Crazy, momentous days in Santa Clarita this week.
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?
