Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Thursday
The Village to Village blog publishes a statement from longtime Valley activist Jill Banks Barad in support of Paul Krekorian for CD2. Barad notes that the winner of this election will be the chair of City Council’s Education & Neighborhoods Committee which oversees the City's system of Neighborhood Councils. The prospect of Chris Essel chairing this committee frightens Neighborhood Council board members as Barad says "As president of the Central City Association, Chris Essel represented that organization as favoring financial disclosure forms for neighborhood council members, which she reinforced at a recent candidates forum." The blog has extended a similar invitation to any leader who wishes to speak on behalf of Essel. So far no one has.
Rather than letting architects design buildings and have cops bust the heads of taggers the City Council has done it ass-backwards and passed a law requiring that new homes built in the City of Los Angeles must be covered in a graffitti resistant material such as baked enamel. In referring to the move Clowncilman Bill "Open Shirt" Rosendahl said “Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to spend this much money?” Wish they would ask that all the time!
Not so pleasant Betty Pleasant is at it again. After her wacky theories on the streetcars in LA (an urban myth handily debunked here), that the recent switch to digital television was some sort of Bush Administration conspiracy and her screeds against City Council Member Bernard Parks (the only Council member who attempts to impose some fiscal sanity on the Clowncil) she's back again claiming that a recent LA Times story on a Federal investigation into Parks' former opponent Mark Ridley-Thomas has Parks' "DNA all over it." Of course Betty doesn't tell you that the campaign supporting Ridley-Thomas paid Plesant's newspaper, The Los Angeles Wave, nearly $200,000 for campaign advertising.
Good article in the LA Times deconstructs how out of touch Hollywood is with the rest of LA and America on the Roman Polanski issue. Though some try to make it a political issue those on both the right and the left have condemned Polanski's violent child rape and bringing him to justice. Though its no surprise Woody Allen is on Polanski's side those who have read the gory details in the transcript of the victim's testimony are convinced of the heinousness of Polanski's crimes despite the spin of some in the media.
Rather than letting architects design buildings and have cops bust the heads of taggers the City Council has done it ass-backwards and passed a law requiring that new homes built in the City of Los Angeles must be covered in a graffitti resistant material such as baked enamel. In referring to the move Clowncilman Bill "Open Shirt" Rosendahl said “Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to spend this much money?” Wish they would ask that all the time!
Not so pleasant Betty Pleasant is at it again. After her wacky theories on the streetcars in LA (an urban myth handily debunked here), that the recent switch to digital television was some sort of Bush Administration conspiracy and her screeds against City Council Member Bernard Parks (the only Council member who attempts to impose some fiscal sanity on the Clowncil) she's back again claiming that a recent LA Times story on a Federal investigation into Parks' former opponent Mark Ridley-Thomas has Parks' "DNA all over it." Of course Betty doesn't tell you that the campaign supporting Ridley-Thomas paid Plesant's newspaper, The Los Angeles Wave, nearly $200,000 for campaign advertising.
Good article in the LA Times deconstructs how out of touch Hollywood is with the rest of LA and America on the Roman Polanski issue. Though some try to make it a political issue those on both the right and the left have condemned Polanski's violent child rape and bringing him to justice. Though its no surprise Woody Allen is on Polanski's side those who have read the gory details in the transcript of the victim's testimony are convinced of the heinousness of Polanski's crimes despite the spin of some in the media.
Labels: bernard parks, betty pleasant, Chris Essel, graffiti, jill banks barad, Mark Ridley Thomas, paul krekorian, roman polanski, village to village
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/01/2009 02:00:00 AM
52 Comments:
Zuma Dogg "WARNED US ALL" that the stock market was going to have a horrendous September.
He apparently can take a snippet from a media outlet and try to make it his own. September is traditionally the worst month of the year for the stock market.
Since it is now October, I'm following up on ZD's prediction to let you know that September 2009 was the BEST September in 11 years.
Not that Zuma Dogg would ever fess up and admit he was wrong, or that he was just echoing what he must have heard on KFWB or KNX.
Wrong again, Dave. Take ownership of it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
ZUMA DOGG ALERT: Time To Support This Blog Today (I HOPE SOME PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO HELP ME KEEP THIS BLOG GOING )
For those of you who enjoy this blog and my efforts to keep it going, today is the day you have to hit me up with a PayPal donation. Can we keep it plain and simple and short? If there is no show of support today, I'm just going to have to finally delete this whole blog today and just move on. Make copies of you favorite threads now. I've stopped going to the council meetings and if I can't squeeze out five bucks a day out of this blog, I have to walk away from even the blogging.
Jill B has no clue about Essel. After the Valley Glen Council abused its title to throw a meet & greet for only their favorite candidates it only makes for a stronger argument to vet these so called neighborhood leaders. Krekorian staffers and developer employees sitting on these councils are a strong argument for disclosure. krekorian is mis-using his office to help run his campaign. I smell an investigation coming up.
Neighborhood council members thinking about Krekorian is not exaclty Los Angeles politics. Is Roman Polanski Los Angeles politics? I read the entire hotsheet and didn't get hot sh*t.
Shallman and the anti-Zuma (or maybe Shallman is both?) up early.
Polanski vioLated the law. The girl was too young to give consent. If the mother set it up she and Polanski should both be put in jail. The girl can "forgive" but she has no right to tAke the law in her own hands; allowing him not to be prosecuted. He must pay TIME for the crime of RAPE!
Some of us get up early because we are needed all over the place, run businesses and have people counting on us.
But it doesn't mean I don't enjoy coming to MS to remind everybody that Zuma Dogg is no financial genius. He just parrots what others tell him. Remember that he is a college drop out and someone whose claim to fame is that he "once worked in the radio industry," yet he can't get a radio job in L.A. Tells you how good he really was, or wasn't.
For what it is worth to you, I have no idea who John Shallman is, other than what I read here. I assume he is a political consultant for the locals' campaigns.
Before you ask, I will head you off at the pass and say that I am NOT Walter Moore. Believe it if you want to.
I just checked, and contrary to his threat to shut down the blog, it's stil there.
I believe that "Do this or else" approach is known in some circles as extortion.
Nobody donate, so we can see if Zuma will really delete the blog. It will not happen! At best, he will just prevent people from reading it. He will never delete it!
Remember during the campaign for Mayor that he created the blog but forced people to subscribe to it? He realized that he wasn't getting enough visitors and reopened it to everyone. Empty threats from Zuma Dogg. What a way to start the new month.
He will never delete the blog. He'll just lock out the readers or start a new one and bring over the old content. Bank on it. Just like September will show a stock market tumble.
Sure. We all know the only people who go around all day slamming Zuma Dogg are Walter Moore and Mary Benson.
It is a cottage cheese industry for those white people.
Yas, yas, Mayor Sam's Sister City - Home of African-American Scribe Bashing and Celebrity Sex Crime Prurience. Getting used to it now.
But I'm waiting to see if the Republican Lite echo chamber here is going to go along with Meg Whitman trying to sell her NOT VOTING UNTIL AGE 46 as a FAMILY VALUE.
A couple of points...
This post isn't about Zuma Dogg or Walter Moore or Mary Benson. We probably won't approve any more of those comments.
Jill Barad knows everything about Essel, as do we.
Exactly! It's easy to see through Zuma Swiss Cheese's holes. He is more full of crap than a cat litter box.
He will be back in City Council within 30 days because he has nothing better to do. Too bad he can't admit what the rest of us already know.
Higby, maybe the commenter raised an interesting point that you should have had a note to follow up on, since September is now over.
I would love to see this blog document what predictions people make and find out if they come true or not.
Zuma's prediction makes me wonder what other things Zuma predicted that didn't come to fruition, including his claim that he was in the Top 3 of the cd2 race, or the bigger delusion that he could become mayor. I believe you had something to do with growing that delusion.
Mayor Sam, I know that this isn't the subject of the thread, but if you forget to write about Zuma's warning, how is someone supposed to bring up the subject?
I'm not going to write to you directly just so you can post my name on your blog and subject me to criticism. Bringing it on the blog is a good idea, since it was on a morning update.
If you are going to represent citizens of Los Angeles and make decisions or recommendations about how to spend taxpayer money you need to disclose whether you have financial conflicts. It's called transparency. If that keeps some people from serving than so be it. If they have something to hide then we probably didn't want them in the first place.
It doesn't keep them from having their voices heard. They can still attend meetings and speak out on any and all issues they care about. They just can't vote.
I'm okay with this. Many of these NC's (Like Barad) have either run for City Council or want to run for City Council and therefore understand that disclosure is part of the deal.
There are lots of subjects in this Hotsheet. What is the rule if there's an interesting point on a subject that isn't here? I do find the September-October prediction interesting.
with all due respect, these other stories are things you wrote about yesterday and the day before.
until the commenter mentioned the zuma thing, i totally forgot about it, so it feels like a fresh subject, or at least it hasn't been written about in a month.
Nice Letter by Jill Barad.
All the NC people who had committed to other candidates are starting to get behind Krekorian.
Not because they love the guy, but the alternative is intolerable.
The last thing we need is to have another developer/AV lap dog in the city council.
i don't think he has the bawlz to do it.
Isn't the Polanski transcript a bit unfresh? It's last week's news.
Essel gets Zuma Dog and Krekorian gets Jill Barad.
Wonder who will win this race?
Did zuma dogg really make that prediction? I must have missed it. Higby, true?
Ha ha
Way to go!
I agree and it's about time.
So what are we supposed to make of this?
first of all, Zuma said 'get out now' in september, and being the best september ever, it sounds like good advice, and now its down 300 points the last few days.
me and Zuma just came out of our Plaintiffs meeting with the City attorney- we're suing the beach ordinance, and the decorum at City Hall.
stand by for the mandatory 'motion to dismiss' from the City.
yawn.....
when's Nuch gonna get off his ass and read the case law, and stop these attorneys restraining all the artists on Venice Beach?
the claim with 12 plaintiffs this time will run into millions if they don't settle and fix the mistakes.
What Billy R. on Clowncil meant is "wouldn't it be great if I could put the $7 million in graffiti removal money towards my own pet projects, rather than using it to clean up the city."
Look hard at what it really is: Pay the same amount of property taxes and get LESS services. Do-it-yourself, from now on.
Next they'll be telling us we have to line up with buckets and old Sparkletts bottles at the nearest reservoir or filtering plant once a week, because they can't afford to repair and replace the water pipes.
It's always easier to get away with putting less cereal in the box for the same price, than to boost the price.
To the stock market smart-ass...first of all, you always assume the stock market has closed forever and today is the final day.
Secondly, if you were paying attention to the emergency budget meeting yesterday , and the rest of them, all they doing, is finally admitting everything I have said over the past two years. They are admitting how bad it is. and for the reasons I stated. SORRY. And my advice to you, Mr. Stock Market expert is take everything you own and invest it in Wall Street. FULLY INVEST...DON'T TAKE A CENT OFF THE TABLE!!! Fundamentals are SOLID! Buy and Holds only! And for the record, Joe Mailander has revealed himself as irresponsibly conspiratorial to Zuma Dogg based on recent conversations.
Thanks Michael for limiting the comments.
Y'know, bloogers are kind of like taggers; if they don't see their graffiti, they stop doing it. I for one, am tired of the comments, pro and con, about certain other folks that are irrelevant to the thread.
So, as a lawyer, I am thinking that if Polanski comes back and faces the court, he will most likely be held in custody WITHOUT BAIL, until the matter is resolved.
But, I am guessing Judge Espinoza is likely to allow him to withdraw his plea and enter a plea of Not Guilty and ask for a jury trial.
Considering that the victim is now a middle aged matron living in Hawaii, she may likely not cooperate (she wants this OVER)so the DA may have a tough time convincing a jury.
Thus, I see a new plea bargain with no time, or "time served" as an ultime result.
Judge Rittenband was a stubborn little tyrant, and he did seek to use the 90 day diagnostic examination in State Prison as a way to punish Polanski without an actual "sentence". That is wrong and needs to be aired out.
I have heard that the report recommended State Prison time; also heard it didn't.
Anybody know the truth?
It would be crucial to know, in my judgment, to what happened after he was released and why he didn't come back.
Then you know that Essel is the right one to represent CD2.
Her non politician style is what we need. Someone inclusive not exclusive. Paul is a job hopping career politico always in search for the next office. Essel will dedicate all her time to the district. Go back to Sacramento Paul and do the job you were already elected to do.
This love affair you've suddenly developed with Parks just because he's criticizing the city and its budget problems is creepy. HE is the head of the Budget Committee who let the situation get this bad, and he's glad for a chance to cut police hiring so he can give one last slap in the face to Bratton before he goes, hoping to undo the work Bratton's done over the last 7 years in beefing up and training an excellent dept., reducing crime, and above all earning back the trust of the communities that Parks lost. EVEN the black community that Parks as a black Chief managed to alienate.
I don't know if Pleasant is right about her allegations about Parks, but I suspect she is while you have selective amnesia as usual.
by the way, crybaby, out-of-context, obsessive-nut: I just went back and checked and my most recent warning from a few weeks ago was that GOLD shot past $1000 and that is ALWAYS a sign to ZD that you better start watching your stock investments on a daily basis and keep on top of it and be very aware. A lot of people are on a "buy and hold" strategy and always think things are A-O.K.
So please go back and re-post what else I said, BESIDES an alert that GOLD cracked $1000, which it hadn't been for over six months...and that's not a good sign for stocks...and the govt has done a lot to keep things artificially propped up, and I still urge all stock holders to watch the market on a daily basis and have your portfolio ready to convert into cash at the press of a button and hope you aren't stuck on the freeway when it's time to press it.
We're just going to wake up one day soon and it's going to be too late, like it was for all you overly-optimistic turkeys who are worth 40-50% LESS (or more) than they were when I started issuing warnings.
The BIG shoe hasn't dropped. AND LIKE I SAID LAST TIME, you can have fun playing all of this at the market level, but you better be a day trader and not a "buy and hold" sucker like your stock broker is badgering and suckering you into doing. That didn't work too well for LACERS.
MAAAAAAAAAAN, to the people who are watching from the sidelines between me and this obsessive nut who is just taking EVERYTHING i say out of context and doesn't even re-print actual quotes but loose paraphrases...
IF YOU HAVE YOUR OWN MONEY IN WALL STREET...DON'T GO AGAINST MY RAINMAN INSTINCTS...
THE SHOE HASN'T DROPPED AND THERE WILL BE A MAJOR ADJUSTMENT (and I don't mean UP). They've been preventing it from happening with all this false propping up...
and when it adjusts...you will say, "that's just a small down adjustment, and now it's going to go ALL UP!"
Then, it will go down a little more...you'll hang in a little more, feeling it CAN'T go down MUCH more.
Then the bottom falls out and by the time you get home off the freeway traffic jam, it'll be too late. And that will be the NEW REALITY.
Yes, Zuma Dogg has coined a new phrease: The "New Reality." And you are not going to like dealing with it.
I thought you weren't going to approve all this stuff about Zuma?
Can we have at least one thread without Zuma all over it?
Mailander I'm not sure what you're smoking today but if I call Betty Plesant's writing and business practices into question its some form of racial animus but if you call into question Althea Shaw even blogging that's progressive?
As far as Polanski goes most folks outside of the Hollywood sphere get it. The whole issue about the "budget" is such an irresponsible red herring in light of all the silly other spending priorities being pushed.
Don't know what Meg Whitman has to do with any of this however in case you're interested I doubt I'm supporting her.
I'm not approving any more comments about Zuma Dogg on this post unless its something remarkably extraordinary.
Higby please tell robber baron Walter/Mary/Haikook to stop posting Zuma comments.
when you will post about mary's arrangement with walter?
Mailander I'm not sure what you're smoking today but if I call Betty Plesant's writing and business practices into question its some form of racial animus but if you call into question Althea Shaw even blogging that's progressive?
Michael, see Frank Sheftel's client list for people who might be smoking things. But indulge me while I explain the difference to you between Althea Shaw's accusation and Betty Pleasant's accusation.
The difference between Althea Shaw's accusation and Betty Pleasant's is the fact that you gave voice to Ms. Shaw in accusing the City Clerk's office of malfeasance, and you've never recanted that contention. Not even Walter Moore stood behind her on that accusation, and it was his petition effort to lose. But you, in fact, asked what the chain of custody was at the City Clerk's office involving the petitions and further asked how the documents were secured by the City Clerk.
Now, as I read Betty Pleasant's accusations regarding Bernie Parks, it's far less reckless than that because it doesn't suggest foul play. Here's what Ms. Pleasant says about Bernie Parks:
Parks gives new meaning to the term “sore loser,” as he is notoriously incapable of accepting defeat or disappointment of any kind like a man. He’s a whiny, vindictive old codger who will do anything to anybody to get even if he feels he’s been wronged, and he has waited and brooded and seethed for almost a year to get even with Mark.
That is far from suggesting a specific instance of malfeasance; in fact, it sounds just like your usual MayorSam blog comments dum-dum. It's a personal appraisal, identifying Parks as petty and vindictive (qualities this blog too has accused him of quite a bit over the years), but it's not accusing any agency or office holder of malfeasance, only of feeding a local fishwrap with some nonsense--something political consultants like John Shallman do every day.
I happen to like Bernard Parks more than Betty Pleasant does. But I'm not about to suggest that she's not entitled to her own personal appraisal of him. However, when personal appraisals are accusatory of malfeasance, that's another story, and I wish your blog would someday own up to the fact that it promoted the idea that the City Clerk's office conspired against the Shaws and Walter Moore's effort to secure enough signatures to put Jamiel's Law on the ballot. Until you do that, I don't think I'd throw too many stones at Betty Pleasant.
Joseph -
Give it a rest. I think we can all agree that the City Clerk's office is incompetent. We also learned that Walter Moore is too, or reckless perhaps, and threw the Shaws under the bus. Althea and her family genuinely believed they had made a successful effort and were shocked at the condition of their petitions when returned by the Clerk's office. Was there an organized conspiracy? No. But its certainly within the realm of possibility that anyone in that office could go through and grab a handful of petitions and stuff them down their shirt. Hence, begging the question, one that was never answered as to what was the chain of custody? A valid inquiry no doubt, no matter how politically incorrect the Shaws efforts may have been viewed in some communities. Again, more than anything the Shaws are victims. Victims of Pedro Espinoza, victims of a corrupt system and even I would say victims of Walter Moore.
As to Betty if you don't see her conspiracies all over the place on wacky stuff like streetcars, digital TV and most notably accusing Bernard Parks of single-handily orchestrating both the FBI investigation AND LA Times reporting on Mark Ridley-Thomas then you must be smoking with Sheftel. And to make matters worse HER PAPER TOOK ALMOST $200,000 FROM RIDLEY-THOMAS SUPPORTERS.
I may have encouraged the Shaws in their case but I never got a dime from them.
Finally, Betty's not the only kook imagining Parks starting a witch hunt against Ridley-Thomas (real name: Mark Thomas). I know you hate the word stay tuned but keep your eye on this blog for yet another wacko who thinks its all about Parks when it's Ridley-Thomas who has the allegations against him.
What arrangements did Mary have with Walter? If you're asking if we're going to post something be more specific.
For god's sake Higby, are you going to believe an anonymous comment about mary cummings, cummins or whatever the fuck her name is?
1:08pm I agree with you completely. I think Joseph is the only person in this city that likes bitter bernie. C'mon read the book Labrinyth folks. He names names and all the association Bernie had with the rogue cops and in fact had one of them over for dinner. Helloooo wake up people. Parks is doing everything to make sure Bratton leaves on a negative note. Its no secret in South LA Bratton is praised compared to the coconut Parks his own constituents say bailed on their community a long time ago. Parks is lucky that story about his wife being on the board of directors of the old DARE program and getting tons of money never came out.
431 what the hell are you talking about? You unhinged too?
An endorsement of Jill Barad and Richard Katz is a sure sign your candidate is going to lose.
They were big backers of Jack Weiss......to the point where they harrassed and theatened people hoping to get them to back Jack.
They wouldn't even let Nuch speak at their Neighborhood freak show.
Look what happened there. They just made up my mind for me, and if they back Paul, my vote goes to Chris Essel.
October 01, 2009 9:46 AM-I concur.
9;21, you're insane, some Shallman kook for Chris/ convinced me to vote for Paul, can't trust any Shallman clients. Nuch is a liar and demagogue, lied to everyone form Chick on the controller issue, to the potheads who he promised to support but threw them under the bus last week in Council with NO notice, lied about how he'd treat gangs vs. at risk youths, lied about his being an environmental vs. anti-environmental attorney, lies that he's saving money when all he wants to do is expand the dept. and hire hundreds of secret spy cops. He's a loose canon beyond a wild-man. Everyone sees that but a handful of his religious devotees. Shallman can lie and spin a candidate, but that doesn't mean he IS a silk bad instead of a sow's ear.
Don't believe 9:21 for a second.
I met Nuch, and Shallman too, at a VANC event where they wiped the floor with Weiss.
9:21 is FOS.
921, Jill Barad did not support Weiss in his bid for City Attorney.
The anti-grafitti ordinance is idiotic and someone needs to sue the City right away to stop it. This is a perfect example of unreasonable government intrusion into peoples lives. If an individual wants to buy and build a new home, the style and design and outer shell should be a choice of his -- NOT a choice dictated to him by the government. The individual should be free to risk grafitti - not forced to defend against it by an incompetent government.
The freedom-hating liberals at City Hall are hard at work making sure the average citizen has fewer choices and fewer freedoms every day.
Surprised that Celeste joined the anti-Hollywood Republican lynchmob; I thought she understood law better than that. A jurisdiction making its very first extradition request 31 years after a crime is not exactly due process.
Her pondering about equal justice for gangbangers also leads me to wonder if she's aware that Roman Polanski hasn't been accused of a crime in over thirty years and is highly unlikely to commit another. The same can't be said for most gangsters, with substantial rap sheets.
But some people do forget why they're liberals in the first place when confronted with the bloodthirsty excitement of frontier justice.
Her gratuitous swipe at pedophile priests only adds to the kind of confusion she's professing to hope to clarify. Taking away LA's top rape-case prosecutors from daily business should also create even more confusion, just the way criminals here in LA today like it.
Right on, 1:08 PM!
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