Embarrassing political cheerleading at Mayor Sam

Well, Michael Higby has done it again.

Mayor Sam, probably the best known political blog in Los Angeles, has become an embarrassing one-sided political cheerleading tool to promote the Mayoral campaign of City Councilman Eric Garcetti.

Today's column calls Garcetti "Batman".

Wow.

Really?

Higby might want to ask community activist Zuma Dogg about his side of the story.

Zuma Dogg seems to remember things quite differently.

Is Higby certain that Garcetti didn't first run this person over before providing assistance/aid?

This shameful pandering is reminiscent of the times when the Mayor Sam blog was shamelessly promoting the candidacy of Paul Krekorian for the City Council position in District 2. Krekorian was a tantrum throwing diva who eventually earned the nickname "The Dark Lord" thanks to his clearly-obvious disdain for his previous voters and darkly-sinister political motives.

If Higby and the MayorSam blog want to wear a cheerleading outfit for the rest of the Mayoral campaign, I have provided some options in the photos above.

Both photos have a big "G" on the chest.

(Disclosure: I am not supporting either candidate in the Mayoral Election.)

George Jones 1931-2013

I am deeply saddened by the passing yesterday of Country Music legend George Jones.

For me, Jones was like The Beatles or Elvis Presley.

He had hit songs for 50 years.

It is unlikely we will ever see that again.

This song of his is my favorite. It's about a blue collar working man whose woman spends his paycheck.

DANGER: California Democrats at work

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum

Congratulations to President George W.Bush on the opening of his new library today in Texas.

Wendy Greuel will be Mayor of Los Angeles.... even if she has to beat you to death with her own campaign literature

Did you get this in the mail?

Unfortunately, I did.

I'm sure that many of you who vote regularly in City Elections also received it.

Let's take a closer look at this magnum opus from the Wendy Greuel campaign.

Hmm. 36 pages. Already a bit much for the casual voter to comprehend.

She talks about the problems the City faces. She talks about how she will be the all-solving conqueror when elected Mayor. Already, alarm bells are going off in my head.

Greuel has been part of the problem for a decade. She voted along with the other Socialists on City Council for spending program after spending program. As Controller, she identified government waste, fraud and abuse, but did nothing to curb these practices.

The mailer goes on to showcase shiny photos of her with Bill Clinton and Richard Riordan and Barbara Boxer. Lots of talk about "investing" and "creating"...which makes me very nervous. That is not the proper role of government.

The last thing anyone on earth should have wanted in the last 8 years was to hand more money over to that showboating degenerate Antonio Villaraigosa. The City is not in better shape than when he took power....but that was never any concern of his. Like Obama, Villaraigosa is a looter, and is completely unconcerned about others, or the future of the City.

To her credit, I think Greuel is somewhat of a pragmatist. I think as Mayor she would try to do what she could try to do. I don't think she has the ideological intensity of Eric Garcetti. That man is a true believer is his government-creating-liberal-nirvana nonsense. And that scares me.

It's a shame that Wendy is probably going to lose this election. She had a big amount of momentum early, but turned off a lot of voters by beating up on Jan Perry in the primaries. Humiliating Jan Perry over her personal bankruptcies was a tactical error. It was unnecessary, because Jan Perry was not a threat to her in the primaries. Now, she probably won't even get 40% of the vote in African American households.

Wendy can still win, but she needs a big comeback. A momentum changer.

I don't know what that would be.

Poor Wendy.

I don't know if I have ever seen a political figure want a job so badly.

And if current trends continue, Wendy is going to be facing a cloudy future on Election Night.

Live Tweeting the Mayoral Debate

I watched and commented on Twitter about the Los Angeles Mayoral Debate.

I'm still livid at NBC for hosting a Mayoral debate in 2005 and another in 2013, but totally screwing the Mayoral candidates in 2009 (of which I was one).

Here are the Tweets (I have reversed the Twitter order for a more logical read):

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

Might do some live Tweeting of the Mayoral Debate. Interesting how #NBC can hold one in 2005 and 2013. Why did they skip 2009?!! #NBC4

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@Wendy_Greuel now sees the light on explosive pension debt. Only took her 10 years. Clever lady.

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@villaraigosa "tried to be the Education Mayor"??!!! LOL. ROFLMAO.

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

Neither one of these horrible liberals has said anything about getting government out of education. More failure guaranteed. #LAMayor

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

Did @ericgarcetti just talk about chasing down truants outside of school??!! Easy, stormtrooper!! This is still a free country #kpccmayor

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@ericgarcetti is involved with that NUTTY Ciclavia shutting down streets for bicycles? Knew there was something I didn't like about him.

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@Wendy_Greuel calls Westsiders "prisoners in their own homes". Drama Queen. Yes, traffic is horrible, but more govt is not the answer.

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@NBCLA Hey NBC, thanks for that televised debate in 2009 so voters could know who was best!! The blood is on your hands.

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

Graffiti problems: a sign of worthless liberal leaders & a general lack of respect for law and order, like sanctuary Mayor @villaraigosa

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@ericgarcetti is a master of political non- speak!! Talks for 10 minutes without saying anything!! #kpccmayor #LAMayor

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

#kpccmayor Why do engineers leave town? Because they don't care to hand over half their paychecks to @ericgarcetti & @Wendy_Greuel !!

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@jfmailander What about the people who despise every elected official in town?

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@KPCC I don't recognize the City they are both talking about. Jobs growth. Reduced traffic, graffiti?

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@NBCLA Job promotion isn't needed. Just stop electing Nanny-State leaders like @ericgarcetti and @Wendy_Greuel - they are economic poison!

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@jfmailander She's a Socialist. They are all wannabe Totalitarians.

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

Listening to @ericgarcetti complain about @Wendy_Greuel and her money is just... I don't know. Not impressed.

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

When @Wendy_Greuel just said "I did the right thing"-- she sounded like a liar. #kpccmayor

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@Wendy_Greuel is mad name-dropping right now. Really makes me dislike her. If she was so awesome, she'd be destroying @ericgarcetti #kpcc

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

Oh yeah, @ericgarcetti came up with the pothole app for iPhone. That city budget stuff will go away if you ignore it!! #kpccmayor

Phil Jennerjahn ‏@PhilJennerjahn22 Apr

@Wendy_Greuel "I'm going to be a strong leader for LA!" Well, maybe. There's a 50% chance you will just be Private Citizen Wendy Greuel.

Wendy, en fuego!!

I don't think very highly of Wendy Greuel or Eric Garcetti.

I think both of them will be a catastrophe for Los Angeles.

(but hey....people here voted for Villaraigosa..!!)

I do think it is very clever of her to do a commercial in Spanish.

Not sure how many votes it will help her get.

But it sure looks like she is at least making an effort.

Israel & India

As bad as the terrorist attacks on Boston were, I would like to remind my fellow Americans that we are lucky to still live in a country where the good guys are winning 99% of the time.

Israel and India have to deal with repeated terrorist attacks like this multiple times, every year.

Obama: The Kenyan

For what it's worth, I don't believe the President was born in Kenya -- as many conspiracy theorists would have you believe.

However, it sure is fun to wind up the liberal Democrats by making jokes about it.

Vladimir Putin & Russian immigration policy

"In Russia live Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Shari'a law, then we advise them to go to those places where that is the state law. Russia does not need minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination!' We better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland and France if we are to survive as a nation. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of most minorities."
    -- Vladimir Putin, to the Duma -- Feb. 4, 2013

Thatcher's first speech as leader of the Conservatives

"Let me give you my vision: a man’s right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, and to have the state as servant and not as master — these are the British inheritance. They are the essence of a free country and on that freedom all our other freedoms depend." -- Margaret Thatcher 1975

The Iron Lady is gone....

I lived in London in the early 90s and I saw first hand the changes and modifications that Margaret Thatcher had made to the British economy, in an attempt to wean the people off of the government teat of Socialism.

For her efforts, she was despised and vilified.

But her efforts worked. One of the reasons the U.K. has such a problem with illegal immigration is that Thatcher made England the European hotspot for jobs and growth. The British Pound had real value and many other currencies did not.

She is a hero to all of Europe.

I am deeply saddened by her passing.

Eric Garcetti's Bonfire of The Vanities

This might be the most important blog post I've ever written.

It could possibly change the outcome of the Mayoral Election in May.

Right now, Eric Garcetti has a slight lead over Wendy Greuel.

But nothing is written in stone. The election will be a close one.

Do I support either one of the two candidates?

No, I'm writing in my own name on the ballot in protest.

(I was the best candidate in 2009, too!)

Anyway.... on to the story.

Years ago, community activist Zuma Dogg told me a fascinating story about Eric Garcetti.

The story had many similarities to the movie "The Bonfire of the Vanities"

I want to repeat for legal reasons that these are allegations.
I do not know enough to say that the following statements are factually true.

The story...in vague details.

Many years ago, the story alleges that Eric Garcetti was drunk and hit a kid on a bicycle while he was driving a city-owned vehicle in Echo Park. The kid was shaken up, but not badly hurt. Eric took the kid and the bicycle back to where the kid lived. He apologized and got the family to cover up the incident.

However, the story doesn't end there.

One of the family members tells the whole story to a close family friend. That "family friend" goes to Zuma Dogg and wants him to expose Garcetti and the whole story.

I believe Zuma Dogg considered blowing up the story back in 2008 or 2009. There are some vague mentions about it in the media from back then.

OK...so this is the end of the "allegedly" part of the Eric Garcetti/Bonfire of the Vanities story.

Now, I had always kept this story in the back of my head.

What if the story is true?

We are about 45 days away from watching Eric Garcetti's coronation as the next Mayor of Los Angeles. This is a story that, if true, could cripple his career ambitions.

What if Wendy could find this kid or this family and hold a press conference about it on the steps of City Hall?

You could say goodbye to "The Prince of The City."

So yeah... attention Wendy Greuel!

You might want to call Zuma Dogg. He's not a difficult man to find.

"Preventing Gun Violence" Forum with Congressman Adam Schiff

Last night I took on the unenviable task of attending a local political forum hosted by Congressman Adam Schiff, who had defeated me in the November 2012 election for this areas seat in Congress.

The subject of the forum was "Preventing Gun Violence" and Schiff was the moderator of the panel which included his guests: Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, former State Senator Jack Scott, Dr. Anand Padya of the USC Keck School of Medicine, and Loren Lieb.

The forum was about what you could expect from a bunch of liberals playing to a house filled with nutty liberals. Lots of sad stories, exasperation, and righteous indignation that more government intrusion into our lives can't magically stop all evil from occurring.

Schiff used his heartfelt storytelling abilities to elicit maximum emotion from the crowd by talking about the Gabby Giffords shooting and how a young girl there had been killed "by the 13th bullet" out of shooter Jared Loughners gun.

Jack Scott told a sad story about his son being killed by accident at a party where someone was playing around with a loaded weapon. Loren Lieb told a sad story about her son being shot at a Jewish center in the Valley by someone who went there with the specific goal of targeting Jews.

Sheriff Lee Baca was probably the most shocking and disappointing of all the speakers, issuing epithets like "we don't live in the Wild West anymore"  and other odd comments that seemed to show a lack of understanding of the nature of the Second Amendment.

Dr. Anand Pandya was an absolute nut who spent most of his time talking about mental health issues. He played to the crowd the most and may have received the most applause of the night by claiming that the largest mental health processing facility in America was "the L.A. County Jail". Sheriff Baca nodded along in agreement with that applause-generating sound bite.

I sat quietly in the back and made no comments, and I most definitely did not offer any applause for this farcical show. I was the only person in the room wearing my "NRA" baseball hat, which had generated some dirty looks from the wild-eyed liberals in attendance. I was there to keep an eye on my elected leaders and their dangerous propensity for trying to interject government into every single problem that Americans face.

As is the case with most of these "forums", the leaders there were not really interested in hearing from the public. They took two or three questions from the crowd, then claimed they had run out of time.

Since I was the only opposition in attendance, I will issue my response through social media here on my blog, and on Twitter and Facebook. Below are my comments, had I been allowed to express them.

********

"Congressman Schiff and distinguished guests, I have sat in silence tonight listening to this forum, and to be quite honest, it is almost more than I can take. Unfortunately, this evening has been a waste of time. 'Preventing gun violence?' You have no method of preventing violence by way of a gun anymore than you have of preventing it from happening by a knife, or fist or baseball bat. Those who intend to do evil will find a way to do it. Indulging in the liberal fantasy that government can be all-seeing, all-knowing and all-controlling is disappointing political pandering at its worst."

"Ms. Lieb and Senator Scott told some sad stories this evening, but I have an ever sadder story for you. The political history of tyrannical leaders named Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao Tse Tung....who rounded up tens of millions of unarmed citizens and had them killed. Certainly that loss of lives is a  bigger tragedy than the individual shooting incidents mentioned tonight."

"And Congressman, I am particularly disappointed in your pandering about the shootings in Tucson and the young girl being killed by the '13th bullet'. How exactly does that happen in Arizona? A state where they allow open carry of firearms? Why is it that nobody in that crowd drew their own weapon and stopped Jared Laughner from harming more people? I'll tell you why. The people who were going to go see Gabby Giffords were liberals who do not avail themselves of Arizonas flexible gun laws. They didn't stop Jared Laughner because they were not armed themselves. A single armed citizen could have stopped that young girl from being killed by that '13th' bullet you are so fond of talking about. Just as one single armed teacher in Newtown, Connecticut could have saved lives. The answer to the gun problem in America is not more restrictions on firearms, but rather a larger abundance of honest, open-carrying free individuals. You might have noticed that these mass shootings never occur at a gun show or a police station."

"I am severely disappointed by the comments of Sheriff Lee Baca, who lost a lot of esteem tonight with his ridiculous comments that 'this is not the Wild West' and 'we are a modern society'. Yes, the world has more modern technology than ever, but the threats to freedom remain as old as time itself. If you had asked the citizens of Libya and Syria five years ago if they felt that they needed to purchase more grenades and AK-47s in order to defend themselves from their government, they probably would have laughed out loud. Those same citizens -- if they are lucky enough to be alive today -- are not laughing now."

"Conservatives like myself continue to purchase weapons at an ever-increasing rate because of leaders like yourself and Barack Obama being in power. We see where things are heading...and history teaches us that these things will not end well. A lunatic Mayor in New York City has recently decided that you no longer have the freedom to purchase a 32 ounce soft drink! There are just laws, and then there is tyranny. And recent actions by leaders in this country have started slipping past the peak of the Bell Curve into uncharted territory. Even a tyrant like King George never dreamed of telling citizens they had to pay a $1500 fine for not purchasing government-mandated health insurance."

"Any government that feels the need to constrict the freedoms of its citizens to defend themselves has to be looked upon suspiciously. I have no problem with citizens owning AR-15s, grenades, RPGs, or whatever else they feel necessary to defend themselves from their government. The government in Cyprus recently declared that they had the freedom to steal 10% of the wealth of every citizen in that nation. But why stop at 10%? Why not 20%, or 50%? And how long before this disease of government theft shows up in other countries like our own? 'Oh, that can't happen here' is what you liberals are fond of saying. That is exactly what they were saying in Cyprus six months ago. Things can change quickly...and changes for the worse happen fastest of all."

"I will close by saying that I politically oppose all your efforts at increased government intrusion into my life. Both you and the President, by showing your support for Obamacare, have displayed by evidence that you both believe in unlimited government power and supremacy over the individual. As such, neither of you should be trusted with any political power in the future. And you most certainly should not be trusted to decide how individuals can defend themselves in this country. The Second Amendment is a device invented to stop tyranny. It was needed in 1775, and it is still needed today. It is disappointing that neither you nor the voters of this District understand this."

April 1, 2013