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Monday, November 15, 2010

Mid-Day Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Monday

Kamala Harris and Steve Cooley
Shades of Florida 2000 at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Office?
If you listen to the charges and counter-charges from the respective spokespersons for San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, as the vote count trickles on in the California Attorney General Election. Then the California version of Bush v. Gore may not be far off.
You can click on to the link above for the blow by blow spin but at the time of this post, the Daily News is reporting that Kamala Harris holds a 14,089 vote lead over Steve Cooley. More drama to come.
OTHER NEWS:
** You can link here to view the final list of paper pullers for Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education and Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees Offices up for election in March of 2011. Interesting to note the background of the perspective candidates such as "Policeman Mitch Englander", "Educator Luis Sanchez", "Community College Professor Mona Field" and my personal favorite "Political Consultant Phil Jennerjahn". Good luck on gathering those signatures.
** Nice story in the "Daily Moldy Green Sheet" on newly-elected Governor Jerry Brown's "center of focus", his wife Ann Gust. Wonder if this dedication to focus was the contributor to the Brown's vacation choice of Arizona, after his recent election win? Latinos might care to ask.
** We like to welcome Sierra Club Activist Bill Haller to the bloggin cybersphere as he joins the ranks of writers at the Griffith Park Wayist. Readers to the Wayist will enjoy his wit and depth of dedication to preserving our natural wonders. They may also get treated to a post or two from his "mini me" transportation guru buddy Bart Reed.
** Thanks to Prop 20 and the monetary support of Charles T. Munger, fairness is returning to the task of redrawing election maps. who in 2012 will reap the "benefits or reality" of the new boundaries. Maybe someone may not want to wait four years to run for CD 4?
** The California Supreme Court just ruled that some illegal aliens can get in-state tuition for college. Once again, California leads the way.........., into the abyss.
** Racial profiling is back in the news at the LAPD.
** Longtime Sacramento Scribe Dan Walters verbally smacks the LA Weekly article on the "ghost authoring proclivities" of Assemblyman Felipe "AB 2531" Fuentes as "old news". The "Weekly of Record" retorts.
** A journalistic rumor making the rounds is that the "Old Gray Hag on Spring Street" and the "Daily Moldy Green Sheet", are sitting on a story regarding a investigation of a "local state official's residency status". Wonder why?
Your thoughts..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14

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24 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"Why" do "you" put "So" many words "IN" quotation "marks," and "why" Do "You" capitalize "So" many "Words?"""""""""""

November 15, 2010 1:04 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Come on, Red Spot!

"Readers to the Wayist"

How does one read to something?

November 15, 2010 1:05 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I voted for Cooley, but am now rooting for Harris. I want the liberal Dems to get FULL credit for driving the state of Cawl-ee-fornee-uh ALL the way down the toilet, the rest of the way folowing on the heels of the RINO-in-Chief - with no one left to blame it on but themselves.

That's when the Golden State will join the rest of the country in sidelining and shelving their pinko butts.

November 15, 2010 1:08 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

You mean like Monica Garcia's unused apartment?

November 15, 2010 1:54 PM  

Blogger Michael Higby said:

Congrats to Jack Hoff for joining GPW. Looking for more sober commentary there.

November 15, 2010 3:51 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

"You can link here to view the final list of paper pullers for . . .election in March of 2011."

(I would respectfully suggest that the vast majority of these wanna-bees are "pulling" something other than paper.)

At the very least -- their own legs, if they think they have a shot.

November 15, 2010 6:41 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

1:08PM - Kinda agree with you, but it may be academic. As of 3:42PM, Cooley was 31,483 votes behind Kamala Harris and there's still 774,065 uncounted ballots to go. LA County has the largest chunk of that - 156,981 and they're toxic to Cooley.

Doesn't look good for Cooley, there probably won't be a recount unless the margin gets a lot closer. I guess we will see what wonders an all Democrat executive in Sacramento can do...

Cooley's poor showing in LA County is being blamed on his close association to Carmen Trutanich who has turned his back on many of the LA groups who originally supported him - especially the medical pot people and women who were disgusted when Trutanich went back on his pledge to Wendy Greuel and Laura Chick over the Controller audit powers.

Trutanich is probably already working on an exit strategy as he will not become DA and will lose the City Attorney election by a landslide to Paul Krekorian who has a number key people in Trutanich's office keen to support any effort to remove Trutanich.

November 15, 2010 9:11 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Carmen the Clown has betrayed all the groups he duped into supporting him and they deserve it. The stupid pot people who never did any research or figured out that if Cooley was pushing for him, and Cooley made it clear he was intent on shutting them all down no matter the ordinances passed - "the city council is so irrelevant they're ridiculous," he said. He's the one who gave Nooch his Pooch marching orders, not the other way around.

Back stabbing Laura Chick who came out loud and clear was just a start - and got even that pasty white guy with the pitchforks who used his radio show as a non-stop infomercial, Mac Intyre, realizing he was a phony who would now threaten Wendy with "an arsenal of lawyers" we are paying for, and his goon squad, if she dared get him to keep his promises.

All the duped old people in SOHA and the westside groups who think they're so smart but were naive enough to think the "fixer" from Long Beach gave a damn about THEIR local anti-development battles and billboards. Sure, arresting some rich guy and throwing a Million Bucks bail on him got him attention but otherwise, how dumb were they to think he drove in from Long Beach to suck upto them, out of genuine caring? When he hadn't had an iota of public service in 30 years?

That a candidate as weak as Kamala could defeat Cooley shows how the arrogance of these two has bitten them in the ass. (Of course, she was helped big-time by the lousy Republican ticket of Whitman/ Fiorina, and being pulled up by Brown.)

AND will dash the Third of their Three MUSKETEERS Zine's hopes of becoming Controller. A job he knows less than nothing about. Being two-faced isn't enough. HE has lost the Teabagger support too and like the Nooch, they're screwed without Cooley throwing his weight around for them.

November 15, 2010 9:33 PM  

Blogger Rumpole said:

9;11pm - There's over three quarters of a million votes still to be counted, many of which are from the 'non-toxic' parts of California where Cooley was far and away the winner. Once those votes are counted there's a good chance that they will wipe out Ms. Harris's lead, so don't go counting your chickens just yet.

As for the comments about Carmen Trutanich "turning his back" on the medical marijuana community; all he ever promised was a fair law that regulated collectives under Prop 215, and that's what LA got. The 800 pot shops were never part of the equation and many were basically run by opportunists trying to cash in on the confusion caused by the City Council's inaction. The community as a whole is happier with some law rather than no law at all.

The controller issue is another misconception, and it was Greuel and Chick who moved the goal posts. The objective was to audit the workers' compensation program run by Rocky Delgadillo. Once Trutanich was elected it was he who reminded Greuel that she was welcome to conduct the audit, and it was only then that she changed the game and wanted more powers than the city charter gave her.

The audit was done and we got to see what a god awful job Rocky Delgadillo did (there's a surprise) and all the recommendations that Greuel came up with were already in place. The whole thing was a fuss over nothing dragged up by sore losers who can't live with the idea that there's a real attorney running the City Attorney's Office, not some play pretend photo op politician. Get over it.

November 15, 2010 10:22 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

For the anonymous one at 6:41:

Undoubtedly so, but then there is also this:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

That from the original Progressive...

All the best,

Brad Smith

http://smithforcouncil.org/

November 15, 2010 10:34 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

As for SOHA and the "old" people on the Westside, after 8 years of having Jack Weiss as our completely ineffectual represenative in City Council, we had three objectives in the City Attorney election:

1) Anyone except Jack Weiss
2) No way can we have Jack Weiss as City Attorney
3) Anything to beat Jack Weiss

Trutanich helped us accomplish our objectives as much as we helped him accomplish his.

November 16, 2010 8:47 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Can't believe Rumpled the "English Horse Shit is Coming! The English brand of Socialist Horseshit I fled is coming!" is still trying to turn black into white for his Nooch (who he doesn't even work for anymore, back to Cooley he was lobbed).

The Nooch agreed to Laura Chick's insistence that the Controller be able to audit ALL/ ANY city officials including ANY City Attorney. THEN he did the switch-and-bait which Rumpled tries to claim was the only original intent. NO ONE other than Cooley who was running against Rocky and wanted dirt on him, and of ocurse his Pooch the Nooch, was obsessed with Rocky's books to the exclusion of all else.

As Rumpled admits they DID set out to find dirt to help Cooley and guess they did - Rocky's campaign was so low- key, they probably had something hanging over his head. Maybe not big but they went through his whole office to look for anything.

This b.s. excuse of claiming it was all about Rocky is very convenient for Nooch so Wendy can't audit his books, and he can claim all kinds of savings while decimating various office accounts for his pet projects, and secret investigators, killing the Neighborhood Prosecutor program and claiming huge savings in litigation when his stubborn ego litigates EVERYTHING including the Controllers' right to audit.

WHAT a crock, what an insult to both Chick and Wendy. If she had any guts herself she wouldn't let it just slide. She keeps auditing the same groups but NOT elected officials where the real skeletons are buried.

Maybe when Trutanich is out of office, HIS successor will finally dig up what's going on there like he did for Rocky. BUT I have a feeling he's hiding his tracks better.

As for the rest of Rumpled's excuses, just more same hyperbolic nonsense.

November 16, 2010 9:02 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

1:08

So would wish that things get worse for the people of California, who you profess to care about, so that you can blame the Democrats?

Is that the Republicans official position?

We need things to go downhill so we can get elected and get credit for improving things back to the way they were before we wished they would get worse?

November 16, 2010 10:58 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

10:58 p.m.

Yes, that's right, you caught me. . . I (the "anonymous" poster), at 1:08 p.m., and THE OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON for the Republican Party.

Damn, I don't know HOW you saw through my disguise here.

(Idiot! No wonder you lost the rest of the country after less than 2 years in power. Geez, it took the 6-7 years the start of two wars, and the beginning of a recession to make enough people sick of "bumbling" GW to get Obama elected. You should all be proud of your "chosen" leaders and their ability to drive the country 180 degrees in the OPPOSITE direction in less than one-third that amount of time.) Now THAT'S real leadership, assuming you believe skunks are "leaders" in the animal kingdom, because they send people AWAY from them.

My comments were to the affect that with a full slate of liberals Dems running Calif., they couldn't DEFER any portion of the blame they will truly deserve.

And if wanting to place blame is a political TOOL, then I submit to you one of L.A. and California's GREAT "progressive" TOOLS . . . the honorable JACKIE GOLDBERG and her open microphone.

(Google it, if you're under 30).

November 16, 2010 12:49 PM  

Anonymous g said:

THERE IS ONE THING I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT IN REGARDS TO A RECENTLY APPROVED ORDINANCE ON ZONING AUTHORED BY TRUTANICH'S OFFICE. THIS ORDINANCE EXCLUDES EIR REVIEW,REMOVES STACKHOLDERS FROM COMMENTS OR CHANGES TO PLANNING, AND ASSURES HOMEOWNERS WILL HAVE LESS LEGAL SWAY IN COURT IN REGARDS TO PLANNING. CHECK RECENTLY APPROVED ORDINANCE AT: LANEIGHBORS.ORG AND LACITY.ORG UNDER PLANNING. ALSO HE HAS IGNORED STATE LAW THAT APPROVED MEDICAL POT BY TRYING TO SHUTDOWN ALL DISPENSARIES. WHEN HE RAN FOR OFFICE HE MADE PROMISES THAT WERE CHANGED ONCE HE WON OFFICE. HE WENT FROM A PERSON WHO WOULD FIGHT FOR THE PUBLIC TO A PERSON WHO'S THEIR TO FIGHT FOR CITY HALL ONLY, QUITE A SWITCH. DID HE NOT KNOW WHAT THE JOB WAS ABOUT OR WAS HE LYING ABOUT WHAT HIS RESPONSIBILITIES ARE. EITHER WAY IT PUTS A LIGHT ON WHAT HE KNOWS OR STANDS FOR.

November 16, 2010 1:26 PM  

Anonymous g said:

IN REGARDS TO BOTH REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES WHO WON. IT MAKES LITTLE DIFFERENCE THEY BOTH ARE A "YIN AND YANG OF EACH OTHER" ELECTED AS A RESULT OF TOO MUCH MONEY AND THE FACT THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE MORE IN LOVE WITH A PERCEIVED WINNER THAN SOMEONE WHO CARES AND WOULD DO A GOOD JOB. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS "COMMUNICATION WHICH IS TERRIBLE WITH NEWSPAPERS,TV NEWS OR ON THE NET". PEOPLE HAVE FEW PLACES WHERE THEY COULD GO TO MEET AND LEARN ABOUT CANDIDATES. WE NEED MORE "PUBLIC ACCESS TV NOT LESS". IF WE DON'T OPEN UP THIS AVENUE OF COMMUNICATION AVERAGE INDIVIDUALS WILL NEVER GET IN OFFICE WITHOUT SELLING THEIR SOUL.

November 16, 2010 1:46 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

HEY, NO ONE READS MESSAGES POSTED IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE PEOPLE WHO DO THAT AREN'T PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK -- not to mention a full keyboard!

November 16, 2010 3:21 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

g:

Look at your keyboard. On the left edge, third key from the bottom. Tap it just once.

November 16, 2010 4:23 PM  

Blogger Rumpole said:

9:02am - Your point is what? When I worked for the City Attorney's Office I was biased, and now that I do not work in the City I am still biased? Perhaps I'm just calling it the way it is.

The whole Controller issue started when Laura Chick as Controller served subpoenas on Rocky's office. Rock moved to quash the subpoenas on the basis that the City Charter does not give the Controller that power. The issue was really rendered mute when Trutanich basically said that if he were elected as City Attorney, he would allow the Controller to audit the Workers' Compensation Program.

That wasn't good enough for Chick, and she pursued the case, and when she left office Wendy Greuel continued the action. There were countless court hearings where Judge Mark V. Mooney tried to persuade Gruel/Chick to drop the case because Trutanich was willing to allow the audit, but Gruel/Chick insisted on a judgment, and sure enough Judge Mooney gave them the judgement - he said that the City Charter does not give the Controller the power to audit programs run by an elected official. She can audit the DWP, the Airport, Building & Safety, Rec & Parks, but she cannot audit elected officials.

Pretty much everyone, including the people who were behind the Charter reform movement, have agreed that Judge Mooney was right. So how does this somehow get turned into "Trutanich going back on his word?"

I realize that pesky little facts are very hard things for Democrats to deal with. That's why the Saul Alinsky "big lie" community organizing make-believe brand of activism works so well for you. But you cannot escape the facts here if you continue to bleat about a completely fabricated issue. The fact that you don't like is that Trutanich remained true to his word and allowed the audit. Yes, it trashed Rocky, and that was no surprise - it was the whole reason why Laura Chick wanted it in the first place.

As for the medical marijuana ordinance, it does appear that you avoided that altogether and simply resorted to name calling and insults. Not very impressive. I am not calling you names nor am I insulting your intellect - you are doing a very good job of that all by yourself.

November 16, 2010 8:09 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

8:09, yes Rumpole, you have been a model of comportment and gentlemanly behavior throughout your - SLEAZY - campaign, virulent blog and postings all over the net.

No doubt about it you have always maintained that proper English etiquette as though at a time-honored gentlemen's club or tea at a manor house.

SO NOT. Are you utterly delusional now about yourself as well as the Nooch, over whom you fawn in your blog and every comment? You were the worst sort of "Englishman," and used your accent and that coat over your back in a nonchalant look (the same one Antonio prefers, funny, how the upstarts from lower classes trying to feign class all think alike) to fool the more naive members of the public. Those stalwart good people of the SOHA and other HOA's who despite their self-image were not very sophisticated and easily fooled.

Maybe you should spend a few hours reading the stuff you wrote and said and stop pretending you've suddenly turned into Mary Poppins and NOONE will remember. Alas we Angelenos DO lack a sense of history but aren't amnesiac, and you sure left a big trail.

November 16, 2010 8:50 PM  

Blogger Rumpole said:

8:50pm - First of all, why do you depreciate the value of anything you have to say by making a personal attack based on ethnicity? By all means attack my policies, positions and beliefs if you have the ability to do so, but I've also read the Saul Alinsky playbook, and won't get drawn into your game.

I'm quite happy to defend everything I have said with one exception; I was wrong about Paul Krekorian. I met with him shortly after he was sworn in, and apologized for misjudging him. Frankly, if there were more CMs like him in the horseshoe the City of Los Angeles wouldn't be in the mess that it's in, and would have some real prospects of getting out of that mess.

However, as for everything else I said, I still believe that Jack Weiss would have been a disaster on steroids as City Attorney. Perhaps your amnesia leads you to a different conclusion, but his 8 year record of betrayal of his community is well documented.

I am proud to have been able to work for Carmen Trutanich and have been a small part of the great achievements that have been made in the City, thanks to having a City Attorney who actually is a practicing attorney. Do you seriously think that Weiss would have done anything about billboards, supergraphics, illegal marijuana shops, and ludicrous lawsuit settlements?

Trutanich could easily have slipped into the City Attorney's Office and done nothing. But he chose to take the high road and do the job he was asked to do. In dong that he has shocked the sensibilities of Los Angelenos who have become too accustomed to expect nothing from their elected officials but photo ops, platitudes, and empty promises.

By all means continue to try to trash the SOHA and other HOAs, but remember, Weiss's downfall was disrespecting the people who voted for him. It's not a winning strategy.

November 16, 2010 10:27 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Rumpole, you post all about how you are first and foremost an ENGLISH citizen who escape England because it's "socialist...horse shit" your words, bla- bla, wah-wah, then cry "why do you bring my ethnicity into this?"

No need to read any further - you're an idiot who can't even keep track of your own lies and dissemblings. Too busy with you head up Nooch's ass maybe?

As for the homeowners that conspired to get Nooch to agree to do what they want (and then of course he went back on them so now they've got a blog keeping score, maybe getting ready to recall him) they do not represent anyone but a tiny segment of the population.

The vast, vast majority don't even know they exist and claim to speak on their behalf - they're just the ones who have the time to show up and make the most noise. Because they ARE older, often retired or nearly so, owned their homes for years and don't have the pressures that younger people do. Don't understand them, either - often, are diametrically opposed on issues and the kind of city L A IS and should be. The people who got Zev to kill the subway and are still mocking it, while they complain bitterly about traffic. Who fight every development, but want more cops and public services but have suggestions on how to pay for it - certainly not be raising THEIR low Prop 13 taxes. An insular-thinking bunch who certain politicians cater to at the expense of the city as a whole.

YOU for example, are an example of the WORST kind of fear-mongering, name-calling, xenophobe. "the Democrats like Weiss will all but hand the keys to our homes over to illegal immigrant gangbangers who will murder us in the streets!" you posted words to that effect, or very close in this very blog.

You're the worst elitist there is, but with your deep class envy (probably what REALLY drove you from England, you couldn't fool THEM with an accent or jacket draped over the shoulder and you are nothing if not a wanna-be), have delusions and amnesia about yourself.

You're not worth bothering with, except you just inject yourself everywhere, like Phil Jennerjahn!
The two of you really are at the same level, with your calling everyone "socialists" and simple mindedness, except he's nicer and at least, doesn't deny who he is.

When someone does and says malicious things and holds themselves up as a saint we know they're running for SOMETHING on the Republican ticket.

Have fun!

November 17, 2010 2:50 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Rumpole whines on and on about how he had to leave England because it's socialist and the "horse shit" he fled is coming then accuses someone of "bringing up" his ethnicity.

He campaigns with malicious attacks and then feigns innocence of them.

Typical - utterly duplicitous. This is what we have come to expect.

No wonder he attached himself to the master.

November 17, 2010 2:53 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Anonymous 2:50 & 2:53, by your standards anyone who mentions their ethnic origin is far game for ethnic slurs? I don't think so. Your xenophobia does not impress and your rants belie the fact that you really have no answer for the points Rumpole makes.

Of course you want to turn the debate into an attack on Rumpole, but that's such an old tactic that "noone" is going to fall for it.

November 18, 2010 6:13 AM  

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