Today is another crazy wacky day in OC Politics.

The County that brought you such favorites as: Tan “I didn’t send the letter, I did send the letter, blame Loretta, I’m going to loose, but vote for me” Nguyen, Crash and Burn B-1 Bob Dornan, Poll Guard Pringle, El Pollo Loco Steve Rocco, and many others finally managed to get their collective asses together and announced arrests in the scandal that involved signature gatherers who were paid a 10 dollar bounty.

12 defendants were listed but 5 are still being sought and have warrants out for their arrests: Investigators continue to look for Donahue Farrow, 34; Jason Hayes, 19; Anthony Ogwo, 49; Daniel Ricca, 33; and Don Williams, 45. Rackauckas asked that anyone with information about the investigation should call DA Investigator Baden Gardner at 714-347-8496.

So if you see any of the above people in front of a supermarket, big-box store, or on a college campus and the propositions seem way too good to be true, give the DA Investigator a call.

It wouldn’t be late October in Orange County without the smell of smoke in the air. We always hope it’s coming from fireplaces on cool evenings, but today it’s from both the Esperanza Fire burning near Palm Springs, as well as a smaller fire near Rancho Santa Margarita. Around here, it likely won’t match these pictures I took this week in 2003 from Orange, however:

And that’s a good thing. That was some creepy, “hell on Earth/end of days” style shit (there were fires in every county around OC that year – hundreds of thousands of acres burned). Here’s to clear air and a fire free Halloween!

This Sunday, you can ride for free on the Metrolink anywhere from LA to Oceanside.

The only caveat is that you must depart from, and return to, the Anaheim station. Go here for he schedule.

Enjoy!

Today the city of Orange held its annual “Treats in the Streets” festival at the circle.

Can I tell you that there is something so very wrong about trick or treating in 80+ degree weather?

I just opened my absentee voter ballot. I knew it was going to be long, as I had initially mistaken the voter information guide for the phone book.

I was shocked ot see 16 ballot measures, not to mention the various and sundry offices ranging from governor to member of the State Board of Equalization. With all those boxes, I felt like I was taking the SAT again.

I consider myself a conscientious voter. I read up on the ballot measures as much as I possibly can, because nothing annoys me more than the ones that when you vote “yes” you are really voting “no.”

But it really is getting to be a bit overwhelming, and even as I have the time to sit here and look at all the measures and such, I can’t help but think that there are so many that I am missing some crucial bit of information that would sway my vote differently. That I skipped a sentence somewhere, or that my eyes inadvertently glazed over as I was reading the voter guide.

And don’t get me started on the judges. I know practically nothing about them, and haven’t the faintest clue on their judicial record or even how to find out. Sometimes I wing it for the judge section and others I simply abstain.

I’m not for the “dumbing down” of voting, but perhaps we can call on our government to perhaps place a limit on the number of measures/propositions in any given year? Mabye, 10, max?

A limit would help to ensure that people don’t feel like there is too much information to wade through, because like most things we vote on, these are very important issues. Becasue when people feel that information overload, they start to tune out. And that would be the worst of all.

Check these out, these are from The Liberal OC and Andrew:

Look at all the Cameras!

More of the fun after the jump:
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It’s Oktober so it is time for Oom-Pah Bands, chicken dances and beer. Luckily if you live in Orange County you have a choice of venues: the Phoenix Club in Anaheim or Old World Village in Huntington Beach. But if watching drunken middle class Americans of German descent consuing copious amounts of beer, dressing up in lederhosen (or lederhosen t-shirts), wearing funny hats and dancing like zoned-out fowl is not your thing, you might try the Ragtime Music Festival — RagFest 2006 — in Fullerton this weekend.

At 3:30 today, I received a phone call on the recent investigation into the letter that is being sent out to hispanic immigrants in Orange County. My source called to tell me that a Republican candidate is under investigation and that more information will be released tomorrow.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: The Register just ran the article naming names: It’s Tan.

On KPCC radio today, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced that a Republican candidate is under investigation. So far The Liberal OC is running with the name of Tan Nguyen, who is running aginst Loretta Sanchez, Claudio over on O-Juice is running with the same suspect.

The Liberal OC reported that federal agents were observed at Tan Nguyen’s office. Tan was not there at the time.

Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro and Executive Director Michael Levin (That’s Levin, not Lawson. I don’t bame you CommieGirl, Mike is a popular name) will be on Real Orange tomorrow to discuss the impact of the letter and the DPOC’s Protect the Vote 2006 project.

My husband and I will be celebrating our fifth anniversary on Nov. 3.

We were supposed to be in Vegas. But, we learned the hard way never to trust a “friend” who assures you he can get rooms at the Hard Rock for ninety bucks. On the weekend. Well, maybe if he owns the hotel, but other than that, plug your ears and sing, “nah nah nah, I can’t hear you.” That’s definitely what we should have done.

So after three weeks of waiting for this guy to come through, he didn’t. And there is no way we are going to pay upwards of three hundred bucks per night to stay at a crappy hotel like the Tropicana.

Which leads me to my plea for help. We will have babysitting the entire weekend and fully plan to take advantage of it, we will just go out locally. But as we are an old married couple with a preschooler, our “party” muscles are a bit atrophied. We don’t have all that many ideas on what to fill our weekend with. Anything you can think of? Any price range is cool, we are actually looking to splurge a bit. It can be almost anywhere in SoCal, day trips included.

Consider it your charitable act of the day.

Last week I posted about the hatred that was being spouted about Anaheim City Council Candidate Bill Dalati. Well, I guess that was just the first among many opening salvos on just how nasty this election is going to get with less then three weeks to go before election day.

Yesterday a friend of mine e-mailed me a copy of a letter in spanish that was sent to newly registered voters in the County of Orange. It seems that the only ones who received the letters were those who registered under hispanic last-names. After receiving a translation of the letter, the ugliness of people who will go to no end to win came to light.
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