Here is our eighth installment of this popular feature on our site. This is a “double edition” as we are playing catch up, as my travel schedule precluded a column last week…
The FlashReport Idiot Of The Week Award is bestowed upon that pubic official (or high profile person engaged in politics or public policy) who does something completely idiotic. With a state as large as Californian, which seems to have a higher-than-average amount of folks who either don’t think about what they do — or even worse, they think about what they do and still act like idiots — we suffer from no shortage of potential award winners. As in previous columns, we start first with the runners-up in no particular order, and then onto the big prize. Oh yes, don’t be shy or timid in sending along suggestions to us for next week’s award recipient — many of those featured come from tips from readers like you!
And so, starting with thirteen runners-up, here is the list — with the big award winner at the bottom!
Runner Up #12 – The San Jose Mayor and City Council, except Councilmembers Constant and Khamis. Despite the vain pleas from business owners who would bear the brunt of the economic hit, it appears that once again nanny-statism is alive and well in America’s 10th largest city. With the support of Mayor Chuck Reed, 11 of the 13 members of the San Jose City Council (Councilmembers Pete Constant and Johnny Khamis excluded, as they voted no) voted to move forward with a ban on plastic foam ware — you know, like the stuff your Chinese food comes in? Once again, a policy that would curb the freedoms of law abiding citizens rather than target those that litter.
Berkeley Councilman Gordon Wozniak
Runner Up #11 — Berkeley City Councilman Gordon Wozniak. This guy is almost the poster child for this weekly column. At a recent City Council meeting, Wozniak suggested that in order to bail out the United States Postal Service, “There should be something like a bit tax. I mean a bit tax could be a cent per-gigabit and they would still make, probably, billions of dollars a year…And there should be, also, a very tiny tax on email.” — Yeah you read that right, this idiot wants to put a tax on every email you send.
Runner Up #10 — Glendale Council Candidate Zara Sinanyan. If reports are true, Democrat Glendale City Council hopeful Zara Sinanyan may get axed from a city commission after posting up a bunch of whacked out racist and other offensive slurs online. This guy is apparently and equal opportunity offender, attacking Muslims, gays, and other ethnic groups. Sinanyan has already lost of bunch of political support in his candidacy including yanked endorsements from Congressman Adam Schiff and Mayor hopeful Eric Garcetti. As well they should. Idiot actually seems to fall short when describing someone like Sinanyan.
Mike Rios
Runner Up #9 — Former Moreno Valley School Board Trustee Mike Rios. This world-class idiot was convicted of running a prostitution ring out of his home. Seriously. In one case, he even flashed his official school district business card to recruit a young woman into his “business” — yikes. He was just sentenced to a 14 year prison term. We’ve all heard of innocent until proven guilty — this guy took it to the extreme, refusing to resign from the school board during his entire trial. Nothing like having a school board trustee attending meetings while out on bail for being a pimp daddy…
Runner Up #8 — Los Angeles City Voters Who Did Not Vote. 84% of registered voters in the City of the Angels did not bother to vote in last weeks election. Pathetic.
George Shirakawa, Jr.
Runner Up #6 — Former Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa, Jr. This paragon of virtue just plead guilty to five felonies, seven misdemeanors and 10 violations of the state’s Political Reform Act. He faces more than $70,000 in fines and jail time. Shirakawa apparently gambled away over $100k in political and public funds over a five year period — according to the Santa Clara County D.A.’s office, demonstrating a pattern of “prolonged deception” aided by a secret slush fund, untraceable cash, forged signatures and false and perjured campaign filings.
Runner Up #5 — The Pension Management Agencies of Los Angeles City and the Counties of Contra Costa, Los Angeles and San Diego. Apparently this May the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, billed as the largest gathering of its kind, will be bringing together 1,000 or so pension trustees from around the nation. California Watch broke the story that four of the Golden State’s largest pension funds planned to send folks (presumably with bathing suits and suntan lotion) to the shores of Waikiki. It seems idiotic to us, and remarkably insensitive, that this conference is even taking place in such a luxury spot, given the stunning levels of unfunded pension liabilities out there. But of course no one is forced to go — so the idiots would be the boards of these pension funds. Maybe since the first report, some have had second thoughts. But for signing up at all, they make the list!
L.A. Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa
Runner Up #4 — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Going into last week’s election, with a massive parcel tax facing Los Angeles voters, Mayor Villaraigosa talked gloom and doom about the city’s deficit, including promises of cuts in first responders should the parcel tax be defeated, which it was. In what can only now be praised as a miracle, it turns out that the deficit is not nearly as bad as had been previously stated, and the promised gutting of city police and fire resources will not have to take place! Hallelujah! Idiot.
Judge Scott Steiner
Runner Up #2 — Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner –– The son of prominent popular former County Supervisor William Steiner, this married Judge is landed himself square in the middle of a sex scandal that finds him being investigated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the State Attorney General’s office. Steiner, also an adjunct professor at Chapman University Law School, allegedly was shtooping one of his students, and then supposedly assisted her in getting a job with the Orange County DA’s office, where Steiner himself worked as a Deputy DA before his election to the bench. Steiner, who is married, with two children, is now a star of television. The Orange County Weekly says that its sources have confirmed that Steiner has been reassigned from a prime assignment in the county’s main courthouse to now handling traffic cases at a satellite court location. For an up and coming guy with a promising career ahead of him, instead he makes the FlashReport Idiot Of The Week column.
Runner Up #1 — Veera Eyzendooren, President of the San Bernardino County Federation of Republican Women. In the days leading up the California Republican Party’s organizational convention, this lady posts up on her Facebook page (which is then picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle), ““I was told by one of Harmeet’s friends that because of her religion, her loyalty is to the Muslim religion. So she will defend a Muslim beheading two men without any hesitation……she is not a Republican.” — Problematic fact is that the person to whom Eyzendooren is referring, San Francisco GOP Chairman and now State GOP Vice Chairman Harmeet Dhillon is not a Muslim at all. The posting went on to say that Dhillon supported beheadings. Eyzendooren’s actuallys were quickly condemned by GOP leaders, including yours truly. For this woman, calling her an idiot is too kind.
AND THE FLASHREPORT IDIOT OF THE WEEK AWARD GOES TO….
Congresswoman Maxine Waters!
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters: Idiot Of The Week!
Sometimes you truly cannot make this stuff up. In a recent speech, this veteran Democrat lawmaker from Los Angeles blew the hinges off any other attempts to blow the small impacts of the relatively small sequester cuts out of proportion. In case you were wondering, apparently this slight decrease in the increase in federal spending will result in a loss of… 170 million jobs. Specifically she said, “We don’t need to be having something like sequestration that’s going to cause these jobs losses, over 170 million jobs that could be lost – and so he made it very clear he’s not opposed to cuts but cuts must be done over a long period of time and in a very planned way rather than this blunt cutting that will be done by sequestration.” — Don’t believe me? Watch the video. Of course, the total number of jobs in the entire country is around 130 million… Details, details…