This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I'm an ex-mayor. Los Angeles is a magnet for people from all over the world. Some of them run for public office. Inevitably some of them stray from the golden rule and rule for those that have the gold. That's when I go to work. My name is Yorty. I'm a dead pol.
The wheels coming off the bus is a term that seems to have been used quite a lot lately, but it's probably an apt one to describe the campaign of UFLAC President Pat McOsker for CD15. Here in our pages we've chronicled (as well as other blogs) McOsker's apparent foul temper and even fouler mouth. Those qualities generally do not endear one to others and that appears to be the case here. McOsker has failed to gain the endorsement of his own union and may face a vote asking him to step down as head of the union next week. Read more »
If your response to Ms. Padilla's appointment is "Who?", then you're not alone. Less than a year ago, Ms. Padilla wasn't even active in the PNC. But she's been very busy since taking the presidency away from controversial board member Jorge Quezada. She's really spiffed up the published image of a neighborhood council that's had its share of serious internal conflict .... pretty much like any other NC in the City .... and she's already managed to catch the roving eye of Tony Villar himself. Rumor has it that the new Commission member actually bears a resemblance to Villar's most visible paramour, Mirthala Salinas, but if you want to judge this for yourself, you'll have to go to the next PNC meeting since Padilla has virtually no Internet presence -- or City presence for that matter -- prior to jumping in at the PNC top. Even her photo is missing from the PNC's web site.
As of yesterday, Padilla hasn't disclosed anything to the PNC Board about her appointment. If she remains as the PNC president, such an appointment would make her hearing anything on the PNC board related to land use a major ethics issue. This probably explains why Quezada has been conspicuously sticking close to this rising star.
UPDATE: LAist.com lists reasons to vote "No on S". (They mentioned all the important reasons, so yes, they included the Zuma Dogg take, y'all! Cause I'm a major factor, y'all!)Plus an internet poll.
SUNDAY UPDATE: GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER'S WIFE, AND FIRST LADY OF CALIFORNIA, AND KENNEDY -- MARIA SHRIVER ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA AND APPEARS AT HIS UCLA RALLY ON SUNDAY!!! (Guess we know how the first family of California feels about Ms. Hillary Clinton.)
VOTER FRAUD UPDATE: Thanks to the people who sent ZD emails letting him know they will be sending people to polls with video cameras to watch for those bus caravans and to make sure poll workers keep their eyes open, instead of squeezing them shut. I hope there is no one reading this that would be upset if people are looking out for voter fraud? AND WATCH OUT FOR THOSE ABSENTEE BALLOTS...MAKE SURE THEY AREN'T ALL FILLED OUT IN THE MAYOR'S HANDWRITING!
SUNDAY UPDATE:C-SPAN VIDEO OF SCREAMING NUTCASE RALLY!!!More at C-Span.org (or if the direct link doesn't work for you.) Fast forward clip to 35 minutes into the clip for Mr. Muppet Mayor, and let the clip roll. (Why is this man screaming and shouting???)
CLINTON EAST L.A. RALLY: First of all, she wants to manage the country...she couldn't even manage to have a working microphone on hand. It was cutting in and out throughout the entire event. (Who's organizing these events?)
Keep Antonio off camera. He comes off like a screaming lunatic. He's worse than Hillary. Three years old like him though, because he only speaks in three word sentences, just like they do. (He should be on Sesame Street. He's already a bunch of peoples' Muppet.)
Janice Hahn, what a shame...if you watch it back on C-Span, she was looking at her watch, impatiently, and made a comment to Wendy Greuesome, just as they cut the the cute couple. (HER bad!)
I'm glad they brought out Magic Johnson to endorse Hillary, because I take my presidential cues from basketball players.
Maxine Waters came out to remind you, "I just happen happen to be an African American woman, and I endorse Hillary Clinton." (I guess she mentioned she was black for all the blind people watching.)
Gloria Molina was audibly booed when they first announced her entrance into the auditorium announced her.
And of course, anyone who Nucklehead Nunez is endorsing, you obvious take your cue from that and simply vote for anyone else.
Bill Clinton must have had other plans..maybe he was cutting his deal with Obama, because he wasn't anywhere to be seen.
One of the actors from "West Wing" was in the audience. He worked on a TV set that was about the White House, so his endorsement is important. He was literally placed in the best spot, behind Hillary, like a prop, as though some idiots may think, "Oh wow! She has the endorsement of Jed Bartlett's Chief of Staff who is married to the mom from 'Malcolm in the Middle'. I loved it when Jed Bartlett was President. I'm going to vote for Schillary!"
Nunez said there has been a lot of talk about change, but he could barely talk, himself. He must have been screaming at the top of his lungs about something, cause his voice sounded like ZD's after singing "Hell's Bells" one too many times.
ZD's sings Hell's Bells and speaks on Villaraigosa.
HOW CLINTON COULD EVEN PUT NUCKLEHEAD NUNEZ ON STAGE AFTER HEARING ABOUT HIS WINE, TRAVEL AND OTHER LAVISH EXPENDITURES -- AND THE INVESTIGATIONS??? What an insult. And Nucklehead came off a little hostile and angry about his enthusiasm for change. Like when you know you are losing and are getting desperate, so you start getting "whiny" about it.
Nucklehead Nunez said, "We know what it's like when immigrant families come to this country and sacrifice every inch of their dream for their children to have a better life."
NO DUMMY...they are not sacrificing their dream for a better life for their children; they are living the dream to have a better life for their children. The one's sacrificing every inch of their dream are the people who DID NOT come to America. (DUH?)
I'm glad Gray Davis was on hand to endorse Clinton! He did a great job as Governor. The people really liked him. Didn't he get kicked out of office? ARE YOU CRAZY!?!? WHY WOULD YOU EVEN LET GRAY DAVIS ON THE STAGE AT ALL???
The Mayor from Oakland gave a great civil rights speech (really, he was great), then introduced, "Gloria Molendez." Some of you also know her as Gloria Molina.
Now that I see Gloria speaking in a perfectly sane speaking voice; not shouting, screaming and coming off like a maniac nutcase as Villar, Nunez and Schillary do -- maybe they should hire her as their vocal coach. (Group discount)
DAAAAAAAAMN, even ZD has learned not to scream and shout from the podium. Between Clinton, Villar and Nucklehead, The Clinton campaign should be the party for deaf people.
Molina claims that the most polarizing political figure ever (Hillary) is going to "unite us all". Polarizers tend to divide people, not untie. That's why they are polarizing.
Nucklehead Nunez Runs From Reporters Over Wine & Cheese Expenditure Abuse (What a thing to blow your career over! Vote "No" on Prop 93, so he doesn't get to extend his term.)
Anyway, Hillary just took the stage, and we all know what the sound of her shrill, shrieks do to ZD. Gotta turn her off, like the rest of her former supporters.
CAN SOMEONE FROM THE HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN PLEASE TELL HER TO STOP SHOUTING LIKE A MENTAL PATIENT!!!
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIGURE THIS OUT!!! I AM NOT KIDDING!!! SHE IS INTOLERABLE ON THE MIC. She's screams in monotone. No emotion in her voice. Just a cold, un-emotional tone, with no inflection. Take a listen next time and you will hear it for yourself. A cold, no emotion, no inflection voice. They should record her voice and use it for military interrogation. People would crack more quickly than water boarding. If anyone has the transcript from her speech, I would like to read what she said, cause I sure as hell can't listen to it.
Oh no, she didn't just use Bobby Kennedy in her speech? Did she hear who the family is endorsing? Thanks for reminding me Schillary.
Looking at Clinton and her cast of motley muppets, it's kinda sad that after eight years as first lady, that's all you could muster for support. (Why do you think Times and former supporters are jumping sides? Because THEY KNOW Hillary Clinton.
A basketball player, an actor who PLAYED a role about the White House, a shady-wino who spends public money on expensive wining and dining, Gloria Molina, and a mayor who has lost all support in the community and media alike -- and can only speak in three word sentences. LA Times is endorsing the other candidate. And her biggest assets (Bill Clinton) is now an albatross and they had to keep him off camera. Kinda sad.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL SCHILLARY TO STOP SCREAMING LIKE A MENTAL PATIENT HAVING A TEMPER TANTRUM? (Where's Nurse Ratchett when we need her?) WHEN ARE HER CONSULTANTS GOING TO FIGURE THIS OUT? SHE'S STILL DOING IT!!! Inflection Schillary...learn about it!
And yes Schil...until you have actually BEEN President -- people ARE INDEED taking a chance on you, as much as any other candidate. (She keeps trying to mislead people into making it seem as though she already has experience as President???)
UPDATE: NEW VIDEO BASED ON MAYOR LOSING TO HUNT/DOWD AT VENICE BEACH Zuma Dogg - "We Are The Champions, You Are The Chumpians"
CLICK "READ MORE" FOR "ZD's EQUAL TIME"...A comment by a Hillary supporter (if not paid political operative) and along with a reply by ZD's spin-debunker machine.
REMEMBER, IF YOU ARE A PAID POLITICAL OPERATIVE ON A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN TRAIL -- AND YOU POST ON A BLOG -- PLEASE REMEMBER TO DISCLOSE.
(Not as if anyone can't tell.)
And in possibly unrelated matters:
You say: "Obama has been openly and shamelessly pandering to the illegals and the way left, that's why. Which is why Hillary should be the better choice."
Um, excuse me...Schillary is rollin' with Antonio. Obama WISHES he could pander to the amount of illegals Antonio brings to the polls, I mean table.
You say, "He said at the debates that any claim that illegals were hurting the general economy, or blacks in terms of getting jobs, was scapegoating."
He may have said it, and she may not have...but first of all, since they are both pandering...looks like Schillary just lost that panders' vote to Barack. (LOL!)
Spinner says, "He just plain lied..." (Ooops, I forgot, you are the official chief economist who has the stats to claim unequivocally that he "lied.")
Funny, you are saying that Barack is going to lose big time, but he is using the strategy YOU, I mean the Clinton campaign is using. (Except he just yanked the rug out from under your strategy. HIS BAD!)
And of course since the Times finally can no longer be seen anywhere near your boss, I mean Villaraigosa -- any more than a travel agent wants to book customers on the Titanic as Kate is reaching for Leo's hand as he sinks away into the abyss -- you better take a shot at them, too.
WOW...you sure are anonymous.
[And in unrelated matters, will someone please tell Shit Romney that his business experience running Banes Capital is not the same business experience it takes to run country from an economic standpoint. (I'm not saying he wouldn't or couldn't do a good job, even though he is the Republican version of Hillary Clinton...but to say your business experience there is apples and oranges as President, y'all. Stop fronting you Lyle Wagoner-looking phony. You're the Tom Lebong of Presidential candidates.]
I've learned a couple things in the last week. One, try not to blog late at night. Your judgment is impaired and you might just believe high tech spinmeisters.
The other thing is never delete a post, no matter how much others - including Mayoral spokesmen, dedicated fans and your fellow bloggers - purty please you.
The posts created quite a stir - including getting the dum dums stirred up, a great time on the air for John and Ken (and by the way J&K did your producer ever tell you that I called and left my number?) and some late night spinmeistering from Tony Villar spokes-hole Matt Szabo.
And then I got clowned that I got clowned. That is someone sent me an email claiming that he was the author of the IvyGate blog piece that started it all and that the IvyGate is a fake news blog like The Onion.
Since then I think I've been re-convinced (I hope) that the IvyGate blog is legit. I was contacted by the real bloggers and that the stories about Antonio Vee were true (or at least not fake).
Upon some sage advice of blogger David Markland (yes, the one I called an idiot), I've also learned you never delete posts. Make a retraction, issue corrections, but never delete.
Yup, I goofed. I admit it.
So the real question is (after AVJR's behaivor and possible pass from local law enforcement) who is the bogus IvyGate blogger - the person who posed as writer Jacob Savage?
We don't know yet - but we're on their tail. The fake email has been traced to a computer somewhere in Thousand Oaks.
Inquiring minds want to know.
PS: On the other hand - maybe I've been clowned one more time - and IvyGate is fake. A comment on their blog says that like The Onion, IvyGate is "characterized by hard-hitting fact-based journalism." This sure is shaping up to be an insane summer.
Why did I pull the two stories about Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. It's quite simple. The story wasn't true. At least most of it wasn't.
I received the following late Wednesday night:
My name is Jacob Savage, and the original author of the post about antonio villaraigosa jr. It was a light-hearted jest at him because of his attendance at Princeton University. Because of my post, I have been asked to clear up any confusion regarding its intention. I've e-mailed gawker.com and other that have picked it up not to treat it like real news. We are an Ivy league version of the Onion, with sometimes real news to confuse.
A wannabe Phil Hendrie of blogs clowned the old, dead Republican mayor. Okay, I admit it. There certainly were elements of the story (primarily special treatment by law enforcement) that concerned me. It does bring up some good questions about how this and other blogs operate. However, perhaps not enough to change things as the good we get probably outweighs the occasional goof up like this.
As of this writing, Savage did not respond to my questions asking him to confirm if he was the person who posted the fake comments on Facebook posing as Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr.
Now it may be there are still elements of the story that are true. The only thing that would concern me is if AVJR got a pass from police for underage drinking. We have received conflicting emails from kids who said they were at the infamous beach party (which did occur as the photos show; the only thing in question is the availability of alcohol and the involvement of the police).
I still stand by the appropriateness of reporting a story like this. As I explained to Zuma Dogg on the phone and many of you on the blog its not unfair to expect that members of any elected official's family not get special treatment from the law. This applies to Michele Degladillo as much as it does to Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. So even though yes, I was contacted by the Mayor's office, it was the email from Savage that prompted me to take it down - not the Mayor, not my buddy Zuma Dogg's brotherly attempts to counsel me or anything else.
We have enough trouble getting bad information organically we don't need it manufactured. Now lets get back to the real scandals and keep the heat on.
Apple II: Update on Antonio, Jr. (Villaraigosa, Not Sabato)
We had a post earlier todaywhere we reported on two blogs breaking the story that Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. allegedly posted comments on the social networking site Facebook as to various freshman activities as he prepares to enter Princeton this fall. This involved under age binge drinking, an encounter with police officers and possibly producing fake identification.
Since then photos of the event in question have surfaced - with Villaraigosa, Jr. - clearly in attendance. It also appears that alcoholic beverages were on hand and one shot shows the Mayor's son holding what probably is a beer or a malt beverage. If the postings are indeed penned by the younger Antonio, the group was reported to be consuming some of my favorite adult beverages.
Intitially some readers had the impression this party was claimed to be held at Princeton which led them to believe it was not true as Villaraigosa has yet to travel there to begin his studies. However it's my impression that he is saying the party was held in Southern California and that they had a bonfire. The only beach I am aware of in Los Angeles that has bonfire pits is Dockweiler Beach - within the city limits of Los Angeles (and we'll get to that in a moment) - the photos do look like Dockweiler, just immediately south of the runways at LAX.
In his alleged posting, Junior talks about an encounter with police who were "cool" meaning that the officers did not cite anyone for underage or public drinking. Are we to infer that LAPD officers whose boss reports to Junior's dad, looked the other way for the younger Villaraigosa?
There is also reference to someone who makes good "fakes," presumedly fradulent identification in order to enter bars or buy alcohol when you're under 21. This does not directly implicate the Mayor's son, but its troubling that he would brag about it.
Now why does this matter? The Mayor has asked us to vote for him (and I did) based on him being a "family man." This issue - as well as the affair he admitted to - speaks to his character and causes me as a constituent to have pause about his ability to make proper judgments, decisions with respect to whatever his values are. We have to hold our leaders accountable to the highest standards or society will not hold. It doesn't have to be religious right hard core crap but a basic sense of right and wrong, good vs. evil, etc. (and I am digressing too).
Junior isn't doing anything I didn't do when I was a freshman. I don't begrudge him having fun and enjoying being an adult. However when you are the mayor's son and you may be getting special favors from the police, then we have an issue.
So feel free to bash away on me dum dums. But remember - it was not me - but Antonio, Sr. and Antonio, Jr. who reportedly made the decisions they have made. We are just reporting them. I would much rather talk about eminent domain, transportation, shady corrupt government and all that.
Of course the sad thing is if I was doing that 400% of you that are here these days wouldn't be here.
With all the trouble Mayor Villaraigosa has been having, he didn't need his son allegedly posting stupid shit about underage college drinking. It's apparently since been removed but blogs Ivy Gate and Guanabee are reporting that Princeton frosh Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. posted a very tasty screed on Facebook about binge drinking, a near run in with the police and an apparent skill of a classmate in producing fraudulent IDs:
"I'm writing to inform you all that some of us in Southern California are so excited to party at Princeton that we already had a party. We had Bacardi, Bailey's Irish Cream and several Coronas while bonfiring on the beach. It was great until it got broken up by the po' and we almost got cited but the guy was pretty chill. We went and got good food afterward. Oh yah and we found out one of us makes good fakes too ; - )" Though the post as well as Junior's Facebook profile now seem to be missing, there is some evidence (below and via Gawker) that Young Antonio did participate in the Princeton Class of 2011's "party crew" page on Facebook.
On another discussion thread Villaraigosa bragged about drinking heavily:
"My host lived on a sub-free but I ran into some nice Latino upperclassmen who I pregamed with before going to that dance party at Cap and Gown although i did more than pregame""Yup, I remember (despite being um, incapacitated, myself). I seem to remember everything unless I blackout."
Walter Moore went to Princeton. Perhaps he could give some sage advice to young Antonio.
I've learned a couple things in the last week. One, try not to blog late at night. Your judgment is impaired and you might just believe high tech spinmeisters.
NOTICE: Please click this link for an update to the following story. I am - for now - retracting this story and republishing the stories in question.
We had a post earlier today where we reported on two blogs breaking the story that Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. allegedly posted comments on the social networking site Facebook as to various freshman activities as he prepares to enter Princeton this fall. This involved under age binge drinking, an encounter with police officers and possibly producing fake identification.
With all the trouble Mayor Villaraigosa has been having, he didn't need his son allegedly posting stupid shit about underage college drinking. It's apparently since been removed but blogs Ivy Gate and Guanabee are reporting that Princeton frosh Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr. posted a very tasty screed on Facebook about binge drinking, a near run in with the police and an apparent skill of a classmate in producing fraudulent IDs:
