest drivel about the need to raise taxes as another example.

As he so often does in his ignorant knee-jerk scrawls, he starts off with assumptive and empty boot-licking praise for selected authority figures and then follows with a fallacious appeal to the authority figures he has just "established" as authorities, to "prove" his weak argument that taxes have to be raised.

And, then, in best Chicken Little fashion--and, yes, this is one of the alternate names for the tiny brain squish--he shrilly proclaims that important services will have to be cut--"Cluck, cluck, cluck, the sky is falling, the sky is falling!"

Does he ever list those important services that he says have to be cut? Nope. That's because, as usual, he's wrong.

You see, Mensa Bob, the old saying: "Speak so I can see you," applies in spades to the tiny brain squish. The more he writes, the more people see him for what he is.

Then, more people simply laugh at him behind his back and dismiss him. Of course, since the tiny brain squish craves attention and wants to be seen as an important person, this dismissiveness just deepens his life long despair about being a loser, so he writes more.

Poor sad little man. Just doesn't get it. What he is attempting to overcome is himself, and he is unable to do that. He is what he is, and transcendence eludes him. He cries out for validation that doesn't come: "Look at me, look at me, notice me, I am somebody." No one looks. No one notices. The big nothing awaits.

Just ignore the tiny brain squish, Mensa Bob, as you would ignore a guy standing on a bench at the bus station wearing a "The End is Near" sandwich board while mumbling incoherently to himself and waving his arms in the air.

Mensa Bob, the tiny brain squish is, as we say on the streets, risible, and not to be taken seriously.

But, Mensa Bob, be thankful that the tiny brain squish will be backing Katrina Foley and other lefties this year in the Costa Mesa municipal election. We can once again use him as an example of what is wrong with Costa Mesa and why we need change away from Foley and Dixon and their fellow travellers.

CM PRESS
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MAJOR SOLAR ENERGY DISCOVERY FROM MIT

This might be the breakthrough that will make solar energy more than a boutique energy source. Then again, how many times have we heard similar claims? Still, we publish this, because, in this case, this discovery is based on observations of how nature does it.
LINK






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TEAM TRASH CAN BURNING IN EVERY PARK!

Almost-daily Daily Pilot resident scold Auntie Steve Smith, who famously burned up a Costa Mesa Sanitary District trash container (worth about $ 80.00; the last time we checked) on July 4th, continues to think like his pal the tiny brain squish, and fails to understand that many of the small, almost-pocket, parks in Costa Mesa are not up to snuff for and in some cases not safe for use as sports fields.

As with the tiny brain squish, Auntie Smith seems incapable of being able to properly distinguish between different things and circumstances.

Our guess is that Smith may have had his brain hard wired as a child into always defining "park," as a large open field where he and his pals, Pin Head, Stoopid, and Numbnut, went to play whatever games that Smith liked to play--such as, perhaps, hop scotch, jumping rope, Cinderella, burn the trash cans, and dress up.

Well, Auntie Smith, not every park in Costa Mesa is suitable for your favorite games. Each park is different and the people who live near these small neighborhood parks are the ones who should decide what is appropriate in their parks.

So, we suggest, Auntie Smith, that you focus on the park that is nearest your home and stop trying to dictate what you think is appropriate to people who live near other parks.

We know you're a liberal, Auntie Smith, and therefore want a centralized government to dictate to all, but a wiser way of governing is to let the neighborhoods decide on matters such as park usage that impacts the people in those neighborhoods.

Hike up your skirts, Auntie Smith, and rally your neighbors to demand that the park near your home, in your own neighborhood, be open to your sport of trash can burning. It's the American way!

However, people who live near other parks may not share your idea of what is appropriate. Some may feel their homes are too close to the parks and may catch on fire if you and your incendiary pals are allowed to have teams of trash can burners burning up trash cans in these parks.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 445

LAST UPDATED: Monday, August 4, 2008, 6:25PM--SCROLL DOWN


MENSA MARTY

As you may be aware, a local tiny brain squish--a really pitiful person who seems to suffer from an inferiority complex, among other things--often calls me Mensa Marty and then writes that he doesn't think I'm very smart.

I agree.

In fact, I'll be the first one in any room to tell you I'm not very smart.

I'm just a guy hoping to contribute my two cents worth to help make Costa Mesa a nicer and safer place where we can raise our families.

MUGGED LIBERAL?
The old saying is that a conservative is a liberal who was mugged.

I may not have started out as a liberal, as the term is normally used, but my views have certainly been shaped by the crime and other problems we see in Costa Mesa--a city that should not be having many of the types of crime and other problems that we now see on an almost daily basis.

So, dumb as I am, I still know that we live in a cause and effect universe and I know that effects (crime and other problems) have causes. Things do not happen for no reason.

Much of what I've done with the CM PRESS over the past years has been to try to point out the causes of our effects.

The thought process I use is simple and is shown below. Do your own research, then fill in the blanks yourself.

If you do this, be completely honest and don't make conclusory statements that can't be backed up with facts. And, by "facts" I mean hard statistics and real facts, not squishy cliches that you might have heard from Katrina Foley or her wine and cheese pals.

To get the hard statistics and real facts, you have to have an open mind and you have to study our problems by first correctly identifying the characteristics of the problems in a detached manner as though you're studying a basic engineering problem. This means you have to quantify the data.

Search the CM PRESS, and you'll find that we've quantified data for you. Do you see patterns?

At any rate, here's the simple thought process as mentioned above:

EFFECT: High Crime Rate
CAUSES:
SOLUTION:

EFFECT: Failing Schools
CAUSES:
SOLUTION:

EFFECT: Gangs
CAUSES:
SOLUTION:
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Update: Monday, August 4, 2008, 6:25PM
STILL ANOTHER LATINO GANG INCIDENT

Here's the LINK to the almost-daily Daily Pilot story about yet another Latino gang incident. This one took place on West 19th Street and Placentia yesterday (Sunday, 8/3/08).

As long as the City Council keeps the slums, we'll have more and more gang problems. Slums don't improve with age.
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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

CM PRESS # 444

SOON
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IS THERE A LEAK IN THE CMPD?

We continue to ask how two bloggers seem to have gotten information about a reported beating of a Latino man by whites, that has not been reported elsewhere.

Not a word in the press. Not an official word from the CMPD. None of the CM PRESS's contacts have heard about it.

Furthermore, it has long been CMPD policy to not name Latino gangs involved in the many crimes they commit in Costa Mesa because this just gives the gangs the publicity they want and emboldens them to commit more violent crimes.

However, one blogger--CM TRUTH--who brags that he has close ties to someone in the CMPD--not only wrote and published a story about the alleged white on Latino attack mentioned above, he then bragged that the story hasn't appeared in newspapers (as far as we know it hasn't, and we have no confirmation that the story is even true), but then CM TRUTH also published on his blog the names of the seven Latino gangs in Costa Mesa (with the correct unusual spellings actually used by the gangs--which, in some cases, is not general knowledge).

So, where are CM TRUTH and the other blogger getting their inside, perhaps real time, information on crimes and gangs?

Are they making up false crime stories to make it seem that violent street crime is an equal opportunity employer? And/or are they being fed information about crime and gangs from within the CMPD? Hmmmm?

And, are they being fed information on their political opponents as well?

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SPEAKING OF LEAKS

Have you noticed that one local nutcake with a tiny brain and a big mouth rails about "kids" not being able to play sports in some of our tiny parks that don't have sports fields (which endangers themselves and others) but this fool never even had children?

Maybe not having had children makes this pasty faced cream puff think that the 35 year old guys from Santa Ana with five o'clock shadows driving up in cars to take over our parks are "kids."

Oh, and when the "kids" drink all that beer they sometimes bring with them, they have to relieve themselves someplace, but most of these small parks have no restrooms.

What's your guess? Maybe they interrupt their games and drive back to their homes in Santa Ana to use the bathrooms?

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EASTSIDERS--WATCH OUT--CREEP ALERT!

Some of our long time readers (going back to our pre-blog days when we just faxed out copies of the CM PRESS) live on the Eastside near a park that they want to keep passive.

Meanwhile, a character who lives in that neighborhood is going against the neighborhood and apparently trying to gin up support to make the park active.

You Eastside folks who want to keep your park safe and your neighborhood desirable, might want to start organizing against this guy's efforts.

If you need help organizing or making your case, you know how to contact us.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 443

LAST UPDATED: August 2, 2008, 5:00 PM (Added link to OCR for gang attack story)

YET ANOTHER LATINO GANG ATTACK IN COSTA MESA! (stock photo)

Here's the LINK to the story in the almost-daily Daily Pilot about a Latino gang attack at the 7-11 on Harbor and Mesa Verde Drive East at around 1 AM this morning, Saturday, August 2, 2008,(that's across from the fenced lot where Kona Lanes used to stand).

One of the victims required surgery. All three suspects were arrested later in the morning. Two of the suspects were arrested at a residence on Maple Street.

UPDATE: August 2, 2008, 5:00PM--HERE'S A LINK TO THE OC REGISTER REPORT ABOUT THE ABOVE. The OCR has a better system of allowing comments than does the almost-daily Daily Pilot.

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STILL NO ARRESTS IN SHOOTING OF 15-YEAR OLD GIRL IN SHALIMAR SLUM

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MEANWHILE...

There are still no newspaper or police reports that some white guys grabbed a Latino out of his car and beat him as alleged by a couple of bloggers who want you to think that violent street crime is an equal opportunity employer.

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HERE'S A GOOD ARTICLE ABOUT 'HARMLESS' GRAFFITI TAGGERS

LINK

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THE COLOR OF CRIME

Can you stand the truth about violent crime?

Here's a LINK where you can download The Color of Crime for free. This book isn't opinion. It's fact. It is based on FBI statistics.

Here are just a few facts you'll read:

--Only 10 percent of youth gang members are white.

--Hispanics are 19 times more likely than whites to be members of youth gangs. Blacks are 15 times more likely, and Asians are nine times more likely.

--Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.

Knowing the truth can help protect you and your family.

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WHEN YOU VOTE THIS YEAR, VOTE FOR IMPROVEMENT CANDIDATES WHO WILL WORK TO RID THIS CITY OF VIOLENT GANGS.

How many more violent gang attacks and how much more violent crime do you need to read about to know that Costa Mesa has a serious problem and that Katrina Foley's approach of planting flowers in front of the slums isn't working?

It's time for some law and order in Costa Mesa; not more squishy yuppie liberal hugathons.

And, as we've said many times before, it's also time to start thinning out the slums. It doesn't take a genius to understand that if the habitats of gangs are removed, the gangs will move to more welcoming habitats in some other city.

All living things gravitate to where they feel comfortable. There are no exceptions. None.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 442

Last updated: August 2, 2008, 10:00 AM--Scroll down to "Yet Another Invisible..."story and to "Meanwhile"

SOON

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WHO'S RUNNING SO FAR?

As of the close of business yesterday, the following individuals have pulled nomination papers at City Hall in Costa Mesa. Now, these individuals have to gather 20 valid signatures from registered voters in Costa Mesa and return the nomination papers by August 8.

We know that one more is waiting to the last minute to file, and there will probably be others as well.

Katrina Foley (Known as the Snow Bunny or Flopsy around the CM PRESS HQ.)
Gary Monahan (The Leprechaun)
Eric Bever (An improvement activist. Code name Leveitto.)
Linda Dixon (Lump on a log.)
Lisa Reedy (A pal of Foley and the slums.)
Bill Sneen (An unknown.)
Nicholas S. Moss (An unknown.)
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LHC

As of today, 8/1, it looks as though Sector 78 has now been cooled down almost to absolute zero with all other sectors. So, the 17 mile tunnel is ready for a couple of thousand tests and then the commissioning of the first beam in a few weeks, perhaps. LINK

As we mentioned before, Peter Higgs is sure to get the Nobel Prize in Physics if the Higgs Boson, whose existence he predicted about forty years ago, is seen.

What we forgot to mention, is that Stephen Hawking will probably also get a Nobel Prize in Physics if the radiation that bears his name--Hawking radiation--is found, and, as theorized, snuffs out any black holes that might be produced by the LHC before they destroy the earth.

(Ah, guffaw, guffaw, snort, snort, that would be Mensa Stevie to some local dimwits who are too stupid to know that the word "Mensa," as used by the high IQ society of that name, is from Latin, not Spanish, and means "table.")
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UPDATES BELOW--AUGUST 1, 2008, 12:22 PM

YET ANOTHER INVISIBLE MAN BEING SOUGHT BY CMPD

Here's the description of an outstanding criminal suspect from the almost-daily Daily Pilot today: " The man, whom police describe as between 5-foot-4 and 5-foot-8, in his 20s and wearing a black hooded sweat shirt and dark pants...." LINK

You can distinguish this invisible man from the one the other day, in that the other invisible man was wearing granny glasses.

If you see (?) either of these two invisible men or the many other invisible men who are committing crimes in Costa, be sure to call the CMPD.

UPDATE, August 2, 2008, 10:00 AM: The almost-daily Daily Pilot has now added "Latino" to its online report on this incident.

UPDATE, August 1, 2008, 5:00 PM: The suspect has been identified as a Latino in the OC Register: "The suspect, described as Latino, in his 20s and 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-8, was seen driving away in a dark sport utility vehicle." LINK

Now, why didn't the almost-daily Daily Pilot tell us that? Never fear, as soon as a white commits a crime, the almost-daily Daily Pilot will be sure that you don't miss the fact that he's white.

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Meanwhile...

We've still seen no newspaper reports of the alleged beating of a Latino by whites as claimed by the anonymous brown racist puke and his squish friend Chicken Little. But this defective duo want you to know that the real problem in Costa Mesa is not a high violent non-white crime rate--even though the statistics say otherwise--but a high white crime rate.

Oh, and they want you to know that the Fourth Reich is about to march down Harbor Blvd. to set off fireworks, not raise taxes, close the parks to people who just want to have fun, and do all sorts of other meany things to you if you so much as have a tan.

And, remember, the brown racist puke and the squish Chicken Little want you to know that, if you can't find enough real violent crimes by white gangs in Costa Mesa to prove that violent white gangs are the real problem, you just have to close your eyes and believe.

Last Updated: August 2, 2008, 10:00 AM--Still no reports of any Latino man being pulled out of his car and being beaten by whites as alleged by the two characters mentioned above. Perhaps they have a problem. If it did happen, how did they learn about it when no one else seems to have heard about it? Is there a leaker in the CMPD who calls these guys and gives them information the department is trying to keep confidential? If it didn't happen, then they have no credibility.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.