At Rabbi Shifren campaign event

Yesterday I was invited to speak at a campaign event for my friend Rabbi Nachum Shifren. The Rabbi is a good man who I met a few years ago when I was running for Mayor and he was running for the California State Senate.

The Rabbi is now running for U.S. Senate in a very crowded field on June 5th. His ballot has 24 candidates listed. It won't be easy to get through that crowded field, but I am happy to support the Rabbi and he will receive my vote.

One of the pleasant surprises yesterday was getting to meet Conservative hero Sharron Angle, who failed by a very small percentage to defeat Harry Reid in Nevadas Senatorial election in 2010. Angle is a charming woman, and spoke at great length about her rise from obscurity as a former housewife and schoolteacher to sudden national prominence as the major Republican candidate who almost took out Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

She was disarmingly charming and honest. I can see why so many voters in Nevada liked her.

Supported by TeaPAC!!

I just found this flyer on Facebook. I didn't know about it at all. I'm very happy to know my Tea Party brothers and sisters approve of me. It really made my day.

Greece at the brink

Things are happening in Greece right now which are going to affect everyone on earth, so it would be a good idea to pay attention to these events.

The Greeks, for decades, have had an unusually generous Socialist mindset and entitlement mentality. Much like the Los Angeles political situation, they had a large voting bloc of Socialist public employees who kept voting themselves higher and higher social benefits packages at the expense of their fellow Greeks. Public workers in Greece wanted to retire at 52 years old. They wanted to be paid more money in retirement than they did when they were working.

The problem with this is that it is mathematically impossible for their fellow Greeks to carry that economic burden. Far too much of their economy was being siphoned off by these looters disguised as public employees. It is a lot like the situation here in Los Angeles, where Democrats keep voting themselves higher and higher benefits, as more and more businesses pack up and leave town. Eventually, the system will collapse.

It was one thing for the Greeks to be doing this when they had their own currency, the drachma. But when they entered the European Union, they started using the Euro as their currency, and it was the French and Germans who controlled how much of that currency was printed and distributed. Eventually, Greece ran itself into an enormous hole. Greece couldn't just print up more drachmas anymore.

The math is clear ....Greece cannot recover.

What will happen next will affect world markets. Greece will exit the Euro and their economy will collapse. The drachma will literally be worth nothing because it is the vague promise of a bankrupt nation. Greece will stabilize 5-10 years down the road, but their will be massive civil unrest in that time period.

Greece imploding will trigger runs on banks, and the implosion of Spain, Portugal and Ireland. Eventually, the entire European Union will collapse. The Euro will cease to exist and the various countries will all suffer as they return to devalued local currencies.

All of this is happening because of large, overpowering Socialist governments who buy votes with taxpayer money. Sure, it is easy to buy votes with taxpayer money when you can actually deliver the goodies, but when the coffee can is empty, it will prove that this type of "government by organized crime" is unsustainable and should not be attempted again in the future.

The solution here is to privatize everything and stop letting government be in charge of their citizens money.

Obamas egomania knows no limits

Here is another charming story that makes you shake your head in disbelief about our 44th President.

Apparently, Obama isn't just comfortable using his own time period to brag about himself. Now, he has made the audacious move to insert himself into other biographies.

Yes, The American Pharaoh is now editing former Presidents biographies on the White House. gov website to add charming bon mots about the nobility of #44.

Unbelievable.

No President in history would do this.

Obama? Different story.

Just another reason I despise him and everything he stands for.

Waiting for Caruso

With the Los Angeles Mayoral election coming up in 2013, I haven't decided on a candidate to support yet. Basically, I am waiting for Rick Caruso to get involved. He is the one man who can change the criminal corruption of the Los Angeles political scene and possibly change things for the better.

The biggest problem with Los Angeles is that it is run by a crime family, the Democratic Party -- in conjunction with public employees and public unions. Whoever they decide to support almost never loses in an election. They can bring the muscle and the dollars to basically wipe out any potential opponents. Because of this, Los Angeles suffers very low-quality leadership. Corrupt public officials who participate in this pay-to-play arrangement are already morally bankrupt and will never turn against their political overlords to change the status quo.

So, we voters in Los Angeles are forced to suffer the sleights from these low-quality leaders like ethics violator and serial adulterer Antonio Villaraigosa, treasury-looter Tony Cardenas, criminally-indicted Richard Alarcon, and intellectual underachievers like Ed Reyes and Tom LaBonge.

Rick Caruso is the one man who could make all the difference in the world. His massive wealth would allow him to outspend the Los Angeles political crime family and get more people to the polls in an exciting contested election.

Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, and Jan Perry are not the solution. They are part of the problem. Instead of solving the massive problems that Los Angeles faces, they spent their time on City Council being "philospher kings", as former Mayoral candidate Walter Moore would put it. Declaring the State of Arizona to be racist. Banning plastic bags and cat declawing. Coddling troublemaking anarchists who destroyed the lawn at City Hall and cost the City millions in damages.

No. I can't support these people. They need to go.

The other candidates for Mayor are not worth mentioning, because you are not going to beat political figures who have been elected multiple times without a massive campaign war chest. This is an unpleasant fact, but a fact nonetheless.

Garcetti, Greuel, and possibly Yaroslavsky could be the favorite in 2013, but none of them would make the changes necessary for Los Angeles to succeed. A wealthy businessman like Rick Caruso could make all the difference in the world.

Unfortunately, one of the reasons extremely wealthy people don't run for office is because they have to "undress" financially and expose their assets. Many wealthy people don't care for this.

I hope for the sake of this City that Rick Caruso can put up with a little unpleasant exposure.

I'm supporting Carmen Trutanich for District Attorney!

Here is a blog post that will definitely wind a lot of people up, including David Berger, Alan Jackson, Zuma Dogg, all the Mayor Sam bloggers and half of the LA Weekly staff.

I am supporting Carmen Trutanich for District Attorney. For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to him hereafter by his common, more popular nickname "Nuch".

I met Nuch in 2008 when I was running for Mayor of Los Angeles and Nuch was running for City Attorney. We were both underdogs at the time and ended up speaking in front of a lot of the same homeowners associations and Neighborhood Council meetings. After listening to him speak in public on repeated occasions, I started to feel a sense of camaraderie with Nuch. At public forums where we both spoke, he was earnest, humble, direct, and honest. Nuch is a man who came from humble beginnings. He used to work in a tuna cannery with his Dad.

I knew who this guy was, and I liked him.

I was overjoyed when Nuch defeated the worthless and vile Jack Weiss for the City Attorney spot.

Now, here is where things get a little complicated....


Nuch signed a pledge saying that he wouldn't run for another office while he was City Attorney. Now, this might seem a bit hypocritical for me to support someone who does this, as I have pilloried the repulsive political figures Paul Krekorian and Richard "Fredo" Alarcon for doing the exact same thing. However, there is a very specific difference here. Krekorian and Alarcon gave their voters the middle finger salute as they virtually left skid marks on their way out of office mere months after having asked voters to elect them.

Nuch may have believed when he was elected that he would stay on as City Attorney for 4 (or 8) years. Nuch has already served 3 years of his 4 year term. I don't consider his leaving his post a little early that big of a violation of the voters trust. He has done his job, and done it with an aggressive style that has rankled many of his critics, including some elected officials.

Nuch threatened to prosecute AEG and Tim Lieweke for profiteering off of the Michael Jackson funeral while costing the City millions to police the event. He also threatened to throw City Council Member Jan Perry in jail for cutting backroom deals with billboard companies at L.A. Live.

I really liked these moves by Nuch. It showed me that he had toughness, and character.

Now, this isn't to say there weren't negative moments. Nuch has also been accused of being a bully. Of being too aggressive with the power of his office. There was the incident in City Hall where he was caught on camera shouting at medical marijuana supporter Kathryn Schorr about pesticides. Clearly, Nuch most likely regrets that incident.

There was what the L.A. Times called an "unusually aggressive move" by Trutanichs office to raid the home of a Pacific Palisades businessman on a Friday night and throw him in jail with a million dollar bond for erecting an eight story supergraphic in Hollywood. I have no problem with Nuch arresting this man, but I do think the million dollar bail was excessive for the crime.

Is Nuch perfect? No, of course not. He is human and he makes mistakes like everyone else. But he is a hell of an improvement over someone like Rocky Delgadillo, who was much more likely to be personally involved in lawbreaking rather than preventing it.

Nuch is brash and aggressive in his pursuit of justice, and I like that about him. Critics say that Nuch is a bully, and that he has a mean streak. Let me answer these critics....

Law enforcement is not for the timid! You cannot be a shrinking violet or a wallflower when you make decisions to throw people in jail. You are going to make enemies when you ruin peoples lives by arresting them. You cannot back off because you want to be politically correct!

Nuch threatened to sue the Occupy L.A. miscreants for the damage done to City Hall. Mayor Villaraigosa and Councilman Alarcon were out there handing out rain ponchos to the Occupy crowd. They were practically baking them cookies! Tough leaders have to make tough decisions, and there is nothing about Nuch that indicates he would back off of a tough call.

The Republican Party says I should support Alan Jackson.

Nope.

Jackson seems like a little bit of a crybaby to me. He filed suit over Nuch using the phrase "Chief Prosecutor" on the ballot. This shows me that Alan Jackson will misuse the legal process to solve a petty dispute between himself and Nuch, hoping for an outcome that can benefit only one person...himself. I don't care for that.

What people use as their ballot description is irrelevant. Obsessing over it is petty.
Nuch is allowed to differentiate himself from the hundreds of other attorneys that work for the City of Los Angeles.

When I ran for Mayor in 2009, Gordon Turner called himself "Deputy City Attorney" on the ballot even though --from what I understand -- he hadn't been working for the City for over a year. Did I cry about it? Did I go running to the courts and sue because Turner had a ballot designation that sounded appealing to voters?

No. I didn't. It was my job to get my campaign message out...and I didn't do the best job...and Gordon Turner beat me by thousands of votes.

Carmen Trutanich has already shown everyone how tough he is.

Alan Jackson is showing us quite the opposite.

Indiana GOP ousts Lugar

Last night, in a joyous moment, the old RINO Dick Lugar was taken out by Tea Party voters in Indiana.

Lugar had been their Senator since 1977! It wasn't just that Lugar had gotten old and out of touch with his voters, but he had committed acts of apostasy that voters in Indiana couldn't stomach.

Lugar voted for the TARP bailouts. His votes to seat Sotomayor and Kagan on the Supreme Court drove some voters over the edge. In the end, it wasn't very close. Voters in Indiana gave Lugar the boot. They let him know that values and principles matter.

Barack Obama is the gift that keeps on giving.

Voters who are repulsed by his Socialist agenda have turned to the right politically. Maybe not far enough to the right for my tastes, but much further to the right than they would have been if Hillary Clinton had been President. Hell ... President Hillary Clinton would have been an overwhelming favorite for re-election. Obama is trending at about 47% support in many of the swing states.

This turn of events bodes well for the GOP in the fall election.

When Obama has a jailed felon get 41% of the votes in the Democratic Primary in West Virginia, it is a sign that he is reviled in that state. And no doubt, there are many other states that are prepared to vote the same way in 2012.