Wednesday, August 9, 2006
The Buzz and The Boot
For nearly a week the buzz around this town has been about
our young jailer/mayor's insensitive comments regarding the
tragic multiple shooting that occurred last week in the north
part of Costa Mesa. Residents, officials, editorial writers and
bloggers have raked the mayor over the coals for his callous
disregard for the families of those wounded or killed in that
senseless drive-by shooting.
Today's Daily Pilot Opinion page carries a half dozen letters critical of Mayor Mansoor's comments last week, and his botched attempt at damage control that resulted in him digging himself even deeper into the hole.
Perhaps the mayor has finally managed to show the voters of this city just who he is. For most of this decade, during which he became active in civic issues, he's managed to fool most observers into thinking he was a nice, clean cut young man with only the best interests of the city in mind. Those of us who have watched him, particularly since his election to the City Council almost four years ago, realize that there's a very different side to this man. He began demonstrating that side as soon as he held the majority on the council.
I suspect that some residents of this city will finally realize that much of what Mansoor and his cronies are advocating have one central theme - the expulsion of the Latinos from our city.
Simultaneously, the Orange County blog world is rife with comments about the influence a local activist who very much resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor, has over the majority on the council. One prominent blogger, as mentioned in an earlier posting, published a scathing indictment of this fellow and our young jailer/mayor, comparing the activist in question to Hitler pre-World War II. He followed it up with two subsequent blog postings further kicking that can down the street.
In the meantime, if one visits Mansoor's web site you will find his smiling face staring out at you as he snuggles up to the Minuteman babes and Dana Rohrabacker. You will find ways to contribute to his campaign and ways to volunteer to help. You will find a link to an online store where you can buy mugs and tee shirts and aprons and all sorts of junk with Mansoor's name all over it. What you won't find is any kind of a biography of the mayor. Nor will you find a statement of his campaign objectives. No, the mayor would simply ask potential supporters to blindly jump aboard his train-wreck-waiting-to-happen. The way it's going, it won't be long before his campaign derails completely.
I think our young jailer/mayor owes a very specific, sincere apology to the parents of the young man who was gunned down last week, and to the four others who were wounded. He needs to apologize to this community for his blatant insensitivity and his disregard for the civilized, compassionate, mature behavior we expect of our top elected official.
As many of the writers in the Daily Pilot today expressed in their letters, November gives us a chance to change this situation and boot the mayor's fanny out of office. In 90 days we could be seeing a regime change in Costa Mesa - a change for the better.
12:39 am pdt
Today's Daily Pilot Opinion page carries a half dozen letters critical of Mayor Mansoor's comments last week, and his botched attempt at damage control that resulted in him digging himself even deeper into the hole.
Perhaps the mayor has finally managed to show the voters of this city just who he is. For most of this decade, during which he became active in civic issues, he's managed to fool most observers into thinking he was a nice, clean cut young man with only the best interests of the city in mind. Those of us who have watched him, particularly since his election to the City Council almost four years ago, realize that there's a very different side to this man. He began demonstrating that side as soon as he held the majority on the council.
I suspect that some residents of this city will finally realize that much of what Mansoor and his cronies are advocating have one central theme - the expulsion of the Latinos from our city.
Simultaneously, the Orange County blog world is rife with comments about the influence a local activist who very much resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor, has over the majority on the council. One prominent blogger, as mentioned in an earlier posting, published a scathing indictment of this fellow and our young jailer/mayor, comparing the activist in question to Hitler pre-World War II. He followed it up with two subsequent blog postings further kicking that can down the street.
In the meantime, if one visits Mansoor's web site you will find his smiling face staring out at you as he snuggles up to the Minuteman babes and Dana Rohrabacker. You will find ways to contribute to his campaign and ways to volunteer to help. You will find a link to an online store where you can buy mugs and tee shirts and aprons and all sorts of junk with Mansoor's name all over it. What you won't find is any kind of a biography of the mayor. Nor will you find a statement of his campaign objectives. No, the mayor would simply ask potential supporters to blindly jump aboard his train-wreck-waiting-to-happen. The way it's going, it won't be long before his campaign derails completely.
I think our young jailer/mayor owes a very specific, sincere apology to the parents of the young man who was gunned down last week, and to the four others who were wounded. He needs to apologize to this community for his blatant insensitivity and his disregard for the civilized, compassionate, mature behavior we expect of our top elected official.
As many of the writers in the Daily Pilot today expressed in their letters, November gives us a chance to change this situation and boot the mayor's fanny out of office. In 90 days we could be seeing a regime change in Costa Mesa - a change for the better.
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