100 days

Well, we have now witnessed the first 100 days of Obamunism. 

I don't care for it.

Massive spending, massive deficits, and a lot of interfering in the free market.

Government seizures of banks, brokerages, and automobile companies.

Bowing to kings, a worldwide apology tour, shaking hands with evil dictators, criticizing American arrogance..... whew... quite the schedule for Mr. Obama! 

Like Ann Coulter said... "If you think people wanted change in 2008, just wait until 2012!"

The End of the Empire

So, this is how an Empire ends?

Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

The American Empire comes to an end because of a scared, fearful, power-addicted bureaucrat.

A cowardly, spineless man.. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania defects from the Republican Party.

A party that has supported him for 30 years.

A party that is the last defender of freedom on this earth.

The Senator now runs to seek solace from the Socialists... The Democratic Party.

Giving them, along with the vote of a cheater in Minnesota, an unstoppable 60 seat Majority.

Full speed ahead for the freight train to Socialism!! All aboard! (whether you like it or not)!

Patrick Henry would weep if he could see this country now.

Koretz Goes Dirty

I've been receiving a lot of political fliers in the mail lately, as I am a resident of the Fifth Council District and there is a hotly contested runoff election underway between Paul Koretz and David Vahedi. Paul Koretz has been going after David Vahedi in a way that I feel is more than a bit underhanded and rather low class. Koretz's latest barrage of mailings features him in a photo working with Zev Yaroslavsky in Zev's City Council Office. The photo was clearly taken back in the 1970's.

His attack ad against David Vahedi makes a lot of nonsensical claims that Vahedi is in bed with advertisers and is responsible for bus bench advertising all over the city. It is simply ridiculous.

Who do you think has the bigger chance of having been corrupted by big money donors?

The career politician Koretz.... or the first time candidate Vahedi?

Koretz also has a lot of negative history that he isn't coming clean about.

Koretz was a member of the State Legislature for the 42nd Assembly District from 2000-2006. 

Yes, that State Legislature... the one where Assembly members were handing out money like candy and voting yes on massive deficits without any concern for their citizens.

Koretz bothers me because he is a typical liberal. He wants to control the lives of others.

He voted for gun-banning ordinances.. which is something I always hate in a politician.

He also voted to make smoking illegal for people under 21.

So..you can get married, and serve in the military at 18, but a cigarette is too much responsibilty for you to handle. That is Paul Koretz thinking for you. And deciding just exactly how he wants you to live your life.

Paul Koretz also has a Jerry Brown problem.

Do we really need to send him back to an office that he worked in 33 years ago..??

The Mayor in the Valley

I was running an errand in the Valley yesterday when I was contacted by my fellow former Mayoral candidate, David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg. Zuma Dogg informed me that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was having a special invitation-only event in Tarzana in an hour and he told me that he could use his contacts to get us into the event. I thought "Why not? I'm nearby anyway" and Zuma Dogg arranged it with a few phone calls. We arrived at Providence Tarzana Medical Center and found that it was a very small event. A few media people were there, but there were fewer than 150 people present. 

Most of the attendees had been at an awards luncheon earlier that day hosted by Council Member Dennis Zine, who was also in attendance. As we waited for the Mayor to arrive (about 15 minutes late) I scanned the room and saw that there were several political powerbrokers there, along with three former Mayoral candidates, (myself, Zuma Dogg, and David Hernandez) and several other VIPs including former Daily News editor Ron Kaye.

When the Mayor arrived he worked the back of the room, shaking hands and greeting others. Dennis Zine was on the microphone at the front of the room  getting ready to introduce him when a surreal event took place. Mayor Villaraigosa snuck up behind Ron Kaye and gave him a huge bear hug. It shocked me, as Mayor Villaraigosa had recently been dealt a serious political blow by losing on Measure B in the March election -- a campaign that had been highly driven and motivated by the work of Ron Kaye and the various neighborhood councils. Most people didn't know what to think of this scene. Even Dennis Zine said something on the microphone about it, commenting that "See...the Mayor doesn't hold grudges..!". That was exactly the opposite of what some people in the room had expected.

The Mayor went on to give about an hour long presentation, complete with picture graphs and pie charts. He was actually somewhat impressive in front of a crowd that wasn't exactly buying what he was selling. I personally had to grit my teeth several times to avoid saying anything during his presentation. He gave sad, emotion-filled reasons for City employees to "share the sacrifice" of the pain coming in with the new budget. "We don't want to put these people out on the streets!", he said. To me, it was just pure Socialism headed towards the dangerous area of Communism. So...he doesn't want 2800 City employees to lose their jobs? Boo hoo. What about the thousands of people in the private sector who are losing their jobs also? All of this due to a meddling government that crippled the economy with pure nonsense ideas about interfering in the mortgage industry and forcing banks to loan money to people who couldn't pay. If the government had stayed out of it, the banks never would have given those loans and we wouldn't be in this economic meltdown right now.

Now, the Mayors answer is to jack up the tax rates and service fees on everything and give the government an even bigger slice of your paycheck. I think this is the 100% wrong answer. The Mayor did his little song and dance act and tried to explain things in a convincing manner, but for me....no sale. The Mayor talked about his staff deciding to forgo scheduled raises...  but he didn't mention that he has 93 personal staff members and 16 Deputy Mayors, every one of whom takes their paycheck directly out of YOUR pocket. There is a lot of deadwood in this city that needs to be cut. I don't care how many jobs need to go...if those people are ineffective and their presence hurts taxpayers more than helps them, then they need to go. Simply put, less government is better government. But government employees always say they are "crucial". Baloney. Always ask yourself the question.."Would the private sector hire this person to do this job?"   Most of the time the answer will be "No." Police and firefighters...yes, they are crucial. Other positions...not so much.

The Mayor took written questions ,  I assume in an effort to avoid someone grandstanding with verbal questions. He answered them one by one, including two from me, as I had handed them to different aides. I asked him to name one person he had ever fired. He said he had fired 13 General managers. Ok...so he says.

I also asked if he was running for Governor in 2010. He has been asked this before and has always danced around the question indirectly, and he did the same yesterday. One small surprise was how he talked about loving his job here and saying "it would take a lot" to get him to run. I was a bit surprised because he sounded more inclined to not run, but he also says it would be "a great honor" if he was chosen to be the party candidate. So, the door is still open there.

Although I have been highly critical of the Mayor in the past, I did see several things yesterday that pleasantly surprised me. 

1) The bear hug he gave Ron Kaye sent the message that he sees their battles as political, not personal. It was nice to see that he can still be friends with Ron even after Ron helped to hand him an expensive defeat with Measure B in March.

2) He was facing a somewhat hostile crowd, West Valley residents and property owners, yet he managed to be charming and polite to everyone and kind of excuse himself out of trouble and issues again and again. He paced the floor with the wireless microphone and even leaned in close to people in the first rows. He called people by name and quoted them and praised them. He happily posed for photos with many of the VIPs on the way out of the meeting.

3) He made the comment that "You never see me on TV trashing my opponents, making comments about them. I don't do that." I thought about it and realized that he was right. He doesn't bash anyone. But...after all is said and done, politics is a rough and tumble sport and people get their feelings hurt. It is unavoidable. I couldn't help but think that maybe that comment had been directed at Zuma Dogg or maybe even myself.

4) He acknowledged his lack of popularity. Talking about the election  he said "I won re-election. Maybe I wasn't so popular with some people..." then he gave kind of a half laugh. But it made you realize that the election results had hurt him politically and personally - that he had been rejected by 45% of the voters.

Overall, I think the Mayor did a decent job in front of a crowd that weren't his biggest fans. But I still disagree with him politically on where the City is heading. Far too many Socialistic tendencies are coming out of the Democrats in power in City Hall. They are harming the economy and job growth with their excessive regulations and excessive taxation. They are causing productive people and industries to flee the State.

When the Mayor was leaving the event, Zuma Dogg shouted to me "Phil, did you get to talk to the Mayor?"

"No," I said.  Zuma Dogg seemed surprised by my answer. "Why not? He's here..", he said.

"I am ideologically opposed to everything this man does and everything he stands for. What would I possibly have to say to him?," I responded. Zuma didn't answer, but tried to catch up to the Mayor, along with a crowd of handlers and press people.

To this day, I have never formally met the Mayor or spoken to him. 

And I'm fine with that.

The Last Word on Gordon Turner

I started this idea a few weeks ago to do an in-depth analysis of everyone who ran for Mayor of Los Angeles.

I started with the first-place finisher and the recently re-elected Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa.

Then, I moved on to Walter Moore. In the interest of logic and predictability, I will now offer my opinions on third place finisher Gordon Turner.

I did a decent amount of research into all my opponents who were running for Mayor, as I wanted to be prepared in case there were debates. Gordon Turner was the most frustrating and puzzling of them all. Most of the other candidates had extensive videos or news coverage in the media. Gordon Turner was a total phantom. Very few people had heard of him. As of about 80 days before the election, he had almost no web presence!!

Google searches returned very little information. I actually had to call the City Clerk and ask them what his story was...why he didn't appear at any events... did he seem serious in his attempt at office..etc...etc..?

Aside from a physical description of what he looked like, they told me they didn't know much about him, either.

From information available on the internet, it seems that Gordon Turner spends a lot of his time on the issues confronting homeless people in Downtown Los Angeles.

Turner eventually got a halfway decent website up and running, but it was really late in the campaign. He failed to show up at dozens and dozens of events that all candidates were invited to attend. The only time I ever saw him was at the Senior Center event on La Cienega... the one where Zuma Dogg was taken away by police after a complaint from Craig Rubin.

I was actually somewhat impressed by Gordon Turner. He did a pretty good job of speaking at the forum.

I realized that if he had had raised more money, he could have been quite a competitive candidate.

One of the things I liked about him was that he was really well spoken and it seemed like he had rehearsed his answers for the forum. Almost no verbal stumbles or slip ups. He seemed to have very well thought out and crafted stands on the issues. He was respectful when addressing the Mayor and the lack of satisfactory progress on various issues by the Mayors Office. He offered some plausible alternatives.

He evidently impressed Walter Moore also, because when asked later in the forum about who they could support if not choosing themselves, Walter chose Gordon Turner. Even though Walter hadn't met Gordon Turner hardly at all before this forum and didn't know him very well, he still gave a ringing endorsement. I guess it was just the lawyer in Walter that couldn't resist supporting another lawyer. (By the way, I didn't like this answer from Walter, as just a week or two before he had chosen David Hernandez when asked the same question at the CBS Radford Studios forum held by the Daily News and Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils. It showed inconsistency in Walter.)

There were several things to like about Gordon Turner, but one thing I really didn't like. Turner seemed to be a bit of a bandwagon jumper. At the start of the forum, the LAPD had arrived and taken Zuma Dogg away because Craig Rubin had filed a complaint stating that Zuma Dogg had threatened him.

(I have stated before that I don't know what was said between the two parties, but I don't think Craig Rubin handled it very professionally. All the candidates except for the Mayor had participated in several forums already, and it seemed unlikely to me that Zuma Dogg -- after being perfectly civil and sociable at the other forums --  was suddenly going to go crazy and attack anyone. However, Craig Rubin has the right to protect himself if he felt his personal safety was threatened. I just didn't think it was.)

It was a very odd event at a political function to have one candidate for Mayor to call the police and have one of the other candidates taken away. It kind of rattled the room and started the function off on a very poor note. I was upset about it because I felt it made all the candidates look bad, and I was certain that it would be one of the top stories on the news that night...and sure enough, it was.

Near the end of the forum, some of the candidates started launching into what sounded to me like a scolding session. Many of them criticized Zuma Dogg and characterized his comments as "threats" ...even though none of them except for Craig Rubin had actually heard them. Gordon Turner seemed to jump on the bandwagon and make some general comments about the situation. I really didn't like that about him. Here he was choosing sides with one man against another when he didn't know either of them and didn't know if the stated facts were actually correct. One would think as a lawyer he would have shown better judgement. ( I declined to make any comment on the situation or to choose sides.)

However, overall I would give Gordon Turner pretty high marks as a political candidate. He seems to have the skills to be competitive as a politician, but not the organization. I still wonder why he skipped so many scheduled events.

It didn't seem to hurt him in the election, though. He finished in third place and got over 17,000 people to vote for him . I knew that he would do well in the election. In my pre-race analysis of the election, I looked at the ballot and realized that Gordon Turner, who was listed as "Deputy City Attorney", was the only one besides Villaraigosa who could say that he already worked for the City. Being that he held this position, many voters could assume that he could be trusted, and voted for him as an alternative to Mayor Villaraigosa. I am pretty sure that at least half of the people who voted for Turner  didn't even know who he was and didn't know anything about him.

I honestly felt that with his occupational listing, Gordon Turner didn't have to campaign one bit and would automatically finish near the top of the pack. A great advantage for him. He got the most amount of votes for a candidate that spent almost no money on his campaign. Third place in the Mayoral election for a man who was previously unknown? Not a bad result.

I think he positioned himself well for a future run at political office.

I congratulate him and wish him well in his future attempts.

Alan Keyes video

Alan Keyes is a Conservative activist who ran against Barack Obama in the Illinois campaign for US Senate in 2004. Keyes didn't have much of a chance, as he was a last minute replacement for Jack Ryan, who dropped out when some rather spicy details about his divorce from Star Trek actress Jeri Ryan hit the front pages of newspapers. Keyes was accused of being a carpetbagger because he didn't even live in Illinois. He lost badly in the election and Obama was on his way to Washington.

Keyes obviously has no love lost for Obama, referring to him as "the person you call 'President Obama' ".

Watch this video and see if you can dispute many of the things he says. People tend to write him off as being crazy, but he speaks his mind on many important subjects in this video. Because he has no chance of being elected to anything in the near future, he is free to say many things other politicians are afraid to say.

The Last Word on Walter Moore

Well, it looks like we won't have Walter Moore to kick around anymore. This word comes straight from his own blog, where he says he won't run for public office again. This is disappointing behavior from Walter. I had always viewed Walter Moore as being slightly "Nixon-like" to begin with... angry, bitter, paranoid, thin-skinned... but this just completes the picture for me. Walter is now officially going to "take his ball and go home."

It is a stunning turnaround for a man who had accomplished quite a bit with very limited resources.

Moore spent less than $300K on his campaign, a very meager sum for such an important election. His total was less than 10% of what rival Antonio Villaraigosa raised and spent on his campaign. Yet Walter Moore did perform  reasonably well in the election, getting over 72,000 voters to support him and finishing in second place in the election. However, as Josh Brolin  (as the title character in the movie "W") reminds us, that, in an election,  "First is first and second is nothin'!"

Walter Moore and I have always had a very prickly relationship from the start. Before I even filed my papers, I contacted Walter and told him I was considering running for Mayor. I told him that I was aware of who he was from his repeated appearances on Conservative talk radio stations. I admitted that he was the candidate most likely to earn a runoff with Villaraigosa, and as such, probably had the best chance of defeating him. I explained to Walter that I was running in order to build myself a name for future success and that I realistically didn't expect to do well in the election, having very little money and no name recognition. Walter suggested that I run for City Council instead. I rejected that idea. However, I did tell Walter that if he was the one to earn a runoff with Villaraigosa, that I would support him and work for his campaign and even donate money. (I have emails to prove this conversation if anyone wishes to question my truthfulness).  I meant this when I said it, but later on in the campaign, as I saw more and more of what Walter was really like as a person, I started to have less and less faith in him as a person and as a viable candidate.

I emailed Walter to congratulate him on drawing a low number in the City Clerks ballot draw, which meant that his name would be one of the first ones on the ballot. Later on, I emailed him again to suggest that we talk to all the opponents to Villaraigosa in the Mayors race and "get on the same page". I wanted to suggest that maybe we could agree to concentrate and focus our criticisms only on Villaraigosa and not on each other.  I was completely stunned by Walters response. He emailed me and said "please stop emailing me" and added, "we are not on the same team". I was so blown away by his response that I showed it to Zuma Dogg and to Michael Higby, who can back up my statement on this. If Walter could act this way towards a person who, if defeated in the primary, was willing to support him, how in the world was he going to conduct himself in a professional manner and win over voters who didn't initially support him at all?

If Walter had agreed to discuss this subject with me, I never would have said a negative word about him... not now, not ever. A true leader understands the concept of team building. A leader also understands the concept that you sometimes win when someone else wins. In politics, it is not always only about you. In politics, you are often forced to work with others who don't agree with you. With Walter, that clearly wasn't the case. This was just one of many troubling signs about him in this recent campaign. As an elementary school teacher might put it.."Walter does not play well with others."

Walter whined loudly and repeatedly in public during the campaign about Villaraigosas refusal to debate him. He even went so far as to make a commercial showing a chicken clucking, in reference to Villaraigosas cold-shoulder attitude and refusal to have any contact or debates with him. Walter didn't like being shunned and ignored, yet it was perfectly acceptable for him to do the exact same thing to others, as evidenced by his behavior towards me and towards Zuma Dogg when Zuma  was involved in a personality dispute with Craig Rubin, and both Walter and Craig threatened to boycott a Hollywood event if Zuma Dogg showed up. This, to me, showed me that Walter Moore is a hypocrite and the very epitome of a liberal: he believes that there is one set of rules for him, and a very different set of rules for everybody else. I, on the other hand, always fought for the inclusion of all candidates on the ballot to appear at all forums. I even fought for  Socialist Carlos Alvarez to be included, a man whose politics I really couldn't stand.

Although I agree with Walter Moore on many political philosophies, including taking a hard stance against illegal immigration, I think the way Walter approached some very complicated and emotional subjects like this wasn't a positive thing for his campaign. He seemed to have a sneering, condescending attitude towards Spanish speakers. Videos like this only helped critics paint him as a racist and a fearmonger. Even if Walter had earned a runoff with Villaraigosa, Moores own statements on YouTube would have been used as ammunition by Villaraigosas campaign to portray Moore as an unstable nutjob who was completely unsuited to be Mayor. 

Walter Moore was a flawed candidate in many ways. I think he bungled the whole "Jamiels Law" issue, and with a little more attention to detail, it might have been on the ballot, and that resulting publicity might have put him over the top in earning a runoff in the primary election. I think Moore also bungled his campaign spending by focusing too much on Conservative talk radio ads. Those listeners weren't voting for Villaraigosa, anyway. He should have concentrated more on direct-mailing and phone banking activities with the funds he had.

For all my criticisms of Moore, this is not to say he didn't have some positives. I honestly think that he is worried about the future of the city. He has courage and he believed in himself enough to run for Mayor a second time, even though he didn't do well the first time around. I think he would have been a better option as Mayor than Villaraigosa because Moore hates government overspending. I think he also would have taken action to limit or control the illegal immigration problem. Villaraigosa, on the other hand, watches the city burn and laughs about it.

Walter Moore could probably have a future in Los Angeles politics if he really wanted. I think if he moved into a different district, he has enough name recognition that he could crush one of the current City Councilmembers in an upcoming election. Or he could wait and run for City Attorney in a few years. Or...as I predict...he could wait until Antonio Villaraigosa quits the job when he wins the Democratic Primary for Governor in 2010. Who knows? If he doesn't move to France, maybe Walter Moore actually could end up being Mayor of Los Angeles. Or not. Right now he is looking very Nixon-like. A mercurial, thin-skinned quitter.

But, who knows? History is a funny thing. Richard Nixon angrily quit politics forever after losing the election for Governor of California in 1962. In 1968,  he was elected President of The United States. In 1972 he won re-election in one of the biggest landslides ever, winning 49 of 50 states.

Victory

Today was a big success. Feels like...victory.

Got to speak at City Council and talk about Westside Republicans and the Prop 1A issue.

Held up the bumper sticker on camera.

Then later I got to talk in front of the crowd at the Tea Party anti-tax rally in Santa Monica.

I said "We have two choices right now...Liberty or Tyranny!!!"

The crowd loved it.

City Council & Tea Parties today

I have a very busy day planned for this April 15th.

I plan to speak at Los Angeles City Council this morning in my role as Media Spokesman for the Westside Republicans.

Later, I plan to be at the Tea Party Tax Revolt at the Santa Monica Pier.

We will be protesting excessive taxation from Sacramento, and I am in talks with organizers there to be able to give a speech.

I may be able to make it to the later presentation , another Tea Party in the evening at Van Nuys.

Patriots standing tall for personal freedom. 

Zuma Dogg + Dennis Zine = B.F.F. ?

Are City Council activist Zuma Dogg and Council Member Dennis Zine best friends forever?? One would certainly start to think so after some recent events at City Hall.

I was at City Council on Wednesday, April 8th for what seemed like an eternity as the Council meeting went for almost four hours. Near the end, as Council Members were getting restless to get out of City Hall, Zuma Dogg had a comment card filled out for discussion of special event fees. He started getting off topic and talking about the LACERS issue and various other things. The City Attorney interjected and Councilman Zine started to warn Zuma he was off topic. Zine eventually cut Zuma off.

"You're finished Mr. Dogg...you're done!" Zine said.

Zuma got hot about that and shouted out "Civil lawsuit on Dennis Zine!!"

But don't listen to me...you can see it here.. 3hrs 38min...

http://lacity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=130&clip_id=5544

Later on, I went to lunch at Sbarros with Zuma Dogg , and who should show up by total coincidence? Zine.

Zuma proceeded to kind of chew Zines ear off about various things, but eventually they both calmed down and started talking about other things. Say what you want about Zuma Dogg, he has an uncanny knack for getting officials to give up and disclose information to him. I thinks he just wears them out.... I've seen Zuma chase people down hallways, into elevators, across parking lots...etc...etc...

Here's a video of Zuma and Zine in happier times....

Later that afternoon, we ran into Paul Koretz, who is in a hot contest for the CD 5 seat. Zuma asked Koretz a bunch of questions and I was kind of surprised at some of the answers. Koretz seemed overly confident about winning his runoff election in May against David Vahedi. Koretz said "All my opponents who lost in the primary are getting behind me".

Oh...really? I thought about it and I wondered how legitimate that statement was.

Koretz went on to say "It might not even be that close". A bit arrogant, I thought...but who knows?

Later at home I checked out Koretz's website. http://paulkoretz.com/

I saw he had listed his endorsements from other political figures.

Among them? Ed Reyes and Jan Perry.

Yep, that's all I needed to know.

I emailed David Vahedi and told him he has my endorsement and my support.

The Last Word on Antonio Villaraigosa

After Antonio Villaraigosa won the City election on March 3rd, I was a bit surprised that no media resources contacted me for a comment afterwards. I understand that the election wasn't all that exciting for them....a sitting Mayor with a 3 million dollar campaign war chest going up against nine other men who combined didn't have 10% of the Mayor's money, fame, or access to the media. Not much of a contest in their eyes, so they didn't bother to write about it. It was a sad commentary on the death of journalism in this country . In most stories about the election, the so-called "journalists" didn't even bother to mention the names of his opponents. 

It's too bad they didn't call me after the campaign, because I had some choice comments for them. Words I had held back on and refrained from using during the campaign. They didn't bother to ask me, so I decided I will go the independent route and use what has become the REAL and most innovative media in this country... I will blog it myself!

Who could make a better comment on the race for Mayor? After all, I was one of the men running !

When I was being interviewed on the radio by Patt Morrison of KPCC, I called Villaraigosa "the most dangerous man in Southern California". I don't regret saying it, but I may have been inaccurate. He might not be number 1, but he's in the top 5.  Patt Morrison stunned me for a moment when she asked if there was "anything the Mayor had done right ?". I have to admit I hadn't thought about the question a lot, but I quickly answered that I liked the Mayors strong support of Israel. However, I actually have doubts that the Mayors enthusiasm on the subject is genuine. When he was in the State legislature he represented a somewhat different area politically than he does now, and I am not convinced that Israel was ever high on his list of priorities. Me, on the other hand, I went to Israel long before I got involved in politics, and I even have an old photo of me with a full beard wearing an IDF t-shirt (and I'm not even Jewish) . I'm not sure I could say that Antonios support for Israel was ever legitimate and not politically motivated.

I'm not going to demonize the Mayor and call him "a traitor"  like a certain candidate and some of his supporters continually did.  Antonio Villaraigosa is a man like any other man. He has his good points and his bad points. He came from a very rough social background and overcame some physical ailments early in his life. He struggled in his pursuit of an education but eventually overcame that to became Mayor of Los Angeles. So I will give him a little credit for that. But allow me to repeat a quote of mine from the Sunland-Tujunga debates held by the Mayor Sam blog...

"I don't think the Mayor is smart. I don't think he is talented. But this man is crafty. He is a political animal. He is almost like an old-style mob boss."  

That is how I see the Mayor. An untalented, but hard working overachiever.

A man who "worked" his union connections to eventually gain political control of a major city.

A man who knows the value of political favors and a man who knows how to collect from those in his debt.

However, I also see him as a man who could easily become a dictator if given half a chance. He has worked for organizations in the past like the ACLU, and the teachers unions, and the Democratic Party... all groups who say that they support freedom.....as long as you do exactly what THEY want you to do!

Most of my opposition to him has always been on a purely ideological basis.

His liberal policies of continually growing the government and finding new and creative ways to levy new taxes are ideologies that I find highly offensive. I feel that Antonio Villaraigosas "non-enforcement" policies towards illegal  immigration only encourage more lawbreaking and make our City less safe for its citizens. His tireless support of illegal immigration often makes me question his loyalty to the United States. His membership in a racist organization called "MECHA" while a student in college says a great deal about his poor judgement and his lack of character. His choice to preside over a gay marriage ceremony (in order to gain political capital with the far left) offended me because, as a Catholic, our faith doesn't allow that, and he knows it. I will spare you the details about his personal life, but again, there he shows an almost pathological inability to be honest with anyone. 

To many voters, he will always be known as the man who made the famous speech in 2006 where he said "We clean your toilets!!"   These are not words I want any elected leader of mine saying at any time in his career. I want leaders I can be proud of...not ones that I am embarrassed of... (which is how I feel about the current Mayor).

In my opinion, Villariagosa is only Mayor for one reason. 

James Hahn fired Bernard Parks.

The African-American community (and many Parks supporters) turned on Hahn in the election and voted for the guy who finished as runner-up in 2001. Little did they know they were voting in a man with Socialist ideologies. An illegal immigration appeaser who would end up doing more damage to the African-American community than they could ever have imagined. 

Yet somehow, the 15% of the people in this city who voted on March 3rd saw fit to return him to the Mayors Office. The only part of this I understand is that most voters didn't have any idea of who the other candidates were. If any of the other candidates had raised a million dollars to spend on their campaign, this election would have been very different.

Villaraigosa may not yet be finished doing damage to citizens here. He seeks to be elected Governor in 2010.

Laugh if you want, but it is a prospect that should frighten L.A. voters. He actually has a shot at winning.

Several Bay area politicians are going to splinter the vote there, and Villaraigosa may be the only big name in  Southern California to seek the job. He could take the Democratic Party nomination with a small plurality. After that, the voters of The Peoples Republic of California will do as they are told and put him in Sacramento.

God help us all.

A New Path

I have decided to become a blogger. I previously was not interested in this, as I have many other activities, associations and friendships that draw heavily on my time. However, in light of my recent political activities, I think it might be fair to let people in cyberspace know more about me, my goals, and what I am trying to achieve.

I recently ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in the election of March 2009. I ran because I believed in myself and my own abilities. I have always been a leader. In high school, college, and in the military, I have repeatedly been chosen to lead others. I believe that I have people skills that many do not have. 

I did not spend a lot of money on my campaign, because I knew that as a political newcomer, victory was probably out of reach for me on my first try at elected office. I represented a message of fiscal Conservatism. This is something new for voters in Los Angeles. It is something they are in dire need of in this city.

I was beaten quite badly in the election, but I do not look at the experience as a complete loss.

I gained experience and made new friends and political connections.

I believe this will help me in the future in other attempts at being elected to public office.

My conduct during the campaign impressed many and helped me find a new path.

I was chosen by Chairman Rob Pedersen to be the Media Spokesman for the Westside Republicans.

We are rapidly growing our organization with people who are not thrilled with the leadership in this City, State, and Country. We are currently organizing a push to defeat Proposition 1A... a dangerous ballot proposal up for a vote on May 19th.

Find out more about this at...   WestsideRepublicans.com