Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

Who will replace now Congresswoman Janice Hahn in CD 15?

Great election morning to all in CD 15 as today heads towards the mid-day mark. A least 10-20% of the register voters will have the chance to send a resounding message to the operatives of the City of Los Angeles Political Machine by electing LAPD Senior Lead Officer Joe Buscaino to City Council. In actuality, the absentee ballots stored in boxes at the City Clerk may speak to that if they could, but rest assure that Team Buscaino and challenger Assemblyman Warren Furutani with his Mayor Villar/Labor allies will gather up all the register voters they can muster up to 7:59 P.M. Once the polls close, Team Buscaino will gather at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to await the election results which we will live blog here at Mayor Sam. ** Watch for results of absentees at about 8:45 P.M. If they break 60-40% for Buscaino, then say hello Councilman Buscaino.

** One contentious issue that the new CD 15 office holder will have to deal with is the LAPD policy on impounds of vehicles driven by non-license drivers. The Los Angeles Police Commission will meet this evening in Northridge and expect a big crowd thanks to the likes of KFI's Johns and Ken. If one cares, take the time to read the letter of Dan Rosenberg to Mayor Antonio Villar. Rosenberg lost his 25 year old son to an unlicensed driver and have not received any response from the Mayor's office.

** The City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department have set up a website to showcase the three options to replace the toxic brownfields creative by Occupy LA. at City Hall. The irony here is that the landscaping cost of either option will include paying the gardeners caretakers represented by SEIU 721, who were a big supporter of Occupy LA. 

** Nice tidbit from Simone Wilson aka "The Snarky One" at the LA Weekly on the Assembly voting record of CD 9 City Council aspirant Assemblyman Mike Davis. It seems that Assemblyman Davis will fit right in to the horseshoe as he only voted "no" 0.01% of the time in Sacramento. 

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14  

TGIF Afternoon Political News Dump 1-13-12

How many more Medical Marijuana shops have open in CD 14 since Councilman Jose Huizar last presser on banning pot shops?

Beautiful Friday afternoon on the eve of the three-day MLK Holiday Weekend ( at least for the public employee sector). We have an abnormal amount of news breaking for a bad news dump afternoon.

First, the City of Los Angeles City Attorney Office has recommended a "gentle ban" on all Medical Marijuana shops in the City of LA. This "gentle ban" (reminds me of Grizzly Adams "Gentle Ben") would allow patients and caregivers to continue growing their own medical herb but disallow resale to others. Rest assure that the cartels and aging hippies will rally in court to maintain their cash flow, whoops, their dedication to providing the best medical comfort herb to the medical needy.

Second, the City Council with encouragement from Pat McOsker's UFLAC, is looking at the possibility of using the former corporate welfare proceeds of CRA LA, to offset services cuts at LAFD. If any councilperson needs to quickly jump on this "furlough fire truck bandwagon", then it should be CD 14 City Councilman Jose Huizar who lost two trucks and two RA units in his district. We should note on the theme of using CRA money to offset LAFD cuts, that Councilman Huizar strongly supported the "no outreach $150,000 contract" to CASA 0101, money that potentially could of been reallocated to maintain RA 16 in service within El Sereno.

Third and lastly, we have a brewing jihad building over the "racist policy of towing and impounding vehicles driven by "unlicensed drivers" (ie. illegal Mexican immigrants), between the "City Council Fascists" and the "People's Mayor and Police Chief" ** (Please note that I was channeling the thought process of LA Weekly Bloggers Simone "The Snarky One in Solidarity" Wilson and Dennis "The Bloggin Commandante" Romero). In reality, to state that DUI Checkpoints double as "illegal immigrant crackdowns" is foolish and a wasted search for racism behind each blood alcohol point kept off the road. BTW, I have one activist friend who let his unpaid parking tickets morph into suspension of his driving privileges and paid the same penalties when he got caught driving. Reality is that accountability comes in all races and sizes, legal or illegal.

Your Thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14