He's baaaccckkkk!

Following a successful sushi summit between myself and long-time Mayor Sam contributor, JoeB, I can announce that Joe is back to the blog.

We had a good conversation about how to improve some of the content and output of such here at Mayor Sam. We also discussed YOUR contribution when it comes to comments and how we plan to move forward to make sure only the best comments make it onto Mayor Sam posts.

I am sure you will be seeing another post from Joe very soon.  Welcome back, Joe!

Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Monday

Calling into the LiveLA Saturday Night talkradio program, MayorSam blogger Joe B. told David Hernandez, Frank Sheftel and myself that a Christmas tree lot that has opened up on the site of a former K-Mart in Sunland-Tujunga is secretly operated by Home Depot, who most of you remember, were booted out of the community following a successful campaign by residents.  While no one begrudges a legal business (certainly a Christmas tree lot) on land leased or owned by a particular organization the reward for Home Depot in this instance certainly can not be commensurate with the risk.  This blog documented for years the continual stupidity let alone near evil this hardware chain did in that community.  Like a crack addict wanting one more fix; they're back. This really doesn't help them any.  We suggest if you are to buy a Christmas tree you purchase it from lots run by non-profit organization, churches, youth groups, etc.

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Los Angeles Politics Hotsheet for Friday

Martinez, Huizar: Photo by LA Downtown News

The LA Weekly profiles CD 14 candidate Rudy Martinez - who is scaring some of LA's power brokers - and we learn a few interesting things.  Martinez is pissing off diva incumbent Jose Huizar.  Huizar campaign manager - fresh off the Janice Hahn and Measure B victories - Mike Trujillo doesn't know Martinez is Latino.  And apparently Huizar doesn't tip waitresses.  Should be fun!

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Mid-Afternoon Briefs on the Los Angeles Political Scene for Wednesday

" Autry National Center and Southwest Museum Nemesis Jackie Autry"

Nobody in life, needs to have this type of tragedy befall them.

Autry National Center and Southwest Museum Nemesis Jackie Autry was the driver of a vehicle that struck and killed a homeless man in Palm Springs on Thanksgiving Day.

The accident killed 50-year-old Jesus Cardova Diaz of Palm Springs.

Diaz was struck by Autry's car just before 7 p.m. while crossing Sunrise Way just north of Ramon Road, Palm Springs police Sgt. Paul Abshire said Monday.

Diaz died about an hour later at Desert Regional Medical Center, according to the Riverside County coroner's report.

Autry was not cited and is not expected to face any charges, police said.

Prayers to both families in this tragedy.

Read more »

JoeB and Mayor Sam on the Air

JoeB joins us tonight on Live LA Saturday Night with David Hernandez and Frank Sheftel at 8:00 p.m. PDT on LATalkRadio.com Channel One.

We'll be discussing the upcoming state and national elections with our own votes on each of the propositions on the California ballot.

Certainly no one will agree with anyone.  Join us live, call in number is 323.203.0815.

Get Ready for Betty Pleasant to Call Doug McIntyre a Cracker

The race baiters in this town sure play an intellectually dishonest but dangerous game.

Doug McIntyre was brave enough to challenge a corrupt charter school in Los Angeles, that happened to be run by Latinos, and he might as well have put on a robe and hood.  Left wing special interest groups (and that's what they are more about, left wing poverty pimp politics than really doing anything of substance for people of color) went apolectic and went on a campaign of terror against McIntyre and his then employer KABC radio.  It went so far as to an act of near violence towards McIntyre's newsman, the gracious and gentle Sandy Wells, who was nearly run down by the vehicle of one of the school's supporters.

Doug, the product of a racially mixed working class New York neighborhood has hardly a racist bone in his body.  For corn sake the guy voted for Obama! (We're trying to forget that Doug.)

The race baiters even eat their own  when appropriate.  We saw this when special interest groups, joined by The Home Depot, accused Sunland Tujunga activist Joe Barrett (Joe B. of Mayor Sam fame) of racism in his battle against the big box store.  There is not a more committed liberal than Joe; making such claims absolutely ridiculous.

Even African Americans are not immune from this as the ever classy Betty Pleasant somehow thinks that Councilman Bernard Parks is part of some racist conspiracy with the LA Times.

But now that McIntyre has done the unthinkable and criticized the messiah of South Central, the "honorable" Mark Ridley-Thomas, for spending nearly a million dollars on rennovating his downtown office, watch out.  Betty Pleasant will cracker smack Doug from here to his run-down San Fernando Valley office.

Amazingly, Ridley-Thomas said that he and his staff "deserved" the rennovations.  Tell that to a nurse laid off from King-Drew who has to meet a mortgage.  Mark Ridley-Thomas has no shame.

The bottom line is that elected officials - be they liberals who claim to champion the poor or right wing nuts who claim to be for the working family - are all about themselves and what they can get for "me." Ridley-Thomas is just another bad fruit in the bunch.

Random Musings on CD2

Looks like candidate Christine Essel is fast becoming the joke of the campaign. Between writing her wrong address on a petition and getting lost in Sunland-Tujunga its not looking good for her. More concerning, her big wad of cash from all the you-know-whos.


Several candidates have taken up the offer by Joe B. for his famous Sunland-Tujunga tour. Having taken this tour myself I highly recommend, followed by the de rigueur visit to Joselito's, one of ST's favorite watering holes.

Grassroots candidates like Frank Sheftel and others are making the yeoman efforts of attending the usual events such as chamber of commerce mixers, neighborhood council meetings and tonight's National Night Out. The question is are you guys as well building an effective get out the vote organization or falling in the Walter Moore trap of making signs and hats?

Essel - sounds kind of like Edsel.

The more reports I get about Paul Krekorian's staff the more I am convinced he is the choice for CD2. Residents in his Assembly District report getting excellent service from his field reps. With CD2 suffering some serious neglect right now we need someone who can hit the ground running with constituent services. We don't have the time for Essel, Galatzan or the others to figure out how to hire a staff and outfit them with GPS devices to find Sunland-Tujunga or West Van Nuys. It will be far more effective to put in a local guy, with a team already on the ground that can start untangling things from day one.

Whatever happened to those rumors about Stuart Waldman or Jim Alger running for CD2?

Villaraigosa Diddles While LA Burns

Hat tip to LAist.

Community activists like Joe B are rounding up refugees and horses, other volunteers are providing aid to victims and supporting our brave firefighters.

Yet where was Mayor Villaraigosa while LA burned?

For sure, the "11/100 Mayor" showed up on the scene just in time for a photo opp and the 5:00 news.

So where was the Mayor tonight?

On the scene? At shelters comforting victims? In the City's Emergency Operations Center? At Getty House with several news channels on and his cell phone on his lap? Headed to King Taco in Montebello to pick up some grub for the LAFD?

Nope.

Our "concerned" Mayor was at Game Four of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium, "celebrating" in the private luxury suite of Dodger owners Frank and Jaime McCourt (Frank you need to watch these local politicians around your wife ).

And he left just in time to have a press conference for the 11:00 p.m. news.



By the way, the Dodgers lost.

And County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky stayed on the scene all day.

Could a County Employee Be Posting Racist Blog Comments and Whitewashing Wikipedia?

SaveOurTacoTrucks.org is fighting the good fight against bureaucrats who want to shut down the wagons that gringos like Joe B. (his favorite: the one outside the Target in North Hollywood) love to frequent and often dispense delectable regional cuisine out of various Latin nations.

Now in a stunning development the folks at the pro-taco truck campaign's blog have discovered that the source of racist, anti-white (and anti-taco truck) comments posted on the site several months ago came from the same IP address that was found to be editing County Supervisor Gloria Molina's Wikipedia entry.  (Gloria is opposed to taco trucks.) Let's let the taco truck folks continue:

Now, there’s also something much less obvious about this post that we noticed. Every time a comment is posted, the IP address (essentially a unique internet ID) is noted. Interestingly, the IP address (159.83.252.234) for the two posts is registered to the County of Los Angeles.

Stay with me, because it gets better.

In April, somebody took the time to post a section about the controversy on Gloria Molina’s Wikipedia page. On September 10th, the entire “Controversy” section was wiped out, white-washed like a mural in the Arroyo Seco. Fortunately, Wikipedia also notes the IP address of anybody who makes a change to an article. Want to guess the address responsible for this change?

That’s right, the exact same eleven digits: 159.83.252.234.

So what we have here is someone using an LA County computer to post hateful, racist comments on SaveOurTacoTrucks.org that is also whitewashing Gloria Molina's Wikipedia entry on a regular basis.  Hmmm, time for an investigation?

Tres Haikus @ 5:07am PST

John McCain's VP
His winning pick of Sarah
Obama blew it.

She's Alaska Gov.
Mitt Romney won't be the guy.
Take it from me, pals.

Obama ran zip.
Not even a law firm, FOOL!
My name's Haikula!

**********************************************
Suddenly, that Obama coronation seems like yesterday's news. Well, it really IS yesterday's news.

With Sarah Palin (rhymes with Van Halen) has energy quals, and international relations with her across-the-water Russian counterparts, I picked her how many weeks ago? I also picked Biden on 8/17, 5 days before the Obama announcement on 8/22, right here on MayorSam. And do we need to mention that she is a very attractive mother of five? And, men, did you know that in a previous incarnation, she used to be a television sports reporter and can handle a gun! Talk about resonating with Hillary's 18 million supporters, suburbanites, conservatives, and the 45 million single, divorced or widowed women in the United States!

Look for Mayor Scuzzaraigosa to switch allegiances again! To the good looking female nominee!

Meanwhile, McCain aired this classy congratulations to Obama yesterday.

Could I be wrong? Will it be Meg Whitman of eBay? I no thinkie, but you tell me!

This blog is taking too much of my positive crystalline energy! Higby, Valley Doll, Joe B. and Red Spot! Take the steering wheel! I will be back later to annoy the dum dums!