Dial a Gadfly

Hal Netkin is an interesting character and is the only gadfly on our blogroll who regularly updates his site.

Hal is a Van Nuys resident, Korean War veteran, former Valley secession leader and anti-illegal immigration activist who is known for wandering around the Valley with sandwich boards, trailers with political signs and once even pushed around a lemonade cart during his campaign for the potential Valley secession City Council. Hal has also been involved with the drama that has been the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council.

During the 2001 election, Hal set up the MayorNo website to oppose Tony Villar. He has since expanded this site to include all of the 2005 canidates, sans his favorite Walter Moore who he has endorsed and has put his armory of pre-recorded telephone dialers, billboard trailers, sandwich signs and more to work for Walter.

Hal is interesting and somewhat different from the usual anti-illegal activists such as Glenn Spencer. Hal goes out of his way to criticize racism and says he even counts illegal immigrants among his extended family whom he does not want deported. Indeed, his own wife is a Hispanic American who came to the US illegally.

Hal also got some attention when he was able to obtain counterfeit "Matricula Consular" cards for such notables as KABC radio host Al Rantel, Congressman James Sensenbrenner and Governor Schwarzenegger.

If you want to dial into Hal's rants and raves, call 818.989.9729.