Sunday Morning Mimosa
If the fishwrap of record gets any more boring, try Sudoko.
Here's Jim Newton's neutered interview of Eli Broad. In characteristic publicist fashion, Jim Newton gets Eli Broad to talk about everyone in town except Eli Broad.
Huge comment of the day yesterday:
Answer: probably not, only because the cut-and-paste people at the Times are already conditioned to anticipate the editor's concerns, even before they arise.
One thing for sure: online, you can't plead "but we didn't have the space..."
Daily News suggests that Countrywide used a misleading script to court cold-call customers. This is a good article. Sounds like they weren't exactly fully disclosed when they made the calls. That could be a big legal problem for Countrywide's top officers if it were proven. In financial services, lots of officers are obliged to sign off on such scripts.
Because everything at a financial institution involving sales calls is tightly scripted, a general script for cold calling definitely exists somewhere.
Hopefully, someone will get curious enough about it to subpoena it.
° ° ° ° °
Here's Jim Newton's neutered interview of Eli Broad. In characteristic publicist fashion, Jim Newton gets Eli Broad to talk about everyone in town except Eli Broad.
° ° ° ° °
Huge comment of the day yesterday:
Today's LAT article (8/25/2007), "Housing agency fires auditor", the electronic online version is now 3 paragraphs shorter than the printed version - missing the last 3 short paragraphs. 3 very short paragraphs missing. Wow!!! What is going on?
[The online version]
One would think that it would be the other way around. A shorter version may be need to fit the printed page, and the electronic version would have no space limitation and can remain slightly longer. But, no, not here.
What is in the 3 missing paragraphs?
Names.
I am going to retype one missing paragraph (found in the printed paper):
"The Estrada Courts group, a nonprofit run out of an Eastside housing project, received four contracts collectively worth about $95,000. It has employed former City Councilman Richard Alatorre as a consultant."
Richard Alatorre? The mentor and current senior advisor to Mayor V; and the mentor to and former boss of Robin K?
The remaining two paragrpahs named Gustavo Valdivia, the former staff member of current Councilman Jose Huizar; and also named former Councilman Nick Pacheco.
Did someone call LAT's editor to remove those 3 paragraphs???
Answer: probably not, only because the cut-and-paste people at the Times are already conditioned to anticipate the editor's concerns, even before they arise.
One thing for sure: online, you can't plead "but we didn't have the space..."
° ° ° ° °
Daily News suggests that Countrywide used a misleading script to court cold-call customers. This is a good article. Sounds like they weren't exactly fully disclosed when they made the calls. That could be a big legal problem for Countrywide's top officers if it were proven. In financial services, lots of officers are obliged to sign off on such scripts.
Because everything at a financial institution involving sales calls is tightly scripted, a general script for cold calling definitely exists somewhere.
Hopefully, someone will get curious enough about it to subpoena it.
Labels: a guy in la
Posted by Joseph F. Mailander @ 8/26/2007 08:14:00 AM
13 Comments:
A farewell message from Fidel Castro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFj95Qi_mWk
The "Countrywide" article was by a NY Times distorter, used carried in the Daily News. Aren't you curious why CW wasn't distributing 1099s?
The distorter said, "A different broker supplied an e-mail message from a Countrywide official stating that it was not company practice to submit 1099s. It is unclear why Countrywide apparently chooses not to provide the documents."
Well, the distorter is a joke. They didn't provide 1099s probably because they were hiring illegal salespeople. CW probably didn't report most and therefore didn't pay Social Security. It's illegal to not provide 1099s.
Don't you think that this is a bigger story than whether CW salespeople told customers that "they'll find them the best loan"? Well, it is Mr. distorter.
What is interesting to me as I read the interview of Eli Broad he states ……
“Broad arrived in Los Angeles in 1963 and found a city with a few giant cultural figures -- Armand Hammer, Frank Murphy and Norton Simon, to name three -- but few defining monuments. "There was no great opera, no great symphony hall, no modern art museums, no Getty," Broad recalls. In those days, Los Angeles was overshadowed even within California by the more elegant and cohesive cultural community of San Francisco.”
“But for that momentum to continue, he argues, Los Angeles needs a premier institution that the city's leaders aspire to serve, much as the Metropolitan Museum of Art does in New York. Broad sees the Los Angeles County Museum of Art taking on that role -- serving, much as Disney Hall did -- as both an object of philanthropy and a centralizing societal institution.”
"You have to have a place that people are with their peers," he says, "that, frankly, has some cachet."
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It is interesting to contrast the Eli Broad vision of downtown Los Angeles in where old rich folks are enjoying an opera at the Disney Hall and dinner at the Water Grill, to the real Los Angels where poor immigrants are shopping on Broadway Street and eating $1.00 tacos from catering trucks.
Wake up the old man, our peers are not old rich billionaires like you.
I see the vision of what Eli Broad wants to create, where he and his rich buddies have every elegant, expensive and exclusive places to mingle. While the rest of the Los Angeles citizens get taxed to fund places my peers the working class will rarely if ever visit.
Eli Broad is so out of touch with the reality of Los Angels, he needs to take a walk on Broadway Street and eat some tacos, visit the West Lake district and McArthur Park and have his chauffer drive him into South Central Los Angeles. The so called philanthropist needs to build parks, baseball fields, soccer fields and etc places where the real people of Los Angeles will visit and desperately need.
What moron group of politicians would use tax dollars to fund any of his pet projects when the city is going turning into a dump? That is a rhetorical question.
The LAT article about Housing Authority's possible corruption:
Yup! Every single paragraph seems the same between the 2 versions, except the last 3 paragraphs in the paper version are missing from the online version.
The 3 missing paragraphs:
“The Estrada Courts group, a nonprofit run out of an Eastside housing project, received four contracts collectively worth about $95,000. It has employed former City Councilman Richard Alatorre as a consultant.
Grande Vista is headed by political consultant Gustavo Valdivia, a former member of Councilman Jose Huizar’s staff. It landed a $98,895 contract.
KV and Co., which won two contracts worth $95,230, was the sole contractor among the three firms to have design expertise. Its registered agent is former City Councilman Nick Pacheco.”
10:49 AM
Since when are 1099s optional??
Frankly, I think that Countrywide should go bankrupt. But, the Daily News is certainly out to get them. Listen to the propaganda by the Daily News distorter (clearly, this article should be an opinion piece, editorial)
http://www.dailynews.com/business/ci_6718963
The last two sentences of the article, "Don't blame the victims.
But when this mess is sorted out, there will be lots of blame to go around."
Of course, the distorter advocates bailing out the mortgagees with government funds.
It is not about eating tacos or walking on Broadway, I'm sure opera guru Placido Domingo has had his share of tacos. It is abouit reaching the masses. In Los Angeles, the entertainment capitol of the world, it is shameful that community theater is all but dead. As Federico Garcia Lorca stated, "A community without theater if it is not dead, it is already dying."
Opera is great but the live entertainment form for the masses is community theater. If not for the Pasadena Playhouse, what would Los Angeles have to offer. New York, San Francisco, even Peoria outshine L.A.. Rome and Athens would never have reached there optimal glory if not for their amphitheaters and what would England be without Shakespeare. Invest in the masses, who knows, the next Al Pacino or Christopher Reed may be in the next play.
The Odyssey, Coronet and many, many small theaters are alive and well. It's the hallmark institutions that haven't made it into the city's unifying consciousness as much as in New York, London or other big cities that are cultural magnets. Eli broad is right. It's not the dollar taco eating slob who is going to put L A on the cultural map, or attract the people who can make the city better for everyone. If those slobby street taco eaters want to leave for somewhere slobbier and cheaper, and take their social problems with them, fine with me.
Anonymous said ....
Invest in the masses, who knows, the next Al Pacino or Christopher Reed may be in the next play.
****************
How much should the city invest to discover the next Scarface or Superman?. How many inner cities kids here in Los Angeles do you think attend the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre and Disney Theatre?
We have kids killing each other on the streets of Los Angeles I seriously doubt building a few community theatres is going to stop gang violence. The kids need swimming pools, parks sports facilities, YMCA, Boys Clubs and etc this is what the masses need and will use.
The violence kids see on the streets is why the community is dying, not from the lack of Renaissance Art exhibits or a live performance of the Man of La Mancha. These are a “nice to have” in a city like Beverly Hills or Malibu but Los Angels is under a code Red alert.
There are small community theaters in Hollywood if a kid is interested in acting or performance arts.
No bailout for Countrywide, fix nothing and don't encourage stupid future behavior. I think we have hadenough of that to go around as it is.
Typical LA Slimes pretending to put out a research story but failing to include important names. Problem is WE ALL KNOW WHO THE CROOKS ARE Alatorre, the coke head, Pacheco the skimmer atty, Antonio gang banging cholo corrupt mayor, Gustavo and Huizar. Does anyone know if Gustavo is still in that job making $98,000? Why hasn't any of these clowns said a word and why didnt the report ask for a comment from any of them? No wonder LA Slimes is losing tons of readers every week. Drudge report had an article stating that in a few years no more newspapers or local news. aYEAH....it will be all blogs and the INTERNET.
4:14
Do you know how many drama teachers there are in the LAUSD, a district with 750,000 students. Ten, that is all. Where community theater is relegated to the high school gymnasium, this is s dreadful fact, especially in this city, the entertainment capitol of the world. By contrast, millions are put in every year to high school football programs.
Most of the kids in East L.A. or South Central have never even been to the beach, let alone the Mark Taper forum. Community theater means the theater coming out to them. If you've ever witness live theater, it is much more powerful than your narrow mind can comprehend.
a nice white lady says ..........
If you've ever witness live theater, it is much more powerful than your narrow mind can comprehend.
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Yes I have seen live theatre, how would shows like the “Vagina Monologues” affect change in inner city youth? Did you just recently watch Michele Phifer “Dangerous Minds”? That was a movie not real life. My mind may be narrow but is not delusional.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVF-nirSq5s
'
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