Hit-and-run blog against Shawn Nelson
The Web site of Orange County’s Republican Party, Red County, put up a hit piece written by Thomas Anthony Gordon, replete with bad grammar and worse logic. He’s attacking Fullerton Councilman (and former Mayor) Shawn Nelson, who is running for O.C. supervisor. Nelson’s “offense”: he’s a partner at a firm with a criminal defense department.
Gordon writes (my corrections in brackets): “A State Legislature[,] which has made California one of the most business unfriendly states in the Nation, has taken it upon themselves [he means ‘itself’] to reduce spending by releasing criminals back into our communities. Some theorize that this is to instill fear into taxpayers and have them sign off on tax increases to feed the bloated beast.”
Well, one big reason spending is so high is that the prison guards’ union is so cozy with Red County candidates (Republicans), as well as Blue County candidates (Democrats), producing tax-devouring high salaries and benefits for the guards. How about privatizing prisons to cut costs?
Gordon’s next sentence: “Another reason would be the attorneys, who usually start out on our city councils, move on to elected county offices, then to state assembly and senate seats[,] while telling us all they are the public safety candidate[s].”
The syntax is twisted like a pretzel. But I think he’s trying to say that attorneys like to let criminals run loose; the attorneys get elected to political offices; and from those positions the attorneys start loosing dangerous criminals on the public.
A couple of paragraphs later, Gordon fake concedes, “Now, I understand that even murderers, drug dealers, cybersquatters and NAMBLA promoters are entitled to legal representation. But we don’t have to like it.”
Gordon mixes up a lot here, trying to tar Shawn with warehouse of smear, especially murderers and the disgusting NAMBLA criminals.
But by “drug dealers,” does he mean, say, your local medical marijuana dispensary that gives your grandma the medicine she needs to keep her food down while she’s battling cancer? Although Prop. 215 legalized medical marijuana in state law, federal law still holds it illegal.
Gordon’s direct attack on Nelson: “Shawn Nelson is running to replace Chris Norby on the OC Board of Supervisors. He’s [the possessive is unclear, but he means Nelson] a guy who[m] I consider[ed] to be a strong anti[-]tax and anti[-]crime kind of guy. Until today.
“I was looking at the website for Rizio and Nelson when I came upon this nugget: [‘]this law (early release) will create new challenges for criminal defense lawyers, who will surely paint their clients’ cases in the most positive light possible. For that, you need experienced attorneys who can give you the strongest defense possible. Contact Rizio and Nelson if you need help[’].”
Gordon didn’t consistently bold-face the quoted part, so I put the whole thing in quotes (my single quotes).
Of course, if you read the offending sentence, all it says is: The law is more complicated now. We’re experienced attorneys. We can help you.
But Gordon ends: “And in my opinion, it’s impossible to say your [he means ‘you’re’] tough on crime, while doing everything you can get them [he seems to mean criminals] back onto our streets, to terrorize us another day. But that’s only my opinion.”
In other words: Guilty until proven guilty! The police and prosecutors are always right!
Remember Mike Carona?
But Orange County is the last place where we should give blind faith to police and prosecutors and cast aspersions on the attorneys who defend our liberties.
I suppose it’s understandable that Gordon didn’t mention former Sheriff Mike Carona, given the latter’s deep ties to Red County honchos, who repeatedly endorsed Carona and kept defending him. But just a year ago, a federal jury convicted Carona of witness tampering.
(By the way, Mr. Gordon, was it wrong for Carona to hire a top defense attorney, Brian Sun, to lead his legal team?)
Under Carona’s corrupt watch, in 2006 an inmate was killed at Theo Lacy jail. According this story from April 8, 2008: “A grand jury transcript released Monday describes an Orange County jail in disarray, with deputies watching television, playing video games and taking naps while inmates were allowed to use brutality and intimidation to keep order in the cellblocks.”
Before Carona, Sheriff Brad Gates was notorious for cronyism, especially giving conceal-carry gun permits to his donors (and almost nobody else) while keeping secret files on opponents. He held the job for an incredible 24 years, twice as long as FDR was president.
A 1987 report noted: “Despite a sworn declaration by Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates that he ‘has not created or maintained files’ on former election opponent George Wright, audiotapes of a 1981 college classroom lecture by Wright ended up in the sheriff’s investigative files, it was learned Thursday.”
The current sheriff, Sandra Hutchens, is obsessed with keeping guns out of the hands of honest citizens by denying them conceal-carry permits – even though studies by scholar John Lott and others prove that crime drops when honest citizens are better armed and can fend off criminals. And then there’s the Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms,” which her policies violate.
Moreover, as Steven Greenhut details in his recent book, “Plunder! How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Naiton,” state law now seals the records on any investigation into police abuse. The law was enacted a decade ago by a Democratic governor, Gray Davis, and a Democratic state Legislature that deftly stole the “law and order” issue from Republicans.
Red Staters like Gordon don’t realize that the future of the GOP (if it has one) doesn’t lie with government unions – including police and fire unions – but with Tea Party Patriots, Ron Paul Revolution activists and others sick and tired of governments ordering this once-free people around.
With lawless lawmen – and lawwomen – the need for defense attorneys is clear. If the government falsely accuses you of a crime – and uses its immense powers and tax dollars to prosecute you – who you gonna call? A defense attorney.
Patriot John Adams for the Defense
In our American system, let’s remember, an accused person is innocent until proven guilty. And that person can only be convicted after a trial in front of a jury of his peers. One of the charges our forefathers leveled against George III, in the Declaration of Independence, was: “For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury.”
Indeed, one of our greatest revolutionary Founders was John Adams. Like the others, he risked his neck to bring America liberty. Yet he first came to popular attention after the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which British imperial soldiers killed five Americans, an outrage that helped spark the revolution Adams would end up advancing. But Adams believed in justice, including the right of any person to a decent criminal defense. So he defended the British soldiers. Six were acquitted, two were found guilty of manslaughter.
During the trial, Adams actually was elected to Massachusetts’ colonial legislature. His fellow Americans recognized his bravery and integrity. There was no Thomas Anthony Gordon to write: “And in my opinion, it’s impossible to say your tough on crime, while doing everything you can get them back onto our streets, to terrorize us another day. But that’s only my opinion.”
If Adams had been shunned, his political career ended, he never would have become a hero during the Revolution, helping Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and the other patriots win our independence. Without defense attorney John Adams, their cause might have been lost, the whole lot of patriots hanged by “law ’n order” King George III. Lost also would have been our independence and our liberties.
Shawn Nelson, I submit, is a John Adams for our day.
John Seiler, an editorial writer with The Orange County Register for 19 years, currently is a reporter and analyst for CalWatchDog.com. His email: writejohnseiler@gmail.com.
Amen! Nelson does indeed have much in common with our Founding Fathers.
And Thomas Gordon is a modern-day Benedict Arnold. A former Orange Juice blogger gone bad and now employed by the red coats…
Employed by the Red coats? Wouldn’t they need some money to actually employ someone?
#2,
Oh, Gordon doesn’t need the money. He has a government job and a fat pension awaiting him.
He is an asbestos inspector at LA Unified.
Jerbal pays him by letting him go to all the red coat parties. Of course the other red coats think Gordon is Jerbal’s handyman…
Privatizing prisons is not a good solution because the prisons will also have an incentve to incarcerate people.
Anon:
Prisons don’t incarcerate people; jury’s declare their finding and judge’s hand down sentences, which incarcerate the guilty at a facility designed for prisoners. The jailers have no say in convictions or what the sentences are. They are custodians of the convicted.
Gordon’s stories, when analyzed in its totality of Sidu the carpetbagger and Nelson, is above and beyond calculated, it smacks of being bought and paid for.
Even Cunningham won’t make the inferences or statements that Gordon has. That’s what Cunningham hired him to do, thus providing Cunningham cover. The hate for Bushala and by default Nelson, is not just palatable it is overt and as such, it never address’s the premise of Harry the Carpetbagger. In fact, it avoids it. Gordon and Cunningham can’t discuss Sidu carpetbagging because they lose the argument and when that happens every other argument they make becomes invalid. Denial of the obvious in normal day-to-day life is considered a mental health problem. In politics it is a symptom that your opponent is lacking key electable traits or is so devoid of ability that he/she must create stories about their adversary (Nelson) out of whole cloth in order for the electorate to over look Sidu’s major character flaws.
This is exactly what is manifesting before us on Red County. Daly has dropped out and those who live at the trough of power must find another trough with slop to eat.
There is a thread or motif if you prefer, that is appearing in the Red County blog posts by these people and they will begin to be more coordinated. This is not by happenstance. It is planned and well coordinated (but poorly executed) by those that now will prosper by a Sidu elected hack.
With Chip Hanlon firing Sgt. York for supposedly not disclosing payment from a candidate (Sgt York states he did disclose this to Hanlon) yet we have Chip Hanlon reportedly getting paid by Meg Whitman. I would not be surprised if Harry Sidu is paying Gordon and Cunningham. Why else would they go so far off the reservation that there isn’t a zip code for where they now reside in thought.
Exposure to the sunlight will kill bacteria and so it is with Harry Sidu. He can’t articulate cogent thoughts, his integrity has been compromised, and he is supported by those who have purely selfish reasons.
Enjoy the time you have Red County Hacks of Sidu but the electorate has no stomach anymore for your type and even less so for your candidate Sidu. You will pay a price for the choices you have made. Ackerwoman paid and you will too.
It’s great to John Seiler writing for FFFF, I hope to be reading more of his post in the future!
nelson’s law firm has defended a lot of shady people, more and more names are gonna come out
I wonder if Hide and Seek Harry will produce anymore shady residences. Everyone now admits the Calabria was AN OUTRIGHT LIE.
AND THAT MAKES SIDHU AN OUTRIGHT LIAR.
And come to think of it he’s a thief. He’s stealing the truth and trying to palm off a cheap imitation of it on us.
P.S. I would LOVE to see a hit piece with the Calabria on it.
“Office Hungry Sidhu Tried to Claim a Run Down Apartment As His Phony Address”
Hey letsgetreal by getting yourself a brain and some integrity while you’re at it.
This is exactly what #5 is talking about. You can’tdefend MagicCarpetBagger Sidu carpetbagging so you jump to adhominim attacks against Nelson. You must be the same Fucktard that tried to start the whisper campaign against Nelson at the Fullerton Politically rally last week.
You Sidu Fucktards really are pathetic. Its shits like you that have screwed this country up by supporting repuglicans. How much is Sidu paying you? That seems the only way Sidu can get support. He wants to buy this race like he’s tried to buy every race.
I think we can expect more of these whisper campaign ass monkeys posting this “inferring” shit.
I hear that those taco jobs at Sidu’s TacoBells don’t offer any health insurance. He’s so rich, you think he would help those minimum wage single moms trying to make ends meet, by providing health benefits. No wonder he can live in that huge mansion known as the Yorba estate.
I personally LIKE the idea of lawyers being elected officials at the *local* level.
Nelson is the only council member with authentic business experience. Just look at the others.
Quirk: School teacher, B.A. Sociology
Keller: Does nothing, gets paid, B.A. Child Development
Jones: Retired Plastic Surgeon, M.D.
Bankhead: Fullerton PD, B.A. Criminal Justice, MPA
One thing’s for damn sure, Quirk and Keller have no business skills. They’re clueless as to the consequences of their actions with respect to business and redevelopment. Fourth grade math doesn’t get the job done.
I doubt Jones has any business skills. He earned enough money to hire accountants and lawyers to manage his business affairs.
That leaves us with Bankhead. I think he has valuable experience as a cop in Fullerton, but again, no business skills.
Nelson is the only council member who gets it. He has a family business and practices business law.
Face it, the City operates like a business, Redevelopment is business, practically everything the council votes on has business or legal implications. Therefore, it’s logical council members should know something about these topics.
The double-standard is annoying as hell… apparently the people who have faith in Keller, Quirk, Jones, and Bankhead would trust their Auto Mechanic to remove a brain tumor. Because that’s exactly the makeup of the city council, ignoramuses ruining your livelihood.
Wake up people!
I disagree. That idiot Marty Burbank is some sort of lawyer and so was that Jan Flory who seems too dumb to know which direction is up. I’m sure Nelson’s firm hire accountants too.
Instead we need people who want to hold office to be accountable – not to dodge it or hand it off; and not just because they crave the attention (Bankhead).
Another fallacy: the City IS NOT run like a business. This sort of talk usually precedes some new proposal to turn a public facility into a cost center – Jim Armstrong was real big on that. Governments are not run like businesses and can’t be: businesses (the good ones) makes plans and models based on profitability. Governments don’t make profits or losses; and they have a monopoly power over all sorts of services for which there is no competition.
The good public representative knows that bureaucracies judge their own success by the size of their budgets and the number of personnel in their org chart; and he knows that it’s his jib to push back all the time – each meeting, in fact.
But we get people who are just the opposite: staff stooges and go along votes.
P.S.
Redevelopment is NOT business. In fact it is anti-business – the complete opposite of business. It is politicians and bureaucrats Investing other people’s money in hare-brained schemes with zero accountability whose goal is to raise tax revenue so they can pay themselves higher salaries.
I give nelson (and Quirk) a lot of credit for recognizing the bullshit they were being peddled on the fraudulent Redevelopment expansion. Of course Bankhead and Jones, who think “Redevelopment is business” voted for it, along with the featherhead Keller.
Desert Rat: I wasn’t suggesting the City or Redevelopment Agency is a profit-making “business” just that it attempts to function /like/ a business with regard to budgeting, accounting, contracts, payroll, legal issues, etc. I used “business” for the lack of a better term. Sorry I wasn’t more clear.
My point is still the same however. We elect people to the council who have NO experience doing any of these things. The results shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
It’s amazing how ass backwards we have it. To cut a person’s hair, a barber needs 1500 hours of training to get a license, but on the City Council, all you need is a heartbeat to make decisions that destroy the community for tens of thousands of people.
I have personal dealings with Jan Flory, long before her council days, to vouch for her being an idiot. And as you pointed out, she’s a lawyer too. I wouldn’t vote for her if my life depended on it, but I still think there’s value in having a lawyer on the city council. I think there’s less of a chance for the City Manager or City Attorney to feed the council a line of bullshit when there’s somebody of equal stature to see through it all. Jan Flory wasn’t that person. In case you’re wondering, I have little faith in the City Manager and City Attorney.
You said we need people on the council to be accountable. I agree. Part of being accountable is making informed decisions based on intellect and experience. Most of the council lacks both. That’s the problem.
Since when is Red County blog the official Republican Party website?
According to Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham they aren’t even a republican blog let alone The republican blog. Go figure.
Desert Rat, you are correct in labeling redevelopment agencies as the antithesis of competitive capitalism. The reality is that preferential treatment is given to campaign contributors for redevelopment projects at the public’s expense due to the lack of competition for the best project and price. The increased property value in the form of a tax increment is given back to the redevelopment agency. Thereby, freezing the property tax revenue for local and state governments.