Well... I guess I must have finally done it.
Some of my pro-Christine Essel posts must have sent Michael Higby over the edge.
I had a feeling that we were headed to some type of confrontation over this, and my instincts were correct.
Higby just couldn't allow any more posts on Mayor Sam that bashed Paul Krekorian by telling the truth about him.
It was too painful. Too dangerous. Too close to an election.
I now join a long list of distinguished bloggers who have been fired from Mayor Sam. Michael Higby might be setting some type of unintentional World Record. He has the only blog in existence that has fired THREE former candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles. Walter Moore and David Saltsburg (a.k.a. Zuma Dogg) were the earlier ones to incur his wrath.
People might be curious for my reaction...
Am I angry? Am I upset? Surprisingly, the answer is... not really.
I think Higby could have handled it a little better.
I've never been a fan of one person taking unilateral action against another in a dispute without bothering to discuss it with the other party first. But hey, it is Higby's blog and he can do with it what he wishes.
I enjoyed the opportunity to write for the very famous and well-followed Mayor Sam Blog.
When I ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in March of 2009, I was an underfunded, unknown candidate and as such, I did not perform very well in the election. I feel that Michael Higby and the Mayor Sam Blog inviting me to write for them was a very positive outcome from what were some very negative election night results. I guess you could say it was a blessing in disguise. Previously, my writing skills had earned me my own newspaper column in college at the University of Wisconsin, and I certainly enjoyed entertaining my fellow students there at that time. I knew I could be interesting enough to keep political figures here in L.A. entertained and engaged in local events. I was happy to do it and I enjoyed my time there.
I'm quite proud of a lot of the things I wrote for Mayor Sam. I personally think my interview with Special Assistant City Attorney David Berger may have been one of the best things ever to appear on Mayor Sam.
I got a City official to open up and talk candidly about many political subjects and side issues in this town.
That doesn't happen everyday.
I'm currently working on a fascinating interview with another elected official, but now that interview will only appear only on my blog instead of Mayor Sam's. Their loss, I think.
Michael Higby has done a great service to the City of Los Angeles by creating and operating his blog.
People often got better political news from Mayor Sam than from the two major newspapers and all the TV stations combined. That's pretty high praise for Mayor Sam or near-total condemnation of the competence of other local media here in L.A. ... however you choose to look at it.
Was Mayor Sam perfect? No.
Even though Mayor Sam often had a breaking news scoop or some exciting exposés on City corruption and misbehavior, Mayor Sam could also be childish and petty. Higby allowed a lot of abusive behavior in the comments section at Mayor Sam. As a Conservative, I'm all for freedom, but when people made posts that were childish or petty, or just general insults instead of being on-topic, Higby and the crew should have disallowed them. Sometimes they edited those types of comments, but sometimes they didn't.
Higby claims to be a Conservative , but he often showed some very liberal tendencies by banning people when he didn't agree with them or didn't like what they had to say. I never agreed with the banning of Zuma Dogg. Zuma may have his own idiosyncrasies and issues, but he is like a bloodhound when it comes to sniffing out facts about corruption and fraud in L.A. City government. Like it or not, Zuma Dogg affects the political scene here in L.A. Some of the City Council members end up reacting to issues he brings into the light.
Unfortunately, Michael Higby is so emotionally invested in Paul Krekorian winning the special election for City Council that he is allowing that choice to cloud his judgement. In fact, his choice to fire someone who was a lonely voice of dissent will probably make him look bad in the long run. It makes him look like he is against free speech. Why he is choosing to support an ultra-liberal who helped bankrupt the State of California is beyond my comprehension. Krekorian almost never voted no on any spending project whatsoever in all the time he was in Sacramento. To a Conservative, that type of voting record is pure lunacy.
Christine Essel is far from perfect (she's also a Democrat) but in her life she has never cast a single vote as an elected official that ever cost one voter a single penny of their money. Given the choice between the two of them, that is more than good enough for me.
I have many other things going on in my life to occupy my time, so in a roundabout way getting the axe from Mayor Sam is going to be very helpful. I need to devote more time to other projects, including my upcoming Congressional run in 2010.
I will continue to post here and will continue to fight the good fight.
My long term goal is to have Conservative Ideology dominate this country politically.
You might want to stick around. Things are going to get very interesting.
Personal freedom is under attack in this country - and not just at Mayor Sam!
I think the next three years are going to be a bumpy ride.
