"Presidents Day"- LHS gets day off for which President?

Today's holiday is called "President's Day" and LHS along with other schools, federal, state and local government offices are closed, along with the banks. Your L.A. City trash pickup is unchanged, so don't forget to put that out on the curb if today is your day. What do we have to think about on this holiday? And what is this holiday supposed to be, anyway?

Presidents Day is what the Abraham Lincoln's Birthday of February 12 holiday and the George Washington's Birthday of February 22 holiday have become- not really for Abe and not really for George- it doesn't fall on the same date either because it's a "Monday" holiday for your convenience, which mean that it's a watered-down holiday that has lost most of it's meaning.

The "Monday" holidays that give you a 3-day weekend really turn into a day off, a day for a barbecue or some other enjoyment. This year in L.A. it's turning out to really be a "watered-down" holiday if you have been outside- pouring rain that's predicted to be the heaviest of the year so far for the whole day.

The only thing really unaffected for this holiday by the rain is the "Presidents Day" sales for all the stores that have survived bankruptcy filings of the last few months. At least we can expect that street crime will be lower today with less people out on the streets for both sides- the criminal's and the victim's- but like the change from Lincoln and Washington actually being honored by the holiday that I remembered from my LAUSD days, it's different now.

The Mayor- Tony Villaraigosa, just a bit younger than me- still says, "L.A. safer than it's been since the 1950's," and brags about the crime rate being down. I tend to disagree since I don't rememember that we had street shootings happening so often like today when those events don't even really rate much of a news story anymore.

When my friends and I went to Lincoln, we did not really worry about drive-bys and all that stuff when walking around Lincoln Heights to school. Going to the L.A. Times Boys Club or to the Lincoln Park gym at night did not have that life-and-death shadow that you have now at night- or even during the day. That was the 60's, maybe less safe than the 50's, but if a shooting happened, it was for sure a news story. Today it's sadly too common. My students more recently at Lincoln were so used to shootings happening and even having family members or themselves shot and shot at. I can't even compare that attitude of acceptance with our school-age experiences that differ from mine just a bit, Mr. Mayor.

The Mayor says you need more cops and so he jacks up the fees for trash to do so, and we still don't get the extra 1,000 cops hired, so you get MORE fees and taxes created. It's not even for OUR safety, but for TONY to have HIS dream happen. That dream? Becoming the "Governor of California in 2010" but AFTER Tony wins the mayor's race on March 3. And if there's a runoff-election that's very strong possiblity with a few more voters coming out, you will really see all stops pulled out by TONY to win-

And you know politics on a local level affects this all the time these days. Our Mayor has let this happen and has made L.A. life worse for most people other than developers and the unions that pay his campaign funds. BUT NO DEBATES FOR TONY. He's got nothing good to say and too much that can come out without being defensible by him and he knows that. TONY doesn't deserve to inflict another terrible term on us, especially with so many lies, big and small, that he's told like the simple one where walking around at night now IS a much riskier proposition that in my high school days. Can you see HIM walking around the streets at night without his police bodyguards? Of course, some places are very dangerous and some are pretty safe, but the idea is that overall, violent crime happens everywhere and is too common.

City life in L.A. is getting to be, more and more, a different experience than you or I remember. Even if you are of the "younger" generation, you have to see those changes, too. If you moved away from "the Heights" and haven't been around for a few years or longer, maybe the changes are more eye-opening. The "improvements" from advances in technology have come along to bring things we could not even imagine as high school students.

Another change that is noticed for high school students is about the level of basic skills students have attained in school. More of our students are ill-prepared, continuing to struggle to pass CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL EXIT exams in math and English, written at an 8th grade level- and that, my friends is what we called, "Jr. High" level. It should be able to be done and done early in high school, not coming up every year to make a student wonder if he or she will be able to joing classmates graduating in June. Performance at "grade level" is not the norm, and when you see that many have fallen behind several years, you have to wonder what was done to let it get ONE year behind grade level. This kind of weak attention to even-handed attention to students' progress just makes them to become weaker, and for many, to be attracted into criminal activity where they can be accepted and succeed with a different group.

A holiday should be enjoyable and the basic reason for its creation should be understood. Presidents Day has become as dissoved as the dirt on the streets in today's rainstorm and neither Lincoln nor Washington really are honored or remembered. Our schools have changed with simple historical items remaining a mystery, even to those at school bearing the same name. Every little bit of education helps round out the knowledge base and make more learning more able to happen.

A lot of basic things we older alumni have experienced in learning just don't happen anymore, even with all the changes in technology and information. And it doesn't have to be like that. Education is affected by things in the school and in the community and we need to pay attention to changing what needs to be changed to equip the students for life success.

Water Conservation, Water Rationing, Water Waste and the DWP

The Mayor of L.A.- Tony Villaraigosa- announced during the week of heavy rain, that we still did not have enough water and would have to conserve by way of a water ration plan.

Water Ration Plan
MSNBC carried the news item on February 9, 2009, showing that there is a first time for L.A. water rationing plan that he has submitted for approval by the Board of Water and Power and the L.A. City Council. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29106741/ The plan has some drastic controls on usages that are described in the story.

The Real Cause of Infrastructure Strain
The Mayor, of course, does not mention that the high-density construction that his administration has supported might be contributing to the problem in the least. Meanwhile some aggravation of the problem continues, all being a part of the actions of the Mayor and the City Council to create more stress on a system that ALREADY is on the verge of failing. The death from an explosion in an electrical vault last year of a city firefighter Brent Lovrein was blamed on the old infrastructure, "Remembering L.A. Firefighter Brent Lovrien," http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/spot-news/remembering-la-firefighter-bre/

Politicians shamelessly put this tragic death in the spotlight to gain the voter approval for more money that was supposedly to fix things in the infrastructure that need attention urgently. See LAist Blog brief item of April 2, 2008: "Will the Death of a Firefighter Be the Tipping Point of DWP Rate Hikes?" http://laist.com/2008/04/02/will_the_death.php That article also states that the money sought will only partially go to infrastructure improvement - about a third of it, with the rest to other things including DWP higher wages.

But these politicians continue the increasing development projects, just as fast as they can, knowing our stressed conditions are already underequipped to handle PRESENT conditions. In a way, this is their strategy. Create the BIGGER NEED and they can have a BETTER reason for INCREASED FEES and CHARGES as being URGENT. They do this with a lot of things- intensify the problem to a crucial level that needs MORE ATTENTION, and then manipulate things to get money, approval or whatever the highlighted crisis demands to be done, pushed to that condition intentionally or as a result of stupid policies followed intentionally.

When you continue to build, and build with his problem-creating "densification" along "transit routes" (which justifies elimination of normally required parking spaces to be included) you have to expect a strain on EVERYTHING in the city. It is not a hugely challenging concept for you to see but that politicians CONTINUE TO IGNORE- When you jam more housing and businesses in existing space, you strain ALL parts of the infrastructure, especially utilities, police and fire protection, trash collection and disposal- and the most visible problem, the vehicle traffic and parking problems.

There is no rationing of building projects here in L.A. included in Mayor Tony's plans. The only thing that is slowing all this building is the down real estate market that makes even the "Grand Avenue Project" downtown, continue to miss more construction deadlines, and cost more public money for this already-risky venture.

[THAT downturn is shown in another story to check as an example of how local politicians foul up things for residents in costly ways, L.A. Times, 2-10-09, Cara Mia DiMassa, reporting: "Grand Avenue developer seeks revisions to project's schedule; With a Feb. 15 deadline to break ground on the downtown L.A. development, Related Cos. petitions the city and county for changes, which have not been made public." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-grand11-2009feb11,0,832272.story ]

Maybe some attention to staying safely within present capacities for a while might be a reasonable thought to put in to action instead of creating more strain on an already ill system. If you had tires on your car that showed bald spots, how wise would it be to go on long trips at high speeds?- and I say "long" trips since local traffic is usually jammed at any given time, making "high speeds" only a theoretical possibility. This Council and Mayor are not able to look at things that way; they have been too busy spending your money and doing giveaways for the Grammys (over $100,000.00 in special event waivers- "their expense, we pay the bill", and the Academy Awards that will receive over $400,000.00 as a waivers.

Water Waste?
There's a small problem that has come up this month with a huge waste that DWP has been unable to stop- a broken hydrant, wasting enormous amounts of water for days. The Daily News story, updated 2-11-09, provides details in "DWP hydrant spews water for 10 days,"
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11684536 You might expect this to be repaired quickly, but DWP says it can't do more than it is doing. But you still wonder how the city can create more burdens on purpose.

So rationing is the answer? When it comes to getting yourself on the news, the Mayor is very effective, the messages are often inappropriate, but he gets his face on T.V. and in the news. But for being economical, handling city money with some eye to frugality and working for the PEOPLE first, not for HIMSELF, he's still only able to talk it up, but not come through with anything good.

Politics the problem?
I can tell you again, as I have seen from DWP's history, when you don't conserve, they have penalties ready to lay on you for being a high user, and they blame you, the consumer for using too much water, as shown now. Before that, it was a problem of using too much electricity. So charges are made up to punish you for more use.

So then people try to conserve and cut back in responding to that condition with less consumption of electricity or water the result. Very good? Maybe not so much, as the DWP sees it, because then the message becomes urgent. The new word is that the DWP is losing money because the people don't use enough of the utility's service, and the bills are coming out too LOW, which means adding in a "surcharge" or "rate increase" for DWP to manage to bring in more money.

In all these conditions, the DWP is not going to be the loser. They say, "It" ("It" is anything they do or plan that might be costing money to do) is not going to cost taxpayers anything since the rate payers will get those charges. Honest, I heard that verbalization of the shell game from them in a past trickster move. There might be some very tiny difference you could come up with but the same people get the bills any way you see it.

You really have to watch these characters constantly due to the skilled way that manipulate proposals and results. And by that criticism, I don't mean to say it's the regular workers- no, they don't set policy and the direction DWP heads to. The regular employees do have benefits from such deals, but the shiftyness is done by management operations.

Again, it's the Mayor's crew and they work for him and his career, and they don't work for you and trying to keep your bills low. How great that would be. And that's the way is SHOULD be.

The "Bungled Solar Plan"- Another view of Tony, Brian and David giving it to you, and NOT in a nice way.

Here's more on, yes, Solar Measure B, the ballot initiative that comes up for a voter decision in Los Angeles on March 3rd- Tuesday, all the elections fall on Tuesdays by some rule that is only important to know that day, Tuesday. The story "LOS ANGELES' BUNGLED SOLAR PLAN; How D'Arcy and Villaraigosa turned clean energy into a dirty dispute," February 10, 2009, ( http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-12/news/los-angeles-39-bungled-solar-plan/ ) is a pretty concise, to-the-point and very revealing article as the Los Angeles Weekly continues to produce about L.A politics. There is so much bad that is happening in government that books could be written on all the political people and their conniving.

This story, by reporter Beth Barrett, puts it down very clearly and it tells a very direct tale of how our Mayor Tony is involved in this mess, as it turns out, again for his own career advancement.

"Career Advancement," all for Tony, and it's the reason for most of what Tony does. Notice it's not doing "what is good for the city," because that doesn't happen here. A lot in the story is the same information as what I posted earlier today, but I did not copy that from this story. Lots of the same things show up because both just report the same facts that are seen as the whole series of events have unfolded. You know, it's like two play-by-play announcers describing the same game, one is broadcasting for the home team and the other is sending the story back home to the visiting team. Tony and friends try to hide things and sometimes they do get away with it since they are career politicians who manipulate things while they make a living at it.

"David" in the title here is David Nahai, a lawyer Tony appointed to be the DWP general manager and is loyal to TONY- you know that, too: "When he says 'jump', you say 'How high?'" Expect nothing EVER from David that goes against the Mayor's decisions. And that's how it is here in this story.

Read the story, it's much shorter than my version and she's the one paid for writing anyway.

You still come up with the bottom line, we in L.A. are being asked to sign off on a bad deal that benefits the UNION- oh, I forgot- the "Brian" part in my title is for "Brian D'Arcy" who runs the IBEW in the DWP operations, the union big wig. Brian is the one who put together lots of the terms. Remember there's a part written into this Measure that requires the IBEW workers only to handle installation. Gee, that's one part that Brian can claim credit for. Can you tell? And the idea of Unions is that the benefit of any deal the Union makes is going to .... the Union, not the DWP, not the Consumers or the City, but the UNION. That's always the way the game is played. No surprises here.

The idea that this is a locked in deal means it is going to be costing us more just on the basis that there is no competition for the work and THAT means "not an ecomical deal." IBEW: 1, Consumers:0. And on it goes.

Tony gets the credit for this, as the story tells you. I knew that part just from knowing Tony and keeping track of his antics. I used to support him but somewhere after losing the first election for Mayor, he turned bad and not just bad as a person, but bad in hurting people financially for one part and by dragging L.A,. into more wasteful things that are not honest. His personal family life is important as well, and you already know that part, so you won't expect to see the same family photos in campaign brochures this time around. But I don't need discussion on that aspect to decide against a second term for Tony.

There's a Mayoral Candidate Forum in Eagle Rock "Center for Arts" this Thursday night at 7:00 pm for all candidates to talk, and it's not even a debate, just a "tell us about yourself and why you should be mayor" kind of thing and a sort of brief mixer afterward. Well, Tony is not coming because of a "schedule conflict," according to his aide. I will tell you right now that the conflict is that his schedule rules out any appearances with any of the challengers. That way Tony doesn't goof up and lose votes- or even worse, by allowing some words of truth to come out - maybe even about "Solar Measure B."

Imagine that. Mayor Tony can't explain it to us, doesn't have the exact cost, and still wants us to give him complete authority to run up expenses and to approve later changes without any other supervision or vote. (and the story shows there LOTS of information still MISSING- the EXACT COSTS is just one of the things that should sink this deal on that basis alone. "You want to charge me and you still don't know how much it's going to cost us?" And he will be long gone when the entire impact of this will be realized, another nice deal for him.

Please check the story and don't rely on me only when you form your own opinion. Tony, David and Brian are on the same side- and it's not yours.

How expensive can DWP do things to cost rate payers? Measure B? Doorstep delivery of CFLs?

The DWP is spending $3 million to purchase AND DELIVER CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) to customers in some sort of conservation drive. They are truly the contradictory bunch. Here's a news item from yesterday, http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_11689892

Yesterday, I got my DWP CFLs (2) delivered to my front door in a nicely-printed lunch-sized paper bag with the propaganda that people should already know. CFLs are those little fluorescent lights with a tube shaped like a corkscrew, about the size of a regular light bulb. I will give you my complaints about this move in a minute, but first- here’s my view of another slick move that DWP is trying to slide by the voters now.

DWP is involved in implementing a costly move for you who live or work in L.A. It is Solar Measure B that is appearing on the ballot. The L.A. City Council, led by Council President Eric Garcetti, rushed out a decision to make the ballot deadline so it’s there for you to vote for on the March 3rd election, with the other city offices. BUT, “DANGER, WILL ROBINSON,” you will be the loser here, money-wise if this Measure B goes through. A NO vote is needed.

Measure B was pushed through council a few months ago, with Eric Garcetti being the main cheerleader, telling fellow council members only “parts” of a report that the city’s financial officer Gerry Miller wrote up. There were lots of things on the downside of this Measure that Miller included BUT that Garcetti DID NOT tell other CMs before they voted for it. We call it STACKING THE DECK, or simply hiding relevant AVAILABLE facts or opinions. It’s dishonestly dealing in order to get approval.

Later, when this came out, lots of council members acted like they were taken, but still loyal to Garcetti enough to not make him look TOO bad. Even Gerry Miller tried to soften the words of his report later on, since you know that people in city hall have lost jobs or have seen things become uncomfortable for them because of making their contrary opinions known. A consultant that did not come up with a rosy picture on this was fired by DWP afterwards, according to news reports.

Would you sign a contract to buy a car if the final price was not shown to you? Would you write a check and sign it with the amount left BLANK and pass it over to anyone?

This is what MEASURE B does. One reason they say to approve it: because it “provides jobs” and that’s not really the truth. It will have to be using expensive panels that will be expected to be manufactured in CHINA, which has lots of Chinese citizens doing the work, that helps US not one bit as far as getting paychecks to local workers.

Next, the construction of the expensive items, BY THE TERMS OF MEASURE B, allow ONLY ONE UNION, the IBEW, (electricians) to be the ones doing the work locally. No bids here for such lucrative prospects, so don’t bother thinking about doing this work if you aren’t in that union.

You see, Measure B is a guaranteed way to see your DWP bills go higher- as if that isn’t already happening- and YOU pay for this nice deal for the big shots that say, “L.A. is going green” but meanwhile, everyone else is going broke. Well, not everyone, if you consider that there’s always SOMEBODY making money on what DWP and it’s supervising politicians decide for YOU.

Last week, Mayor Vilaraigosa was finally put on the spot on a telephone conference call "news" interview with a question "Whst is going to be the cost of Measure B?" The Mayor stalled around for that answer. After verbally tap dancing around the issue for about 2 minutes, during which somebody must have provided the information to him, as you could hear keyboard clacking away during the Mayor's delay. Villaraigosa finally said, "It would be in the neighborhood of $1 Billion." Right after that, the aide's voice came on to say, "There is no more time and this conference is over," leaving many more questions unanswered. So typical of Tony not to face the issues or questions a leader should respond to.

Many council members have back-pedaled on their approval, claiming they would NOT have approved it as a ballot measure HAD THEY KNOW ALL THE INFORMATION (that Garcetti did not share- He said, “I gave them the ‘bullet points’.” Still, that’s not sharing it all.) AND if you see Zuma Dogg’s “YouTube” interview with DENNIS ZINE that is linked here, even HE tries to be diplomatic so as not to burn Eric or DWP, but HE does NOT say to vote for it, (Dennis knows it’s BAD) and says more information needs to be considered. He’s TOO NICE to Eric and the DWP, but you see what he thinks about CM JACK WEISS (not nice).

As a last comment for now on that Measure, the MAYOR is given authority for more spending by his own decision, a big change in the City Charter so that spending approval, the CONTROLS normally in place for such projects and actions ARE REMOVED, and you can only rely on the Mayor’s decisions.

Judging on how free-wheeling this mayor has operated with his $5 Billion plan for housing coming just as the recession was announced to be a reality, the Mayor is not a prudent spender of tax dollars. Judging by how Mayor Villaraigosa HAD TO ASK -really "to direct"- COUNCIL TO APPROVE a TRASH “FEES’ INCREASE in one HUGE bump ($11 a month to $36 a month) effective last September, instead of gradually in steps over 3 years as earlier planned, in order to boost police employment for HIS own bragging rights and career advancement. (Watch for that in campaign literature of Mayor Tony).

Don’t vote all this power away. MAKE politicians SHOW DEFINITE PLANS AND NUMBERS before you give ANY APPROVAL. DWP in its increasingly arrogant fashion will try to go around the voters on this anyway if they lose. Nice attitude for a governmental agency that is supposed to “serve” the people.


DWP COST-INEFFICIENT PROJECT UNDERWAY.
BUT I DIGRESS, as usual, from the complaint on DWP’S latest move, home delivery of CFL’S. The idea behind this is to “conserve energy.”
As I mentioned to start here, I got mine yesterday and this whole project is said to take 3 more months.

This is not the way to do it. Instead of some well-thought out and thrifty method, DWP finds a way to maximize expense for the "rate payer" again. They are literally too stupid in what they do if CONSERVING ENERGY is the objective. Maybe they could consider CONSERVING EXPENSES and that will be less that WE have to pay for as it is always passed along in your bill sooner or later.

Let’s consider their Goal: "to save energy" ????

Yes, "to save energy.” I am for recycling and conservation, but not fanatically so, and even I see the concerns that DWP seems not to notice. There are too many questions on this project, but here's more:

What is the energy and resource expense count for making the little shopping bags (paper = trees?) for each PAIR of CFLs delivered?

Question: How much gas burned for transporting the CFLs to homes?

What about the cost of THAT?

How much did the TRAFFIC condition in L.A. need another bunch of vehicles in the mix?

And don’t forget that this was not delivered in the mail, as if postage were cheap, either. SOME PEOPLE are paid for doing this and at the salary rates that DWP contracts call for; you know it’s not cheap.

Here’s a URL from another utility, PG&E, with a flyer that would be another way to EDUCATE consumers- if they really are trying for that outcome. It's another example of a way to educate by using the internet, a PDF page, a flyer fact sheet on "Dimmable CFLs" from 2007, and it gives you a picture of what CFLs are about, including a real picture.http://www.pge.com/includes/docs/pdfs/shared/saveenergymoney/rebates/dimmercflflyer.pdf Some effort at this might be advisable.


AND HOW MUCH DID WE GET SOAKED FOR ON THIS BULB DEAL? Who MADE money? It's not the consumer, for sure. I don’t expect this information is readily or completely available, and if anyone has it, let me know. I think there’s money to be made for suppliers with friends in DWP and the City and they may be the stronger reason for this happening.

I don’t depend on the DWP here to find the best deal on CFLs. You can just go to COSTCO or anywhere nowadays and you can find these bulbs to be very inexpensive items. Some selling for a little over a dollar apiece- and some are priced higher but there is another instant rebate on that price, making them really cheap. This is NOT what DWP should be doing.

The DWP as an extension of government treats everyone as being too stupid to figure this out. If there are some who reject using the CFLs, this won’t convince them anyway, and you are wasting more money by going to each door to make personal delivery. The alternative would have been more economical, but that is not what DWP or the City is about. Use the bills that you guys at DWP send out our bills in and put in that information.

Could DWP, especially in times of TIGHT OR NO BUDGETS have tried to do this in a less expensive way? And did you know that the CFLs have been around for years. Even I have used them for over 6 years where I can. I got tired of replacing regular bulbs and these draw way less power. Technology has continued to improve since that time to make them dimmable, too. WHY NOW, with the very high expense in labor and resources DO THEY DO THIS?

Is this the only way? If you say, people can’t or won’t read the messages in a bill, then what would makes you think that the same information placed into a paper shopping bag is going to make it more readable? Many people will just get the CFLs and use them, while tossing the papers and included materials into the trash or street. Some may even snatch their neighbor’s bags. Not the best way to EDUCATE people. If furnishing the PRODUCT was the goal, a coupon MAILED in the bill COULD BE REDEEMED at an office or store and save all the fuss. It’s all tremendous and expensive effort to get a little return on the cost, and not justified at all.

Eric Garcetti would probably ask if they could do this AND INSTALL them for people- AND if he would be worth anything at all to the common people, GARCETTI should think about the COST to us overall.

NOW, THE BIG QUESTION:

Do you trust this batch of politicians to do right by you? With the past actions of these folks, I have to say they do nothing to deserve our trust and really NEED MUCH MORE WATCHING.

Some Information about Abraham Lincoln on his 200th birthday

Today is the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the namesake of Lincoln High, and since there's a lot that's really never covered in connection to the alma mater, I am putting a few links to sources that might help to show why Lincoln was considered to be the greatest of the Presidents.

CNN has some information on their site for the 200th Anniversary, http://www.c-span.org/series/lincoln-200-years.aspx

They have there a very concise timeline running from Lincoln's birth in 1809 until his death in 1865. http://www.c-span.org/lincoln200years/timeline/

USA Today has collected information for the 200 year anniversary at it's page, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-10-lincoln_N.htm Much of it include the modern day questions brought up to evaluate Lincoln's actions and accomplishments in different ways to size him up using today's views. There's more there. A lot is speculation and re-examination, but the man was a very special person living and serving his term in difficult times.

There is a N.Y. Daily New editorial that commemorates the birthday of President Lincoln and includes the 271 word speech given in Gettysburg Pennsylvania in 1863, consecrating a civil war cemetery. That's more commonly referred to as the "Gettysburg Address." with a photograph showing the classic image of Abraham Lincoln. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/02/12/2009-02-12_abraham_lincolns_greatness_shines_forth_.html

It is a good day to remember this person, especially in today's time when there is so much criticism of this country and what it has does in the world, yet people from all over the world have always wanted to come to the United States, and there's no masses trying to leave for other countries.

Zuma Dogg finds CM Dennis Zine rejects CM Jack Weiss as City Attorney candidate.

City elections in less than 3 weeks. JACK WEISS, Council Member for CD-5 (on the west and north from the UCLA area), perhaps the weakest candidate for City Attorney among them all, has also been a lousy representative as council member.
(Who are they? See the City Council list, contact info and photos: http://www.lacity.org/council.htm )

In a candid video moment with Zuma Dogg, CM DENNIS ZINE (CD-3) in Council Chambers, we really find some true views spoken on JACK WEISS as candidate for City Attorney. I have to say that I agree completely with CM ZINE'S view- as to WEISS, not as to Zuma Dogg's chance to win. (THIS ELECTION is going to be the typical low-turnout, 11% predicted, March primary that the "Bought-and-paid-for" representatives rely on to stay in office.) CM Zine is not the only CM rejecting JACK'S bid for City Attorney.


And if you are wondering what that brochure is about, it's a JACK WEISS political mailer- look for more from your candidates who are well-financed, but don't mix up "well-financed" candidates with "well-QUALIFIED" candidates.

Here's more video with Zuma Dogg's humor added in while delivering some reality about CM JACK WEISS in particular.


And JACK WEISS has a lot of people of the political machine type who want him IN, but JACK and his history of actions as CM are doing a good job to make JACK HIS OWN WORST ENEMY. He's trying now to cover a poor record during his 7-1/2 years in City Council with some last-minute splash of propaganda.

THERE'S A CHOICE HERE FOR YOU- VOTE FOR: NOEL (not "Jack") Weiss, Nuch Trutanuch, Amerian, (that's my sequence preferred) but vote for any ONE of your choice- other than the political machine's choice- DON'T vote for JACK WEISS, and ANY one of the several challengers are better FOR THE CITY and the people.

Mayor Villaraigosa WILL run for Govenor in 2010 if re-elected.

The news is out and Mayor Villaraigosa's plans are staying open for him to run in 2010 for Governor of California. A few things to consider- First, Tony has to WIN the election to a second term as mayor first. Otherwise, who would consider him for Governor if he did not win? See the Associated Press reference in the "Street Hassle" blog, http://street-hassle.blogspot.com/2009/02/mayor-skips-local-scribes-gives.html Tony had come out and say this since he already failed to honor his promis to serve out the full term as our council member in CD-14. Instead, he left as soon as the Mayor's race came up, not doing much for CD-14 for the people. It would really look bad for him to get caught in another lie on the very same question, so he has to admit this, and he takes your vote for granted anyway.

Next, if you think Tony was missing a lot from the City of L.A. BEFORE while he traveled freely on his fundraising for his campaign for mayor (and how much travel done at the City's expense?), JUST IMAGINE him running for Governor. Add up the past years' traveling to help Hillary Clinton's nomination for the Democratic candidate for President, and then, all the time after he shifted over to the Obama side after Hillary ended her bid, and you see lots of time lost to the City of L.A. as Mayor. It's clear that being the mayor rates second to rubbing elbows with bigger politicians to move Tony's own career.

Do you know that the L.A. WEEKLY article that was mentioned here in the past calculated that it was an amount of 11% of Tony's time spent actually on CITY business? The fundraising, personal travel and photo ops do a lot for being a High-Visibility character, but little for first-hand dealing with actual needs of the city

TONY refuses debate invitations and will not give the VOTERS the courtesy of TELLING WHY he should be re-elected. Treating the voters as small children to do as daddy says is not the quality that a mayor or any elected official should have.

There are no debates for TONY because there is NOTHING GOOD TO SAY on TONY's side- he will only be embarrassed and unable to explain too many things from a wide open range of topices. It's not a good idea to expose himself to that risk, so he won't debate so that he can't be caught on his poor showing as Mayor. The outcome for him can only be bad. His voter-insulting choice to have no debate appearances shows HOW bad things are for him to do that to voters. If he has no respect for your choice and evaluation, WHY vote for him anyway?

That quality is, however, no surprise since that is the way he treats others supporting him. If there is any objection, you discover that the appointee quickly finds that they are "unwelcome" and are soon replaced. If you "follow his direction" you see that the commissions and committees are staffed with his choices as their rewards for cooperating.

All politics, all the time.

DON'T vote for Tony on March 3rd. But that doesn't mean to stay home. You need to cast your vote for ANY of the challengers to keep TONY from getting over 50% of the vote and force a runoff election.

There are nearly a dozen challengers, and my pick is Zuma Dogg as the most informed and relevant candidate, but there are others who are running that would no doubt be an improvement over the current Mayor.

Don't vote for Villaraigosa UNLESS you want a mayor who puts his own goals ahead of the benefit of the city and the people.

REMEMBER, because of the Mayor's directions, Your trash fees tripled, the parking meters went from 25 cents an hour to $1.00 per hour, and extended to 8 pm or later in many areas, and some Sunday free parking was eliminated. All this to raise more money to make TONY look good for the next step in the political ladder. And that's just the simple examples- there's plenty more.

Also note, that the Obama cabinet could have chosen Tony to fill some spot in the administration, but Tony had to much personal baggage to bring onboard. He was a political undesirable. Tony said that he was not taking a position with the Obama administration- sure, he wasn't offered any.

The Democratic Convention was a signal of the arrogance of Tony coming to full bloom. Tony took his full security entourage with him onto the floor of the convention, perhaps the safest place in the world at that time, with multiple levels of security already in place and a plentiful supply of Secret Service agents present. Even the object of many news reports, Mayor Gavin Newsome from San Francisco, left his security crew behind and was able to move about easily, but TONY was very conspicuous by having the large group in tow.

That is why his style is called "It's all about me" mayor from the L.A. Weekly story in September. Well, there's a follow up to the story in the L.A. Weekly,
"Villaraigosa, the All About Me Mayor, Is Still 11 Percent There," by Patrick Range MacDonald, Dec. 30, 2008- http://www.laweekly.com/2009-01-01/news/villaraigosa-the-all-about-me-mayor-is-still-11-percent-there/

If you want to be Tony's stooge for dollars and wind up paying more and more taxes to advance Tony's career, like his expensive "Measure R" created for the Subway to the Sea project, you might think it over to see how expensive it is, and it won't be finished, if ever, until 2032. The estimate for the Subway to the sea alone is over $6 billion - that is over a million dollars times 6,000.

See the article in L.A. TIMES, "Subway to the Sea timetable too long for L.A. Mayor, "
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/07/local/me-subway7

My pick for mayor is Zuma Dogg. You are free to select from assorted challengers, but knowing ZD, we would have an involved person and a positive thinking one to replace an ego-driving political machine moving from office to office.

Vote March 3. Bring out all your registered voters and stand up for yourself in this city. The March turnout is predicted to be as low as 11% of the voters in the city ("11%- that's the same percentage of time that TONY worked on city business). The lines will be SHORT, it there are any lines at all, and your vote will be that much more valuable in this election.

Spending a little time to make a BIG difference on March 3rd.

Sweep OUT the old Mayor VILLARAIGOSA and his friends.

Birthday Bicentennial at LHS- February 12, 1809- President Lincoln, already 200?

Tomorrow, February 12th, is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. If there is anything happening to celebrate that at our alma mater, somebody please let me know (email address in Title Description at top of page) and should you have a memory of what was done in any of your years at Lincoln High, please share that. I would like to know what sorts of activities were involved on to commemorate this date and would post contributions, if anyone has any recollections. So far, I think that the we have another year of the same condition for our school's namesake, and still more students not becoming more focused on the many aspects of Abraham Lincoln's life, an especially difficult one with such trying circumstances as the Civil War, as well as those encountered during his personal life.

People are excited about President Obama being elected. Well, all is not perfect in the administration. Have you read about the people he's chosen for cabinet appointments who had to withdraw from consideration because of not paying taxes? Then why is the appointment for top tax collector for the U.S., Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, given the green light with his own overdue tax bill of $40,000.00 for payroll taxes?

No explanation offered there, while Nancy Killefer's $946.69 tax lien from 2005 caused her withdrawal. There's still a whole term to sort out matters and these sorts of things are what cause you to wonder what is going on with the "rules" applied. This administration has a long way to go before it finds its level in the history books, but the start is clearly not a great one.

At this time, when the LAUSD is encountering a 50% dropout rate, with the recent stats for Lincoln showing that less than 50% graduating here, some changes are called for and you do what you can do. The parent element is one thing that is the responsibility of the parent alone- and some of them are as overwhelmed as the "Octo-mom" with her 14 children. Then there's quite a few parents who are just passing the buck to the other spouse/parent/grandparent to handle things, or, they are not aware at all of what's happening at their child's school, no matter what flyers and mail goes home. It falls to the teacher to deal with all these conditions and it makes a tough job even tougher. But we should think about what CAN be done, and many of the selections depend on what somebody decides, less controlled by dollars than by opinions.

Alumi should be interested in things that happen at Lincoln for more than just matters of nostalgia. The students being educated are turning out less prepared overall in basic skills, regardless of all the advances in technology that has arisen since we left LHS, regardless of particular year. The segment that performs well or very well is a segment, not everyone. The "everyone" part is what I am talking about since they will be the ones entering the work force, raising families, and going on their path that may not always be a good one. Believing that LHS is just like it was when you left is a common misconception and may be why they don't understand how things could be so bad in the educational system. Find out.

Attention needs to be paid to accomplishing the task of properly educating students for whatever they decide to do after high school. Failing to do that leave those students with limited life options and many of those will find crime the continuing choice for too many young people. And these could be re-directed before that happens- which probably should start in elementary school- and high school is the last school many will see, so it's a very important matter.

"Teachable Moments" and "Buying In" are among concepts that work to get students into a better learning condition, improving the understanding of subjects and the role of the student in school. The matter of pride in Lincoln High is something that's become an artifact of the past, shown now as being concentrated in the segments of the student body that ARE involved in activities. To have activities means finding sponsors, and those are hard to come by these days, especially when attempts to organize are met with apathy or simple disinterest from students, administrators and colleagues. Most teachers leave campus soon after the students do. Why? Maybe the long commutes that become longer with each passing minute that departure is delayed could be a reasonable explanation. Some teachers just leave soon after the last class ends. Others, of course, remain longer.

School morale and personal performance can only improve with a better-informed and equipped student body. Absenteeism, vandalism and overall classroom conduct could be improved with attention to school morale that comes with involvement. A simple start is to learn about Abraham Lincoln, the person that was a great, if not the greatest, President of this country, and for whom this school is named after. Not a difficult task at all, and a start.

Zuma Dogg on Radio Today- KPCC-FM 89.3 when Patt Morrison interviews L.A. Mayor candidates

Zuma Dogg, Candidate for Mayor
in the L.A. election on March 3, 2009,
is the SCHEDULED GUEST
on the PATT MORRISON RADIO SHOW-

89.3 KPCC Patt Morrison

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

1:50 – 2:00 p.m.

Southern California's premiere public radio news station, featuring the most NPR ... Patt Morrison, L.A. Times columnist, is on the air live

with a two-hour public affairs show airing weekdays at 1 p.m.

* * *

There are several candidates running for Los Angeles Mayor in the March 3 election, including the incumbent Antonio Villaraigosa.

Guest: David Saltsburg AKA Zuma Dogg,

community advocate, economist and mayoral candidate.

Patt spends a few minutes talking with each of his contenders.

Today, David Saltsburg AKA Zuma Dogg. Listen LIVE here: www.scpr.org/programs/pattmorrison

* * *

And, On T.V., coming on Friday,
Fox Channel 11 AND SEE ZUMA DOGG CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR '09
ON FOX 11 "Good Day L.A." this FRIDAY in the 7am and 9am hour. http://zumadoggformayor.com/

The L.A. Art Walk and a LHS alumus connection.

If you will please check the L.A. Times' Sunday edition, that's today's newspaper for those of you having a tough weekend- or maybe a pretty good weekend, depending on your point of view. You will find there's a photo in the Arts and Culture section representing a different kind of entertainment. This is one of a series of ten photos taken during the event, described in the L.A. Times story, the "Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk draws gallery hoppers."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-artwalk8-2009feb08,0,3711576.story

That certain one in that series of photographs appearing in the print and the online editions has some special importance to a certain fellow alum.

This particular photo is of special interest to one member of our alumni, Mike "the dad" Ibarra, the semi-official alumni event photographer for Lincoln High's Alumni Association for a couple of reasons- first, because it's a nice photo of "the son of Mike," with his sax in hand, and second, it's one photo that Mike did not take himself among the hundreds that we've seen at alumni functions.

Mike's son also plays as a member of a trio, but he's here at the Art Walk, as a member of the band, "Killsonic," an avant-garde jazz marching band. They play in and around L.A., and the gigs include subway venues. They have played in New York and in- yes- N.Y. subways, too. The band is looking forward to going to N.Y. for some scheduled performances in April. Killsonic's MySpace page is http://www.myspace.com/killsonic and features an eclectic mix of their performances, as well as numerous photos of the band at work.

The trio mentioned is called El-Haru Kuroi, whose music features lots of Mexican and Portuguese songs. You can hear some samples at their MySpace page, www.myspace.com/harukuroi.

The story today gives you some information about the Art Walk event that happens on the second Thursday each month. If you are from the old school, you may think downtown is pretty much a place to avoid, if possible, especially at night. If you are from the VERY old school, you can remember when downtown was the place to go for shopping and for movies. It was actually vibrant and you could enjoy a visit downtown back then among the classic stores for shopping in the pre-shopping mall days.

Since the addition of the Staples Center, area is continuing to change with lots of living spaces in the downtown area increasing, both from building converssions and new construction. The upscale type changes were especially noticeable around the Staples Center area as more of the old business and housing areas were demolished. Since the real estate market went flat, many of the "For Sale" invitations have changed to "For Lease."

Not all is good with downtown or with those politicians in City Hall but the Art Walk event is an interesting part, showing one of the better of the many faces that downtown has to show us, and the photos present us with some interesting views of the people at this event.

Monica Garcia, LAUSD President, has L.A. Times reluctant endorsement in relection bid while running unopposed.

The L.A. Times today did not eagerly endorse MONICA GARCIA, President of the Board, for reelection for the District 2 office.

See: "A strong L.A. School Board; L.A. voters have several good choices. We pick three and hope they make students their priority."

They could have said "NO" to the endorsement and still print the comments that they did. It all fits. She is running unopposed and so she will be elected unless there is the nearly impossible outcome where she does not get the majority of votes cast for the office. With no other name on the ballot for "District 2", what do you think voters will do?

The Times was able to admit and to notice that Mayor Villaraigosa's selection for this office has not done much to advance her cause for re-election. MONICA GARCIA takes her cues from the Mayor and that probably is the reason all has not been going well in the education side of city operations.

The LAUSD is an entirely separate governmental body from the City of Los Angeles, and the responsibility for education decisions in the local public schools rests solely with the Board. The Times gives reasons that support its decision to be unenthusiastic in endorsing GARCIA that I agree with.

Read the Times item yourself. The LAUSD bond measure of $7 billion that passed originally was set at $3.5 Billion, but the last meeting on the decision for the amount had it jump to double that amount. There was not a specific application for all this money, but they wanted it to cover whatever they might need later. That was like, "let's ask for as much as we can and if we get it, we can decide later how we will spend it." So now taxpayers have that financial burden, like an unwanted tattoo, it's not going away.

Further, this is a GARCIA-led Board that has gone on a mission to build more schools as much and as fast as possible, displacing people, demolishing homes, (many homes in low income areas, pushing residents out), and then in Echo Park, doing this so rushed (rushing even while the case was in court waiting to be decided) that the opposition prevailed in court that ordered them back off and essentially start over. The LAUSD was responsible for not complying with required steps, like an inadequate environmental impact report, costing the public lots of tax dollars (again) and putting people out of housing.

But MS. GARCIA seems more concerned, as the Times sees also, with social justice so much that education turns out to take a back seat. First it's important to be able to perform well in school which will make the rest improve. That over-50% dropout rate is still there, and many parents who can manage it will continue to put their children in schools other that LAUSD. Even Mayor Villaraigosa did not have confidence in the system to allow his children to attend local public schools, and he made no apologies for his decision, he simply said he did not want to risk his own children's well-being.

The enrollment in LAUSD has noticeably been declining for years, but you would not know it from the rush for more construction that continues. Students are leaving for private schools, parochial schools, charter schools, or just leaving the District. But what happens withall this construction? Each new school needs another complete administrative population and faculty to operate and with each new school, comes new costs. The costs of schools has been out of control, another LAUSD trademark but the leadership survives unchanged at Beaudry St. District Headquarters. This year the budget is going to make some changes necessary for all the big spending of the past in assorted categories, but still there has not been a product to show for it.

GARCIA will be re-elected but not because she earned it.

Octuplets Anyone? Too many, Too bad. What were they thinking?

The Octo-mom, that woman in Whittier who had octuplets- that's 8 babies, to be clear- about a week ago is appearing to be making this into a publicity event for money, although everyone denies it. She's hired an agent who gave a press conference earlier this week, and I have to say this is ALL about whipping this story up into a tidy sum of cash.

The woman, and you can see the many stories on this yourself for her name, is what, 33 years old? She should have had some sense to have avoided this situation since she's got 6 kids ALREADY and then wants more? What more burden can you create for your own family? And it was no accident, as having babies was always the objective.

And she's not married, or with even a father around, since she's said that ALL of the 14 children were products of in vitro fertilization- that is, it was all done very deliberately, not a result of any yielding to passionate encounters as many of our teenagers find as a way to becoming pregnant.

She's reported to be living with her parents, and they had to file for bankruptcy in the past while trying to help her out. The father has returned to Iran to get some work. Who can blame him?

The grandmother to all these kids says her daughter loves children- but was that a reason to collect them like Beanie Babies? And Beanie Babies don't need to eat regularly among the many diferences between the two situations.

SO MY QUESTION IS "What is NOT wrong with this picture?"

Somebody on the radio said, maybe it was Doug McIntyre or Tim Conway, Jr., that for a quick rule of thumb, you should only have as many kids as you have arms to grab them to control them and make them behave. So if you are married, then it's four kids. The rest will get away and you can't handle them when going out. This "Mom" is well past that.

They call this "hoarding" when people collect too many dogs or cats as if they were operating a shelter. And you have seen that story on TV from time to time. It's abuse by neglect in that situation. I don't see anything different here.

She's no hero but a more like a vulture perched upon the bodies of her kids, trying to parlay this into some big money.

There is an EXCLUSIVE interview with her, already recorded to be aired today by NBC- who denies they paid anything for it. NBC is a news whoring group concerned only with grabbing ratings by promoting this woman as anything OTHER THAN A SHAMEFUL EXAMPLE OF AN ADULT PERSON, this woman with the baseball team roster of kids who is dooming these kids for satisfying her own mental illness style urges.

What's the projected taxpayer cost breakdown for the kids? And the Dr. needs his head examined to engineer creating ANY more kids past her 6 there. "What was HE thinking?"

I just hope that this situation is not taken as a "role model" by teens in deciding how to shape their own conduct. Those children- 14 in all- have to look forward to a difficult future, and I don't see any way around them permanently being on welfare, so the public shares the burden but without being involved in deciding on creating it.

If anything, there is so much to learn about what NOT to do as a matter of personal responsibility, moral duty to the children that you bring into this world, and consideration of financial impact and realities of life. In the end, the children who are blameless, become the real victims of this bizarre combination of circumstances. It might make for a good lesson in a "Life Skills" class for our students, although a dose of common sense should keep anyone from coming anywhere close to following these footsteps.

Music- February 1977-style memories, and then some.

Getting the news today makes it no wonder why people are leaving- rising taxes and fees imposed by state and local governments, politician's double-talking and lying to people who put them into office, and crime in L.A. that Mayor Villaraigosa somehow says, "L.A. is safer than it's been since the 1950's." Whoa.

So let's enjoy taking a little break from that while I bring up a glimpse of the PAST in a music setting. Today's section is from Don Barrett's subscriber-supported L.A. RADIO People, http://www.laradio.com/ - today taking thoughts back to a time, deep into the disco era:

Top Five Flashback, February 4, 1977: Torn Between Two Lovers by Mary MacGregor, Car Wash by Rose Royce, Dazz by Brick, New Kid In Town by the Eagles, Hot Line by the Sylvers. (LARP Rewind prepared by Steve Thompson)

Along the sidebar on this blog, there's a link to a real memory jogger, "Anth-ology" http://www.stanford.edu/~ahom/anth-ology.html an old site, and like the music, it's still giving you a nice jump to the past, in the lists, by years and month, of those great and not-so-great songs, artists and dates first released.

I forgot how many songs came out in that disco period, a style that some hate and others just can't forget, with some good times attached to the tunes. It's music that still gets people moving, if only just by some foot-tapping. There's more there on "Antho-logy" for other decades that will surely bring out the reaction, "Is that song THAT old?", or like the even-older alumni can say about oldies, "I remember when that song was NEW."

Like I said, just a break from more information while heading to the March 3rd City Election.

Middle Class is leaving L.A., Mayor Tony says more people coming to L.A.

Well, here’s another reason to say No Second Term to Mayor Tony and there’s still a lot I need to get to before the election to provide information for an informed vote and to show that we have a Mayor who just is out of touch with facts, or simply, that he can’t keep from lying to the public, or both. The current issue of the L.A. Weekly, the paper that sure is not going to be getting any favors from City Hall, has a revealing story on what’s been happening in population changes in the San Fernando Valley, “Middle Class Flight From San Fernando Valley; will taxpayers who are leaving behind ‘America’s Suburb’ doom L.A.’, by Beth Barrett, January 28, 2009. http://www.laweekly.com/2009-01-29/news/middle-class-flight-from-san-fernando-valley/ The story tells about the change in the city population in San Fernando Valley that the Mayor doesn’t or won’t admit. The middle class is leaving Los Angeles generally, and San Fernando Valley, specifically. While the Mayor says that more people are coming to Los Angeles, we see that lots are leaving, and the trade off is that there is an economic consequence- more poorer people are coming to Los Angeles.

The article also explains why this is happening and what you have seen from the changes. Some people may say that this is just picking on the poor people, but telling the story is not picking on anybody if there are others telling stories that are NOT true. It's all correcting matters, just for the record, if nothing else. The mayor speaks about how valuable the middle class is to L.A., but the Mayor’s actions do not match his words, and he’s pushing them out of L.A., and the good paying jobs they had here have been disappearing in favor of lower pay, lower skilled jobs. We don't even have much industry left, as those sites were converted over to "lofts"in the past, but too cheap, you know. So they began converting to upscale condos, and then the real estate market went super flat. Lots of "for lease" signs now all over downtown.

(And as an aside- the homeless population downtown got some attention ONLY BECAUSE they were hurting sales of the upscale digs by just being there- after all, WHO wants to come outside their building to see a campout by your front entrance, or be panhandled as you stroll around those fancy rehabbed neighborhoods? City Council and TONY did any and all actions first and foremost, for the benefit of the special interests to get MORE profits, not to help any homeless. But like all crafty politicians, they knew that if you spin it right, you CAN get some pretty decent mileage on "appearing to help the homeless.")

And on the homeless, since Chief Bratton lives to do Tony's bidding, the police actions were coordinated so as to keep from making bad publicity by the LAPD. Some ridiculous rules were approved by Council that just shifted the problem to the wholesale district's shop keepers. They are lower on the totem pole, and have to put up with it until they get more political clout.

I can tell you right now, it there were no condos being built, those homeless folks would have still been ignored and all the events that followed to give them attention would not even get started. The social and legal advocates for the homeless are able to keep them from being total pawns in the game.

But as usual, I digress, so continuing, the L.A. Weekly lays it out clearly,

Villaraigosa has touted the middle class as “the strength of the town” but
spends almost none of his time trying to lure, or create incentives for,
private-sector employers, as L.A. Weekly discovered in reviewing 10 weeks of his
personal schedule. In fact, city policies may be hastening middle-class
flight.

You see really not anything very shocking if you have been following the career of Tony as the Mayor, but you might be surprised about all the things he’s done. Tony is responsible for changing things in L.A. for the worse. If you have just seen him on the never-ending photo ops and news clip on T.V., thinking, “He seems to be a pretty smart guy,” you have taken the bait. That’s what HE thinks he is, and what he wants you to continue to believe, but the truth is that he’s rarely able to convey the accurate picture of anything.

So the truth turns out to be the Mayor Villaraigosa’s enemy all around, and you won’t see him in any debates or more truth might leak out, and it won’t match with what Tony has been saying, as this L.A. Weekly article demonstrates another example of that.

There is a lot of Non-Truth, be it a lie, or the “mis-speaking” like Matt Szabo, Tony’s spokesman, said happened when Tony had told a reporter that the “11% Mayor” story was all wrong because the “L.A. Weekly” used the wrong personal calendar of his. (Remember that he’s not supposed to be keeping personal secrets.) So that means the “All-About-Me, 11% Mayor” story had the time calculations done correctly, as Szabo had to concede. That’s another from Tony’s “What a tangled web we weave….” Department.

You might want to contact the Mayor to see what he says about that but don’t try it today. He's out of town again. Tony’s off to Washington, D.C. to try to get more money for his favored “Subway to the Sea” project, reported by the L.A. Times in the 2-2-09 edition, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/02/los-angeles-may.html I think it’s just another way to try to show US how important he is since THAT project is responsible for another percent of increase in your sales tax. Thanks, Tony, we needed that tax and we needed that Subway that will be done, oh, in about 2030, if they hurry. But you see, the important thing here is that it can move Tony's career forward. Forget what burden it puts on the people; That subway was simply for Tony's career, an easy choice. After all, Tony doesn't have to pay that bill.

Mayor Tony himself is already is beyond any reality in his self-appraisal of work, and any supporters of his who actually LIKE what he has done CAN’T say anything against him or they will be walking. But the supporters who fall into special interest categories and Tony’s staff are busy writing on blogs and repeating Tony’s version of stories to SUPPORT him because TONY needs to win for these guys (and women) to keep their jobs and big paychecks. You know jobs are becoming a scarce commodity out there, and that’s plenty of motivation for Tony’s side to work for his re-election.

Tony has his mind on the Governor's race in the future, never giving 100% attention to the job he needs to be doing for US in Los Angeles. That's why he's the "11% Mayor" and short-changing the Los Angeles people, all the people, and that's how he earned the "All-About-Me" description. Short example: Tony's attempt to take over control of LAUSD and then winding up with 10 LOW-PERFORMING schools to handle to show his stuff. What other mayor got into NON-mayor work? Tony has no expertise in "Education" but that didn't stop him from spreading his inattentive ways even more thinly. Fortunately for him, there's no results yet from those schools, but don't expect much from him directly, he's never around.

Don't give him the opportunity to finish the job of completely destroying the city. No Second Term for Tony.

Lincoln High and 200th Anniversary of The "Rail Splitter" (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

Do you know what's happening in 10 days, especially you Lincoln High

alumni?

Hint: Celebration of an event of 200 years ago. Still not helping?

Hint 2: Birthday candles would need a big cake and some fire marshals if fired up.

Last Hint: No, Not "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" but, "What President is Lincoln High named after?"

In 10 days, it will be February 12, 2009, the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States on February 12, 1809. The other more tragic and widely known fact is that he was the first U.S. President to be assassinated, hit at point blank range by a single shot on April 14, 1865 and dying 9 hours later on April 15, 1865. He was 56 years old.

If all of this was news to you, think of what the students think about concerning this at LHS. In the five years that I have followed the Lincoln's Birthday activity each February, it was either easy to describe because there was nothing mentionable that was any different from any other day on campus, or, it was so UN-promoted that not a word was heard, discouraging or otherwise, about the significance of that February 12th date.

I am one of the ones from the old school- the one affter the 1930's quake and the one before the 1970's quakes- with the idea that we should have some school pride from taking steps to promote it based on knowledge and deeds, not just because it's part of a school cheerleading routine.

A second reason for not ignoring Lincoln's February 12th birthday is that Lincoln High is named after the most famous President, and a leader in the time of a war between citizens on our own homeland. There is a vast history from which we can find that tells us about Lincoln, besides the fact of being tall and thin, with a stovepipe hat and a beard.

My experience at Lincoln showed me that many students in the 9th an 10th grade were barely aware that Lincoln was a president. Many knew he was assassinated, but not much of any kind of details of anything else concerning Lincoln. Their expected later experience in a U.S. History class might help them, but aside from that, there is not a SCHOOL push for knowledge about Abraham Lincoln, and we should see that both as having educational value and serving to instill some knowledge that could foster some pride in the school.

I see that other schools on the East and Northeast side that carry names of presidents and historical figures, Wilson, (President Woodrow Wilson), Franklin, (Benjamin Franklin, statesman and inventor) and Garfield (President Jame Garfield- also assassinated during term in office)- and Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt) and ours should be the one easiest to find much information about his life and times. President Lincoln was probably the best of the U.S. presidents when you consider what he did to preserve the country in a time that brought civil war to the nation.

I'd like to see the change in the direction that Lincoln High has followed in the past as it concerns the Lincoln's Birthday event each year on February 12th. I remember that we had a separate holiday for Lincoln's birthday on February 12, and another holiday on February 22 for President George Washington's birthday. Later, to be more efficient, I imagine, there was a holiday created as President's Day that was neither for Washington or Lincoln and did not fall on either of their birthdays, but instead on a MONDAY. All this did was to really erase the importance of both of the Presidents and make the actual dates of their birthday even more obscure.

All of this is a sad commentary in the dissemination and treatment of knowledge of history for the benefit of students- and the School. We celebrate Cinco de Mayo which is a purely party day, not even the Mexican "4th of July" that many believe it to be. We celebrate September 16th in this city, with lots of SPECIAL EVENT FEE WAIVERS (meaning thousands of dollars given by the city for a party- and these are your tax dollars, and any "fee" dollars collected by the city. FEES really are taxes to the extent you are stuck by the city.)

In this city, we are unique among U.S. cities, with the City Council, giving money readily for events to celebrate another country's independence day, the September 16th Mexican Independence Day, almost more enthusiastically so than our own. That spending, like the $400,000.00 fee just waived by the Ctiy Council for the Academy Awards coming up, reinforces the idea that Council has no trouble parting with other people's tax money to fund parties. This public party expense pattern is a topic to be covered separately.

The idea of Lincoln High students having a knowledge of their namesake is not a terribly onerous expectation, and I add, it's a worthy one to refute criticss when the overall reputation of the LAUSD and the level of education is considered to be on a downward spiral from the any of the years of attendance here by any alumni.

Save L.A.- Keep Tony, Wendy and Jack from a takeover in March elections

The Sunday L.A. Times (February 1, 2009) has a few items of concern revolving around Mayor Villaraigosa's potential for achieving a long sought-after a death-grip on the city political front. “A Villaraigosa-Weiss-Greuel troika would consolidate power at L.A. City Hall,” by David Zahniser And Maeve Reston, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-villaraigosa-allies1-2009feb01,0,887745.story

ANTONIO'S “Yes-Man” is Jack Weiss, the current Council Member representing CD-5 over to the north and west side of the city, and Wendy Gruel, CM for CD-2, in the San Fernando Valley and east, both are running for office, and both are bad news for the city if they get elected.

Jack Weiss is running for City Attorney in the city-wide race, with a couple of challengers that would do better for the city, Noel Weiss (same LAST name but on the Good Guy side of things), and Carmen Trutanich http://www.tru09.com/cityattorney.php?Pname=cityattorney, WOULD would each be a good choice over JACK WEISS for that office. JACK'S been in city council for almost 8 years and NOT been in court or handled cases for that long. CARMEN TRUTANIC and NOEL WEISS are both practicing attorneys. It might not be so bad, but JACK has been doing a lousy job in the City Council, especially as Chair of the Public Safety Committee. Only lately has JACK been doing things to try to get "good publicity" with the election a month away.

JACK does things to get publicity? Yes, and that might be taking a few tips from the master of the photo op, TONY VILLARAIGOSA, the mayor who's into including costume changes for his press conferences, and caring not a bit if somebody is dead, since it's a good time to get his face on TV. He did that in Wilmington a few days ago with the death of 7 in a family, he did that in Chatsworth after the trains collided. So you see, getting votes is a little like advertising- show your face and say the same things over and over, and it doesn't matter if none of it it true because you can afford ads that say it's ALL true. Be on the lookout for those.

JACK wants to be City Attorney. Rocky Delgadillo, the current city attorney with an amazingly bizarre history of negatives in his professional, political and personal life is leaving the office, and it would be hard to do more things to rival his terms. But JACK WEISS might be the one to do it, too, but would do it more along the lines of letting the office exercise choices made by Mayor Villaraigosa, and not being independently operated from the other branches.

CM WENDY GRUEL wants to stay around in offices and sees CITY CONTROLLER as an open one she thinks she could manage. Right now, LAURA CHICK is the City Controller, leaving due to term limits forcing her out. CHICK performed lots of audits and opened the doors to numerous instances of waste and fraud going on in the city. She was the one responsible for telling us about all the city cars assigned to so many people, going home with them without a real reason presented. They also had city gas credit cards to use that were abused to some large numbers. There were cases where cars were filling up 10 times in one day, according to the L.A. Times report on the problem.

Well, to get back to GRUEL, she is somebody who has backed Antonio continuously through all the examples of bad management and absentee management, and I have not heard her utter a negative word or level serious criticism in Villaraigosa’s direction- and I can say there were plenty of opportunities to at least clear your throat, if not actually speak up when concerns arose so regularly with the Mayor.

WENDY GRUEL, as the city controller, would be the person who is responsible for checking the operation of the city and how it handles money, and she would be a disaster in that role, in my opinion. WENDY has absolutely no ability to criticize the Mayor, if he wins re-election. All of this waste that LAURA CHICK brought up was during the time of ANTONIO running the show. I will say that maybe he didn’t start every problem, but he didn’t find out and he didn’t check on how things were being run- how could he? He was never really here in the city, and HE'S the chief elected official.

TONY has been out of the city, regularly missing being around for working on campaigns of Hillary Clinton and then jumped ship when it went down, over to Barack Obama, for the last couple of years. When he wasn’t doing that, he was off to other cities to be at fundraiser events to raise money for his own re-election campaign, well over $3 million now, and on the city’s payroll, at that.

HOW COULD WE EXPECT WENDY GRUEL to give TONY anything but friendly treatment as the city “watchdog”, given her allegiance to his administration. She has said she could be exercise her “independent judgment” but so did ROCKY DELGADILLO when he ran for City Attorney and won, after it was revealed that he got almost $500,000.00 of free billboard advertising from some billboard companies. And there were certain billboard companies that had cases the City of L.A. had made against them, all part of the City Attorney’s office responsibility to prosecute. ROCKY said the advertising would not affect his judgment. But low and behold, there was a settlement that was made by the City Attorney with very kind terms to some companies.

After the City Attorney made the settlement, the City tried to come down on some companies when they wanted to put up more billboards. The City applied the terms of the settlement to limit those companies, so these folks went to court to challenge the deal made. The judge said that you couldn’t use that settlement for regulating billboards the way the City did since some companies were less restricted and others got no breaks, and that’s not allowed. So ROCKY’s job had raised some eyebrows and cost the city lots of money, time and still billboards are going up without much ability by the city to stop that.

WENDY can’t say that she will be INDEPENDENT and have anyone really believe it. Being a politician in the first place is already cause for people to reach for their wallets to pay up in order to keep their guy or woman in office and keep their arrangements preserved. For others, it causes THEM to reach for their wallets to be sure they stay safe from being taken out and emptied by deft means.

L.A. TIMES, January 29, 2009 story on L.A. City Attorney race, “What would they do as L.A. city attorney” by Maeve Reston, gives some information on the differences. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/what-they-would.html Not all the candidates were there, but you can see all plan to run the office differently than Rocky.

[Here is an L.A. TIMES story filed earlier in the day on January 29, 2009, by the same reporter, Maeve Reston, before the meeting happened, “In L.A. city attorney’s race, it seems that only money talks.” http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/in-la-city-atty.html ]

A “CITY DISASTER”? THAT WOULD BE TONY, WENDY AND JACK winning the election on March 3rd.

This would mean that you really have all the offices occupied by the same political machine and that machine will work for itself and its friends (i.e., “special interest” groups and individuals) without the expected checks and balances that are supposed to exist to keep the public from having the wool pulled over its eyes (again and again).

In the City election, your vote really is more significant since there are less voters eligible and many of them are neither interested in voting there, nor care much more than what they hear about in political ads. TONY RELIES ON THAT- That's what the $3 million is all about. WENDY AND JACK follow their boss in the same style of politics

LHS Fundraising, Horse Racing and a Picnic, all in one afternoon event

(Passing along the information below sent to me about another alumni event to give you a jump on ordering your tickets.)

A Lincoln High School Alumni Association

Fundraising Event

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"Day at the Races"

SANTA ANITA RACE TRACK

Arcadia, California

WEST INFIELD AREA #3

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ENJOY A RELAXED & FUN EXPERIENCE.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2009

12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

This special day at the races for Lincoln H.S. Alumni Assoc. includes a delicious buffet spread of turkey, ham, salami, cheese, fresh rolls, desserts & homemade salsa & salads; hot dogs, too.

General Admission, parking, all you can eat, and the day’s Racing Program are also included with your ticket purchase.

Present your ticket stub at West Infield Area #3. Each person will receive 2 raffle tickets. Prizes will be awarded from the 2nd to 6th races.

Special prizes will be raffled after 7th race, main prize winner CASH from the 50 / 50 drawing. Please provide your transportation to the track. You may bring your own drinks – soda, water, etc.

(Liquor is not allowed to be brought into the park however; you may purchase alcoholic beverages at the track.)

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Our own betting area with no crowds to fight and our own exclusive area to sit and visit and look over the racing program. Invite your friends & family, support Lincoln H.S. Alumni Assoc., - win a few bucks, and just have a nice day.

Children are certainly welcome! Play areas are scattered throughout the area that young ones enjoy!

Races will be held rain or shine.

TICKETS IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE.

TICKET PRICES: Adults: $25,

18 & under with adult: Free

Contact Person>> Genevieve Granados, (323) 222-2847
Email lincolnhighschoolaa@hotmail.com

Please, No Refunds, Tickets are transferable. Purchase in advance to assure reservation.

"Day at the Races": This popular activity, historically, has been one of the longest running resources in raising funds for varied groups; enabling the Alumni Association to continue to support so many projects helping Lincoln H.S. Making this activity successful can happen by your participation via ticket sales. Your help will be very much appreciated.

(And there you have it- If you're still not convinced to act on this, talk to someone who has been to this before and you just might change your mind. In case you were wondering, I did not see anywhere that YOU or anyone else had to be one of the Lincoln alumni to buy a ticket. If you can't make it, it can always be a "gift" to a friend or relative- or to several of them. )