DiFI Goes MIA

If you need assistance from your United States Senator, Dianne Feinstein, during this government shutdown, you can forget it.

As a result of the Government shutdown, my office is currently unable to respond to your email. I will respond to your concerns as soon as possible.

Feinstein has taken upon the stalemate in Washington to go fishing. I guess without a check coming in, she ain't working.

Which is really sad because Feinstein and her husband Richard Blum have made millions off the government over the last couple decades. She's not going hungry living in her $16.5 million San Francisco mansion.

Casa Feinstein-Blum

Late Morning Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Machine for Tuesday

Elephant Hill in El Sereno.

Our recent coverage of the Elephant Hill giveaway (at a greatly reduced price) to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has inspired Northeast Los Angeles NC Member/Activist/Blogger Tony Butka to keyboard the definitive history on the Elephant Hill Controversy. We link to Part One: "Elephant Hill-The Beginnings" and Part Two: "The Northeast LA Interim Control Ordinance Wars" while waiting for the last (** two) part to be uploaded on his NELA Lives Blog. Suggested title for Part Three, "Huizar's Payoff to Campaign Fundraiser Client".

** What were the "real reasons" for CD 1 City Councilman Ed Reyes resignation from the board of the MTA Gold Line Foothill Authority? When one reads of no-bid contracts and inflated property values, flashbacks to CDI and Elephant Hill start running amok. 

** Assemblyman Mike Feuer is looking to backdoor current City Attorney Carmen Trutanich by pulling papers for his job in 2013 while Nuch fixates himself on a possible District Attorney challenge.

** Great Op-Ed by Mayoral Candidate Kevin James in the Daily News with his premise on the need for a part-time City Council. We in CD 14 knows what its like to have a councilperson who prides himself on a 80% attendance record.

** The troubled Building and Safety Department has revived its internal investigated unit at a cost of $200,000+ that an outside firm will be paid to undertake. We should note that the unit was disbanded at the end of the Mayor Richard Riordan Era in 2001.

** Senator Dianne Feinsteiin is the latest client of Democratic Campaign Treasurer Kinde Durkee to find that their campaign coffers were looted. The way Durkee has allegedly looted her clients, make her a good candidate for IRS employment.

** Lastly, as the Blue/Green Coalition of unions and environmentalist show their hypocrisy with their shilling for the Corporate Welfare City-State of AEG LA LIVE's Farmer's Field CEQA exemptions, Ron Kaye launches into to the hypocritical players.
Your thoughts..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Civic activist Jane Usher is a thoughtful and articulate person who makes some good points about billboards.  That being said a "one size fits all" policy regarding billboards is not appropriate for the city.  We don't need NIMBYs from one part of town telling folks in another part of town what to do.  Further billboards are not a crisis issue in Los Angeles.  Crime is and the fact that young people can not get a job looms far larger but apparently doesn't catch the attention of the Trade Joe shopping, latte sipping cranks that fill many Neighborhood Councils.

The City Council wants to try to make up the budget shortfall by going after the funds of Neighborhood Councils. Council Member Richard Alarcon is however stepping up on behalf of the Councils. Rick Orlov quotes Alarcon as saying "I'm getting frustrated that the CAO is not identifying major savings while we're intimidating the neighborhood councils."

Here's something that Flap is right about - Senator Dianne Feinstein will probably not run for Governor.  Thought she would be a formidable candidate in many ways there's not an upside.  But I believe that DiFi realizes she's better off remaining in the Senate than taking on a race she might lose but even if she wins inherits a whole pack of troubles a Senator doesn't have to deal with.  Flap is wrong however that candidates such as Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa will best Jerry Brown.  Both Newsom and Villaraigosa have extraordinarily high negatives and Brown is the candidate who appeals most to faithful and likely Democratic voters across the board.

Zuma Dogg is right when he says there isn't a future for the Los Angeles Unified School District.  Saltsburg says "Even if the right answers were out there, you would never get all the powers that be to agree to move in one, focused direction."  Yes that's correct and its time once and for all to break up this train wreck of a District.

And finally pop diva Britney Spears has been ordered to read the Bible an hour every day.  Her father and co-conservator Jamie Spears issued the edict as a series of requirments Britney must follow including banning her from using the Internet.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

The LAPD unveiled it's 21st and latest police station on Friday in Canoga Park with the new Topanga Division which will provide some relief to the West Valley and Devonshire Divisions in policing the gang ridden community.  The Contra Costa Times reports that Mayor Villaraigosa was late to the ceremony; the Mayor "said he was delayed because he was making breakfast for his kids."

Posts you may have missed over the weekend:

• The Old Gray Hag She Ain't What She Used to Be
• Emperor Villaraigosa's New Clothes 
• Sportsmen's Lodge Closes. Well Sort Of.
• Zuma Dogg to Appear on Network News

Former California Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown writing at SFGate calls Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama  the political play of the season.  Willie also predicts Senator Dianne Feinstein will not seek the Governor's seat, that Jerry Brown is "too far down the tracks" to turn back from his entry into the race and that current San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom probably doesn't have a chance. Oh yea, and there's Antonio Villaraigosa too.

Ex-Olympian turned reality TV star Bruce Jenner and his wife Kris - the former wife of the late Robert Kardashian, a member of the OJ Simpson legal team during his 1994 murder trial - have listed their Hidden Hills manse for nearly $3.4 million in order to trade-up for something bigger.  The Jenners are part of the "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" E! reality show that focuses on celebrity non-celebrity daughter Kim Kardashian and the rest of their combined 10 children.


A former high priced New York madam recently released from jail says that she could get thousands of dollars an hour pimping out celebrities such as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Katie Holmes. On the other hand Kristin Davis she wouldn't even take on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin who would likely earn a few hundred dollars an hour from a more downscale agency. Nor would Davis find much merchantability in most Playboy playmates as their appearance is too "fake."

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

500 homes were lost over the weekend in the Sayre Fire at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar making hundreds of families homeless.  The owners of the park, Fullerton based Oakridge, Ltd. plans to rebuild the park as quickly as possible; though individual homeowners will be required to replace their own homes through their insurance.  Both Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky called on new regulations for the manufactured housing industry with respect to better use of fire retardent materials.

When it comes to what's going to happen with the Democratic race for Governor, it all depends on if Senator Dianne Feinstein runs or not.  However there's both good and bad news for wannabe Governor Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  He runs behind both Feinstein as well as Attorney General Jerry Brown.  However the Mayor is ahead of fellow contenders San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lt. Governor John Garamendi.  Question though - if John McCain was too old to be President at 72 isn't DiFi too old to be Governor at age 77?

General Motors and Chrysler have both decided to forgo this year's Los Angeles Auto Show which starts this Friday at the LA Convention Center, leaving Ford as the only American automaker with a presence at the event.  Both GM and Chyrsler are fighting to stay alive and hoping for a federal bail-out.  In the meantime, foreign automakers - who are building cars people want to buy and many which are built in the US - are showing up in force and are doing quite well, thank you.  Providing a taxpayer funded bail-out to America's failed auto companies and their incompetent executives would be a huge mistake.

As gas prices rose earlier this year, ridership on LA's buses and trains went up.  Now as gas prices settle back down to a normal level, transit use is dropping off.  That's called market economics folks! In the meantime, MTA is offering increased service on the Red Line for holiday shoppers .

The next court date in the case of the murder of Jamiel Shaw is this coming Wednesday, November 17 at 8:30 p.m.  The Shaw Family invites you to attend if you're interested.  For more information please click here.

Blogger Leo Mar navigates the waters of buying tickets for events at the Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Music Center.  Going to the venue is time consuming and doesn't guarantee you tickets.  That being said Mar says your best bet is to go through ticket broker A Cheap Seat.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is working to clear the field for the 2010 California Gubentatorial Republican nomination early.  Poizner is pointing to a Weekly Standard article validating his candidacy and ability to self finance.  In the meantime, Antonio Villaraigosa's best bet may be to sit out the 2010 election and hope that either the then 72 year old Jerry Brown or the then 77 year old Dianne Feinstein get elected and due to their age serve only one term.  Okay, please stop chuckling.

Central City East Blogger Don Garza is pleased that the City has implemented new DASH bus service in Skid Row.  The service is much welcomed by residents and workers in the area who are transit dependent.  Ironically, according to Garza, a number of social service providers who receive public funds to provide transportation were in opposition to the DASH line, though Garza opines that these transportation services were inadequate.

Developer Ed Roski will unveil Wednesday the environmental impact report to build a stadium that is intended to draw an NFL team to Los Angeles, at a location in the City of Industry.  Roski hopes that if the development's construction is approved, a new or relocated NFL will play in the Rose Bowl starting in the fall of 2009 and then take up residence in new arena in 2011.

37 year old former teen actress Shannen Doherty is slamming tabloid queens Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan for getting drunk and showing their privates in public.  Hmm, I do seem to remember that Shannen was nothing but a delight when she was the same age.  Though I wonder if comments have more to do with generating publicity for the upcoming revival of Beverly Hills, 90210 that Doherty will be part of.

Hotsheet for Thursday: Pseudology & PsyOps

Eastside to the Westside

I hear Mayor Villaraigosa is going around claiming to have reduced spending (presumably he’s referring to the elimination of 700+ planned jobs), despite the fact that spending this fiscal year is up 32% over FY 2004–05. This comes as little surprise; Villaraigosa lost all respect for our intelligence somewhere between Measures R and S. He knows that if Angelenos can be duped into extending councilmember term limits and levying an 8% phone tax on themselves, he can get away with anything.

You hear it from the policymakers. You see it repeated in the news and around the blogosphere: MTA proposes a half-cent sales tax increase to fund transit projects. To call this a word game is putting it lightly; in the theater of combat, it’s called PsyOps. A recent L.A. Times piece by Steve Hymon begins:

It may be only half a penny, but from the looks of things on Friday, an effort to raise sales taxes in Los Angeles County to pay for a slew of mass transit projects and road improvements will probably be a heated contest this fall.

Only half a penny. In addition to the other eight and one-quarter pennies—if the purchase price of the item in question is only $1.00. There’s a good reason guys like Hymon, Villaraigosa, and Yaroslavsky use half-cent, and not the accurate and honest half-percent—and no, it isn’t to conserve a syllable. I don’t know about you, but even when I support something, I feel dirty when it’s sold dishonestly.

City Council voted 10–2 yesterday urging the County Supervisors to reconsider their Tuesday vote blocking consolidation of the half-percent sales tax proposal into the November ballot. Unlikely allies Dennis Zine and Richard Alarcón stood against the motion, arguing that the Valley would not receive its fair share of new transit funding. Oddly, this is not Alarcón’s philosophy when it comes to, say, police protection.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich responded to Mayor Villaraigosa with a well-articulated position against the half-percent MTA sales tax proposal. Ron Kaye has the full text. Money quote:

This current measure is steeped in a cynical political calculation that the November presidential election turnout, the tangible Countywide frustration with traffic problems and the desperation to do something would be enough to win a two-thirds majority, even if the proposed sales tax measure was against the best interests of the County voters.

My opposition to the sales tax proposal isn’t based on its inequities; after all, to complete pointless projects for the sole purpose of making things equitable would be even worse for taxpayers. My position is simple: it’s time for the folks in charge to develop some respect for their constituents. Here’s the lesson I hope Mayor Villaraigosa and City Council take away from this: when you ram your trash taxes, your gang tax, your phone tax, and your phony bond measures down our throats, eventually the important things don’t look worth paying for either.

Call it coincidence or a bow to pressure, but Councilmember Jack Weiss has announced October hearings to review the interpretation and implementation of Special Order 40. Dennis Zine is pushing to amend the 29-year-old police directive to include elements of “Jamiel’s Law.” A press conference and protest are scheduled this morning in front of Weiss’s Robertson Blvd. field office.

In other news today, Mayor Villaraigosa’s culinary faves have been published again (what, no foie gras this time?), a couple of political nerds are promoting Senator Dianne Feinstein for governor, and if Zev Yaroslavsky gets his way, you’ll start seeing calorie counts next to the menu items at your favorite eateries.

Villar and Feinstein to push for Foreclosure Bailout

Hi boys and girls, do any of your parents need a bailout??

At 10:30 AM on the steps of City Hall, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Senator Diane Feinstein will call for government intervention in the "MARKET CORRECTION" that is the false crisis involving the Sub-prime mortgage industry.

Lets be candid Mayor Villaraigosa and Senator Feinstein are not being influence by the sob stories of people who fail to read the small print on signed documents.

What the likes of Villaraigosa and Feinstein are most concern about here is the constant flow of property tax revenue that goes to feed the "beast" known as big government.

If any one government entity is responsible for the Sub-prime correction, then lets blame governmental philosophy that reinforces the concept of victim hood and not accountability for one's own actions.

LA Times: "California Freefall" Housing prices fall 25%. Market correction creates affordable housing.

SIDEBAR:

Wonder if any reporters on hand today at City Hall will ask Villaraigosa and Feinstein to comment on "MRS BILL CLINTON'S" war stories from Bosnia. With Ace and Mike working on the campaign one would have to wonder if they had a hand in creating "80 FAKE SNIPERS IN BOSNIA".