Monday, June 29, 2009
Pelosi & Waxman celebrate destruction of jobs, economy
If Democrats are able to sneak this 1300 page bill through the Senate, then Waxman-Markey will become law. Over 2 million Americans will probably lose their jobs as major industries relocate to other countries with less restrictive taxation/regulation. Oddly enough, Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Waxman seem pretty happy about this.
Boehner : "Never seen anything this ridiculous"
John Boehner can't believe Waxman- Markey. He doesn't understand how the Democrats could want to cost 2 million more people their jobs.
If billionaire Warren Buffett doesn't like it....
..then it probably is not a good idea. He knows how economies and industries work and he doesn't support this bill because it is "regressive"...meaning everyone pays for it.
Tom McClintock tells it straight
Congressman Tom McClintock warns that the Waxman-Markey energy bill, known as "Cap and Trade" is extremely destructive. Listen to the part where he talks about California going for this liberal fantasy of controlling emissions, and its promises of "an explosion of green jobs". Instead, California got skyrocketing unemployment.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009
There are plenty of important things to worry about in the world right now. North Korea is making aggressive militaristic threats against the United States. In Iran, the misguided authorities in power are shooting innocent people in the streets. The United States economy is still melting down and the "stimulus" concept of the federal government appears to be nothing more than wishful thinking. However.....ALL of these things will be ignored for a few days due to the death of pop music superstar Michael Jackson. No offense to the families of Ed McMahon or Farrah Fawcett, because I'm sure they were nice people, but their deaths will go largely unnoticed this week... simply because they were NOT Michael Jackson.
It is easy for those of us who live here in Los Angeles to get a little casual about meeting celebrities. My brother met Marlon Brando in a camera shop. I chatted with Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton for a few minutes at Rocket Video one time. Neither meeting caused a great deal of excitement. I mention this because Michael Jackson still had the power to drive normal people into a frenzy over seeing him. I last saw Michael Jackson a few weeks ago on Rodeo Drive. He was shopping in a store and left in a blue SUV. People were sprinting at high speeds towards his vehicle and screaming hysterically. They were running from several blocks away to get to Rodeo... that is how big Michael still was. They were running for a simple reason. In the 1980's, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" became the best selling record album of all time, and along with accomplishing that feat, Michael Jackson became the biggest star in the world.
That is not something that goes away... ever. Ask Mickey Rooney. You can occasionally see him at the Farmers Market, where he is always happy to tell people that he was the "biggest star in the world"...and he was...back in 1939-41. He is still alive and telling people about it over 65 years later. It is a rarified status that only a few people in the world will ever achieve. Kobe Bryant could win 10 NBA titles in a row, and he still wouldn't be anywhere close to Michael Jackson. Only a few people in the history of the world have ever known what it was like to be Michael Jackson, and even then, they had to do some guessing. Elvis Presley knew what it was like to be Michael Jackson. The Beatles knew what it was like to be Michael Jackson. But none of them knew what it was like to sign a record contract with Motown records when they were only 10 years old.
I had been somewhat of a fan of his after seeing him do his "moonwalk" on a Motown TV special in 1983. It was one of those moments you never forget. People still talk about it to this day. In 1992 I was living in London, England and heard that Michael Jackson was performing at Wembley Stadium. On a whim, I decided to go and see if I could get in, even though I did not have a ticket. Some fast talking and quick bargaining with some exiting reporters ended up with me wearing their press passes and making my way to the front row of the show. The show was amazing and Jackson left the crowd overjoyed. I thought about that show when I heard that he had died today. I felt very bad thinking that other people would never get to experience that again.
This video shows Michael at the peak of his skills, performing at the Rose Bowl during the halftime show of Super Bowl 27. Hundreds of millions of people around the globe watched his performance that day. There is a good chance that you were one of them.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Krekorian wants to bankrupt L.A.
Attention CD 2 voters! Paul Krekorian is headed your way, and he's bringing a whole lot of financial trouble along with him from Sacramento. It is bad enough that this Burbank resident has decided to seek the Los Angeles City Council position in Council District 2. The fact that he intends to bring his Sacramento-style mentality of irresponsibility and his overspending habits to L.A. is frightening. We already have Mayor Villaraigosa and a majority of the City Council Members, who are hard at work destroying this City. Adding Assemblyman Paul Krekorian to the mix would just be overkill. However, he would fit in very well downtown....
Wild-eyed liberalism. Phony altruism. Typical Statist mentality of entitlement and control. Fantasy world accounting.
Yeah, he would a perfect club member down at City Hall.
Listen to him say things like "across-the-board budget cuts are unfair, they are unwise.." (shudder)
Yeah, it is a much better idea to raise taxes and fees on a struggling public in the middle of a bad economy.
(Maybe they can raise the parking meters to $5 an hour!)
Much like the Chris Essel video below, hearing statements like this makes me ill.
Chris Essel at S.O.H.A.
Chris Essel says she "wants to give back to the community" and would "love to get to know each and every one of you". These type of statements of false altruism by political candidates tend to make me nauseous.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Race for CD 2
Here is a partial list of the players who might be motivated to run for the open Los Angeles City Council seat left vacant by Council Member Wendy Gruel. Her victory in the March 3rd election awarded her the new position of City Controller. The results of the election produced a wild scramble amongst interested parties for the newly-vacant job in the 2nd. One of the immediate assumptions was that well-respected politician Laura Chick would step in and take the job, but, aware of the fact that she had already served two terms in City Council from another district, Chick felt it was not the right place for her, and surprisingly declined a run at the spot. Some of the candidates can clearly be accused of being "carpetbaggers" (i.e. they don't live in the district) and I'm sure that subject will come up in discussions during the election campaign. Some of the potential candidates can actually be described as "already in"... and we will get to a discussion of that next...
Many of the potential candidates are awaiting a decision by State Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, who casts a large enough shadow over the race that his presence in it would discourage many others from running. Krekorian has a tough decision to make, having himself just been re-elected to the State Assembly in November 2008. His decision to immediately depart that position and to "carpetbag" over from Burbank/Glendale over into the Eastern San Fernando Valley would not be met with joy by many of the voters who elected him in November. In fact, it is likely his actions would burn bridges and create a large number of hostile voters who might seek his recall regardless of the outcome in the City Council race. If he decides to seek the Council seat, many would-be candidates will be discouraged from seeking the position. If he opts out, the field will probably get more crowded. However, it seems more likely than not that Krekorian will seek the seat. The higher salary and the pay-to-play opportunities of the Los Angeles City Council are usually too much for politicians to resist. There are rumors that Krekorian has already rented an apartment in CD 2 in order to be able to claim residency.
Aside from Krekorian, Chris Essel appears to be the leading candidate out of the gate, due to her large personal fortune after having been an executive at Paramount Pictures. However, Essel comes with some serious and unattractive baggage... having been appointed to the Airport Commission by none other than questionable City leader Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Joan Pelico was a member of "Team Weiss", which was left a pile of smoldering wreckage after the City Attorney race. Pelico and Tamar Galatzan are lower level politicos who owe large debts to Mayor Villaraigosa. Galatzan, in particular, is heavily indebted to Villaraigosa. It is believed that Villaraigosa spent between 1 and 2 million dollars to get her elected to the LAUSD Board. If the Mayor pulls them aside and lets them know that Chris Essel is his preferred candidate, they will probably bow out of the race in deference to him.
Frank Sheftel, a business owner and community activist, is painting himself as the only "local boy" in the race,citing his decades-long presence in the San Fernando Valley. He acknowledges than Essavi and Essel are both probably going to be candidates in the election, but he believes that Neumann and Gerston probably won't run. Montanez would be yet another carpetbagger in the race, having served as Mayor of San Fernando and in the State Assembly for areas not covered by CD 2.
One interesting possibility would be media personality David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg, who is rumored to be mulling the option of running for the CD 2 seat. Saltsburg did surprisingly well in the 2009 Mayoral election, taking fourth place and pulling in over 9,000 votes.
Saltsburg does not live in CD 2 (as far as I know) yet he may not be able to resist the temptation to be in the focus of the glaring spotlight of publicity that will follow this campaign . Saltsburg seems to take delight in derailing the devious plans of crooked politicians, and to be able to disrupt the coronation of Chris Essel by Antonio Villaraigosa may be just the type of project that he would find irresistible.
The deadline for residency has passed, so the carpetbaggers will have to have already made their moves. Now the question is to see who files and who can obtain the petition signatures in the rather brief three week window that the City Clerks office is granting. Stay tuned for more details as the race heats up.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tom Campbell runs for Governor of California
Brief clip from the dinner with Westside Republicans
on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
David Benning runs for U.S. Congress
Brief clip from the dinner with Westside Republicans
on Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
My Comments at City Council - June 10, 2009
I spoke at City Council on Wednesday, June 10th and my comments caused a little stir of controversy. Several people contacted me to say that they really liked what I said. One person even said I was "terrific". However, other people were not so pleased about it and some of them contacted the Republican Party to complain. I was contacted about these complaints and said that, yes, I was very tough on the City Council, but I still felt that I was right.
Instead of being a bad representative of the Party, I feel that I am one of the few still defending it and its principles. Conservatives have been playing defense since Nov 2008. I'm just here to remind them that we exist.
Yes, even in the blue state of California.
My comments, delivered at Los Angeles City Hall on June 10th, 2009.....
*******************
Good Morning Councilmembers.
My name is Phil Jennerjahn and I would like to start today with a quote from Gerald Ford, who in 1974, said "A government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take from you everything you have." Unfortunately, a lot of people here in Los Angeles are learning this the hard way. Yesterday hundreds of City employees came here to cry and to complain. They are learning that Socialism has the magical power to make everyone equally miserable.
The City says that they need to give furloughs and make layoffs. Well... of course they do! It is the intrinsic, age old problem that has always plagued Socialist societies ... eventually, you run out of other peoples money.
City and Union employees yesterday were adamant about how important they were. About how vital their services were. Well, I have a suggestion for them if they aren't happy...
Quit! Quit en masse. Take your services to the private sector. See what they will pay you to be a Parks and Recreation manager, a Parking Enforcement Officer, a wastewater management worker, an office file clerk.
Certainly , if you are valuable, the private sector will pay you much, much more for your services.
But no...City employees....you won't do that.
You prefer the soft tyranny of Socialism!!
A mighty and powerful nanny-state government that sees all, knows all, controls all, and decides all!!
And now...you are complaining that you don't like it anymore!
Well, excuse me, but you are not going to be getting a lot of sympathy from me.
Most of you have chosen the path of your own destruction!!
Yes, I'm talking to you...
... members of the SEIU, EAA, UTLA, AFSCMA, AFL-CIO !!
You voted for this! Your unions donated money to the Mayor and to many members of this City Council.
83% of the registered voters decided not to vote in the Mayoral election in March... and now, they will pay a terrible price for it.
There is a solution, however. I am launching a recall action against Mayor Villaraigosa. He spent over 3 MILLION dollars on his Mayoral campaign in March of 2009 and only got 9% of the registered voters to vote for him. Does this sound like someone who should be in charge of the second largest city in America??
I am building a website... Recall Antonio . Com ...and I plan to organize a protest at the Mayors swearing in ceremony in July. If you wish to be involved, leave messages for me at the Mayor Sam website. Thank you.
************************
Later, in the same session, the subject of the City being sued by laid off or furloughed employees came up.
I said in my comments...
******************
This subject is about the City being sued. My answer to this is, if the workers want to sue,.. then let them sue! I think the courts should throw out these suits. The City has no budget to pay them with.
The City government has no obligation to employ people. OK? It has no obligation to give obscene pensions to them, either. Alright?
Ronald Reagan , he once said - quote, "When government expands, liberty contracts" unquote.
That is an important quote because every city job is paid for by taxpayers. OK? So losing a few jobs isn't going to bother me. I think that paying for these jobs robs people of their freedom to do other things with their money.
Now, you might already know that I'm kind of a contrarian. Most visits I come here to City Council and I don't ask you to spend money on things...I almost always ask you to not spend money on things.
I want to see courage at City Council!
I want to see backbone at City Council!
Just for an example... last week when I was here these red-shirted Socialists from ACORN came here and they were demanding free housing or reduced housing. Instead of telling them to get lost, you caved to them..!!! You said "Oh...we will try to take care of you." Even Council President Eric Garcetti got up there and said "We will try to get that Obama money for you." That is a whole 'nother disaster...I won't even go into that.
One of my heroes, Alexander the Great, he once had a quote that "In order to be a truly great leader, you have to be willing to be cruel to people that you love." What he meant by that is that you have to be tough on people... you can't give them the warm blanket of Socialism and say "I'll take care of you."
Just once. Just once when I come here to City Council I would like to see you address all these people who come here and say "I want...I want..I want." Just once I would like you to look at them and say "You are NOT getting what you want...because it is not the job of government to give that to you!!" Thank You.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Meet Tom Campbell tonight - West L.A.
If you feel like you might have heard of him before, you probably have. Frequent Mayor Sam readers have been seeing his ads over on the right side of this page for over a month. Tom Campbell worked in the Reagan Administration and also served as a US Congressman representing the Silicon Valley Area.
One of the best items on his resume is that he served as State Finance Director and during his term , the State budget was balanced with no tax increases and no borrowing.
Not sure how I feel about him. I'm not particularly excited by any of the Republican Candidates for Governor right now. They need to do more to convince me. Campbell seems to be fiscally Conservative, which I like a lot, but he also supported the horrible Prop 1A... a big tax hike on the May ballot. He is going to have some "splaining" to do tonight.
My group, Westside Republicans, hosts both Tom Campbell and Congressional candidate David Benning tonight at our monthly dinner in Westwood. See the Westside Republicans website for more details.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Groundswell to Recall "The 9% Mayor" seems to be growing....
...and it is not because the Mayor is fooling around with yet another TV reporter who doesn't understand the concept of "journalistic ethics". Nope. I couldn't care less that the Mayor is doing that. Although the fact that he is still married to someone else does make him appear to be more than a bit tacky and classless.... but that has never disqualified anyone from holding an elected public office before.
The reason more and more voices are echoing the word "Recall" is because the Mayor has done a terrible job of running the City. He has behaved like a mini-gangster, using the City Treasury as a slush fund to run around and dole out "the loot" to his followers, cronies, and yes-men. Anyone who was ever a political supporter of Antonio Villariagosa only had to apply to run some type of vaguely defined "program" in order to be handed a lucrative City contract and the prerequisite excessive salary that goes along with it.
The fallout from his irresponsible, Santa-like behavior is now about to hit the fan. The City Budgetary Crisis will require that cuts be made and thousands of City employees be furloughed or laid off. City employees who once supported the Mayor and trusted him are about to lose their jobs so that people like the Mayors daughter and Councilman Alarcons daughter can keep their unqualified positions and inflated City paychecks.
I spoke about the recall action at City Council on Friday in Van Nuys. Former Mayoral Candidate and second-place finisher Walter Moore has been writing about it on his website. KRLA Radio Show Host Kevin James evidently has been turning up the volume on this issue on his radio show. Widely popular former Daily News Editor Ron Kaye has been writing about the Mayors lack of popularity. Frequent City Hall critic and former Mayoral Candidate David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg shouted out "Recall Villaraigosa!!" during his public comment at a recent City Council meeting. Zuma Dogg was one of the first critics sounding the alarm over the looming "Pensiongate Scandal" , which could finally prove to be the fatal blow to Antonios political career.
In a surprising turn of events, I have recently been contacted by union members , who say that they are fed up with Mayor Villaraigosa and feel that they have been stabbed in the back by him. They seem all too eager to return the favor. To have former supporters and voters for the Mayor suddenly turn on him is a troubling sign for Villaraigosa. It is unlikely that the Mayors spinmasters at City Hall can put positive action on these events.
As I mentioned, the uphill battle for the recall is monumental -- 240,000 signatures --but not impossible. (We need 2,400 people who are willing to go get 100 signatures each). Nobody thought the City voters could defeat the sneaky Measure B Solar initiative (including many of us who worked on the project! ), but enough people spoke out about it that Measure B drew negative attention and actually was defeated at the polls. I foresee something similar happening in the near future with the recall effort.
I don't think declaring the intent in October is the right idea. The citizens of this City have four months to obtain the valid voter signatures. I don't think going door-to-door in the rainy season of January/February is the right idea or particularly appealing to anyone. I am publicly declaring my intention today to file the Recall Notice on March 3, 2010. I think this would be a fitting and ironic twist, coming exactly one year to the day of the 9% Mayors re-election. And it would give the foot soldiers in this battle the leisurely spring/summer months to walk precincts and obtain signatures.
I am going to suggest that voters of this City build a coalition of concerned citizens who are willing to do some legwork to remove Villaraigosa from power. Homeowners Assocations and other types of civic groups need to be addressed and consulted. Professional organizations and political activists need to get involved. The City cannot afford four more years of Antonio in charge. He nearly bankrupted the City in his first four years. Does anyone honestly think the next four years will be an improvement?
The private sector would never have re-hired him to be the CEO in charge of a 7 billion dollar corporation.
Not with those results. But voters? Well...
The lack of passion in his re-election campaign was puzzling.
The 17% turnout at the polls was an embarrassment for the second largest City in America.
Maybe...if we are lucky.....we will have a fresh group of eager and energetic volunteers.
Thousand of recently laid-off City employees who are eager and willing to spend next spring walking precincts and collecting signatures in order to deliver some well-deserved payback to their free-spending former boss.
Friday, June 5, 2009
RecallAntonioVillaraigosa.com
I have reserved this internet domain, also along with RecallAntonio.com - for short - for potential recall action against the Mayor. I will be going to City Council to address this subject today and the uphill battle it would take.
Please watch on television on Channel 35 or watch on the internet.
I believe that saving the City is worth the fight.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Recalling Villaraigosa
In the last three months since the Mayoral election, I have been approached by several people who have suggested that I lead a recall action against Antonio Villaraigosa. They have expressed their detailed complaints against him, most of which come as no surprise to me, because I ran against Villaraigosa myself based on some of these very similar issues.
I turned down these requests to be at the forefront of a recall action for several reasons. I didn't think...and I still don't think ... that it is my place to be leading the recall action. I did what I could do against a terrible leader in this city. I ran against him in the election and asked people to vote him out and to vote me in. Unfortunately, I didn't have the millions of dollars necessary to run a winning campaign. On election day, over 90% of the voters who walked into the polling stations had never heard of me. For the most part, they hadn't heard of any of the other candidates, either. (All apologies to Walter Moore, who did raise some money, but still only had 10% of what the Mayor could spend.)
Most voters in Los Angeles showed their displeasure with Villaraigosa by refusing to participate in the election. Even though the Presidential election in November of 2008 had shown record levels of voter interest and participation, the Mayoral election in March 2009 was pretty much the polar opposite. Dispirited and disenfranchised by his terrible leadership, 83% of the voters in Los Angeles chose not to participate in the March election and did not bother to go vote. The media was partially to blame for this, as they heralded their trumpets about how majestic and unbeatable the Mayor was. Columnist after columnist preached from the liberal rags about how Villaraigosa would dominate the election. When two geniuses on the editorial board of the LA Times told me that they thought Mayor Villaraigosa would get 70 to 80% of the vote, I suggested to them that they needed to reduce their intake of marijuana.
Of the 17% who actually showed up on election day, the Mayor carried the city by winning 55% of those votes.
55% of 17% works out to about 9% of the registered voters. So...our magnificent Mayor, with his millions of dollars of campaign money...and his unprecedented access to media coverage...and his fawning, disgraceful coverage by the biased left-wing liberal media...the best he could do was to get 9% of the registered voters to get out and support his re-election. Considering the fact that many of the votes for the Mayor came from City employees and union members who, in one way or another, depend on him for a paycheck, the 9% of the vote begins to look even less impressive. His four years of being in charge of the City clearly did not impress many here in Los Angeles.
I felt the election was a gross perversion of democracy. I blame this on two people. Mayor Villaraigosa and his genius hatchet man, Ace Smith. It was unprecedented what happened in the Mayoral campaign here in Los Angeles in March of 2009. Because the Mayor was facing opponents who had very little or no money to spend on their campaign, he and Ace Smith decided that they wouldn't have to run an actual campaign. They figured...the less coverage, the better. Villaraigosa didn't even open a campaign office until about one month before the election. He refused to appear at any event with any of the other candidates, thereby effectively denying us any media coverage. I think this is unprecedented in American history, where the leader of one of America's largest cities could just refuse to appear with the other candidates for his office. You didn't see James Hahn pull that type of bullshit when Villaraigosa wanted to take his job away from him in 2005. Nope, James Hahn acted like a man...like a responsible professional, and he gladly answered questions at various forums against his opponents in the 2005 Mayoral election.
Villaraigosa -- who has to hide from voters now -- did not offer his opponents this opportunity because he lacks class and dignity. He lost tens of thousands of votes by the way he treated the voters here. He refused to appear at hundreds of events that all the candidates had been invited to attend. The other candidates and I became very accustomed to hearing upset forum speakers and organizers talking about how the one very important candidate had refused their invitation and would not be answering questions today. It came to be a standard speech that the other candidates and I would be able to memorize by the end of the campaign.
So, the Mayor who only does his job 11% of the time got 9% of the registered voters to vote for him.
Does this sound like someone who should be in charge of the second largest city in America?
I don't think so. As of right now I am not convinced there is enough of a passion for a recall action against the Mayor. Look at how disinterested voters were in the election. However, if someone wants to lead the charge, I am willing to participate in the action. I honestly think the City cannot afford four more years of Antonio in charge. He has the City paying his daughter 68K a year to be some type of "field representative" even though she has no college degree and no qualifications. He gives Councilman Alarcon's daughter a fancy job on the Taxicab Commission. Sure...that's right..because she's an expert on the taxicab business. I guess.
And people wonder why the city is 500 million or maybe even a billion dollars in the red.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Crystal Chavez Charity Event
The Jennerjahn Report readers on the East side and in the San Gabriel Valley might want to attend a charity event to be held this Thursday, June 4th, in El Monte.
Crystal C. Chavez is a USC grad who started a charity foundation to award scholarships to students in the San Gabriel Valley so that they can attend college. Her foundation wants to ensure that more students from the San Gabriel Valley area can obtain college educations and degrees.
(Fairness Disclosure: I am friends with Crystal Chavez and am helping to promote this charity event for her foundation. I was also an Ivy League donor to her program.)
 Lighting the path to your American Dream Dessert Reception Join us at our inaugural fundraising event to benefit the Crystal C. Chavez Foundation scholarship program Thursday, JUNE 4, 2009 Tickets: Preparatory: $20 6pm-8pm Grace T. Black Auditorium Luscious desserts * 97.1 AMP Radio * Raffle * Live Art To donate, attend, or for more info visit www.crystalcchavez.org Checks payable to: Crystal C. Chavez Foundation. All donations are tax-deductible as applicable by law.
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I am opposed to this effort. The people who are proposing it fail to see the forest for the trees. The salary of the City Council members is irrelevant. Even if they made 200K per year, the total of their 15 salaries combined would only be 3 Million/year.
The Council makes financial decisions that affect BILLIONS of dollars of LA's budgetary process. Their salaries are nothing compared to their financial power to make things happen...or not happen.
I wouldn't care if they made 300K per year....as long as they made Conservative decisions and eliminated higher costs and fees. If they would eliminate government departments and useless regulations.... and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse... they would deserve even more than they make now.
Their salary level is not the problem.
Their actions, votes, and ideologies are the true problem.