Special Screenings

American Blackout. Documentary look at the voting irregularities of 2000 and 2004, irregularities the Republicans insist had no significant bearing on the final results and certainly won't be a problem in this election. And if you don't believe them, you're a terrorist. Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 117 N. Sycamore Ave., Santa Ana, (714) …

Poem for Leibniz

This is OC Weekly's 10th consecutive Best of OC issue and it comes 296 years after the very first Best of issue was ever published—that was Gottfried Leibniz, who called his Best of the Essais de Thodice, and it included everything in the entire world because things were that much better in 1710. And when people …

Infinite Chest

Talk all you want about the other shit—politics this, culture that; I'm bored with you and your CCCP buddies. What's best about Orange County is elitist and uncomfortable and dirtier than 4 a.m. phone sex TV ads. It's more elemental than all that righteous goodness, all the things that better OC residents work and fight and …

Mimi's Influence Cafe

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters (R-73, 241, 133) is a class act. And like any act, she can be yours if you can afford the hiring fee. Just ask Big Tobacco. Hell, just ask Rancho Mission Viejo; she's really going the extra mile for them. Sixteen miles actually—the length of the proposed Foothill-South toll road extension. Let's …

Staying the Course

At his press conference this morning, President Bush promised yet again that when it comes to Iraq, we'll continue to push on even though we're waist deep in the Big Muddy. Elsewhere in this morning's news we find some milestones of the course on which we are staying. From the Washington Post: A team of …

It Pays To Be a Rohrabacher

There's nothing illegal about paying your spouse to work on your congressional campaign. Richard Pombo did it. So did Tom DeLay. Even local boy Dana Rohrabacher does it. The Sunlight Foundation is busily compiling information on all sorts of representatives, but for the moment they're focusing on members of Congress and their families. Using something …

Something Stinks, Part Deux

We'd just hit the send button on that last post when we received this concerning the county's “reluctancy to let sunshine in” on their Aliso Creek clean-up project. It's an email exchange between local do-gooder group Iris Project and county Supervisor Tom Wilson, whose district includes Aliso Creek: From: Iris Adam [mailto:ir**@*ci.edu” data-original-string=”K1N15M5m5/o1YpTxVEhFuA==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” title=”This contact …

Commie Girl

So I'm not a big fan of AssemblymanVan Tran. But it wasn't till his goddamn pancake breakfast Saturday morning, breaking up my perfectly lovely Labor Day weekend when a friend had invited me to Del Mar and the Padres game—”Wanna go with me to Del Mar and then the Padres game?” he'd asked. “Of course …

Car Trouble

Sometimes the human brain finds patterns in seemingly unrelated phenomena. Sometimes random coincidences pile up and suddenly seem not coincidental at all. Just ask Dr. Michael Fitzgibbons. On July 21, his wife's right front tire suddenly went flat; she replaced the tire. At about 8 p.m. that evening, the couple's 23-year-old daughter was driving Fitzgibbons' 1996 …

Fakes On a Plane

Oliver Stone and Paramount have been intent on getting out the message that World Trade Center doesn't traffic in fringey speculations about the 9/11 attacks—since the unabashedly liberal director's JFK (1991) stands as the most mainstream movie elaboration of conspiracy theory to date. Paramount retained Creative Response Concepts—the same marketing firm responsible for the Swift Boat …