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.
Phil's story rests on the accounts of two "eyewitnesses" who wish to remain anonymous. The Krekorian campaign has issued a statement denying the event ever happened and to date Jennerjahn has yet to provide independent corroboration of the story.
This blogger has recently come into "smoking gun" evidence that shoots major holes through key points of Phil's story and provides unrefutable proof that the "facts" in his post are not as he reports.
If this story is accurate, we call upon one or both of the anonymous "witnesses" to disclose their identities and come forward to verify the veracity of the story.
In the meantime, we have now gone several days with no response from the Essel campaign nor her supporters as to Chris Essel's participation in a fundraiser hosted for her by a group that is on record as denying the Armenian Holocaust. Many local pundits believe the Krekorian story is a distraction to attempt to bury the Essel story.
Tune in tomorrow for the evidence that exhonerates Krekorian and throws serious doubt onto the story.
The LA City Council has issued its first official dis to City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. The Clowncil has ruled that, despite Nuch's protests, that the owner of LA Live, AEG, has the right to put up signage that was part of the original project before the Clowncil's neurotic and confused anti-billboard legislation went into place. Ever the showman, Nuch is now threatening to prosecute and jail city officials if the billboards go up. Unbelievable. This is not the "change" I could believe in supporting Nuch. (Remember the idea in the campaign was he would go after gangs and crooked politicians not billboards, Michael Jackson and pot) With gang crime and violence through the roof and jobs leaving LA in droves Nuch's #1 priority is going after pot and billboards.And the slap-happy AARP who has the time for this nonsense (most of us have jobs and families) is cheering him on from the sidelines. You'd think it was 1959, not 2009. Nuch seriously man go after the gang violence and the political corruption. The Rotary Club just doesn't have the votes it used to.
With the goofiness coming from Nuch, Essel and others its refreshing and a bit ironic to see Mayor Villaraigosa stepping up as the distinguished statesman of LA politics. While Nuch pushes the retired suburban crank agenda the Mayor is at least giving lip service to the NUMBER ONE ISSUE that is truly facing Los Angeles - the exodus of business and the lack of jobs. If the Mayor is truly serious here and he is willing to pursue a series of reforms proposed by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce we may be on to something. Stay tuned.
The Downtown News' Jon Regardie does it again, this time with a clever and fun Halloween themed piece about the happenings at City Hall. He left out one bit, and that is the final scene where Mayor Sam, Joe B, Solomon and Phil J pilot an ecto-plasm charged 72 foot high statue of Joe Friday through Downtown, while blaring Randy Newman's "I Love LA" over loudspeakers and spraying evil spirit "Bratto" with enough slime to force him forever into a painting to be hung at the new LAPD headquarters.
I've lost count. Another DWP water main break Sunday, this time in Laurel Canyon. Thirty homes went without water and minor street damage occured.
In the meantime, video has surfaced of Essel's opponent Paul Krekorian, following the passing of a resolution recognizing the Genocide by the California Assembly (which received a landslide bi-partisan vote of 77-3), speaking at a protest at the Los Angeles Turkish Consulate where Krekorian notes his family lost members in the Genocide.
We will continue to wait for some statement from Essel.
So far, rather than come out and admit she made a mistake by attending and co-hosting a fundraiser with an organization who is on official record that the Armenian Holocaust did not happen, supporters of Chris Essel appear to be digging in their heels and at least on this blog are regurgitating bigoted propaganda claiming - against historical fact and the general consensus - that 1.5 million Armenian citizens were not slaughtered by the Ottoman Turkish government during the time of World War I.
Dr. Efraim Zuroff - one of the chief Nazi hunters for the Simon Wiesenthal Center (whose Museum of Tolerance acknowledges the Genocide) in Israel told the Jerusalem Post that its imperative Israel and the world's Jewry must acknowledge the historical basis for the Genocide despite the fact that Turkey is one of the few Islamic nations in the world that has good relations with the Jewish state.
A Simon Wiesenthal Center official told the Jerusalem Post in August, 2007 that the Armenian Genocide should be recognized as a historical fact despite "the political ramifications." We have "an obligation to tell the truth about historical events - even if they sometimes create certain problems for us,"said Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter of the Wiesenthal Center.
Dr. Zuroff was joined by Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, who told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week that it is "imperative for Jews to acknowledge the truth of the Turkish genocide against Armenians, notwithstanding Turkey's relationship with Israel." He added: "It's high time for Turkey to acknowledge that truth of history and move on."
At worst, this is a confounding moral problem for Essel and at best an incredibly horrific decision made by her campaign team. The longer this sits out there without an explanation, apology and return of the funds (and more appropriately a donation of the funds to an organization such as the Armenian National Committee) Essel's campaign and viability - as well as her character - will remain seriously in question.
The LA Weekly is reporting that CD2 candidate Chris Essel recently attended a fundraiser for her held by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, an organization whose official position is that the Armenian Genocide never happened. The Armenian Genocide was an extremely tragic event in which nearly 3/5th of the Armenian population at the time (over 2.5 million people) was butchered, massacred, and killed by the Ottoman Turk government in 1915-1916. To this day, the Turkish government denies this Holocaust - rivaled only by the Holocaust of Nazi Germany - ever happened, despite the fact that historians say it did. As well the US and many other governments are officially on the record that the genocide took place.
Essel says that she herself is on record as acknowledging that the genocide is historical fact yet she justifies that she attended the event because she does not discriminate against supporters. Also attending the event were leaders of the Azerbaijani community who lead an effort in the State Legislature - and defeated by Essel's opponent Paul Krekorian - to condemn the Armenian government. The event was promoted on local Turkish and Azerbaijani websites showing videos denying the holocaust, praising Essel and condemning Krekorian.
Though the Armenian Genocide is less known by Americans than the slaughter of six million Jews by the Hitler regime in Germany, it is rated as a holocaust on the same level and is viewed as so by Holocaust scholars and organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center. For Essel to attend this event it is truly on par with a politician attending an event sponsored by the Institute for Historical Review, a prominent Holocaust denying organization.
We can accept her at her word that she acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. However for a politician in a city and council district with a significant Armenian community - or any community for that matter - Essel's attendance at the Assembly of Turkish American Associations was an extraordinary poor choice.
