Let’s run down the list

Before the week began, George Runner said WTF at the Minuteman rally as a crazy old preacher got up on the stand with his hate-filled message. That didn’t stop Dave Gauny and Bob Kellar fromspeaking in front of the out-of-town group, though.

A day later, Roger Gitlin was apologizing to George Runner and saying the protests were essentially pointless. Wish he would have saved us all the trouble in the first place.

On Sunday and Monday, there was palpable, fist-pounding outrage in the old SCVTalk mailbox and on the SCVTalkers forum regarding the Signal’s editorial that alleged a Council candidate would soon release a manipulative mailer touting a Signal “Crime is on the Rise” headline.

“What the heck is up with the Signal painting ALL of the challengers with a broad brush with their editorial, and giving the incumbents a pass?,” one commenter said on SCVTalk.

And that was before I Heart turned up the heat on the Signal’s stats in his characteristic witty prose.

Turns out that the hard-hitting and manipulative mailer doesn’t exist…yet. So why did the Signal write about it?

The Signal isn’t the only one that got savaged this week though. The California Attorney General’s Office pretty much told us that One Valley One Vision, as currently comprised, isn’t worth the paper it’s written on saying that the document totally ignores greenhouse emissions from all these new cars taking people to their new homes in Level “E” Traffic.

It also said that the document didn’t even work as an informational document.

That totally harshed my buzz for OVOV, even if it did come from Jerry Brown’s office.

Another SCVer’s whose pre-election buzz has been prematurely harshed is Frank Ferry. Sometime early in the week, Dave Bossert posted an email from Frank Ferry in which Ferry appears desperate to raise $45,000 in 30 days because, he says, the race is suddenly “competitive.” Gauny/Boydston partisans are excited by the news, especially in light of the fact that the conservative California Republican Assembly IHOPPed its way into Gauny’s corner alone and didn’t endorse any of the incumbents.

Myers speculated that incumbents were concerned; after all, they’ve been caught opening Facebook fan pages in lieu of polling in order to improve their self-esteem, high school-style, he said.

But within 24 hours the City Council insurgents get smacked down by the City’s release of a new Public Opinion Poll, which finds ”high levels of resident satisfaction on big picture issues handled by the City,” the City’s email to residents said. Boy, I wonder how the Signal will report it?

“A Slice Short of Heaven,” is the Signal’s headline the next day. You can just visualize the mailer now, can’t you?

Geez, the Boydston/Gauny partisans said, the establishment is really pushing for the incumbents to get re-elected. What’s next?

Well the week was only half over at that point.

Yesterday the 60s radical in me rejoiced as 10s of thousands of students took to the streets to protest education cuts across the country. The message of the Tea Party is that no one wants to pay taxes for anything; well now we can see the results as schools in the SCV close, teachers get laid off and students pay more in our colleges and universities.

Back to the City, which yesterday decided to exit the freeway into Right Wing Crankland when it added a number of controversial and downright screwy Glenn Beck-type bills to the City Council agenda. That’s right, on Tuesday we’ll get to see what Marsha McLean thinks about de-funding ACORN, what Laurie Ender has to say about English as the National Language, and what Frank Ferry’s reaction will be to stripping American citizenship from babies born in the US to illegal immigrant parents.

No study session as promised by the City, they’ve just decided to endorse the craziest bills out there in an effort to get the Minuteman off their backs and to give their incumbents something to show to the voters.

Sigh. All this from Bob Kellar’s Proud Racist moment…I wish I had never seen that video back in January.

Surely that’s enough to chew on for one week, but no! There was an interesting Council Candidate luncheon at the Chamber yesterday in which one candidate said the illegal immigrants were working for the SCV business establishment.

And then today…Myers tells us another Republican group in town could only find enough votes to endorse Laurene Weste. Meanwhile, we learn that Castaic doesn’t really want a high school after all (well at least that part of Castaic) and…holy cow…what’s this?

Johnny Pride the 26 year old boffo council candidate has been arrested on rape charges.

Yowza!

All kidding aside, the most momentous and impactful event of this week didn’t occur in the Santa Clarita Valley at all. It occurred on a dusty road in Kandahar, Afghanistan as one of the SCV’s and America’s finest gave his life while in service of our country. Specialist Ian Gelig, 25, a 2002 graduate of Hart High and an elite paratrooper in the storied 82nd Airborne Division, died Monday when an insurgent rammed his vehicle with a car bomb.

You are not forgotten Spc. Gelig and we pray for God’s comfort on your family and friends. Thank you for your service.

Kind of puts our problems in perspective huh?

Roger Gitlin "preaches to the choir" (plus Jeff Wilson, Nathan Imhoff, GangFang and yours truly)

A video update on the “Little Bighorn” post from a couple weeks back.

Included in this montage are the most heated moments of the “Save Our State” rally.

UPDATE: Here is the video of the AnswerLA folks when they first marched on the scene.  My favorite part is at 1:50 when SCVTalk’s own Petz half-heartedly broadens his sign.

And the chanting that followed:

Photo Courtesy of Nate Imhoff. Check his blog at www.blazingmonk.com for more great shots

Today I stood in the cold rain for two hours observing 75 Minutemen and Minutewomen. I learned some things. I un-learned some other things. Here’s my observations.

It seemed as if the Minutemen who stormed the SCV in January were on a roll. Bob Kellar never backed down, even when Meg Whitman disowned him and Buck McKeon said he should apologize. They had enlisted several new speakers, including high profile ones like State Senator George Runner, to aid in their cause. They were optimistic that 250+ people would show up at their rally, and they were ready to double down on just about everything they said at the last meeting.

But it didn’t turn out that way.

First of all, our local and out-of-town Minutemen weren’t alone today. They were bested in both turnout and volume by the ANSWER LA immigration activists, who showed off their protesting chops by shouting for their cause in unison and by being mobile.

They shouted the standard ANSWER agitprop “The people, united, can never be defeated!” through their bull-horn. One Angry Minuteman tried to counter that with the awkward and rhythmically-challenged, “We can cross the border illegally!” in an attempt, I guess, to ironically shame them.

Needless to say, the shout didn’t catch on among the largely 50+ year old Minuteman crowd.

The rally itself started quite late, but it didn’t take long for things to warm up. Pastor Audie Yancey, the “illegals are evil” star of the January rally, kicked things off again this time around with a milder invocation.

At least I thought it was milder.

State Senator George Runner (of all people!) didn’t think so, and you can see his animated and heated exchange with Minuteman organizer Frank Jorge in the video below.

As Pastor Yancy went on another tear against illegals and told the protesters to shut up, Runner headed for the exits with his aide in tow. I asked some local Republicans why Runner had left, and the consensus seemed to be that he 1) didn’t like the Pastor telling the protesters to shut up (thereby acknowledging their presence) or 2) the rhetoric was a bit too heated even for his taste.

Runner’s desertion of the Minuteman left Frank Jorge hopping mad:

With Runner out of the picture, I thoguht for sure that Bob Kellar and David Gauny might be having second thoughts about speaking at this rally. I watched them as Jorge made his speech, but they showed no reaction. They were ready to press on even when the high-profile Senator abandoned ship.

Things started to move briskly. Ray Herrera, a veteran, took to the stage and outlined a grand conspiracy for everyone in the crowd. I can’t say I even caught the broad outlines of this theory, but it had something to do with the enduring power of the “Anglo Protestant People,” the Puritans and Pilgrims, World War II and Saipan, tyranny, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. After invoking all that, he pointed toward the ANSWER activists and said this:

They don’t have the core values, they don’t have a progressive state. They don’t have the courage to stand up in Mexico and fight for what they want.

They want to take it from you. I’m going to say it like it is. They want to take it from the white man.

Of course, Herrera immediately recovered from “saying it like it is,” and said that what the ANSWER activists really didn’t understand was that there was no white man in America because all Americans are equal before the law and when push comes to shove, Americans of all races would fight the Japanese in the foxhole together on the beach at Saipan.

Or something.

In any case, he provided some context that made his remarks seem less like a call to arms in defense of the white man’s things, and especially, his women folk (because who wouldn’t want them some fine white women?)

Moving on, it was David Gauny’s turn to speak. Undeterred by Runner’s exit and Herrera’s grand American theory of everything, he started by poking some fun at Kellar. He then said that many had advised him that showing up at the rally would guarantee he wouldn’t be elected and then launched into campaign mode.

His speech was largely unremarkable, though he did channel Steve Lunetta and mention how bad things are in Newhall with regards to day laborers. Funny that he didn’t mention that those men stand out their because we Santa Claritans are hiring them every day.

David, you’ve lost my vote. I hope your appearance before 75 or so anti-illegal immigration activists, most of whom don’t live here, was worth it. I have my doubts.

Bob Kellar was up next and made sure to emphasize that he was speaking on his own behalf. He was proud to say that those of us who wanted him to apologize were going to have to wait a long time. The rest of his remarks were prepared and it’s safe to say he left Cranky Bob Kellar at home in Sand Canyon today. I only wish he had done the same in January. I genuinely liked this man.

Finally, it was Roger Gitlin’s turn to speak.. I’ve gone back and forth on Roger Gitlin on this blog. Sometimes he seems reasonable, even hinting that he supports humane immigration reform. At other times, he tosses his lot in with the crazies like Frank Jorge. Happily, the former showed up today, and he was engaging and lucid and reminded the Minuteman to protest the issue of illegal immigration, not the illegal immigrants themselves. Of course he then went on about illegal alien criminals, but compared to the rest of the speakers, Gitlin was almost someone I could have a conversation with. Almost.

As the rally wore on, I became less interested in recording each speaker. They largely said the same thing. I will say that the black man from South Central who got up and defended Bob Kellar and shouted the word “nigger” several times made me wince (that’s a hell of a thing to hear in downtown Valencia, Nate Imhoff told me), but other than that, I was bored. So I decided to confront Pastor Yancey because his January comments bugged me the most:

Yancey comes off less the racism-justifying preacher of yesteryear and more the confused old man who’s past his prime.

By the way, props to Tony Miano, the SCV street preacher, retired Sheriff’s Deputy and blogger who denounced Yancey and said he was at the rally because “people are here” and not because he agreed with the sentiments. You should check out his blog, where he reflects on Pastor Yancey.

Concluding Thoughts

In the end, I didn’t leave feeling triumphant or beaten down. I left feeling pity for these protesters. One of them mentioned “globalization” and touched on the way the world has changed in the last several decades. In his mind, America should be like it was in the good old days, that mythical time of economic security, harmony and good jobs. That time when a man knew his place in the world, rather than finding himself confused and lost in modern American capitalism’s relentless race to the bottom (and that was before the bailouts!) What difference does it make to the American worker, he seemed to mourn, whether the cheap labor we depend on is in China or on the streets of Newhall? Both are bad for American workers.

This, I remain convinced, is what the anti-illegal immigration movement is really about: Economic insecurity.

I did share one thing with the Minuteman. I am angry. I am very angry that Deputy David March was murdered. I am angry there are illegal immigrants driving without licenses or insurance. I’m angry that the taxpayers foot the bill for an undocumented immigrant’s  kidney dialysis at my mom’s unit while an elderly American gentleman struggles getting his insurance company to pay for his. I’m angry that Adrian Avilla, an illegal immigrant, raped several women in Canyon Country a few years ago.

I’m also angry that American companies get fat off the backs of these people and no one stops them.

I’m angry about these things but the difference between me and the Minutemen is that I think the solution is to get illegal immigration under control and provide a path to citizenship for the vast majority of illegal immigrants who come here, work hard, and just want to improve their lives. In that sense, I’m on the side of President Bush who tried to fix this problem in 2006. But his effort died at the hands of the Minutemen.

And unfortunately, they’re not giving up and they’re never going to change their tune.

Valencia.com, the current flagship community website for Newhall Land, has rebranded into “Awesometown.”  The refreshed web presence has more extensive social media capabilities than the last site, which was steeped in flash animation and a narrator that said “welcome” a lot.

If “Awesometown” sounds familiar, you may remember a Fox pilot from 2005 with the same name:

Incidentally, the comedy troupe at the heart of that one-hit wonder is responsible for the excellent SNL digital shorts.

Perhaps the SCVTalk community can come up with additional dude-ified names for the other SCV communities.  Here’s a list of terms if you need some inspiration.

In the mean time, I’d like to propose ”Gag-me-with-a-spoon-town” for Westridge.

While Bristol Farms prepares to close its Valencia store before seeing its second birthday, Redbox is going gangbusters in the SCV.  The now ubuiquitous $1 DVD rental company has successfully blanketed the valley with their namesake kiosks.

Claritans from Westridge to Canyon Country, Castaic to Newhall and all points in-between have access to these newfangled boxes, which are a breeze to use but have a somewhat limited library of content.  At least for now… Hollywood studios have recently warmed to the concept after initially rebuffing the cut-rate movie rental concept.  Today, Warner Brothers announced a partnership with Redbox, leaving only Fox and Universal outside the tent.

I found myself doing the el-cheapo this past weekend at a Redbox near me, along with 5 other douchebags guys with the same idea.  Waiting 10 minutes for a copy of “He’s Just Not That Into You” was a bit of V-Day buzzkill, but it’s easy on the wallet.

Now if Redbox could only do something about that line…

Later on, the poster says, “Lets keep on this little turd and get him flushed.”

Jonathan Randles has done a yeoman’s work covering the immigration debate and its aftermath in Santa Clarita. Not only has he covered the raucous debate in front of City Hall (twice!),  he spoke with an illegal immigrant day laborer to get his side of the story, something the Signal hasn’t done before (at least as long as I’ve kept this blog).

That the Save our State People (and by extension Roger Gitlin) are so insecure they want to get a reporter fired for doing his job speaks to just how deranged and extreme they are.

I can only imagine what The Signal’s LTE inbox looks like these days. They’re probably only publishing the mildest of LTEs regarding illegal immigration.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re receiving threats.

I know I have.

As SCVTalk has documented again and again, the Save our State folks primarily hail from areas outside of Santa Clarita, which means we now have out-of-town extremists attacking our local paper and one of its best reporters.

As if that wasn’t crazy enough, the whole cycle is set to repeat next week at the February 27 rally, but this time David Gauny, Bob Kellar and George Runner will be there to egg them on even more! And Gauny will be campaigning in front of these people.

Keep up the good work Signal. You know you’re doing you’re job as a journalist if you’re pissing someone off.

It’s time for the decent people of Santa Clarita -on either side of the illegal immigration debate- to close ranks and defend our town from these nutjobs.

His feet blistered as he crept closer to the U.S.-Mexico border. He passed dozens of holes covered with rocks – the unmarked graves of others who had died along the way.

“What if that is my fate?” Lopez said he had asked himself. “What if that happens to me?”

The American Dream kept him going – the idea that he could earn more than four times what he made in Mexico.

Lopez, 39, is an illegal immigrant.

He’s been caught and deported once, and has made the brutal trek across the border three times with hopes of giving his children a chance to have the education and shot at the American Dream he never did.

A wise journalist once told me that a newspaper’s job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And that’s what Jonathan Randles’ great reporting does today. Men like Lopez scratch out a meager living doing the chores that comfortable Santa Claritans don’t want to do. We know because we finally bothered to talk to one of them.

Good newspaper reporting also puts you, the reader, in the shoes of the person being reported on. We can see that Lopez’ decision to live and work here is rational, from an economic standpoint. He earns $250-$500 a week doing the work we ask of him, much more than he would earn in Mexico. His motivation isn’t different from the millions of western, southern and and eastern European immigrants who came here over the last two centuries.

And with Randles’ reporting, we can see a way forward. You don’t like that men like Lopez live in the shadows among us? Then support legislation that closes the borders and penalizes him but gives him a way forward out of the underground economy that Americans are only to happy to exploit. It’s the only way.

McKeon said he agreed that illegal immigration was a problem and said that the USA is a nation of laws. McKeon said he hadn’t read the reports closely but understood that Kellar was speaking in reference to a Teddy Roosevelt quote when Kellar stated that he was a proud racist.

That said, McKeon was unambigous about what Bob Kellar should do:

“It’s unfortunate that Bob made that statement,” McKeon said.

It was “a very unfortunate statement. I would like to see Bob issue an apology,” McKeon continued.

The woman from Valencia  explained that she was at the rally, appreciated Kellar’s appearance there, and thought that Kellar had been unfairly treated by some in Santa Clarita. She said Kellar was a proud American, at which point McKeon stated, “That’s what he should have said,” followed by a short laugh.

The woman ended her comments saying that “There is a movement rising up in this valley against illegal immigration that is not going to slow down anytime soon.”

Concluding his call, Buck McKeon said that Kellar should “Get it clarified, get it cleared up, apologize to everyone and move on.”

Some city council candidates like TimBen Boydston and Harrison Katz have said that Kellar ought to apologize for his statement. David Gauny, in contrast, has defended Kellar. Yesterday, the Meg Whitman campaign dropped Bob Kellar’s endorsement over the comments.

Kellar has told several media outlets and hundreds of residents at a recent City Council meeting that he stands by his comments. However, he has told KHTS that he wishes he had used different wording.

The discussion above occurred over the phone and live via U-Stream. Once there is an archive of the show, I will post it here.

First up: a doozy. Apparently Frank Ferry ripped into the Town Council form of government on the West Side of Santa Clarita during a Santa Clarita Council meeting. I’m not sure if this happened in December, but it’s new footage to me so I thought I’d post it:

NAFF’s number one target during his two + year reign of YouTube hilarity has always been Councilman Frank Ferry. Some of his videos about the 12+ year councilman are dead on; others, well they don’t really make sense. Whatever the case, it looks like FrankenFerry will be back for this year’s Council election as Ferry seeks another term in office.

If you’re not familiar with NAFF’s volume of work, count yourself lucky. The anonymous YouTuber clearly has a political agenda, but divining what that agenda is like trying to read heiroglyphics without the Rosetta stone. He (or she) is:

• Critical of the City Council when they approve too many developments
• Critical of the City Council when they hassle local developers
• He evidently moved here from the San Fernando Valley (he’s always referencing it, thus confirming my stereotypes)
• Worried about over population of Santa Clarita
• Distrustful and hostile to alternative transportation
• He pre-dates the Tea Party crowd but probably attends their meetings
• Thinks Ken Pulskamp pulls all the levers of local government and development
• Worried that people like me want him to live in “hi density” (sic) urban tenements
• He is angry that there are so many people around him
• He uses the term “suburban bedroom community” un-ironically

Indeed, if you watch enough of NAFF’s videos, you’ll realize rather quickly they aren’t even internally consistent. For instance, in this video:

He posts footage of a crowded street full of cars then mocks Marsha McLean for suggesting residents use other, greener forms of transportation. “We’ll just ride our little bicycles all over town while you clobber up our limited traffic corridors, rrrrriiggght” he says, tossing in a bit of global warming denialism for good measure.

Apparently NAFF thinks “traffic” is a term you use to refer to all the other cars around you when you’re driving down the street, alone in your car.

But no one said local politics had to make sense or be consistent. NAFF’s main point seems to be that there is no distinction between the City Council, City staff and developers; they are one, and they are elitist, know-it-alls and the rage is justified to save the SCV from the SFV’s fate.

But in 2010, as we enter the City Council race, I’m wondering if there are more NAFFs out there. Is he representative of a certain frightened SCV demographic that some savvy Council candidate might tap into as we enter this year’s Council race?

The Qwik-e presents a fast-paced roundup of breaking local news headlines, the latest updates on developing stories, community calendar listings, and previews of news, sports, entertainment and lifestyle stories plus photographs slated for the next day’s Signal newspaper.

Was I the only one who immediately thought of the SCVTalk Daily Brief?

More:

Adding to the Qwik-e’s interactivity and fun is the daily “Where in the SCV is THIS?” photo contest. Readers can click to send an e-mail with their guesses about the location of today’s photo, and go to the “Where in the SCV is THIS?” page on The-Signal.com to find out the location of the previous day’s photo.

Perhaps this is just a coincidence, but IHeartSCV ran a three-part SCVenger Hunt contest too.  Hmm…

From the managing editor Lila Littlejohn:

Qwik-e combines the best aspects of quality journalism and digital-age immediacy and interactivity with a sense of humor that’s in keeping with the online medium

Hearkens back to Lamont’s warm blogosphere shout-out:

After all, it is not bloggers who will be trusted and respected to provide solid, interesting, valued and accurate reporting. It will still be the professional journalists in the working media.

As far as I can tell, up until now, the Brief was SCV’s only daily news mashup that blended external and local content into a succinct, SCV-centric summary of the past 24 hours.

Since the Sunday print edition, the online version of the launch article was curiously updated to include the genesis of the concept.

Kudos to The Signal for putting together a promising product.  Even with this addition, though, The Signal remains a one-way reporting source for news without the debate and banter that defines the Humble SCVTalk.com.