Bushala’s Baaaaccckkkk; Anti-Kang Website Debuts

29 Comments

1. One can only hope Bushala and his idiot followers continue to trash Kang’s military service as a Ranger in the South Korean army. Especially in light of the constitutency that has many in it who either fled communism or (as the case of South Korea) has a communist government across the street.

   He doesn’t make any claims to valor or combat type activity. He states that he served his country and was discharged honorably. Which is significantly more than most of the conservative gasbags I’ve met.

   I’ve met several Vietnam veterans who had experience with ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers and marines. To an individual they have all said the Korean military personnel were feared and revered by both the Americans and their NVA/VC counterparts. Their fighting ability and courage were never questioned.

   So, please proceed you morons. You will only reinforce the stereotype that Asians have of white male conservatives as being condescending towards those that don’t fit in that little box. Pay no attention to the 28% of the district that is Asian. Please continue ridiculing Sukhee’s military experience as not being significant. I’m sure it will work out real well for you.

2. Some people in Irvine are about to learn a whole lot about Fullerton politics. This was completely predictable. His readership will be huge.

   I fought with Bushala twice — it’s all there in the FFFF archives, if anyone cares to check — over Sharon’s race against Norby and over Jan Flory’s race against Travis Kiger. My candidates won both, Flory narrowly. It was close to full-time (unpaid) work. No one’s going to put in that sort of effort to counter him here — no one from Irvine will, and no one from Fullerton has the chops. (It will be sort of fun to see them try, though.)

   I don’t know Newman well — I vaguely recall that I spoke to him only once when I was handing over the reins of the DNOC Newsletter to him — but I’m confident is saying that there is no way that he is involved in this, favors it, or had advance notice of it. (Neither did I. I don’t even know how our host learned about it; presumably from Sukhee. I’m glad that he’s running, though, because he’ll probably match up to Chang in the general much better than Sukhee would. Bushala has no animus, to my knowledge, against Newman — and he has no use for Chang.

   You have NO CONCEPT of how well the Great Park issue will play up here, outside of your “reality-distortion field.” What follows — and this is based solely on personal experience, not any inside knowledge — will be vicious, pervasive, and effective. It will create huge problems for Sharon as well, because she WILL be asked to denounce what happened in Irvine in ways that will make it hard to avoid comment. (Just what she needed.)

   But hey, the powers-that-be in the DPOC preferred to shift Murdock out of this race to oppose Royce for Congress — so now they will reap the reward. Great strategery there.

   • One thing is certain. Until Kang declared for this seat, it was a given that Shaw (La Habra City Councilman) was the heir apparent to Bob Huff.

     Kang changed all that. He declared and I don’t think it was a week that Shaw was yanked out of that race and Chang was the new candidate. At the time she had only been in the Assembly less than six months.

     If Kang weren’t a threat to actually win none of that would have happened. This blog only shows that the GOP and their useful idiots (in the form of Bushala’s drones) wouldn’t be attacking him.

     The GOP is going to have to spend resources to protect this seat that is a toss-up given the registration of the district. Something they didn’t want to do. I’m sure that CRP Chair Brulte would rather be saving those dollars or spending on trying to pick up another Dem seat in the Senate.

     • I don’t think that it was desperation on the part of Republicans. I think that it was counter-programming.

       What Kang brought to the race was a chance for Democrats to capitalize on the “Asian Wave” that hit OC in 2014, notably sweeping Young Kim past Quirk-Silva, as well as some other results that likely would have happened way. Kang vs. Shaw would have been interesting — and maybe even propitious — for that reason.

       However, it was very easy to counter-program against that move: give Chang a promotion into Chang’s mentor Huff’s old seat. (That also puts her in a great position to move on to Congress if either Royce retires or if the 2011 Redistricting leaves Diamond Bar unattached to Fullerton.) Chang’s support among the Chinese community will then dwarf Kang’s support in the Korean community, in part because Chang will be able to get support from Young Kim. Kang’s advantage evaporates and turns into a deficit.

       Under such circumstances, the right move would be to counter-program with non-Asian candidate, because Asians are still after all a minority in the district, even including Rowland Heights and Diamond Bar. Ideally it would be someone who could speak Spanish. Kang, meanwhile, could have run against Royce and gotten “good party service” points — with which he has not exactly been covered in the past given his independent streak (and his cutting out on the Irvine Mayor’s race where he could have defeated Choi pretty easily) — and ridden that to a higher office. But he didn’t; he was completely uncooperative. So Murdock — who speaks Spanish — is doing that instead. And he could have beaten Shaw, too.

       Everyone on the Republican side — Chang, probably Shaw (if he goes to the Assembly), and Kim — won from this switch. It was a smart move on their part. But for the Democrats, it had some real deficiencies. One of them is that Bushala is going to tear Kang apart and eat him over the Great Park, where the attack is really stark and simple and the defense is at best convoluted.

       But hey — we’re being led by geniuses, right? So let’s just see what happens.

   • Are you taking credit for Sharon’s win in 2012 and Flory’s? You are delusional.

     Sukhee was a great mayor leading the city through the economic downturn without raising taxes and without cutting services. Yes, he voted with Krom and Agran, but didn’t have the deep involvement either of them did. Try to do a deep dive into how things were done at the Great Park instead of what you imagine them to be. You have considerably less influence in your neighborhood that you imagine yourself to have.

     • The first problem with your analysis is that you have no idea how big and influential FFFF was, despite that the previous Council races and the recall election should give you a clue. It held tremendous sway and there was usually just one political dissenter there — me — against literally dozens of others, some of whom me in the genre of Fake Vasquez and Pinky. Whatever else you can say about him, the fact that Bushala didn’t kick me out of the blog — as he should have — or “moderate” me the way Cunningham does is a testament to his strong sense of fair play when it comes to process, even if not in content.

       Have you ever spoken to Flory about that election? You should have before you shot off your mouth. Obviously, in a race that close, lots of people “made a decisive difference,” but my holding off the Bushala forces for most of a year — it’s all in the archives for your reading pleasure — was a big one. Go on, ask her.

       While you’re in the archives, take a look at what they didn’t do to Sharon compared to what they did to Flory. Why is that? Well, read the archives and see what happened every damn time they attacked Sharon. Go ahead and see what I did each and every time, until they finally gave up trying. Bushala and Zenger still hate me — the latter despite our agreement about Anaheim issues — over it. They loved Norby — and on many issues, including ones where he sided with Democrats — for good reason.

       Yes, if we’re to speak of who was responsible for the political problems that you deny exist with the Great Park, Sukhee had less “responsibility” than Agran and Krom, both of whom I believe did what they did with the best of intentions. Will that insulate Kang from getting dragged down right along with them? Not hardly at all. You really doubt it?

       As for “my influence in my neighborhood,” I’ll be busy enough with other campaigns next year to worry about this one. If Sukhee is nominated, I expect he’ll lose, but I’d vote for him in the general election. But he’ll be sort of like Solorio last year in SD-34. At least he can self fund. I think, though, that you overestimate the influence of your friends in this district as well. That’s a pity, but it comes with having a smaller, better disciplined party that looks inward rather than outward.

       • FFFF was influential for one story — Kelly Thomas. And they did a masterful job of covering that story and used it as a platform to attack Fullerton police and the inept Republican Council majority. The outcome was a successful recall and only a partial success of replacing some council members with pro-Bushala cronies likely to greenlight development projects Tony’s company wanted to do.

         Bushala had a national platform, support from OC Weekly, a loud presence at City Council meetings and his big bank account to pay for signs that promoted his agenda and his cause. The blog is a piece of that but not the most important part.

         FFFF’s achievement was the June recall election. It was a bust by November. Flory already had a strong following in Fullerton aided by Sharon and Pam Keller. I’m sure every bit helped, but if you truly believe the vast majority of Fullerton voters read Tony’s blog and your comments and that was a deciding factor to vote for Sharon or Jan, you are sorely mistaken. Jan thanked me for our coverage of her race, but I’m not going to claim she won because of a blog comment. That’s your ego speaking.

         The Kang blog lacks a Kelly Thomas unifying element. Readership won’t be huge. It will be read by people who already won’t vote for Kang. And there will be a lot of shouting into the wind — sort of like you at a DPOC meeting.

         Kang will campaign for the job like you wouldn’t. He will be walking neighborhoods, attending events, and listening to voters.

         You’re suggestion is Kang would beat Choi in a head to head election. I agree, but that was never in the cards. Kang has honor where Choi has none. Once Kang completed his obligations in Irvine, it was a matter of waiting for the real estate market to bounce back and not surprising he moved to North Orange County which has a sizable Korean population.

         You overstate the impact of FFFF without the Kelly Thomas platform. It was a blog filled with cowards who promoted puppets for Bushala.

         • Talk to Jan about FFFF in her election. Talk to Sharon about it. Be honest about reporting what you learn.

           Your lack of understanding of Fullerton politics, and the dynamics of the 2012 races, is breath-taking. Getting Flory past Kiger in that race was a huge upset that took enormous amounts of work. And as for FFFF — at its height that blog’s activity was bigger than Voice of OC and not much smaller than the Weekly. You have no idea of its reach and what they can still do. But it looks like you may find out.

           You’re not going to be involved in that race if Sukhee loses to Newman; I still will. And I’ll be working to re-elect Flory — who has become the star of the OC Water District — AND to beat Jordan’s friend and Pringle’s employee Jennifer Fitzgerald. I’ll let you know how those races turn out. If you’re still interested, that is.

           • “…………..was bigger than the Voice of OC” This is not saying much, other than its initial popularity with self interested County employees the VOC hasn’nt turned into much of what was hoped for, either in popularity, readership, effectiveness or unbiased reporting.

             The same cast of characters comment on the partisan news blog, the same predictable positions appear.

             What makes your comment ironic is the fact that FFFF was oppossed to the rape of the public treasury that the VOC was invented to defend and deflect.

             I believe the term they used was “trough feeders”. Basically the same principal CATER espouses.

           • Does anyone want Greg Diamond’s help? That’s an invitation to Losertown

           • Both close races. Everything help. The idea that you made the difference is dumb and wrong

             Your lack of understanding of Irvine politics and that of Koream American voters is breathtaking. You are clueless. Keep pretending you made all the difference. You didn’t. No one wants you to help. Shut up

3. So are those “anonymous cowards” Dave Zenger, Ryan Catnor who freely used handles at FFFF condening Diamond, but now lick his sack, going to revert back to being his quiet enemies?

   Greg has a short memory. Perhaps because he is so self absorbed.

   • Zenger’s attacks were incorrect, but were not (as I recall) over the top. Ryan’s (if I am right about his pen name) could be harsher, but — unlike what one sees here and at Matt’s blog — within the bounds of aggressive politics. Ryan and I are now friends who disagree about politics; Zenger and I, as I say above, have friends in common but are merely civil on the rare occasions that we meet. Nobody is “licking [anyone’s] sack,” as you delicately put it — with a degree of homophobia that, unfortunately for you, seems to be going out of style.

     I didn’t appreciate at the time the closeness of their personal bonds to Norby and Kiger — especially those of Zenger (although he and I have never discussed this topic.) I hit Norby hard, although in my opinion I was fair. They had no reason to think that I was sincere; now I think Ryan, Cynthia, and various others do know that — even if in their opinion I was wrong and unfair in attacking Norby — I was sincere and acting out of principle rather that mere partisanship. (Maybe they’d say otherwise; if so, they’re entitled to their opinion.)

     I think that Newman is a better bet for the party to win wht should be a winnable seat, but (barring some really unexpected change in view) I’m not going to slag Kang over the Great Park. But honestly, I wouldn’t have to even if I really wanted him to lose: it’s going to happen, to devastating effect, whether I wanted it to or not. If Kang wins the second slot, I don’t know that they’ll see that much difference between him and Chang, although I’d expect all of us to go with our parties there. If Newman wins the second slot, it would not shock me to see the cannons redeployed towards Kang. These are not huge admirers of Bob Huff.

     You didn’t actually deserve that thought-out of a response, but you get one anyway.

     • Greg,

       Let’s get back to the topic and move it away from a discussion about you.

       The bottom line is the originators realize that Kang is a threat.

       Which he is for no other reason that Kang has been active in the Asian community across southern California. He has shown that he is a tireless worker and a prolific fundraiser.

       Those factors by themselves make him a viable candidate to win this seat.

       • It is ALWAYS about Diamond to Diamond. The squid makes me sick.

         • I’m glad that I make you sick. Maybe it will elicit some empathy for the poor and suffering. Nah, who am I kidding.

         • I don’t think of you as a dullard, Hackett, so I’m sure that you already recognize the trick played on this blog and the Cunningblog:

           (1) Someone anonymous attacks me with the acquiescence of our host. You can read it above.

           (2) I defend myself.

           (3) Someone comes along and says “oh, you think that it’s all about you.”

           It’s shabby bullshit. I would think that you would distance yourself from it rather than playing along by acting as if I inserted myself into the discussion. If I misunderstood the opening to your comment, then I apologize.

           As to your substantive point:

           Kang was a formidable candidate AGAINST SHAW. (So was Murdock, by the way. I’m not sure about Newman.)

           Kang is not a particularly formidable candidate AGAINST CHANG, because she has stolen his advantage in the race — and she has Young Kim pushing for her as well within the Korean community. (That’s right — Kang not only won’t win the Chinese vote, but he might not even win the KOREAN vote here.) Murdock would have been, and Newman probably still is, a better match-up against Chang.

           You understand the idea of “good and bad match-ups,” right? It’s used a lot in sports analysis. You don’t just apply the transitive law of inequality here.

           • What is your data point that shows Kang getting creamed by Chang? Other than your opinion.

             One thing we know for sure is that Kang’s entrance changed the trajectory of the race.

             Just looking at the registration and cash on hand makes the case that Chang cannnot not afford to campaign.

             She gave up a safe seat in the Assembly for the next 10 years (after her current term expires) for a seat that won’t allow her to run for a third term. Plus she could have mailed in her campaign in the Assembly given her incumbent status and lackluster if any competition.

             Which is why this group has restarted this blog. If Kang wasn’t a threat, we would not be discussing the nitwits in Fullerton.

             • What “data point” is theoretically possible at this point, other than my opinion? Are you asking whether I have a time machine or whether I have done polling? (No to both.)

               Qualitatively then, again, Sukhee’s pitch was that he could energize Korean voters and (to a lesser extent) and beat a white opponent. Given AD-55 and AD-65, it was a reasonable pitch. But that logic does not apply to his being able to beat another Asian opponent — especially one who is an incumbent in half of the district and who will be strongly supported by the (Korean) incumbent — a long-term resident of the district who will escort Chang to everywhere below the 91 — in the other half. You really can’t consider that without reference to new data?

               Chang will have ENORMOUS amounts of money to campaign. The GOP is not going to give up this Senate seat lightly.

               It is NOT “a safe seat for the next 10 years.” There will be redistricting, most obviously. In this seat, she has the potential to be there for 8 years before the districts change. That’s HIGHER job security than she’d have in AD-55, which might not cross the Puente Hills starting in 2012, putting her in a Democratic area.

               Finally, and most importantly, you completely misunderstand Bushala’s motivation for this sort of thing. He is NOT getting involved in the race to save the seat for Republicans; he is CONTEMPTUOUS of much of the OCGOP, which cut Norby loose, and that includes Royce, Huff, Chang, and Kim. He’s going after Sukhee because he truly believes that the Great Park was one of the biggest ripoffs in OC history — I disagree, although I believe that aspects of it, which for the most part do not reflect badly on Agran and Krom, were badly handled — and he wants to make an example out of Sukhee by destroying him over the issue, in the hope that it will make future such proposals in OC politically radioactive.

               He’s an activist, not a party guy. And he’s doing this (1) to press an ideological point and (2) because he hasn’t had any fun in politics since Kiger lost his recount and he believes that this will be a lot of fun. And it probably will be, for him; I don’t know any squad in the county better than his when it comes to pulling to wings off of flies.

               Again, this is based on no inside information, but just my having watched him and his crew closely for four years now. He doesn’t consider Sukhee a threat. He considers himself a cat and Sukhee a bug.

               I guess I should go read his website later to see what he’s doing there, but there you have my prediction.

               • Thank you. Bushala has had mixed results with those he’s attacked. He might be effective in Fullerton but that is only a small part of the district.

                 I do know there are many members of the Asian community that are not happy with Chang. I admit that is anecdotal.

                 Maybe you are correct about Kang. We shall see. The registration is almost a toss-up at this point in time.

                 Regardless of the long term, Chang is going to have to work a lot harder this cycle than had she stayed in AD55.

                 The Dems see this as the potential to offset their loss in SD34, I have no doubt this will be a priority. And will resource accordingly.

           • Jesus, your fractured syntax and spelling errors are painful.

4. The SQS and Kang train wrecks will be a pleasure to watch.

   • Then please watch them at home.

5. http://www.ocweekly.com/2012-10-04/news/moxley-confidential-gregory-diamond-brea-state-senate/

   • Yeah, that was a stupid story — although my wife got a kick out of the nude cartoon of me. I’m not going to bother refuting it again here; I think that those 57 comments do a decent job of showing how hard I was working and, ultimately, how effectively. Notice that the focus was not on Sharon for long.

     I have to say, though — the notion that our host here has referred people to a MOXLEY article, the contents of which he has accepted uncritically — is absolutely delicious.

     (By the way, as one example of how the story was snide and misleading, Moxley’s “move to the Third World” comment was about my plan in late 2006 to go wait out what I believed would be a major impending financial collapse, then to return when times were better. Instead, I unexpectedly fell in love and so stayed here. The original plan made sense, but I’ve never been happier to have a good plan foiled.)

6. One last point that I believe the GOP recognizes Kang as a viable threat.

   Greg Diamond got almost 45% of the vote. With virtually no relationships in the Asian community (compared to Kang) and no money.

   The GOP and the Fullerton idiots on Bushala’s blog are right to be concerned over Kang’s presence in the race.

   Kang has relationships in the Asian community and he is a proven fundraiser. Kang will also have support from the CDP and the benefit of running in a year with a strong Dem turnout in a presidential year.

   • You’re absolutely right that the seat is vulnerable — which it was not believed to be before I ran in 2012. The question is how to win it.

     Your contention that Kang will get support from the CDP worries me; it sounds like SD-34 redux: the party throwing lots of good money after bad. Republican can and will match and more — and the FFFF crew (which is quite good at investigation) will give them lots of ammo to work with. But Kang is not particularly popular within the party — his decision not to run for reelection when his party needed him is one of the major reasons for the Democratic nosedive in Irvine — and maybe that will stay their hand.

     Newman can supposedly self-fund, which is what you’d want here, in part because it allows for greater unpredictability. He’d likely have to sneak up on Chang to beat her — that was my tactic, because if Huff had wanted to get into gear and beat me by 40, he could have, but making him waste money on my race was fine with me. That’s what a candidate in a marginal race is supposed to do.

     By the way, I had $13,000 and a strong Presidential year myself, so I had enough for a ballot statement and signs.

     • The seat is vulnerable simply by being an open seat and you only did well because you had a D next to your name in a high turnout Democratic year. $13,000 is a pathetic amount of money to raise for a campaign, but you did pay your stepdaughter for work she did on your effort (nepotism).

       The FFFF crew is going to keep rewriting the same set of stories for months. No new information, but let’s make “carpetbagger” as bad as possible without ever mentioning Huff doesn’t live in the district any longer.

       Kang is well liked in the party. You aren’t. Kang was termed out in Irvine after running and winning his second term as mayor. He ran for Congress against John Campbell instead of running for a seat on the city council. His race for Congress had little to do with the Democrats losing their majority in Irvine. The millions in developer-backed IEs had more to do with this.

       Newman can self fund. So can Kang. I suspect your real reason for not liking Kang has more to do with he won’t give you the time of day while Newman will. And your analysis of Korean voters is very off. They vote based on surname and not party affiliation. The idea that Young Kim will successfully convince Korean voters to cast ballots for Chang over Kang is woefully wrong.

       • I’m hearing Newman has only lived in Fullerton for three years. What’s the minimum amount of time someone needs to live in Fullerton before they aren’t called a carpetbagger?