Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Wednesday
Soon, Los Angeles won't have a police chief. Not that we want to keep the egotistical overblown one we have now but it is so hard to find good help. There's really no one (or is noone?) in charge at DWP but they keep bringing people over. With daily pipe bursts and power outages incredibly the DWP and clowncil are going to ask for more of your money. Besides that the LACERS President has quit and we have to find a new manager of Building and Safety. Good times for city professional staffing folks!
Efforts by the Mayor to get the Subway to the Sea going soon are off the hook. The annual Fiesta de la Gente in CD14 is scrubbed because Jose "Weezy" Huizar could't come up the required jack for park fees. Is HUIZAR'S WINTER WONDERLAND in trouble? And if Nuch, Cooley and the AARP crowd thought they were going to bust up medical marijuana dispensaries anytime soon, well that ain't happenin' either. The Dodgers aren't likely going to go to the World Series (but Manny got a shower!) and well, the Angels probably aren't either.
However there's some good news. The Mayor got to go on two great vacations on your dime, one to Africa with BettyLuParker and another to Iceland with his power posse to plan his future. Hope that the Mayor took Doug McIntyre's advice not to get between an Icelander and his bartender on a Friday night. And the legendary Sportsmen Lodge Hotel and Event Center in Studio City is back and better than ever.
Anyway, happy birthday to us. I can't belive its been five years since that day that the Fourth Floor Blog went down and we put up our first post. There are WAY too many people to thank individually but I want to express my gratitude to our contributors past and present, our many friends in journalism, politics and community activism and all the politicians who have provided us with material so good you couldn't make it up. It's been a good run.
Labels: Mayor Sam's Hotsheet
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/21/2009 02:00:00 AM
39 Comments:
Yep. It's been a blast.
I've come and gone and come and gone in the past five years as time permitted.
You've provided a great service. A safe place for pols to slip info they wanted out to the other politicians and also out to the activists.
We know they read even if they don't post. And they wouldn't be smart politicians if they didn't.
Happy Birthday Mayor Sam!
So many of us who supported the site at one time or another, and some of us from the very beginning, now regret having done so.
Congratulations for taking on so much good will towards raising an alternative civic voice and using it to suit your own narrow politics and self-aggrandizing purposes. I would guess that the next five years might be a little bumpier.
This blog is nothing like it was five years ago. There's a lot of backlash against it. Not by politicians, but community members.
Bitter Mailander amuses all. He pontificates yet he has quit and been fired from more blogs than most of us read. Hardly a qualified source.
PS: Congrats
Hey, congrats, Higby, for surviving the jibes and the taunts and mostly for your most recent decision to change this blog back to a discussion of city politics and not a bunch of ad hominum statements about one jerk or another.
It may cost you clicks, but in the long run, it adds to the integrity of the blog, and is certainly easier to read.
Let's get back to the Third and Fourth Floors and stop the misspelled (intentional) names and the snide nicknames.
It is dirt and rumor we want, not invective!!!
Looking forward to the next five years.
Go Sam!!
Steven D. Schulberg = Higby.
I'm not about to begin an argument with someone with a fake identity--the kind of thing Michael has only chosen to encourage, at the expense of real people in his life--but I will point out that this blog has in recent days assailed one of the city's most notably at-risk residents both publicly and privately, and also permitted dozens of comments that evaluate what kind of sex partners various women might make. If those kinds of scribblings are something something to congratulate (or self-congratulate) this blog for, I'll gladly leave that to you.
Mr. Higby, for the record, I will not accept if nominated to head the DWP and will not serve if elected.
Signed,
Cynthia Noone
Joseph Mailander and that "other guy" and the "community members" who are "backlashing" are hypocrites.
I'm not certain what Mayor Sam's "agenda" is. Mailander and these other people are part of organizations and causes they try to use the blog to promote. I guess if Mayor Sam doesn't give them carte blanche he's a cad.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
8:32 I had to edit your comment slightly but appreciated your sentiments.
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Glad you hit the 5 yr mark Michael. Very glad you're taking this blog back to where it was 5 yrs ago with city politics. Very glad you're not allowing the trashy, sleazy, personal attacks XXXXXXXX and others were allowed to post. Keep it on the issues and you keep an intelligent dialogue going. City hall is such a disaster they have all their flunkies monitoring all the blogs posting very negative personal attacks on anyone who says a bad word about city council members. People are saying it is worth it because they are all volunteers
I wonder if the City had to pay for Lu Parkers ticket and expenses on the Mayors trip to Africa.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Is there any way to check on that?
8:17 is right. A lot of people and orgs have used Mayor Sam's blog for their personal & political purposes from the very beginning. Inevitably something doesn't go their way and that's when they turn into crybaby losers and attack Higby.
Happy Anniversary you FAT BASTARD!
It should be mentioned that I coined the phrase "clickety clicks."
See ya licorice sticks!
Haikula.
Yes Phil, it's likely that the city paid for this, in the same way that they would cover the cost for any companion of the mayor, including his children.
Since it's a slow day at Six Flags, you can look it up yourself by contacting the city clerk's office.
Had to edit the comment slightly? Leaving only the ass kissing part, of course. Good luck keeping up the illusion. Most have turned on and away from this blog.
Ah, it only seems like yesterday . . . Mayor Sam's, home of the
80 FAKE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHES
contrived by Chief Faker, and endorsed as real by the then-unmasked Mayor Sam.
I believe that was also the same year Higby ENDORSED Antonio Villaraigosa as the best candidate to take L.A. into a happy and prosperous future.
Yes, fond memories all. I do miss the good old days . . .
SIGH!
I'm not certain what Mayor Sam's "agenda" is. Mailander and these other people are part of organizations and causes they try to use the blog to promote.
Excuse me, liar, but can you please name what "organization" I'm a part of and trying to promote?
Is it the LA Weekly?
Is it KCRW?
Is it the Los Angeles Times?
Is it the Daily News?
Please, I'd like to know!
10:02 I could tell you stories. The people who think this blog owes them something to promote their agenda.
And yea, I don't know what my agenda is other than to provide a free speech forum, as much as possible considering all the nonsense we have to deal with.
I've given up a long time ago on the notion this City could be saved. It best days are behind it. So we might as well at least be entertained as the Kurt Russell days come upon us.
And with that - if you will - I'm may just drink a Modelo. Blog away dum, dums.
Regarding the Chief of Police for Los Angeles City I think that it is about time to revert back to letting the selection for this position be determined by an election of the people of the city of Los Angeles.
Its time to take the selection out of the hands of the special interest politians for their own purpose instead of the interest of the citizens.
We need a movement to put this on the ballot for the people to decide.
Joe @ 8:am: I respect a lot of your opinions, you're often a sane and urbane voice in the blogosphere of ranting and raving, and I agree with your comments about allowing the fantasies about a certain female who is a commissioner to get posted.
BUT your myopic defense of "one of our city's most prominent at-risk citizens" undermines all your other sensible and intelligent positions. That person is the most foul-mouthed, mean-spirited and nasty person I've ever had to endure not only in years of public comment but on THIS blog as well as his own. I will NOT dignify his comments be repeating them. The way he has treated one official in particular, who he has slimed non-stop ever since showing up at city hall, with the active aiding/ abetting and encouragement of Nuch and Zine (who are utterly unfit for public office) AS WELL AS HIGBY AND THIS BLOG EVEN NOW, is beneath vile and slanderous. Then there are numerous people who reached out a helping hand but he bit it publicly, including PetraFried, Higby himself -- by using this person as your "excuse" for disliking this blog AND the Times which didn't give him his "due" as a "candidate" you undermine your own credibility.
There are PLENTY of reasons to criticize both this blog which HAS as you also say, subverted goodwill into "self-aggrandizing purposes" (and outright sliming of others) BUT sadly, that individual is NOT one of them. Besides, he has his own blog that allegeldy is more widely read and regarded so he can and does speak for himself.
If you made the chief an elected position that would be the OPPOSITE of taking it away from special interests. Making it elected is just what the Police Political League wants to do so they can buy the chief like they bought that bad investment of a city attorney. (Due to which backlash they're staying OUT of this election altogether.)
Look at Cooley and Baca, who are such bully prima donas because they are beholdten to nobody.
What business do those two have throwing their weight around in city elections and matters, down to who gets the golf cart contract? Baca had to weigh in and refused to test his backlog of DNA rape kits til Zev had a little sit-down and even Antonovich had a little smackdown with him. Cooley especially now is taking on the State Attorney General Jerry Brown and US Attorney General General Eric Holder over medical cannabis, taking along his puppets Nuch and Zine and it won't end well for him but meanwhile we have to pay the court costs he'll keep losing.
Bratton as an appointed official with a lot of scrutiny was just right and let's keep it that way.
We don't need another bought and paid for idiot in the wrong job.
If the next one doesn't do a good job, look what happened to Willie Williams and Bernie Parks.
Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, is the top cop for Chief of Police.
Logic would dictate that, no, the city probably did not pay for Lu Parker's expenses to join the mayor on his travels, but, rather, that, for the trip to Africa, this may have been paid for by the non-profit (funded by AEG...) that was putting on the event which was the ostensible reason for the mayor's trip. And, as for the vacation to Iceland, would imagine that this was covered by some means other than city funds, either personal or political (possibly even frequent flyer miles for the ticket, who knows?)???
As for the mayor's security detail, yes, the city paid for that. Almost $2,300 just for meal expenses!?
Anonymous at 4:52 PM = Weisshole.
Here we go with the promotion of agendas.
I let 3:33 go because Joseph was allowed to bring up the point. Both Joseph and 3:33 have made their points well so I don't think we need to discuss that issue any further cryptically or otherwise.
Cheers!
On another note I don't think this blog ever had any good will to begin with and has little of anything to aggrandize.
Read back in the archives and stuff was pretty nasty compared to now. Yea we let the Tamar Galatzan fantasy go but as a point that no one was picking up on the Alarcon or CD14 comments and a point on deaf ears when it came to similar sexist remarks made about non-white women.
Anyway with respect to CD-14 (in particular) I can tell you there is some pretty nasty stuff that has never seen the light of day (I've got an archive of every comment posted by the way, whether it made it to the blog, was deleted by a user or moderator). So its rather unfair some of the charges that have been tossed around.
But I understand, there are agendas.
I understand that there are some people who don't like me and I could care less. I've made my share of mistakes, never claimed to be anything I'm not and I think I've done a pretty good job of being fair while at the same time holding our leaders, elected and otherwise, accountable.
I've had to endure years and years of threatening emails, irrational people, threats to my family, as well as the pedantic and psychotic ramblings of a handful of self-important nut cases that are part of parcel of the blogs-LA-phere. Yet I have really not complained (other than privately) unlike other blogs I let you pretty much say what you want and take shots at me personally, and otherwise, and we move forward.
Again, I could care less who likes me or what you think. Or even if you read the blog (though traffic is consistent and solid). That's what America is all about - freedom to choose and freedom to not give a shit.
In the end, I've met many, many wonderful people through all this and I think we've had an impact. But that's ultimately for others to judge.
Now, its time to go play on the freeway. Blog away dum dums!
that should be part and parcel, not part of parcel. sigh. damn fingers.
Higby, the expression is "I COULDN'T care less."
By saying "I COULD care less" you suggest you care SOME -- which, based on the context of your comment, is not what you meant.
You're welcome,
-- Melvin Noone,
Substitute (pink-slipped)
LAUSD English Teacher
SCREW YOU HIGBY! YOU LET MAILANDER GET AWAY WITH THESE COMMENTS WHEN HE TORCHES EVERYONE INCLUDING YOU? DO YOU REMEMBER THAT DAILY BEATING HE GAVE YOU FOR SUPPORTING MCCAIN-PALIN?
YET TIME AND AGAIN YOU ALLOW HIS DRUNK ASS BACK ON THE BLOG. YOU PERMANENTLY BAN YOU KNOW WHO PUBLIC COMMENTER BUT MAILANDER HE KEEPS COMING BACK AND YOU JUST TAKE IT.
WHAT SECRET INFORMATION DOES HE HAVE ON YOU?
Mayor sam your heart left this blog long ago. I am surprised to hear you say you have a family. Is that one of your own, or do you mean the one with your mother and father?
I want to add that you are arguably the MOST sensitive about comments made about you. I don't get where you think you're tolerant of peoples' quotes, especially if you saved the thousands that never made it to the blog. Caught in another lie?
Luv YUH!
Michael, you're absolutely nuts about this "agenda" bs. You can keep repeating the word but it's just going to make you a liar in the end, should anyone bother to look at who has had agendas around here and who hasn't.
I never had an agenda here except to make sure the blog was readable by people in this city who are not Valley Republicans. Nor did I ever have an agenda except to help the blog when I perceived it could use some. My mistake for that.
Phil Jennerjahn, now that's a guy with an agenda--and I couldn't care less about it. Your own Krekorian takes, that's an agenda--and I couldn't care less about it. And if your early wishes for Palin to be the veep of 2008 wasn't an agenda, this blog hasn't seen one.
Recently I posted two items (of sixty two) that were hostile to Republicans. One, come to think of it, was not even hostile--it was mere patriotism, about Obama winning the Nobel. The other was straight news: a Republican firing a gun at a target with the initials of his Democratic Congresswoman opponent embossed on the target. Both were attached to ample local news intertwined in the same posts.
Do you know how many items I posted that were hostile to Democrats in that period? I'm not going to count them, but Villaraigosa, Garcetti, Gavin, and Wendy Greuel are all Democrats.
Politics often flip at the local level. Free marketers often turn out to be NIMBYs and inner city liberals just as often turn out to favor tax breaks for enterprize zones. That's why I had some high hopes for this blog way back when, when others did not and even warned me away.
But your recent capricious touches have made the blog less of a community space and more of a capricious bitch book. And your imaginative rants about "agendas" indicate a profound disconnect from real people and a favoring of imaginary ones in comments here.
I'll tell you for sure what's obvious to your readers: nobody else posts here now UNLESS they are serving some agenda of their own. Whether it's Joe on Tamar or city planning, or Phil on Essel, or Red Spot on Huizar, or you on Krekorian. And you are trying to pretend that I was a lone poster with an agenda, for including two items of 62 on Democrats? Again, you're just making stuff up, which is precisely what I had been warned about with regard to you five years ago. I still hate to admit that the people who warned me were right.
To be serious for a moment, Mr. Higby, you have tremendous courage. It is probably way more difficult to do what you do than most people ever realize. Professionally, I have more information than I need about many of the public figures discussed here. Still, I come to Mayor Sam because it offers something others don't. I like that fact that you don't care one bit about the haters. There will always be haters. and brats. and troublemakers. You are obviously a cut above. Happy Birthday.
Higby was seen this morning having breakfast with Skelton and Hacopian at the Daily Grill.
Getting your marching orders from our local Mafia bosses?
Man, there are some self-aggrandizing fucks around here.
For all of you, in case you didn't know- the idea that Blogs were the next Beatles is OVER. That all went down with the dotcom crash and burn.
You sick pathetic ones are acting like all those sixty year old balding hippies yearning for the good ol' days of Canned Heat and the Troggs.
This is a FUCKING BLOG- it has no, and needs no editorial policy. It is much more ART than politics- and for you limbic-brained anti-change agents, tough shit-deal with it.
Get over the old-school notion that there are buckets of beliefs that all somehow go together, and stop getting all disoriented when something doesn't fit your schemata- too bad. That's the world we got.
Good comment. Anyway the only planning agenda Joe B and I had was planning to get a margarita at Joselitos. And hanging out with lesbians.
As far as the DWP water breaks are concerned you forget that David Nahai is on call via cell phone and email all day long. His advice i am sure is well worth the $6300 a week he is paid. Perhaps they should put him on a work crew and given a shovel so that at least he has the semblance of earning his pay.
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