Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Wednesday

Its Official!! Congresswoman Janice "Babs" Hahn is running for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, seeking to follow in her legendary Father's footsteps.

We wonder what uber-Hahn booster Noel Weiss, thinks of "Daughter of Kenny's" next political endeavor? 

Could the political entity known for its "Five Kingmakers" become majority "Queen" in 2016?

That is a strong possibility as Congresswoman Janice Hahn announced this A.M. that she will forgo reelection to her Congressional Seat to hopefully replace termed-out Supervisor Don Knabe on the five member Board.

The Liberal Congresswoman and former CD 15 City Councilwoman will have a obvious name recognition advantage but her distinctly, left of center record may cause some consternation in the moderate-leaning district.
AFTERNOON UPDATE: Hahn endorses State Senator Isadore Hall for her Congressional Seat. Republican Mike Gin, former Mayor of Redondo Beach joins the list to replace Knabe on the Board of Supervisors.

** The sun rose on the Hollywood Hills this morning to reveal another man-made deluge of water via a 1920s-installed cast iron pipe, which submerged a pair of cars and renewed, again the debate over the need to overhaul a failing water system infrastructure.

** Staying on the DWP topic, DWP Watchdog Jack Humphreville opines whether it was a good think that IBEW/DWP Strongman Brian "D'Arcy Rizzo" stop cooperating with an agreed-upon Audit on the Joint Safety and Job Training Non Profits considering ........., This will allow Ratepayers to ask even more questions about the terms of the settlement agreement and why it does not extend back to 2000 when the Joint Safety Institute received its initial funding of $1.2 million.  And why the unusual terms which prohibit the Controller and CAO from making and preserving copies of appropriate documents?

** Meanwhile, Village to Village Blogger Paul Hatfield muses on the predictability of the breakdown in the agreed upon Audit and cites possible actions that can be taken lieu of a City Council acting decisively in requesting accountability ......, whoops, pardon the blogging day dream.

** Memo to City, County, State and Federal Officials seeking a resolution to the labor turmoil at the Port of LA and Long Beach. Please explain how a small union with members making up to $42 per hour, with FREE Medical Insurance, is going to garner popular support for its latest grievances? Plus, lets not forget looming south of us is a widen Panama Canal, opening soon.

** THIS IS ANOTHER FUENTES/MARTINEZ/CARDENAS/PADILLA/BOCANEGRA MACHINE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION MISSIVE WARNING!!

Northeast San Fernando Valley Democrat Machine Bloggin Tool Rosemary Jenkins, has keyboard another "Wanton Missive of Distortion" (WMD) against a perceived enemy of the NESFV Democratic Machine. This time, with the CD 6 City Council Elections less than two weeks away, "The Bloggin Tool" goes caustic and personal on the latest Grass Roots Challenger to the supposed Ruling Class, Cindy Montanez.

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14 



TGIF Morning Brief on Betty's First Soulvine Tirade of 2014

 LA Wave Newspaper Columnist Betty Pleasant and South LA Political Officials, are disappointed with Mayor Eric Garcetti for not bring home "Promise Funds", for their respective communities.

 LA Wave Newspaper Columnist Betty Pleasant vents her Soulvine Outrage in the direction of Mayor Garcetti. 

Mayor Garcetti absorbs the "Message of Promise" from Lameduck President Barack "H" Obama.



Memo to Mayor Eric Garcetti, you have a outrage constituent and some disappointed public officials in South LA.

As a loyal Prograssive, you travel to Washington D.C., for another act of income redistribution via President Barack "H" Obama's "Promise Funds", for five Collectivist Dependentcrat-leaning cities and what awaits you upon your return home? Four paragraphs of outrage via Betty's latest Soulvine (with thorns for Mayor Garcetti). We provide this excerpt of Betty's first 2014 tirade.

Pete Demetriou, of the CBS radio affiliate KNX 1070, announced Wednesday morning that five specific Los Angeles neighborhoods will be eligible to receive these new federal funds. Sit down because you are about to be shocked. These five neighborhoods are Pico-Union, Westlake, Hollywood, East Hollywood and Koreatown!!! What’s wrong with this picture?! Your Mayor Eric Garcetti is in the White House Thursday kicking off this Promise Zone thing and he’s expected to be back here in time to serve as grand marshal of CORE’s 29th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Kingdom Day Parade on Jan. 20. Now, I ask you, what’s wrong with that picture?! (lets remember that Betty was a "Sister for Wendy" in the recent mayoral election).

Stop the presses. Wait a minute. An angry city official has just cornered me and he has something to say about this outrage. Ninth District Councilman Curren Price said: “While I am always happy to see Los Angeles receive attention and additional federal dollars, it is very disappointing to see the city’s poorest communities excluded once again. The federal government’s “Promise Zone” designation was designed to saturate the nation’s highest concentration of poverty in the cities with more than one out of three households living below the poverty rate — a rate nearly 10 points higher than any other region in the city. And yet our community will not benefit from this investment of up to a half a billion dollars. As the person entrusted with representing the needs of South Los Angeles residents, I am compelled to express my disappointment with a program that has failed to include our community. I urge federal officials, as well as our mayor as he lobbies Washington for more funding — to reconsider their selection process now and moving forward. South Los Angeles residents have promise — we just need a chance.”

While Betty was keyboarding her outrage, the likes of CD 9 City Clowncil Central Committee Member Curren Price and former Watts Clowncilwoman, turned Congresswoman Janice Hahn, went on the record to the "Old Gray Collectivist Hag on Spring Street" (aka LA Obama Times), regarding their collective disappointment that areas of South LA they respectively represent, were left out of the proposed "Promise".

But in retrospect, the likes of Betty, Price and Hahn should focus their disappointment on the failure of Trillions of Redistributed Tax Dollars spent on a supposed, Five decades-long "War on Poverty" (or 50 year endeavor to grow government, but I digress) and its erosion of the Spirit of Self Empowerment, within the African-American Community. Thus Betty, maybe the "next chance" for community renewal should originate from within, not from another tried and fail Act of Redistribution from Washington D.C.

Your thoughts ..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14

Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

Mayor Sam proudly excerpts the Fifth Annual Downtown News "Happy City Hall-oween" via the Downtown News Editor and reigning "Scribe of Wit" Jon Regardie. 

Is that stare via a certain "Born to Raise Hell Homie" from City Terrace?

Its safe to say that in the middle of the final week of political campaigning, a comedic break is needed from the harsh rhetoric that has defined the 2012 Election proceedings. Thus, we bring you excerpts from the reigning Los Angeles Political Satirist (in this blogger's humble opinion), who also doubles as the Editor of the Downtown News, Jon Regardie's Fifth Edition of a "Happy City Hall-oween"! Enjoy!

On the pending invasion from the .......

Zombies From the North: You approach the building from the South Lawn. You’re amazed at the grace of the structure and think of the great leaders who have been here before, even if you suddenly can’t remember any of their names. Then, you hear a low, moaning sound. You look and see a Sacramento politician — is that Assemblyman Gil Cedillo? — zombie stumbling your way. Then another, who looks just like state Sen. Curren Price, appears, doing the same botched shuffle. “Walking Dead” style zombies who resemble assemblymen Felipe Fuentes, Mike Davis and Bob Blumenfield are there as well. “Innnnnnsiiiiide,” they rumble. “One hundredddddddd sevennnnnnnty ninnnnnnne thousand dollarrrrrrrs a yearrrrrrrrrr!” Suddenly you realize — they all want to leave Sacramento and win high-paying City Council posts, and they’ll kill to do it! You scamper inside and slam the door, not knowing how long you can keep them at bay.

...... and what political incarnation will a certain City Terrace Native assume in 2013?

You’re What?: There’s a sharp smack from a nearby room. You open the door and see a diminutive figure with the whitest teeth in the history of the world. He’s opposite a brunette TV news reader. She slaps him across the face, hard. “I’m the mayor!” he says. Is this some strange sexual thing? Before you can figure it out she slaps him again. “I’m the next governor!” Huh? She slaps him one more time. “I’m the future president!” he exclaims. She slaps him three more times, his head veering side to side, and at each sound of palm to flesh he repeats one of the lines. Smack! “I’m the mayor!” Smack! “I’m the next governor!” Smack! “I’m the future president!” Holy Chinatown, you realize, he believes everything he is saying. Smack! Smack! Smack! You want to watch but someone takes your elbow and guides you away. “Forget it,” the guiding figure says, “it’s City Hall.”

that satire must of hurt the soon to be former Mayor Antonio Villar.

** CD 5 City Councilman Paul Koretz is not masking the reality that Mayor Antonio Villar's dream of a 10,000 person police force (or in the words of Councilman Koretz, a magical illusion), may face a day of fiscal reckoning in the near future.

** City Attorney Carmen Trutanich went before the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee and rightfully stated that the proposed layoffs of fifty attorneys, would lead to adverse rulings in court against the City of Los Angeles.

.......... more updated news in the A.M.

** Eastern San Gabriel Valley Assemblyman Roger Hernandez was on the receiving end of an "emergency protective order" after an altercation between him and a "lady friend" Sunday evening. Hernandez you may remember, had these issues in Northern California.

Hernandez, a former West Covina City Councilman, was arrested by Concord police on suspicion of drunken driving just after 2 a.m. March 27.After a seven-day trial, a 12-person jury in August found Hernandez not guilty of one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence.Last month, a Contra Costa judge dismissed a second misdemeanor count of driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or higher that the jury was hung on.

Lets not forget that all the above took place while Hernandez was "entertaining" a lovely, female lobbyist in a state vehicle.

** The Old Gray Hag on Spring Street allocates a generous amount of story budget, to chronicle the democratic congressional battle between Congresswoman Laura Richardson and Congresswoman Janice Hahn. These two ladies can teach fellow Congressional colleagues Howard Berman and Brad Sherman, a thing or two about dignified campaigning.


Your thoughts ..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14

TGIF Afternoon Political News Dump 12-16-11: Saying Goodbye to Council President Eric "Tender Lover" Garcetti

 City Council President Eric Garcetti's Flea Party friends in better times 

 Piano players make "tender lovers".

Garcetti willing to lower himself for his brother and sisters in the city family.

The who's who of the City of Los Angeles Insider Community gather at City Hall today to say goodbye to the  "tender lover" of the city's family. Whether it was union leaders, fellow politicos, business leaders, Hollywood developers, gadflys or assorted hanger ons, everyone in the insider community wanted to be on record saying good things about the "son of Gil" (** especially if somehow this kid becomes mayor in 2013). But the best tribute came from comedian Jimmy Kimmel as reported by the insider blogger of City Hall, Alice Walton.

“It really impressed me that everyone seems to like this guy and it’s easy to understand why everyone likes him — because he cares, he’s a wonderful piano player, he’s a very tender lover. Was I not suppose to mention that?,” Kimmel said, setting the tone for the speeches.

** Former CD 15 City Councilwoman now Congresswoman Janice Hahn, just does not have the heart to choose between LAPD Lead Officer Joe Buscaino or Assemblyman Warrren Furutani, to replace her at City Hall. But we should note Hahn visited Buscaino's Campaign Party on the night of the primary and said he could go all the way. On the other hand, Hahn needs all the union money she can get to win her current congressional campaign. Thus, no endorsement with Furutani the loser.
** KCET's So Cal Connected will air another episode on HACLA this evening at 8:30 PM Expect after New Years to see the scandals connections to various politicos to become more defined.
Your thoughts ..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14    

LA Wave Newspaper: Janice Hahn mulling campaign for "Compton Congressional District"

Congresswoman Hahn lost her base.

Lets give Los Angeles Wave Newspaper "Soulvine Columnist" Betty Pleasant credit for going to the source of breaking political news. South Bay Political Activist Basil Kimbrew had cc Pleasant his latest email newsletter which noted that 36th Congressional District Congresswoman Janice Hahn would give up on her current district and run for Congress in a newly-drawn Compton District. Thinking that Kimbrew was offbase with his urgent scree, Pleasant went directly to Hahn and the result is an exclusive for Pleasant. Hahn's comments below.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. The commission has taken my district out from under me. The 36th District in which I have lived and worked for many years and was elected to represent no longer exists. They removed my base — the Harbor, Wilmington, San Pedro (where I live) — and put them in the new Compton District. They’ve redrawn the lines of my 36th District into a ‘coastal district’ that includes Palos Verdes Peninsula, El Segundo, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Topanga, Calabasas and Agoura Hills. I have no base there. This is not the district I was elected in. This is Rep. Henry Waxman’s longtime stronghold. They’ve taken me completely out of it. Now my supporters who worked hard to get me elected are accusing me of abandoning my people. I’m not abandoning them; they’re being taken away from me and put into Compton! I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
The commission is scheduled to take its final vote on its redistricting maps Thursday.


If Hahn does run for the Compton District, she will most likely face Congresswoman Laura Richardson.


Your thoughts..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14

Evening Musings on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Tuesday

"Art Walk LA".

** The fallout from the tragic death of a two year old Montebello infant during last Thursday's Downtown LA Art Walk festivities, is spawning calls for increase safety measures. Yet, in an interview with Streetblog LA, Mayor Villar insists that its too early to talk changes and blame in regards to last week's accident.

**  City Councilwoman Jan Perry's issues with legal opinions crafted by the Office of the City Attorney flared up today. Perry and others want a study on the use of outside legal counsel for issues such as crafting  billboards zones and other special interest concerns. BTW, Nuch is not happy.

** The Daily News rightfully gives credit to Angelinos who once again saw through the fear-mongering of its political leaders and practice common sense during the "Carmageddon" non-event.

** Ron Kaye's "Carmageddon Non-Event Formula" equates to "Leadership, Planning, Civility Ease Congestion and Who Knew"?

** James Preston Allen in City Watch see's no heir apparent to former CD 15 City Councilwoman Janice Hahn and community divisions ahead.. But below we showcase "Congresswoman Janice Babs Hahn goes to Washington". Enjoy!

.

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14

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

"Old Gray Hag on Spring Street"

LA Weekly Blogger Dennis Romero is treading into LA Observed's Kevin "Westside White Guy" Roderick territory.

Normally anything that has to do with the LA Times, leaked emails, internal scribes doings and speculation on the ownership of LA's "Reigning Fishwrap of Record", is the bloggin domain of "Pulitzer".

But Romero somehow beat the "WWG" to this scoop via the Wall Street Journal (** direct links to the Wall Street Journal is a paid-for option).

Big question here if the speculation is true, who would want to purchase a "125 years + graying hag version of New York's Old Gray Lady"? Eli Broad? David Geffin? Fox? (the likes of Rutten, Skelton and the WWG cringe at that!).

But one way or another, late-life change is in the works for the "Old Gray Hag on Spring Street" 

Other News:

** We have a "bloggin fluff alert" via the "Stay at Home Blogger". The "Rodericklander of bloggin puff musings" that gave us the bloggin puff masterpiece "Jose Adelante", is back with "Like a River", a gushing (kinda like the increased 7-eleven beer and wine sales) profile of urban planning density guru CD 1 Councilman Ed Reyes.

** Advocates of "Corporate Welfareism" in Los Angeles and elsewhere have filed suit against "Governor Moonbeam II's" plan to use CRA money to fund essential services. Somewhere the likes of Eli Broad are smiling.

** Some 39 year old developer Matt Karatz is the replacement for Austin "Mini-Riordan II" Beutner as the Deputy Mayor for Economic Developement.

** Lastly, former CD 15 City Councilwoman Janice "Babs" Hahn becomes Congresswoman Janice "Babs" Hahn today.We will search to the far-reaches of the cybersphere to find commentary from Noel Weiss on this special occasion.

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

Scott Johnson in CD 14 

Afternoon Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Thursday

"Reigning Los Angeles Journalist of the Year Patrick Range McDonald".

LA Weekly's Patrick Range McDonald latest missive that takes Mayor and MTA Chairperson Antonio Villar to task for his latest nefarious dealings regarding the "Westside Subway Extension", will be his last Villar piece for the next six months.

Former RINO Mayor Richard Riordan has retained the pen behind the "11% Mayor" to write his memoirs, a task that some would be surprise to see McDonald undertake. But as McDonald stated, any perceived political barriers between McDonald and Riordan are not so profound to hinder their working relationship. "Some people may wonder, because I'm a liberal Democrat openly gay man, why am I helping to write a memoir about a Republican? But Riordan always been strongly in favor -- going back years -- of gay rights and gay marriage." We wish the best to Patrick on his latest effort to bring grammatical order to an gaff-prone politico narrative.

More news after the jump............

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