3. Is the Times' Orange County bureau so Tribune'd that it can't produce anything original about the county anymore? Today's Column One deals with electric cars and the drivers who are fighting Detroit to keep them. Good story—but Clockwork Coker did it better in 2003
4. We've been reading Orange County Register sports columnist Randy Youngman back when the Anaheim Bulletin was a daily and not something your car runs over continuously. Love the guy, but today he reveals his favorite Gene Mauch anecdote: the time the former Angels skipper told a reporter, "There are two things I don't care about. One is tits on a man, and the other is your (expletive) deadlines!" Does Youngman share a cubicle with Lowery? 'Cause that's what Mr. Diary tells readers this week, too.
QUOTE OF THE MORNING
"Pues, I'm hoping Lupe Morenos is a pinche bad dream and just a screwed up episode of Get Smart where Jaime dates a latina."
--"Barrio Marlon Brando," the blogista behind the hilarious new SanTana blog, (Recycled) Cholo Knows..., commenting on the Times/Register/Weekly's Moreno piece. Love those vintage Mexican posters, Cholo!
Posted Aug. 14
WHAT LIBERAL CITIES? (PART ONE)
Last San Francisco-related post, promise: the Bay Area Center for Voting Research announced on Aug. 11 the country's most-liberal and conservative cities. Survey says...
"A new nationwide study released today by the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research (BACVR) ranks the political leanings of every American city and finds that Southern California is among the most conservative regions in America, while the Bay Area ranks as the most liberal."
BACVR examined voting records in cities with populations over 100,000 to determine the rankings. The Bay Area, with Berkeley (#3), Oakland (#5) and San Francisco (número nueve), is the region with the most liberal cities in the top 25, while Orange County gets the wacko-conservative designation thanks to Orange (#10), Garden Grove (#17) and H.B. (#25). Fair enough. But then the BACVR press release tosses out this nugget:
With three cities in the top ten liberal list, no other region in America comes close to matching the Bay Area's progressive prowess.
See, this is why common folks hate think tanks and the Bay Area. Those NorCal nitwits might sneer at us naranjeros (get a Spanish dictionary for that one, gabachos, then spread the term far and wide), but what does progressive politics reward Sodom-by-the-Sea? Last time we visited, we saw a Berkeley dude whip out his wang and piss near the iconic Berkeley Bowl supermarket, talked with a 'Frisco lawyer who insisted Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown was a Republican and saw enough gentrification to make Corona del Mar look like a Hooverville. If the Bay Area is really "America's liberal mecca" like that BACVR study brags, then bury us here in Reagan country, gracias.
WHAT LIBERAL CITIES? (PARTE DOS)
According to the BACVR list, Orange County's three most liberal burbs are SanTana (#122), Irvine (#169) and Costa Mexico. Geez, did those Barry Bonds apologists do any research? Democrats might hold nearly every seat on SanTana's City Council, but this is the same council that pours millions into usually empty Artists Villages and approves 37-story buildings despite the protests of citizens, all the while ignoring the needs of the 75% of SanTana's population that make the city the country's youngest, most-Latino, most-Spanish speaking, most-crowded and toughest to live in. Irvine's council is also Democrat-dominated, but Mayor Beth Krom and Larry Agran are nowadays making the Macbeths look as benevolent as Abraham and Sarah. As for Costa Mesa, I played tennis at Estancia High School a couple months back with a Latino friend of mine when we noticed there was a swatsika graffitied on some netting. It was the first time I ever saw a swatsika in public. And let's not forget the H. Millards of this self-mottoed "City of the Arts" that want to close down the city's Day Laborer Center!
DAILY QUOTE
"These weren't even real cops; they were county deputies. They're the ones who serve restraining orders and small claims court summonses. Beating the crap out of a Vietnamese woman sure took guts. She was probably about five feet tall and 90 pounds; clearly a dangerous criminal. The sick self-impressed fucks would probably gas Jews if you put the right uniforms on them, if the Jews were first undressed, their heads shaved, and if they weren't too big and scary."
"piscivore," posting on the Daily Rotten forums, reacting to Moxley's cover story this week on Orange County sheriff deputies going Abu Graib on county residents.
LOCAL LAUGHABLE COMMERCIALS
1. Yesterday, during the Halos' 9-1 decimation of the Argyros-free Mariners, saw Vladdy and New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez engage in a home-run derby for Pepsi. Funny—dug that Vladdy won by shattering the moon—but on the soundtrack was some flamenco guitar. Hey, Madison Avenue: the two are Dominicans, and those folks dance to the hyperkinetic merengue and mournful bachata beats. And don't accuse me of ethnic nit-picking, gabachos: how would you like it if Toby Keith appeared somewhere backed by Lil' Jon?
2. Was driving to the Crystal Cove Shake Shack this morning when we heard a commercial on classical music station KMZT-FM 105.1 for the mummies exhibit at the Bowers Museum. Had to laugh, though, when the announcer said the Bowers is located in "historic Santa Ana". "Historic" for SanTana's overlords is what was constructed by gabachos and located north of 17th Street--definitely not the many SanTana barrios that have existed for almost a century.
