After the 3-day weekend, LHS students ease back into school with a shortened day via a "Professional Development Day," and will be out at 1:34 p.m. today. Not so for the teachers who have the time cleared for some training and information sessions on these days.
The City Elections will be held in 2 weeks on Tuesday, March 3, 2008. Most registered voters got out to vote for the November Presidential election, but the City election is coming with a LOW profile, hardly considered by the residents. People thought they were doing something important in voting heavily for Obama in California- not so much as you might think, since the Electoral College system minimizes your individual vote. Electoral College votes matter, and individual voters are only important in CLOSE elections which was not the case in California.
The CITY elections are completely opposite, with EACH voter's choice becoming very important. Back in around 2001, in the CD-1 race, it was only a matter of around only 32 votes needed by a friend, attorney Robert Nakahiro, a Roosevelt alum, who missed forcing a run-off with Ed Reyes, and that's when Reyes came to office. I do think Robert would have resisted being taken over by special interests and maybe it turned out better for him to stay out of that contaminated environment. But now we have to clean things up, like a clogged sewer that's backed up and cannot be ignored.
The city election is the lowest turnout of all, and 11% of the registered voters are predicted to come out, if that many. I've given my views on the candidates and the sleazy treatment that city residents have been handed by elected and appointed representative. MAYOR TONY is the latest mover, refusing ALL debate invitation to say WHY he should be re-elected.
TONY refuses since his hand-shaking, partying-style of controlled meetings with the "public" and phony "news" conferences to publicize himself and get face-time on T.V. will be what he is depending on to do the trick, and it IS a trick. Like the NBC public announcement slogan a few years ago, "The more you know....." but for TONY, the more you know, the more you should see he needs to be shown the door.
The voters can come out and get rid of the Mayor in two weeks. If Tony gets less than 50% of the vote, he still has to face a run-off. The political machine is what gets the benefit from the city officials now. Once in a a while, the actually do something right or good for the city, but mostly they wind up costing us more just to live here. Next year you will be paying 25 cents a bag, paper or plastic, at the stores in L.A.- and ED REYES was 100% behind that, for example.
A low-turnout election gives more leverage to each voter. Suppose, as an example, 1,000 votes were cast and Candidate "A" got 60%, that is, 600 votes and the others got the rest, 400. That's over over 50% of the votes for "A" and he's a winner. But if the other side gets OVER 50% plus 1 vote, there is a run-off. The Candidates, "B" and "C" and others could force a run-off by getting 201 more voters to show up and have them vote AGAINST Candidate "A".
"A" gets 600 votes
"Others" get 601 votes. RUN-OFF TIME.
That's a LOW turnout example. But suppose 10 times the number came out, 10,000 voters. And keep the same percentages for all, so for Candidate "A" that would be 6,000 votes for "A's" side, and 4,000 votes for Candidate "B" and "C" and the others combined.
To force a runoff, the challengers' side needs 50% plus 1 vote or 2,000 and 1 more voters to add to their side for a total of 6,001 votes, forcing a run-off.
Compare how powerful the fewer voters' effect is in the low turnout number of 201 to force a runoff in our example, to the higher turnout requirement of 2,001 more voters to make the run-off happen. Grabbing your friends and neighbors and relatives to come out to vote with you can swing the results with ENORMOUS effect in local elections. Just the newly registered young voters coming out of LHS in the last few years would form a significant group of voters.
But don't be fooled by TONY, or by Wendy Gruel, city controller (the city "watchdog" for abuse, waste and corruption in city business) since she's Tony's too-good-of-a-buddy to come down on his case if problems are found. In fact, SHE's part of the problem using the phony phone tax scam and term "limits" EXTENSION disguised as an "ethics reform" to fool voters and get the phone tax embedded and enlarged for taxing at 9% when it was going to ZERO percent, but the council did not tell you that. Wendy was fully aware of that. All of them, even ED REYES. And ED's fellow committee member JACK WEISS needs to be rejected, with his weasly style of doing business, when he finally decides to show up at a Council meeting. JACK is running for "City Attorney" not even having any legal experience in the last 2 terms since he's only been CD-5's council member. ALL OF THESE CMs are on TONY'S TEAM- reject them.
ED REYES also was hip-deep in the stuff with term limits since he would have been looking for a new job after this term ends but the Proposition EXTENDED the term another 4 years. You bet he did not tell you that. So Ed's up for re-election and taking it for granted he's winning. I would vote for the sole challenger Jesus Rosas just to shake up ED and let him know the vote is NOT AUTOMATIC and he can't take voters for chumps, like his boss, Tony does. If you work for him, of course, you at least have a reason to vote to keep that bad condition going on some more. If you've got Ed swinging money your way by favorable votes for programs, including lucrative non-profit's making their proposals, that's got to continue for you- whether you are doing a good job or not. But that doesn't help us, the common people, the members of the public.
THE average citizen needs to come out to vote. You KNOW the interested parties WILL be there, like the ones needing their jobs and money flow to continue like I just showed above. Unions (getting more jobs and city contracts) and developers (getting permission to be excused from following existing codes and policies, and grabbing subsidies and tax breaks) control your representatives, not you. Vote to even up the playing field.
One more story on slippery dealings by elected representative is here with Norwalk's Representative, Grace Napolitano, in Congress, "California Congresswoman discovers get-rich-quick scheme," a blog item at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=32f_1234652738
and the L.A. Times story, "Rep. Grace F. Napolitano has collected at least $158,000 in interest on loan she made to her campaign; The FEC allowed the Democrat from Norwalk to charge an 18% interest rate on $150,000 she lent her campaign." And though it might have been planned to be squeezed in as legally done, you see she's been using this as a money-making deal by letting it continue not to be paid off , and for no other reason than to collect money for herself as lending the money to herself in the first place. How much better could that be? She's 71 or 72 and you would think she is a little more wise than most- but maybe that's what people keep voting for her; the image of this little old feisty lady that representing them in office. This is just a SINGLE example that's been discovered with ONE person's situation, and you know it's not the only shady scheme used by politicians, groups and affecting us paying for them to benefit in working for themselves first.
Lincoln High students and alumni living in the CD-1 area for council elections and in L.A. for city-wide offices can make a real impact. Only CD-1 residents can vote for CD-1 candidates Reyes or Rosas. The other candidates are up for all city voters to choose.
My preference for Mayor is David Saltsburg, "Zuma Dogg." who happens to have knowledge of city business, having become involved with City Council accidentally when "victimized" by city policies himself at Venice Beach almost 3 years ago.
The City Elections will be held in 2 weeks on Tuesday, March 3, 2008. Most registered voters got out to vote for the November Presidential election, but the City election is coming with a LOW profile, hardly considered by the residents. People thought they were doing something important in voting heavily for Obama in California- not so much as you might think, since the Electoral College system minimizes your individual vote. Electoral College votes matter, and individual voters are only important in CLOSE elections which was not the case in California.
The CITY elections are completely opposite, with EACH voter's choice becoming very important. Back in around 2001, in the CD-1 race, it was only a matter of around only 32 votes needed by a friend, attorney Robert Nakahiro, a Roosevelt alum, who missed forcing a run-off with Ed Reyes, and that's when Reyes came to office. I do think Robert would have resisted being taken over by special interests and maybe it turned out better for him to stay out of that contaminated environment. But now we have to clean things up, like a clogged sewer that's backed up and cannot be ignored.
The city election is the lowest turnout of all, and 11% of the registered voters are predicted to come out, if that many. I've given my views on the candidates and the sleazy treatment that city residents have been handed by elected and appointed representative. MAYOR TONY is the latest mover, refusing ALL debate invitation to say WHY he should be re-elected.
TONY refuses since his hand-shaking, partying-style of controlled meetings with the "public" and phony "news" conferences to publicize himself and get face-time on T.V. will be what he is depending on to do the trick, and it IS a trick. Like the NBC public announcement slogan a few years ago, "The more you know....." but for TONY, the more you know, the more you should see he needs to be shown the door.
The voters can come out and get rid of the Mayor in two weeks. If Tony gets less than 50% of the vote, he still has to face a run-off. The political machine is what gets the benefit from the city officials now. Once in a a while, the actually do something right or good for the city, but mostly they wind up costing us more just to live here. Next year you will be paying 25 cents a bag, paper or plastic, at the stores in L.A.- and ED REYES was 100% behind that, for example.
A low-turnout election gives more leverage to each voter. Suppose, as an example, 1,000 votes were cast and Candidate "A" got 60%, that is, 600 votes and the others got the rest, 400. That's over over 50% of the votes for "A" and he's a winner. But if the other side gets OVER 50% plus 1 vote, there is a run-off. The Candidates, "B" and "C" and others could force a run-off by getting 201 more voters to show up and have them vote AGAINST Candidate "A".
"A" gets 600 votes
"Others" get 601 votes. RUN-OFF TIME.
That's a LOW turnout example. But suppose 10 times the number came out, 10,000 voters. And keep the same percentages for all, so for Candidate "A" that would be 6,000 votes for "A's" side, and 4,000 votes for Candidate "B" and "C" and the others combined.
To force a runoff, the challengers' side needs 50% plus 1 vote or 2,000 and 1 more voters to add to their side for a total of 6,001 votes, forcing a run-off.
Compare how powerful the fewer voters' effect is in the low turnout number of 201 to force a runoff in our example, to the higher turnout requirement of 2,001 more voters to make the run-off happen. Grabbing your friends and neighbors and relatives to come out to vote with you can swing the results with ENORMOUS effect in local elections. Just the newly registered young voters coming out of LHS in the last few years would form a significant group of voters.
But don't be fooled by TONY, or by Wendy Gruel, city controller (the city "watchdog" for abuse, waste and corruption in city business) since she's Tony's too-good-of-a-buddy to come down on his case if problems are found. In fact, SHE's part of the problem using the phony phone tax scam and term "limits" EXTENSION disguised as an "ethics reform" to fool voters and get the phone tax embedded and enlarged for taxing at 9% when it was going to ZERO percent, but the council did not tell you that. Wendy was fully aware of that. All of them, even ED REYES. And ED's fellow committee member JACK WEISS needs to be rejected, with his weasly style of doing business, when he finally decides to show up at a Council meeting. JACK is running for "City Attorney" not even having any legal experience in the last 2 terms since he's only been CD-5's council member. ALL OF THESE CMs are on TONY'S TEAM- reject them.
ED REYES also was hip-deep in the stuff with term limits since he would have been looking for a new job after this term ends but the Proposition EXTENDED the term another 4 years. You bet he did not tell you that. So Ed's up for re-election and taking it for granted he's winning. I would vote for the sole challenger Jesus Rosas just to shake up ED and let him know the vote is NOT AUTOMATIC and he can't take voters for chumps, like his boss, Tony does. If you work for him, of course, you at least have a reason to vote to keep that bad condition going on some more. If you've got Ed swinging money your way by favorable votes for programs, including lucrative non-profit's making their proposals, that's got to continue for you- whether you are doing a good job or not. But that doesn't help us, the common people, the members of the public.
THE average citizen needs to come out to vote. You KNOW the interested parties WILL be there, like the ones needing their jobs and money flow to continue like I just showed above. Unions (getting more jobs and city contracts) and developers (getting permission to be excused from following existing codes and policies, and grabbing subsidies and tax breaks) control your representatives, not you. Vote to even up the playing field.
One more story on slippery dealings by elected representative is here with Norwalk's Representative, Grace Napolitano, in Congress, "California Congresswoman discovers get-rich-quick scheme," a blog item at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=32f_1234652738
and the L.A. Times story, "Rep. Grace F. Napolitano has collected at least $158,000 in interest on loan she made to her campaign; The FEC allowed the Democrat from Norwalk to charge an 18% interest rate on $150,000 she lent her campaign." And though it might have been planned to be squeezed in as legally done, you see she's been using this as a money-making deal by letting it continue not to be paid off , and for no other reason than to collect money for herself as lending the money to herself in the first place. How much better could that be? She's 71 or 72 and you would think she is a little more wise than most- but maybe that's what people keep voting for her; the image of this little old feisty lady that representing them in office. This is just a SINGLE example that's been discovered with ONE person's situation, and you know it's not the only shady scheme used by politicians, groups and affecting us paying for them to benefit in working for themselves first.
Lincoln High students and alumni living in the CD-1 area for council elections and in L.A. for city-wide offices can make a real impact. Only CD-1 residents can vote for CD-1 candidates Reyes or Rosas. The other candidates are up for all city voters to choose.
My preference for Mayor is David Saltsburg, "Zuma Dogg." who happens to have knowledge of city business, having become involved with City Council accidentally when "victimized" by city policies himself at Venice Beach almost 3 years ago.
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