Friday Thread Of Rage

Two items to prime the pump:

1. McIntyre vs. Weiss

Doug McIntyre, of KABC 790 (shown here in his famous radio portrayal of Hamlet), castigated Councilman Jack Weiss -- who, by the way, hopes to become the City Attorney -- for voting to give $2.7 million of your money for the grifter fire fighter. It was hilarious and therapeutic. (If you don't listen to Doug every single weekday morning, start.) Weiss seemed genuinely not to understand why Doug, and everyone else who pay attention, is so upset.

Weiss's befuddlement is understandable for two reasons:

First, you have to realize that Weiss is only in his second term. This is a very, very complicated job he has. It's not until you finish eight years in the office that you can really master complexities of public policy, like don't cave in to con artists, for example. That's why it's so important that Measure R passed. We need to leave these people in office for 12 years, so we can get the benefit of the high-quality work they'll do during the final four.

Second, $2.7 million is chicken feed compared to the amount of money that the City Council routinely squanders to reward special interest campaign contributors. "Heck," Weiss probably figures, "why would the public care about $2.7 million when we blow hundreds of millions of every year through the CRA?"

Speaking of which. . .

2. Welfare for the Rich Urgently Needed

The story on page 1 of the L.A. Times: downtown developers "need" even more tax breaks and "rebates" -- i.e., gifts of your money -- or else, they say, they will not make a sufficient profit on their projects! Oh no! We can't have that happening! Come on, taxpayers, let's pitch in to make sure these guys can continue to live the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.