Los Angeles "Poverty Pimps" rally to ACORN's Defence

" ACORN and assorted Poverty Pimps ties to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa"

These people pimp poverty.

The names are familiar to those who follow the doings of the connected non-profits in Los Angeles and their relationships to the politicos on Spring Street. Thus it should surprise no one that they would band together in supporting ACORN as the LA Times reports.

A coalition of two dozen community organizers, labor leaders and clergy rallied in Watts on Thursday in support of ACORN, the embattled community organizing group.

Note the names as the story continues.

"It’s a witch hunt after a segment of the progressive populations," Paul Zimmerman, director of the California Assn. of Non-Profit Housing, said in a telephone interview after the news conference. "I have McCarthy-era deja vu."

The Rev. Richard Estrada, an associate pastor at our Our Lady Queen of the Angels/La Placita church, said the attacks on ACORN have made other community organizers fear that “one day they may come after us.”

"We feel there’s something larger going on," he said. "Progressive organizations that are being effective and are working to enable the working poor, the immigrant communities and the gay and lesbian communities are being targeted."

Estrada, an immigrant rights advocate, said he thought ACORN, the Assn. of Community Organizations of Reform Now, had allayed concerns that the problems went beyond individuals and affected the entire organization. "We understand that the employees [who were videotaped] were fired and that there was an audit and an attempt to fix the problems," he said.

Other community leaders who attended the Watts event included Father Greg Boyle, the director of Homeboy Industries, Betty Day, the director of the Watts Gang Task Force, and Maria Elena Durazo, of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. They were joined by members of the Los Angeles office of ACORN.

Since the time of late President Lyndon Baines Johnson unveiling of his "Great Society Program" in the 1960's, trillions of dollars have been spent in the on-going effort to redistribute wealth, errr, eradicate poverty in the United States, and the results?

In Los Angeles, it has been an decades long evolution of connected non-profits that are "progressive" in regards to promoting governmental dependency, while sustaining themselves by becoming political tools in the communities they serve.

The likes of ACORN when not providing "services" to their targeted communities, become "rent a mobs" and "rent a precinct walkers" when election time rolls around. They are rewarded with government contracts and oversight on their work becomes nil. Then when enquiring minds question the veracity of their work, they cry racism and resort to class warfare, in deflecting criticism.

But the ultimate scare for these non-profits are not the make believe charges of witch hunts from conservatives, but something called an audit, which should become more common place in Los Angeles.

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

Outtakes from CD-14: "The Cut and Paste Capital of Los Angeles"

Hola and TGIF from the "Cut and Paste Barrio of Los Angeles".

We start today's edition of CD-14 Outtakes with this from the "Dot, Dot, Dish" column at the "Downtown Garment and Citizen Fishwrap".

WONDERING ABOUT HUIZAR ALUMNI: Word on the street says that an ex-staffer who decided to sing to the feds started the investigation into a $30,000 consulting fee that current City Councilember Jose Huizar collected from a non-profit organization while still a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board. Bad news for Huizar, who has quite a few ex-staffers floating around after just four years in office. One of them is LAUSD board president Monica Garcia, who worked for Huizar before his election to the City Council and later succeeded him on the school board. Garcia has been summoned by a federal grand jury in the matter. Huizar says he followed the rules while on the school board, by the way, adding that he’ll co-operate with investigators (see related photo, home page)…

Question of the day for the CD-14 "Cut and Pasters" is this. What former staffer went singing to the Feds about Huizar's "work" with Miguel Contreras's "V.I.P". non-profit ?? There are 26 letters in the alphabet, plus we can use letters from the Greek alphabet to list all the ex. staffers, who would be candidates to rat out Huizar.

Other CD-14 News:

** Hey Homie, can you spare some change ?? Or in the case of Homeboy Industries, spare change, donations, grants and government contracts can go only so far. Father Boyle's non-profit is $5,000,000 in the hole and services are in danger of being cut. But City Hall is steering what they can spare as stated below.

City Hall has been trying to help, said Jeff Carr, director of the mayor's anti-gang office. Carr is turning over the $500,000 remainder of a federal gang-prevention grant to Homeboy and this summer gave the organization's silk screening shop a $250,000 order for T-shirts and jerseys. He even took 25 staffers to a going-away lunch at Homegirl Cafe.

Just wondering what campaign will get donations for this kind gesture ??

** For decades political leaders in CD-14 and in cities such as South Pasadena, Alhambra, Pasadena, have debated, litigated and study solutions to the 710 Freeway issue. The current flavor of the moment in regards to the 710 Freeway, is to "tunnel" the gap between the northern terminus in Alhambra and the 210 Freeway in Pasadena. But as Caltrans drills "test bores" west, north and east of the end of the 710, numerous community groups are voicing opposition to Caltran's "Tunnel Proposal".

** Just wondering what former Councilman Jose Huizar's Deputy Chief of Staff Henry Casas is doing these days when he is not being "lo-jacked" at community events.

A. Hanging out at the beach ??

B. Spending late nights blogging ??

C. In hiding as part of Federal Witness Protection Program ??

D. Working for the National Organization for Woman ??

E. Working for Assemblyman John Perez ??

F. Writing tell all book on his former boss ??

G. E-mailing advise to a certain female staffer who was berated by his former boss ??

** "Autry says that Southwest Museum in Grave Danger", is the headline of Eastern Group Publications story on the Autry's withdrawal of their expansion proposal in Griffith Park and what ramifications it has for the future of the Southwest Museum. And as in past stories, it does not surprise us to find quotes/spin from the "Southwest Society's Minister of Spin", Eliot Sekuler. That said, we highlight Eliot's latest "talking points" below, with rebuttal in (bold).

For another northeast Los Angeles resident who has followed the project closely, the decision did not signal any kind of victory. (It pays to follow closely the edits of your political allies)

Elliot Sekuler said the after reviewing Gray’s letter to the board on Tuesday, he is confident that the Autry remains committed to its operations of the Mt. Washington facility. As a member of the Southwest Society, Sekuler supports a proposal from the Autry that represents a scaled-down version of the proposal sought by the Friends of the Southwest coalition. (The exclusive vendidos and vendidas were most likely acting as a "focus group" to help John Gray craft his unprofessional letter)

Sekuler said the objective of the Southwest Society remains to partner with the Autry to maintain the Mt. Washington facility as community center with sufficient gallery space that would allow a sizable amount of the Southwest collection to remain at its historic home. He said he hopes that the Autry’s decision does not alter its relationship with the Southwest Society. (This reinforces Sekuler's claim to the title of "Spin Crafter/BS artist)

“I’m still hopeful to partner with them,” he said.(And your fellow exclusive vendidos and vendidas do not want to lose their "access to graft", which includes non-profit contracts, commission appointments, free public facilities and invitations to insiders conclaves/parties.)

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

"LA OBAMA TIMES" Q & A with the "GENERAL SECRETARY OF GANG INTERVENTION"

For months the newly appointed Gang Czar, errrr, "GENERAL SECRETARY OF GANG INTERVENTION"Rev. Jeff Carr, has been feeling out the "Homies" as he seeks clarity in solving our "Domestic Terrorism/Gang Problem".

The Rev. Carr took timeout away from his "mission of clarity" to sit down with a scribe from the "OLD GREY HAG ON SPRING STREET" and this is the result.

Among the highlights are the Rev. Carr's support for the Laura Chick approach to gang intervention which place "centralize" control in the hands of the Mayor"s office.

In addition, Rev. Carr is bullish on faith-base groups having a key role in gang intervention. Thus look for "Fellow Traveler" Father Boyle to play a key role (some of you will have a bloggin responce to that).

But absence in this Q & A is an "A-U-D-I-T" discussion to show what has not worked in the past. That needs to be a part of the discussion.

I'm sure some will have comments on this topic.

****From this afternoon on the LA Times website****