The Socialist Shape of Things To Come (Unless You People Wake Up And Smell the Horse Shit)
By David Berger, Exclusive to Mayor Sam
People often ask me why I left England. Oftentimes the question is posed after they've just come back from a trip to 'Old Blighty' and they've seen sights; Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the Guards with their funny furry hats standing to attention outside Buckingham Palace, the Crown Jewels on display at The Tower of London, the Food Court at Harrods, the Hyde Park Memorial to dear departed Princess Diana, and Tower Bridge (you know, the bridge over the River Thames that opens to allow tall ships to pass and that some American millionaire thought he had bought).
They might even have been impressed when they watched 'Prime Minister's Question Time' in the House of Commons and observed the curious sight of politicians booing and jeering as the Prime Minister answers awkward questions arising from the governance of the country.
Quaint Olde England is a long way from Los Angeles and an even longer way from the reality of life in an England under the creeping specter of socialism that drove me to say "Ta Ta" to London when the writing was well and truly on the wall.
So what was so terribly wrong with England's creeping socialism, and what is it that prompts me to write about it now? Well I would give you three guesses, but you've already guessed. The "hope and change" that Obama promised has failed spectacularly, and the warnings from the right wing of "Obama the socialist" that fell on deaf ears (my own included) when America elected POTUS #44, are proving dangerously accurate.
But while Obama has failed to end the war, fix the economy, improve education, stimulate industry, etc. etc., his real success has been promoting creeping socialism to the USA. And he's done it masterfully, right under our noses, in broad daylight. We're increasingly seeing the erosion of all that made America great and witnessing the hailing of failure as the metrics of success.
Creeping socialism is the gradual introduction of socialist concepts by dressing up its inherent failures as successes. In the process we not only become accustomed to accept that which would otherwise be decried, but the thinly disguised failure becomes the new norm.
Law and order is a prime example of the way creeping socialism infects society. In England, the Tony Blair government was faced with finding a solution to the explosion in street crime. Police force strength had been cut back as the cost of policing gave way to the costs of supporting social programs and an increasingly bloated bureaucracy.
The commonsense answer would be re-invest in policing, but that would not only be expensive, but the inevitable increase in arrests and convictions would put pressure on the already overcrowded prisons. Overcrowded because while the population of the county was increasing, not a penny was spent on anticipating the need for more prison space. Build schools, hospitals, and community centers because the larger population has those needs, but heaven forbid, don't build more prisons because the sheer logic of a bigger population could not possibly mean there will be more criminals.
So the Blair government came up with their solution; the "ASBO" or Anti Social Behavior Order. This brilliant piece of socialist crap meant that in future, if the police were to make an arrest for Anti Social Behavior, like mugging, car theft, assault, stalking, robbery, shoplifting, vandalism and residential burglary, to name but a few of a long laundry list of "Anti Social" crimes, the culprit would be given a ticket, a strong warning "Not to be such a naughty boy or else," and they would not impact the overburdened criminal justice system.
In future, the public would be protected not by the police, but by signs like the one below.
If a person who had been given an "ASBO" reoffended, guess what, they would get another ASBO, a last chance to redeem themselves. There was, of course, no limit to the number of "last chances" that could be given, because the dumb Brits had now been conditioned to regard Anti Social Behavior as something distinct and different from criminal behavior.
It was a brilliant piece of socialist bullshit. The problem of England's increasing crime statistics dealt with by tickets and signs, and we can forget about the cost of policing and prison overcrowding. Under Blair's socialist government, the festering problem of crime conveniently went "off the books." But when Blair left and his less charismatic replacement, Gordon Brown, was drummed out of office, the shit hit the fan. The English equivalent of the Chief of Police, wasted no time in saying what he had not been allowed to say under Blair's regime, "The Police have lost control of the streets."
Well all of that's in England, you say, it will never happen here. Americans have too much sense to ever buy a load of crap like that. But wait a minute, hold on a second, don't we have exactly the same sort of crap as "ASBO" here, but perhaps it's just not quite as obvious?
Let's take a look at illegal immigration, for example. Creeping socialism started here by changing the terminology. Just like a crime became an "ASBO," an illegal alien became an "Undocumented Worker." Instead of the stupid ASBO sign, we got the "Sanctuary City." The names might be different, but the effect is the same. Where socialist regimes cannot deal with a problem, their solution is to 'rebrand it,' ignore the real problem and hail the solution as a success. But the problem doesn't go away, does it?
If we needed any better example of the way creeping socialism has succeeded in changing attitudes towards illegal immigration, just look at the way Gloria Allred was able to parade an illegal alien in front of us in an attempt to derail the electoral process and embarrass Meg Whitman. No one is questioning the fact that by possessing a false driver license and social security card, the illegal alien is violating California Penal Code section 472, possession of a counterfeit government seal. And of course, we've all forgotten that Allred pulled a similar stunt to try to harm Governor Schwarzenegger's campaign in 2003 with "Grope Gate."
Failing schools are another example of the way creeping socialism masks failure. California, once the hallmark of success in public education, is unmitigated disaster. The creeping socialist response is to hand out "feel good" certificates like confetti so that all the kids who cannot speak English or calculate the angles of an equilateral triangle are made to feel good about being abject failures. That is, of course, until they have to take a standardized test. I recall a sad case while I was at the City Attorney's Office where a student suffered brain damage when stuck by a hit and run driver on her way to school. Never mind the spurious theory as to why the City should be liable of the acts of a hit and run driver, let's look at the claim. The student was a "Straight A" student at a south central public school, who wanted to be an "International Investment Banker," but now would be lucky to get a job flipping burgers (that was before Jan Perry made that career choice even less likely).
A heart wrenching case, you might say. It was a case that Rocky Delgadillo wanted to settle for $5M, but the attorney wanted $15M. But when City Attorney Carmen Trutanich learned that the "Straight A" student had taken the SAT exam before the accident, and had ranked at the very bottom, it became very clear that the straight A's at this Charter School were awarded just for showing up. That his poor young person had absolutely no idea what an "international investment banker" was, and that the phony baloney feel good crap delivered by the Charter School had really been a cruel and heartless way of covering up their failure to educate. The jury agreed with Trutanich, the City of Los Angeles was not liable, and the student got nothing but the heartache of being let down by false hopes and promises.
Last week saw the curious partnership of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Mayor Villaraigosa.
Harris, of course, is vying to be Attorney General, and is basing her campaign not on her record, which is appalling – she has the lowest felony conviction rate of any major California city, but on a "hope and change" plan to cure truancy in elementary schools. Harris, a progressive liberal democrat, hails herself as an "innovator," someone who embraces new ideas to fight old problems. She cites her innovative policies, such as her plan to combat truancy, as distinguishing her candidacy from that of Steve Cooley, who is "old fashioned."
So Harris partners up with Villaraigosa (who appears to be eyeing up Harris) to announce this bold new "innovative" plan to tackle truancy at his Charter schools by threatening to send the parents of truant kids to jail.
There's only one slight problem. It's a problem that underscores why Villaraigosa failed the bar exam four times and has failed as our Mayor countlessly. It explains why Harris is a failure as San Francisco's DA. Neither of them bothered to check that Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley has had that same "innovative" plan in effect for at least 10 years. It's called ACT – Abolish Chronic Truancy.
Or maybe they did know that Cooley had been first to recognize and tackle the problem, but they could 'rebrand' it and claim it as their own. After all this pair of phonies don't think any of their koolaide drinkers would ever bother to check on their true records.
The reality of life under a government so constipated with leftwing driven political correctness was something I was happy to leave behind. I never thought I would be facing the same situation here in the USA, the land of the free, but the writing is one the wall. The only difference is that I believe Americans are smart enough to change the disastrous direction we're being led in. All it takes is a few people brave enough to draw a line in the sand and say "enough."
Obamacare is likely to be the next major failure dressed up as success. And while the likelihood is that Obama will be going the same way as Jack Weiss did, when he went too far, the damage that Obama has done by encouraging and promoting creeping socialism will plague us in the years to come, unless we wake up and smell the horse shit we've been dealt.
David Berger is a Deputy District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles and a former candidate for City Attorney of Los Angeles.
NOTICE: The comments views and opinions expressed above are personal to the writer and are not in any way authorized, approved or endorsed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office or any candidate.
They might even have been impressed when they watched 'Prime Minister's Question Time' in the House of Commons and observed the curious sight of politicians booing and jeering as the Prime Minister answers awkward questions arising from the governance of the country.
Quaint Olde England is a long way from Los Angeles and an even longer way from the reality of life in an England under the creeping specter of socialism that drove me to say "Ta Ta" to London when the writing was well and truly on the wall.
So what was so terribly wrong with England's creeping socialism, and what is it that prompts me to write about it now? Well I would give you three guesses, but you've already guessed. The "hope and change" that Obama promised has failed spectacularly, and the warnings from the right wing of "Obama the socialist" that fell on deaf ears (my own included) when America elected POTUS #44, are proving dangerously accurate.
But while Obama has failed to end the war, fix the economy, improve education, stimulate industry, etc. etc., his real success has been promoting creeping socialism to the USA. And he's done it masterfully, right under our noses, in broad daylight. We're increasingly seeing the erosion of all that made America great and witnessing the hailing of failure as the metrics of success.
Creeping socialism is the gradual introduction of socialist concepts by dressing up its inherent failures as successes. In the process we not only become accustomed to accept that which would otherwise be decried, but the thinly disguised failure becomes the new norm.
Law and order is a prime example of the way creeping socialism infects society. In England, the Tony Blair government was faced with finding a solution to the explosion in street crime. Police force strength had been cut back as the cost of policing gave way to the costs of supporting social programs and an increasingly bloated bureaucracy.
The commonsense answer would be re-invest in policing, but that would not only be expensive, but the inevitable increase in arrests and convictions would put pressure on the already overcrowded prisons. Overcrowded because while the population of the county was increasing, not a penny was spent on anticipating the need for more prison space. Build schools, hospitals, and community centers because the larger population has those needs, but heaven forbid, don't build more prisons because the sheer logic of a bigger population could not possibly mean there will be more criminals.
So the Blair government came up with their solution; the "ASBO" or Anti Social Behavior Order. This brilliant piece of socialist crap meant that in future, if the police were to make an arrest for Anti Social Behavior, like mugging, car theft, assault, stalking, robbery, shoplifting, vandalism and residential burglary, to name but a few of a long laundry list of "Anti Social" crimes, the culprit would be given a ticket, a strong warning "Not to be such a naughty boy or else," and they would not impact the overburdened criminal justice system.
In future, the public would be protected not by the police, but by signs like the one below.
If a person who had been given an "ASBO" reoffended, guess what, they would get another ASBO, a last chance to redeem themselves. There was, of course, no limit to the number of "last chances" that could be given, because the dumb Brits had now been conditioned to regard Anti Social Behavior as something distinct and different from criminal behavior.
It was a brilliant piece of socialist bullshit. The problem of England's increasing crime statistics dealt with by tickets and signs, and we can forget about the cost of policing and prison overcrowding. Under Blair's socialist government, the festering problem of crime conveniently went "off the books." But when Blair left and his less charismatic replacement, Gordon Brown, was drummed out of office, the shit hit the fan. The English equivalent of the Chief of Police, wasted no time in saying what he had not been allowed to say under Blair's regime, "The Police have lost control of the streets."
Well all of that's in England, you say, it will never happen here. Americans have too much sense to ever buy a load of crap like that. But wait a minute, hold on a second, don't we have exactly the same sort of crap as "ASBO" here, but perhaps it's just not quite as obvious?
Let's take a look at illegal immigration, for example. Creeping socialism started here by changing the terminology. Just like a crime became an "ASBO," an illegal alien became an "Undocumented Worker." Instead of the stupid ASBO sign, we got the "Sanctuary City." The names might be different, but the effect is the same. Where socialist regimes cannot deal with a problem, their solution is to 'rebrand it,' ignore the real problem and hail the solution as a success. But the problem doesn't go away, does it?
If we needed any better example of the way creeping socialism has succeeded in changing attitudes towards illegal immigration, just look at the way Gloria Allred was able to parade an illegal alien in front of us in an attempt to derail the electoral process and embarrass Meg Whitman. No one is questioning the fact that by possessing a false driver license and social security card, the illegal alien is violating California Penal Code section 472, possession of a counterfeit government seal. And of course, we've all forgotten that Allred pulled a similar stunt to try to harm Governor Schwarzenegger's campaign in 2003 with "Grope Gate."
Failing schools are another example of the way creeping socialism masks failure. California, once the hallmark of success in public education, is unmitigated disaster. The creeping socialist response is to hand out "feel good" certificates like confetti so that all the kids who cannot speak English or calculate the angles of an equilateral triangle are made to feel good about being abject failures. That is, of course, until they have to take a standardized test. I recall a sad case while I was at the City Attorney's Office where a student suffered brain damage when stuck by a hit and run driver on her way to school. Never mind the spurious theory as to why the City should be liable of the acts of a hit and run driver, let's look at the claim. The student was a "Straight A" student at a south central public school, who wanted to be an "International Investment Banker," but now would be lucky to get a job flipping burgers (that was before Jan Perry made that career choice even less likely).
A heart wrenching case, you might say. It was a case that Rocky Delgadillo wanted to settle for $5M, but the attorney wanted $15M. But when City Attorney Carmen Trutanich learned that the "Straight A" student had taken the SAT exam before the accident, and had ranked at the very bottom, it became very clear that the straight A's at this Charter School were awarded just for showing up. That his poor young person had absolutely no idea what an "international investment banker" was, and that the phony baloney feel good crap delivered by the Charter School had really been a cruel and heartless way of covering up their failure to educate. The jury agreed with Trutanich, the City of Los Angeles was not liable, and the student got nothing but the heartache of being let down by false hopes and promises.
Last week saw the curious partnership of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Mayor Villaraigosa.
Harris, of course, is vying to be Attorney General, and is basing her campaign not on her record, which is appalling – she has the lowest felony conviction rate of any major California city, but on a "hope and change" plan to cure truancy in elementary schools. Harris, a progressive liberal democrat, hails herself as an "innovator," someone who embraces new ideas to fight old problems. She cites her innovative policies, such as her plan to combat truancy, as distinguishing her candidacy from that of Steve Cooley, who is "old fashioned."
So Harris partners up with Villaraigosa (who appears to be eyeing up Harris) to announce this bold new "innovative" plan to tackle truancy at his Charter schools by threatening to send the parents of truant kids to jail.
There's only one slight problem. It's a problem that underscores why Villaraigosa failed the bar exam four times and has failed as our Mayor countlessly. It explains why Harris is a failure as San Francisco's DA. Neither of them bothered to check that Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley has had that same "innovative" plan in effect for at least 10 years. It's called ACT – Abolish Chronic Truancy.
Or maybe they did know that Cooley had been first to recognize and tackle the problem, but they could 'rebrand' it and claim it as their own. After all this pair of phonies don't think any of their koolaide drinkers would ever bother to check on their true records.
The reality of life under a government so constipated with leftwing driven political correctness was something I was happy to leave behind. I never thought I would be facing the same situation here in the USA, the land of the free, but the writing is one the wall. The only difference is that I believe Americans are smart enough to change the disastrous direction we're being led in. All it takes is a few people brave enough to draw a line in the sand and say "enough."
Obamacare is likely to be the next major failure dressed up as success. And while the likelihood is that Obama will be going the same way as Jack Weiss did, when he went too far, the damage that Obama has done by encouraging and promoting creeping socialism will plague us in the years to come, unless we wake up and smell the horse shit we've been dealt.
David Berger is a Deputy District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles and a former candidate for City Attorney of Los Angeles.
NOTICE: The comments views and opinions expressed above are personal to the writer and are not in any way authorized, approved or endorsed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office or any candidate.
Labels: barack obama, carmen trutanich, david berger, Kamala Harris, mayor antonio villaraigosa, socialism, steve cooley, united kingdom
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/11/2010 12:01:00 AM
49 Comments:
Hate to say it, but Kamala is the most stunningly beautiful woman I have ever seen. And when she speaks, it only adds to it. Although not a fan of what she says. Just how she says it and how she looks when she says it. Like budda.
What a screed indeed.
Not to bother engaging in the pile of Horse Shit to use Berger's term, what a brilliant and humane lawsuit "win" to single out here: a girl hit by a car became brain damaged, but because she scored low on her SAT's, deserved nothing!
Thanks to our brave Trutanovich, we have here another "high five" type happy ending: save money by doing the amoral thing. Berger doesn't give details as to why the city should be liable (poorly marked crosswalks, perhaps?) but if the doctors say she suffered brain damage, is it Trutanovich's ROLE to claim she's too stupid to have merited anything? Do Berger and Trutanovich want a society where test scores determine worth as a human being? Because the girl had ambitions that may have been unrealistic? Or maybe not: top colleges DO take affirmative action black and Latino kids who score low but have other compensating factors, maybe unfair to whites and Asians who are cut, but are Berger and Trutanovich now making public policy, including re: how schools grade students and whom universities accept?
CLEARLY Berger wants to, based on some anger he has with Britain and Europe. But he and Trutanovich have Gawd Complexes fused to major anger management issues that are downight scary.
And really now, is Trutanovich the graduate of a short-lived night school Law School in Carson, in a position to cast stones at this girl? What are the odds someone who speaks so coarsely and without polish or panache, with a fifth- rate legal education, becoming the favorite of the warped reinvention of the L A Times as the Steve Cooley/ downtown Republican Times? Surely the girl knows as much about international banking as he does about sound politics.
The "socialist Obamacare" healthcare plan has a few good features left, like not being able to deny pre- existing conditions to kids and teens for coverage, and requiring insurance plans to cover you for the nearest ER not just the ones in their plan. That could mean life and death and it's sound policy.
The BAD thing is that insurers are still in charge of our whole system, just not, the government will require we all pay them. With no control over rate limits, unless they get REALLY crazy.
And insurers are just not writing policies for kids only in some states, and may try even harder to deny parents who have kids with potentially expensive conditions.
Their wily ways to get around anything to protect consumers continues, like with banks re: credit cards, or notoriously the big banks which got the billions in bailouts and screwed the average taxpayer the bills were meant to help.
Blame the Republicans for killing a real healthplan that works!
You can blame BOTH parties for being outsmarted by Big Banks.
Berger you can hate the European systems where healthcare is a "right" but you are a cold fish.
However it is important to note that Europe's famous safety net is collapsing partly from an influx in immigrants, even though they don't grant citizenship to the kids of illegals as we do. One can't deny that our ability to offer cheap or free healthcare to all is bogged down when we have millions here illegally who don't pay income taxes and won't be hit with fines if they don't buy healthcare - since penalties are assessed and found by the dreaded IRS! Anyone who insists county clinics and med centers are not closing and crowded at least in part by illegals with no insurance is kidding themselves. HOWEVER those like Berger who blame Democrats for every ill and for virtually inviting illegals here to kill us and sell drugs to our kids while dragging down our schools and filling the prisons we ALSO haven't been enough of to relieve crowding, are fearmongers and ignoramuses who don't see how Republicans and Big Business fuel and invite the illegal workforce.
It was BUSH who was on the verge of opening borders to the South, even allowing Mexican trucks to drive up without visas, before 9/11 caused him to change focus - and blame Saddam for it, when for all his faults an evil he was Al Qaeda's worst nightmare!
Invading Iraq only made them stronger in Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world. But typical teabagger dum-dum Berger blames Obama for not ending the war the Republicans started. At least he's refocusing on Afghanistan. If he DID pull out altogether you'd rip him apart for THAT. You teabaggers have NO exit strategy.
Good job, Bush-Cheney. Dum Teabaggers can't even tell Muslim countries apart.
Berger is an blabbering, bloviating, British, boar. What a waste of space.
"Exclusive to Mayor Sam" =
"Noone" else would post it.
I mean, seriously, Fat Boy. Who gives a fuck whether it's exclusive or not? All the other blogs pounding on your door to publish this?
C'mon.
12:09AM I agree, Kamala Harris is the same as Sarah Palin, SHE'S SSSOOOO HHHOT!!! You can see from the way Antonio is looking at her that he's lining her up to be the replacement for Lu Parker. You can almost imagine the conversation when they met up to announce Cooley's truancy plan:
HARRIS: Hi Antonio, is that a rolled up calligraphic scroll you've got in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
VILLAR: Babe, have I got plans for you!
I liked the bit about Villar and Harris copying Steve Cooley's anti-truancy plan and either being too stupid to realize it already exists, or thinking that democrats are too stupid to make the connection.
But Berger's wrong about one thing, Villar is an expert on truancy - look at the amount of time he spends away from City Hall. I wonder what you would find if you did a public records act request for the LA Bad Boy's recent travel records. D'ya think Antonio's been in San Francisco recently? Perhaps he's following up with his plans for Kamala Harris, and you know what they are!
As for the brain damaged burger flipper, I would like to know why the City of Los Angeles is responsible for the actions of a hit an run driver, but I think the point about giving false hopes to kids with Villar's Charter Schools is valid.
Maybe Berger should threaten him with jail?
Outstanding essay.
I think what we have here in L.A. is far worse than socialism. At least socialism is, in theory, intended to benefit the public and, in particular, individuals without the money and power to protect themselves.
What we have in L.A. is more of a crook-ocracy, where the aim of government is simply to redistribute money from taxpayers to whatever special interest groups (e.g., unions, developers, gangs) have put their candidates in office.
We give hundreds of millions of dollars per year in welfare for the rich through the CRA, for example. That's no so much socialism as just plain old corruption.
To use an English phrase, David Berger is "brilliant". He sees the coming dangers of Socialism.
Best writing on Mayor Sam in quite some time.
P.S. If we go socialist, can we at least get those cool British accents?
Obama, the worst president ever, even more so than Jimmuh Cotter.
12:23am. Your point is what? That the city is responsible for hit an run drivers? Why? And as for the bogus claim that she could have been an international investment banker with an education based on phony feel good certificates, I think the jury answered that question too.
It's easy for you to blame Trutanich or Berger for standing up for the law. I suppose in your world we should just pay off all the claims that are made like Rocky used to do.
The point here is that we're all being misled by socialists to accept failure as success. A student with an inadequate education is a success in your books. While it might make the student feel good, when reality checks in, the student is let down.
When Obama picks a date out his ass to 'end the war' and then he doesn't, we're all let down. And don't blame Bush for the war, the seeds of that war were sown when your beloved Clinton did not respond to radical islamic attacks against the US, and when he dropped the ball and let Bin Laden slip through his fingers.
You cannot keep on calling a failure a success and not suffer the consequences.
1. Who is David Berger?
2. Why should we care?
3. If a disinteresting story is exclusive to Mayor sam, what does that say about you?
I assume he's seeking more eyeballs and a link from The Jennerjahn Report but now Mullholland Crackpot is referring to the Birthday Party Clown. Next up begging for links from Zuma Dogg.
You'd have been better off posting about this Mayor Sam:
Kinda relevant, don't ya think?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/world/europe/10edgecombe.html?_r=1&hpw
I don't think anyone reads that Griffith Park Crackpot Blog. Maybe just Mailander, Valley Doll and JoeB. Maybe he can get Mary Cummins, Phil and Zuma to write for it.
Boring!
Higby you asshole, where is my comment about Villarigoso being at the white house today?
Feeling a little sorry for joe b?
Frik and frak AKA Phil Jennerdoodle and Wacko Walter are here. Maybe they can read the crackpot's blog.
Goebels was The Man!
Ha ha!
The Astroturfing of MayorSam is complete. With the "Libtards Love Socialism" meme screeching from it's very headlines, it's official. If the editor of this blog were "intellectually honest", he'd change the blog's banner to reflect it's now apparent bias: MayorSam's Home of Teabagger Politics and Horse Shit Memes.
Cheeses H. , what a damn shame.
That Griffith Park blog was quite good when it was about Griffith Park. Now it's only Mulholland Terrace screaming about eMeg.
Mayor Sam, why do you allow vicious comments here, but not refer to the LIKELY chance that he is writing under the influence of jim beam.
Eddie can go fuck himself! That's what I think.
Yes, if you've been there. But then why wouldn't you? Or anyone for that matter?
Know what I mean?
I'll beleive it when I see it.
Les Culhaine
8:15 AM 1. Who is David Berger
He is a loud mouthed cockney Brit who ran a dirty campaign to become City Attorney but it looks like he only did it to have a platform to attack democrat Councilmember Jack Weiss and ruin his plans to be Los Angeles City Attorney. When he came 4th out 5 in the primary election, he teamed up with Carmen the Clown to continue to attack Weiss mercilessly. Weiss was already hated in his own district (CD5), but few realized how bad he was. Berger used right wing talk show clowns; Doug McIntyre, Kevin James and even that darling of the liberals, Larry Mantle, to spread the word.
2. Why should we care>
Because Fox News regularly uses him for background dirt and because, according to the LA Daily News, he made over $220k as one of the Clown's 'top aides' to do Nooch's dirty work. "Noone" knows if he quit or was fired from the top slot at the City Attorneys Office, and the County has not said how much he now makes at the DA's Office.
3. If a disinteresting story is exclusive to Mayor Sam, what does that say about you?
The story is not "disinteresting." It makes the points that Americans don't want to make, and highlights the failures of Obama and democrat socialism in general. The Villar-Harris part is amazing, never mind Villar's lecherous leering, the idiot didn't think that he would be outed for plagiarism over his truancy plan? I think that's the best part of the "disinteresting" story!
More exclusives like this please, and less of Joe B.'s "Video Cams for Dummies" posts.
Why didn't Berger comment on Whoregate? I mean if his agenda is to bash democrats, why not throw that one into the mix too?
Love the new Jerry Brown campaign poster! If he loses the election, Jerry can get a part on Mad Men in a heartbeat - they won't even have to write his lines, or is that "lies?"
Creepin Socialism = 80 FAKE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCHES. Great post by the way.
Did Valley Doll forget that Joe B creates half of the content here? Most of which is about Jerry Brown or Arizona.
Berger's point about Kamala Harris copying Steve Cooley's 'Abolish Chronic Truancy' plan doesn't tell the whole story (there's a surprise), in fact there was an anti-truancy project at the City Attorney's Office as well. One that Rocky Delgadillo set up, and it was also mirrored on Cooley's plan. But when Carmen the Clown took over, he fired all the staff running the 'Safe Schools project' and used the money to hire his secret police force any buy them cars, guns, and send them to Quantico for training on how to spy on Alarcon.
I don't care if Trutanich doesn't like being called a clown because he owns it now that his buddy let the truth come out about the Safe School thing.
4:22 AM makes a good point about the way Europe's socialized healthcare is breaking down because of immigration; illegal or otherwise.
The sheer cost of illegal immigration is already destroying our schools and emergency rooms. Imagine how much worse it's going to be under Obamacare?
Hi Joe!!
The Housekeeper-gate scandal might get a breath of life from the LA Slimes - they're running an appeal to get folks to drop a few dineros on Nicky Diaz. There's also a poll where you can vote yes, no or hell no, on whether you will help Nicky while she waits for her payoff.
http://laslimes.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/help-nicky-diaz/
Not looking too good for Nicky right now ...
"P.S. If we go socialist, can we at least get those cool British accents?" Walter Moore, that is a disappointing comment from you, as well versed as you are on most city affairs. This is how unintelligent men like Berger get ahead in the US due to their British accents, which many americans equate with intelligence. The whole article is elitist and fascist, and a more suitable place for Mr. Berger to move would be communist China before it turns "socialist".
So 9:42 is the new tack by Antonio's spinners to pin the blame for his own failings, and refusal to even address the illegal immigrant issue, taking Jack Weiss to open a Westwood crosswalk with him INSTEAD to make him fodder for rightwing talk radio, when Clown Carmen and Zine joined the A.M. radio rightwing kooks (Kevin James, McIntyre etc.) to blame Weiss for releasing the killer of Jamiel Shaw, Jr. from jail?
That was done by deputies for the REPUBLICAN DA (Cooley) and Sheriff (Baca) who run the jails and admit they never questioned known gangmember Pedro Espinoza's assertion that he was born in the U.S. No background check, just released him.
It would have been easy to rebut this stupid grandstanding, but it looks to me like Antonio and his handler Ace Smith, refused to let Weiss address the issue or even discuss SO40 and why he and other lawyers, virtually all Chiefs of Police etc., believe it serves public safety, and now it had ZERO to do with Jamiel Shaw, Jr. They made Weiss an easy mark for the likes of Kevin James, and Berger the slanderous Cockney himself.
Then there was Measure B, which Antonio and Trujillo foisted on the same ballot with Weiss/ the City Attorney election, in a low turnout election dominated by angry suburban conservatives out to vote down all new taxes~
Weiss handily won his district until he became associated with Antonio and his development density, even though Weiss was too polite (foolish?) to point out their significant disagreements.
When Antonio ran in '05, it was Weiss who persuaded the westside that he was a conciliator, not some Latino-centric leftie pol.
Antonio will do for Harris what he did "for" Hilary, Janice Hahn, Jack Weiss and anyone he "helps."
Michael do you have any comment on the trashing that Mulholland Terrace and Valley Doll are doing of you on his blog?
Not really.
Michael & David I agree with most of your post... but let's keep these manifesto's short and to the point.
I think Berger just committed political suicide with today's rant. He must know that everyone in City Hall reads the Mayor Sam blog religiously, and most of them won't like what he had to say. I heard that Jan Perry had a print out of the piece he wrote last year that slammed her for overriding the city's billboard law to give A.E.G. an exception.
Even so, there will be a few laughs about Villaraigosa leering at Kamala Harris's rubenesque figure, and a few more about the pair of them being outed for plagiarism. Of all the people they had to copy, they had to pick Cooley - priceless!
Michael do you have any comment on the trashing that Mulholland Terrace and Valley Doll are doing of you on his blog?
October 11, 2010 2:58 PM
2:58, I wasn't trashing; I was lamenting. I'm really sad that this used to be a cool blog and now it's just a SHOUTING TALKING POINTS BLOG...,,,,,!!!! For Republican Teabagging Olds, as well as their younger Teabagging Policital Consultant counterparts.
Nothing cool or fun about this blog anymore. Just the usual spin, bloviate, blog, repeat.
But then again, there never IS anything fun about Teabaggers. They're devoid of any humor and have horrible integrity issues.
And Michael, just cause you let Joe B. blog whatever he wants here hardly makes you a "diverse" pov blog. It just means you either had to work late or were too busy to do a hotsheet yourself and as far as Joe's political view points? Well, I'm sure they = lotsa clickety clicks. Which is what this is all about, no?
Yes.
Well played.
Kamala is not "rubenesque" which means, by today's standards, fat.
And fat, rosy and white to be exact.
Someone on the GPW blog (Berger? whoever posted virtually the same stuff as "jack" on another blog) said about the same photo, that Villaraigosa was leering at her cleavage (nope, not showing), that she was "shapely" and "sultry."
Those terms might fit but I think he's too in love with himself to be thinking in those terms about her. She's too smart for him - he goes for the women who are like him, camera hogs and show-offs. With mediocre educations, wasn't Mirthala a college drop out after a year, and Lu puts photos of herself with her dog charities at Getty house with no reservation. She twittered about going to some show at an AEG venue which Antonio got them tickets for because he gave out a proclamation - maybe started Ticketgate with her ego.
Kamala's a babe but too smart. And her program in San Francisco had nothing to do with copying Cooley. It's also just congecture that even Rocky copied him. I mean really now how original is it to try to cut teen truancy? Her program is more about offering parents who may be overwhelmed help and options, not just punishment, like the Cooley way.
Joe B posting here is a candle in th wind.
And he criticizes or mocks ideas, does not get nasty about people, with hateful and childish nicknames, like Berger and the gems Higby has had posting here about Democrats.
This blog has been biased and nasty for years, only now that John Thomas and Berger the rightest of the rightwingers are posting here, does EVERYONE notice.
"But while Obama has failed to end the war, fix the economy, improve education, stimulate industry, etc. etc., "
***********************
Bring back Geroge Bush and the Republican congress, the economy would have never faulted under the republicans.
Education was the best ever under George Bush and the Republicans !!!!
You notice that when Higby shilled for Valley Doll, Mailander and other lib's pet causes they didn't complain?
Higby still regularly shills for Valley Doll's highly parochial suburban Valley causes that are irrelvant to the rest of the City. We indulge it because it's his blog.
In light of the fact Democrats about to take the biggest drubbing in history they now turn mean.
JoeB, interestingly so, is probably the only honest broker in the bunch.
6:35 PM Regarding your comment that Harris did not copy Cooley's ACT program you said: "Her program is more about offering parents who may be overwhelmed help and options, not just punishment, like the Cooley way.
Did you even bother to read the linked article on KPPC's website? I don't think you did because their description of the Harris-Cooley plan is as follows:
"If parents still fail after many attempts at intervention, the law allows them to be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The charges would be dropped if the student's attendance improves."
If you are trying to suggest that the Harris plan is different to Cooley's which also gives parents a chance to comply but carries the threat of prosecution, please explain the difference.
I'm a teacher in Los Angeles and the problem of truancy is so bad with parents that even threatening to send them to jail doesn't work. If either Harris or Villaraigosa had any genuine wish to cure this problem they would do it the way Trutanich dealt with that billboard in Hollywood - throw their asses in jail and let them out when they comply.
Whitman and Fiorina are going down.
Jerry Brown will be Governor.
Boxer will keep her Senate job.
Gavin Newsom will be Lt. Governor.
Controller, Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner will all be Democrats.
Lockyer, Chiang, Jones.
Drubbing by Republicans, you say?
As for that mired in his OWN "horse shit" Berger, to liken our healthcare modification to European "socialism" when the very thing WRONG with it, is it's still in the greedy, heartless clutches of private insurers, is as stupid as it is pure partisan rant.
9:17pm your predictions are horribly accurate. That will be the outcome of the November election unless voters start listening to people like Berger.
I'm glad that there are people like him who are not afraid to speak their minds and deliver a few home truths about the way the democrats were fooled by Obama and are now being led down a road of destruction.
Berger thinks Americans are "too smart" to allow this charade to last much longer, and while Whitman is certainly not my choice for governor, I see little choice but to elect her, if only to put the brakes on creeping socialism.
It is for that same reason that other dems will lose their seats, and the Boxer Fiorina poll is going to swing the other way any day now. There's a rumor going around that will have Boxer wishing she had an illegal alien housekeeper that she regularly called a "whore" because what she has to answer too is 10 times worse. It's dynamite and Boxer will be history.
I know Berger reads MS and probably blogs here anonymously, I hope he sees that there are a lot of us that appreciate his effort.
Higby you have some real geniuses commenting here. NOT!
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