With all the bitching and whining from the Republicans about the Hometown Voter’s Guide and the lawsuits filed and the investigations called for, I’m always amused when a Republican slate mailer shows up in my mailbox and everyone on the Right plays this game of “I didn’t fart; wasn’t me.”
So we have this unbelievable, Red-baiting “Beth Krom supports the Communist Chinese” flier (the Madam Mao Mailer, as I call it) from the Irvine City, School and Neighborhood Leaders Committee. It’s so over the top, I laughed out loud.
Thre’s a small problem with the group and it’s name; they aren’t from Irvine, they’re not city and school leaders, and they don’t live in the Irvine neighborhood. This committee has raised $70,000 – $67,500 from outside of Irvine. Truth in advertising isn’t happening in the mailer.
The group is traced to Frank Jao, who owns the company Republican candidate John Duong works for and is an executive VP there. So the Red Baiting flier is curious; Jao’s company has invested millions in Communist China and Communist Vietnam; I wonder how Mr. Jao’s Chinese business partners who feel upon seeing propaganda paid for by their American business partner. And if Duong were so anti-communist, I’m wondering why he’d work for such a person.
I still can’t get a Republican who’s offended by the whole sister city squabble in Irvine to tell me why its not OK to follow the policy of our federal government and this administration on One-China, or why its OK for the People’s Republic of China to hold billions worth of our federal debt.
I’m not surprised by the level of smears here; the Republicans were behind the 2004 Irvine Chronicle which was a mockup lookalike of the popular Irvine World News. Articles were reprinted without permission from the LA Times, the OC Register, OC Weekly and IWN, with the reporters bylines to make it look more authentic. So not only was this illegal, but the Republicans running the campaign had the stories edited to make them more negative, which is unethical because reprint policies from all the papers say you can’t alter content.
The topic of the Irvine Chronicle? Pointing out alleged unethical behavior of Larry Agran and Beth Krom. So it was an illegal and unethical publication calling into question the ethics of the other side. No wonder these people voted against the Irvine Ethics ordinance — they have no ethics.
So taking a cue from Mr. Greenhut at the Register, I’m sending Mike the flier from Krom to Post for me because WordPress won’t let me upload my own art (note to Mike — save big changes to the site until after election day).



Not JUST Frank Jao, Dan. Irvine City, Neighborhood and School Leaders Committee also received $19,000 from nine OTHER members of the Lincoln Club’s leadership. That’s in addition to the $45,000 or so you can trace back to Jao or his close associates.