The Ten Dumbest Moves of 2007

We made this list last year; so its time once again to list the Dumbest Moves of the Year. Here, in not necessarily any particular order is the top ten:

1. Home Depot's lame, half assed astro-turfing in Sunland-Tujunga.
2. Jan Perry trying to ban fast food in South Central.
3. Rocky Delgadillo and his wife's reported inability to register and insure their cars, show up on warrants and use staffers for personal errands.
4. Politicians wasting water.
5. The Tennie Pierce settlement.
6. Antonio banging Mithala.
7. Mayor Sam falling for trick by AV spinners on story of Antonio, Jr. drinking on the beach.
8. Pomona City Attorney Arnold Alavarez-Glassman sending a cease and desist letter to The Foothill Cities Blog.
9. Jamie Lynn Spears getting herself knocked up at the age of 16.
10. Dennis Zine showing up the Gay Parade in full leather attire.

The Small Town Rocky Delgadillo

I think most of you remember Arnold Alvarez-Glassman (What's up with the hyphenated names? It's bad enough when women do it but even sillier when men do. Let's all stick with our birth names.) the silly City Attorney from Pomona who thought he could shut down a blog.

Alvarez-Glassman-araigosa-Rodham-Clinton is at it again. The Mayor Sam of the East, the Foothill Cities blog reports the following about the City Attorney who is almost as fun as Rocky Delgadillo:

• In addition to Pomona, Arnold serves as the City Attorney for the cities of Pico Rivera, Bell Gardens (yea that Bell Gardens where they found a passed out City Clowncilman in a hooker hotel in Downtown LA) and West Covina.
• Pico Rivera changed the date of its Clowncil meetings to accomdate Arnold's schedule.
• Alvarez-Glassman and his wife Lydia have donated several thousand dollars to City Council member's campaigns; City Councils who hired Arnold's firm to provide legal services.
• According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribube, the City of Montebello fired Arnold for being too cozy with local developers.

Arnold was also fired by the City of South El Monte. You will all be glad to know that the hubris and arrogance of local electeds definitely extends beyond Spring Street. No word at present if Mrs. Alvarez-Glassman has wrecked any cars owned by the cities that employ her husband nor if they have city staff babysitting their children or doing chores for them.

Westside Tory Guy

The Westside White Guy just can't stand it when other bloggers get some attention. In light of the recent bitch slap given by the Foothill Cities Blog to the City of Pomona who tried to threaten a local blogger, Kevin Roderick thinks it's "B.S." to compare anonymous bloggers to colonials in pre-Revolutionary War America who published anonymous tracts critical of the government.

The WWG says:

Their (the Foothill Cities Blog) About page doesn't clarify what they are hiding or disclaim any conflicts of interest.

Neither did Alexander Hamilton, John Jay or James Madison who wrote The Federalist Papers, the pre-Internet, post-Revolutionary War America version of an anonymous blog, critical of government.

Indeed, FC alludes to the Papers, which called for ratification of the US Constitution in the 1780s, in that one of the anony-bloggers at FC goes by the handle "Publius," the very same pseudonym used by Jay, Hamilton and Madison.

Had the WWG been around in the 18th century, publishing Colonies Observed, no doubt he would have been a pissy tory.

Don't Mess With Publius

If you thought Pomona City Attorney Arnold Glassman-Alvarez (can anyone explain the hyphenation?) stepped on his you-know-what when he sent an ill thought out "cease and desist" letter to the publishers of the Foothill City Blog, he was given a major hard hanky when he received a response from the blog's high powered Wilshire Boulevard attorneys.

You may remember that Attorney Glassman-Alvarez thought he could scare the crap out of FC for publishing stories that reported various allegations against the Pomona's controversial City Manager, Doug Dunlap.

Well he thought wrong. And it looks like should Pomona go after the blog, they're just going to waste the City's money and set it up for the bloggers to get a very nice payday.

Score one for the bloggers. Maybe Pomona should fire Arnold and find an attorney who has a clue.

Memo to Shelly Sloan: Time for Reform of Small Town City Attorneys

We saw the City Attorney of Pomona threaten a blogger with what will likely turn out to be baseless threats.

In California, most city attorneys of small cities are law firms that are contracted out as opposed to an elected or appointed official.

This practice should come to an end because it opens up the possibility of all kinds of fraud, waste and abuse or at least general shadiness. These law firms get cozy with the very elected officials and city employees who hire them. How objective can they be when they are supposed to represent the entire city; yet they are vulnerable to the city council's every whim. At the same time, how objective can the council be in selecting these attorneys when they or their firms donate thousands of dollars to council candidates?

Cities should be forced to have elected city attorneys like Los Angeles or if not that is not possible they should be required to pay the County District Attorney for the services of a county appointed city attorney.

Shelly Sloan - President of the California State Bar - what say you?

Pomona Harrassing Bloggers or the "Not Ready for Prime Time City Attorney"

In the past, we've linked to some of the many excellent stories at the Foothill Cities blog, sort of the Mayor Sam of the San Gabriels.

Now it appears FC is having some impact as they recently revealed they've received a "cease and desist" letter from some clown named Arnold Alvarez-Glassman, the Pomona City Attorney over a series of stories about alleged shadiness and shenanigans when it comes to Pomona's City Manager, Doug Dunlap (who amongst other things has been alleged by Pomonaians for allegedly putting his allegedly decades younger alleged girlfriend on the alleged City payroll). You can read FC's post as well as Alvarez-Glassman's ridiculous letter here.

As a sidenote, in most small cities the City Attorney is not an elected official like Rocky Delgadillo but usually a law firm that is contracted by the city to handle legal matters. Alvarez-Glassman has served more than just Pomona; in 2003 he was terminated by the City of El Monte.

Pomona is one of those shithole eastern Los Angeles County cities whose only real claim to fame is hosting the LA County Fair annually and RV shows and off-track horse betting the rest of the year.

Perhaps they're pissed that Zev removed the goddess Pomona along with the mission cross from the LA County Seal.

Seriously however its completely reprehensible for a government official to attempt to intimidate a citizen and member of the press for exercising their first amendment right. This fool isn't even up to speed on libel laws; numerous court decisions have protected the right of bloggers to be critical of public officials.

So it looks like its time to put in a call to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and see if Zuma Dogg's Bat Computer picks up signals from the 626.

Foothill Cities - we have your back. Don't let these bastards push you around. And private memo to Arnie and Dougie: We're not going to let you fuck with FC. You've already made a mistake there. Don't even think about fucking with us over here - you will look like the biggest clowns to ever inhabit municipal government ever.