Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday
The story about former Presidential candidate John Edwards' rendezvous with his admitted mistress prior to a meeting with Mayor Villaraigosa gets weirder. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the meeting was arranged by Robert McGovern, a friend of Edwards' paramour, Rielle Hunter, and a self-described new age guru and spiritual healer.
Dennis Zine has joined with a group of Republicans who are opposing Proposition 8, the measure on the state ballot this November that would overturn the California Supreme Court's ruling to legalize gay marriage. Other Republicans joining the coalition include Governor Schwarzenegger and Ward Connerly, the African American conservative activist who sponsored Proposition 209 which overturned affirmative action in California.
Let me preface this by the fact that I absolute hate cigarette smoking and discourage anyone from doing it. That being said we don't need to government to make this decision for people. Bitter Bernie is planning to introduce legislation to ban all outdoor smoking.
An animal activist blog is taking Mayor Villaraigosa to task for eating the delicacy foie gras. Foie gras is the liver of a goose or duck that's been enlarged by force feeding the bird fattening food through a pipe. The liver expands, the bird gets sick and then it's harvested for it's fat liver which is cooked up at restaurants like the Mayor's favorite, Patina. We also learn from the blog that the Mayor allegedly drinks $140 bottles of wine on the city dime for his lunches.
Barack Obama's ten year old daughter Malia is apparently not a fan of Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. According to the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Malia is quick to turn the channel if either of the pop culture divas show up on TV. On the other hand, Malia is a big fan of Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus and has forgiven her for her recent photo controversy.
If you didn't have a chance to catch the blog over the weekend, here are a few things you may have missed. First off, Full Disclosure Network reports that the price tag for the LAUSD's school construction bond measure will actually be double that of the $7 billion that is being talked about now, as well, if the bond passes state law will require all California taxpayers to kick in another $7 billion for LAUSD construction. Next, the LAUSD will pay $50 million to a company controlled by a political associate of Mayor Villaraigosa to purchase a school construction site. And LA Times bloggers were instructed to not blog about the recent story about John Edwards and his visit to his now admitted mistress at a local hotel. By the way the Times justifies their spiking of the story at their "Readers Representative" blog.
Labels: Barack Obama, Bitter Bernie, britney spears, grand avenue, John Edwards, lausd, mayor antonio villaraigosa, miley cyrus, paris hilton, richard meruelo, smoking, walter moore, zuma dogg
Posted by Michael Higby @ 8/11/2008 03:00:00 AM
11 Comments:
Hizzoner deserves to be roasted for eating fois gras, though the "Animal Liberation" blog entry you took this story from is full of crap (or should we say fois gras?).
Mayor Sam,
THANKS for covering the affordable housing ballot proposition! I know it's not like it's the first time you've linked to one of my stories -- BUT I think this is the biggest and most important thing I've stumbled into.
I REALLY HOPE EVERYONE PAYS ATTENTION TO THIS:
This is gonna be all over the media this season...and it's the readers of mayor sam/activists who need to alert the masses...cause once again --
They wrap it up in a warm and fuzzy, but it ends up going for something else.
CEO Richard Meruelo leads the Meruelo Maddox firm to more profits at the expense of the taxpayer. The LAUSD and the City of L.A. are two entities that do not have good experiences with this firm, looking more like victims than anything else in spite of some interesting values that might have yielded a different outcome if taken to heart.
Before attending USC, Meruelo graduated from nearby Don Bosco Technical Institute in Rosemead. That college-prep high school has a substantial entry in Wikipedia, with its "ESLR", Expected School-wide Learning Results being numerous and lofty.
Apparently Mr. Meruelo attended Don Bosco before these ESLR’s were developed, and a financially different conclusion might have been seen had he taken some of these to heart. Here are a few of some of the more ironic "Results" listed:
"A Don Bosco Tech Graduate Practices... Salesian Spirit
1. Demonstrates knowledge and appreciation of the faith, morals, and practices of Catholic Christianity.
2. Demonstrates understanding of Don Bosco's faith in God and service to others, especially his dedication to youth and invitation to do the same.
3. Articulates a personal spirituality and a vision for its future growth."
This one might have helped us out:
"A Don Bosco Tech Graduate is... A Responsible Citizen...
2. Understands the importance of service to the local, national, and world communities."
As a large developer, this company winds up with quite a bit of involvement with the local government bodies, most of it not to our benefit if you read details in the assortment of its reported activities.
One story of many on this firm appeared in 2007 in "The L.A. Weekly,"
"'Slammed for Secret Asbestos Removal'
A company chaired by Villaraigosa’s biggest fat-cat contributor refuses to say where all that asbestos went. Originally published April 5 – updated April 11
By JEFFREY ANDERSON
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - 3:00 pm"
From that story, "A week after Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed criminal charges against downtown developer Meruelo Maddux Properties Inc. for illegally dumping asbestos-tainted material, key questions remain.
Why charge the president of the company, John Charles Maddux, and not CEO Richard Meruelo, whose Merco Group is listed on documents filed with the county as the site owner of the property at 1060 North Vignes Street, where Meruelo’s company, Meruelo Maddux Properties, illegally demolished seven industrial structures last year?
Where did Meruelo Maddux haul the highly regulated toxic debris?"
Villaraigosa manages to tolerate all this by his silence, "And, finally, why is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa refusing to acknowledge what appears to be a troubling pattern of behavior by Meruelo, downtown’s largest landowner — and Villaraigosa’s largest campaign contributor — who recently was charged in a separate case involving building- and health-code violations, including rat infestation, at the Seventh Street Produce Market?"
The financially successful operations are one of the members of the Mayor's and Council's favored parts of local society while the people of Los Angeles wind up covering the costly outcomes to contribute to that success.
The actions of the L.A. City Council demonstrate that plastic bags and fast food businesses are preferred subjects to help the environment and health of the region. Their mission to push in favor of developers has the "unintended" but "foreseeable" consequences illustrated in the many stories written about these matters that have the end effect of hazards to health and economy.
The politician's will say one thing and do another and we can apply the simple observations to decide for ourselves just whose welfare is being protected, "Actions speak louder than words."
Local Observations
Somebody tell Dogg that there is a limit on the size of the comments.
If he follows his usual patterns, it will be full of mispelled words. grammatical errors, typos and be eight pages long.
Walter, you've been dissed!!!
Ha, Too bad for dad (Obama). I'll betcha a bunch o' cash that Miley and daddy Billy Ray Cyrus are among the hidden GOP supporters in Hollywood.
Walter was bypassed because he's a candidate. Zuma will likely picked because he's a clown and that helps ensure that the measure passes. If Zuma has one ounce of brains, he'll ask Ron Kaye to write the argument and then attach his name to it. For once, this a perfectly legitimate opportunity for ZD to use a ghost writer for mutual benefit.
I guess whoever chose Zuma to write the opposing viewpoint was too lazy to look around for someone qualified (no wonder our city is in the toilet -- they just asked whoever happened to show at their meeting that day, if they wanted to write the ballot argument? Bizarre).
OR they just wanted to make sure the measure sails through, and no one takes the opposing view point seriously. Not that Walter Moore would have been taken seriously either, and his authorship of Jamiel's Law couldn't pass muster with a high school constitutional law class -- but they picked the Village Fool. In their abject laziness, the city employees turned out to be accidentally brilliant.
Walter was not bypasses because he's a candidate. He was bypassed because Zuma Dogg showed up to the Election and Government Committee Meeting for the selection process, and he didn't. (It's not like they said, "Hmmm, we like Zuma better and Walter is running for mayor.") So if there are any complaints, it is only about people not showing up as part of the democratic process.
And to the Walter fans, I offered to look at anything and everything Walter had to offer to be included in the argument. He wasn't keen on that, but fortunately, I didn't need his input anyway. All he had to say was, "it's only their opinion, not a fact." (Try selling a "no" vote when the city is offering "affordable housing for working families, elderly, disabled" with, "that's the city's opinion that we need more affordable housing, not a fact.
HOW ABOUT THAT THE MONEY IS GOING TO BE USED FOR THE GRAND AVENUE PROJECT CEMENT PARK AND THAT THIS WILL ALLOW FOR "UNFETTERED AND UNRESTRICTED CONSTRUCTION OF THESE UNITS (DENSITY) -- AND WILL BE CONSTRUCTED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ELDERLY, WHICH THIS ARTICLE 34 (that the city wants to now change) was created for.
"There's so much wrong with this, beyond, "It's their opinion, not a fact" (that the city needs to update it's affordable housing policy.)
AND FINALLY TO THE PERSON WHO SAID: "If Zuma has one ounce of brains, he'll ask Ron Kaye to write the argument and then attach his name to it." First thing I did was call Ron and tell him, and invite him to go over the ballot proposition and weigh in with feedback.
Meanwhile, I've already blogged a good portion of the problem with this as Mayor Sam has just linked to.
So take your comments and STICK 'EM...cause so far, I haven't seen any other analysis of this and if I didn't go over this with a fine tooth comb, maybe there WOULDN'T be anything but Bernie Parks "support" argument.
MEANWHILE, can't wait to see everyone in the City show up to the council meetings to warn and alert the masses on TV 35; hold for hours on end waiting to get on the radio; schedule and produce Time Warner public access shows; talk to radio talk show hosts (off air) to try and alert them to this; blog it (NO ONE ELSE EVEN LOOKED); and contact other newspapers (one of which already told me they are going to cover this and link to my blog.)
BUT KEEP POPPIN OFF AT THE MOUTH YOU COMMENT SECTION LOSER!
AND SAN FRANSISCO CHROICLE HAS AN ARTICLE TODAY ABOUT AVERELL "ACE" SMITH AND ZUMA DOGG!
That's right, that uber-loser Ace Smith (Hi Averell!) couldn't even get any of his own press with ZD being mentioned.
Go Zuma Go
Zuma Rocks
First of all, he doesn't have a half ounce of brains, let alone a full ounce.
Second, the choice was brilliant; must have been Bernie who made it.
Third, Will it have to be signed by his (?) legitimate name (David Elliott) or does he get to use that stupid alias?
Fouth, does it not have to be signed by a legal city of lA voter, not a transient city non-resident?
Lastly, no one reads that shit anyway.
6:04 The mayor publicly brags about eating foie gras. Eating foie gras is cruel and will soon be illegal in California. Nothing wrong with the article. The article did not come from a blog but Indy Media, an independent media outlet good enough to be picked up by google news. They comment about human rights, world peace, anti-war and pro-education. What's wrong with that?
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