Open Thread for Saturday
Create your best Jack Weiss or Carmen Trutanich campaign commercial. Be as creative or as sleazy as you want.
Labels: carmen trutanich, jack weiss, open threads
Posted by Michael Higby @ 4/18/2009 04:51:00 AM
25 Comments:
Vote for Jack Weiss or Carm Trutanich cuz they are smarter, thinner and better liked than greasy, slobbery, bully higbee
call him whatever you want mayor sam, but on this saturday morning, kevin roderick is posting something useful
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/03/busted_parking_in_the_yel.php
Vote for Carmen Trutanich. Then he may actually move into the City of Los Angeles which will increase revenue by one resident and cut back on his campaign traffic commuting.
Another cheap op for a seriously obese and creatively and mentally challenged fat man to use Jack Weiss's name. Pathetic.
Of course the Bitter Betties and Bernies (not Parks, the other ones from the "old white people's who couldn't get Jack to kow-tow and abdicade his duty to the city as a whole and better judgement revenge brigade") will jump at the chance.
Got Traffic Congestion?
Traffic congestion is Jack Weiss's gift to West LA.
Jack bravely supported high density developments by his illegal campaign contributors - Big Developers.
Jack Weiss stood up and fought for wealthy developers when his peasant constituents tired to recall him.
Jack Weiss will continue to represent the interests of the unrepresented - the wealthy developers who don't live in Los Angeles.
Jack Weiss, the best politician money can buy.
Paid for by the Friends of Los Angeles for an Independent City Attorney.
Friends don't let friends vote Weiss.
Vote Jack Weiss - The Experienced Prosecutor
Yes folks, even though Jack Weiss only ever tried 2 cases in Federal Court (one of which was against former Mouseketeer Darlene Gillespe), he's the experienced prosecutor Los Angeles needs.
That's because Jack Weiss has real experience as a target of criminal investigations.
Jack Weiss was investigated by the City Ethics Commission for receiving and keeping illegal campaign contributions.
Jack Weiss was forced to testify before a Los Angles Grand Jury about $8,000 lap-dance bills in a pay-to-play investigation where he was an officer of a corporation suspected of giving 'favors' in the movie industry.
Vote Jack Weiss for the slimy pay-to-pay politicain that Los Angeles needs like a hole in the head.
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Anyone But Weiss
Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Weiss
Grasshopper
You don't just wake up in the morning and become a fool!
JACK-ASS-WEISS was born with the fool DNA strand that is generations deep.
Vote for TRUTANICH!!!
Did Roderick record and post the video or just link to someone else's find? I guess you can call that useful.
Trutanich is the NRA and polluter lawyer
ABT - anybody but Trutanich
find out the truth at www.true2009.com
At last I can say 'Screw Al Lay' ... Villar, Weiss, Trutanich, Reyes, Alarcon...and the rest of the scum! Lifetime natives, we have decided to take our 32 employees and we are leaving Al Lay! Ole!!!!
Sorry, Villar, but we're not selling our Prop 13 property...just renting it out. Wouldn't give you crooks the satisfaction of more revenue!
The only way to fight the corruption in City Hall is to move...if you can! Four more years of Tijuana Tony is just more than my digestive system can tolerate!
Just remember, you can always come back AFTER the implosion is complete and all the Mexicans and illegals are gone! They won't last 5 minutes without your money and my money!
Help save Al Lay...just LEAVE!
Why is Kevin James posting on Michelle Malkin's blog?
Jack Weiss: what happened to that love child lawsuit against him?
What about that, Jack? Should we bring up your love child and your efforts to suppress the law suit?
It clearly doesn't take much invite for the Trutanich supporters to get "sleazy" and desperate very fast -- like their master it's all they got and how they roll copying his style.
Vote for the "experienced prosecutor" ...eh, um, Jack Weiss. He has lost half of the TWO jury trials he had in his career.
Know Jack Weiss.
NO Jack Weiss.
Installment #1 of 7: Our City Attorney Matters
THE CITY ATTORNEY IS OUR LEGAL WATCHDOG
Perhaps you are counting on our City Attorney to protect us from hard core criminals. And to be our go-to-guy against gangs. You should know that the District Attorney, not the City Attorney, prosecutes felons. Ideally, our next City Attorney will be a master of the criminal law system and an aggressive partner to our District Attorney, but crime is only one of the responsibilities of the City Attorney. The City Attorney defends us in the hundreds of civil lawsuits filed against the City. And, every day, the 500 City Attorneys instruct our Mayor, City Council, Police Chief, and City Departments on their legal obligations to the public. The City Attorney is all that stands between us and a rogue City Hall that trades in political backslapping instead of what’s right.
THE CITY ATTORNEY DECIDES WHICH LAWS TO ENFORCE
And then there’s that other major responsibility. The City Attorney decides which of our laws to enforce. Did you ever wonder why that illegal building is still standing? Or why that sea of fresh billboards is in place? Or why the “club” down the street or that shuttered facility is home to activity at all hours of the day and night? The list goes on and on. You know the volume of unlawful, disruptive activity in YOUR neighborhood. Our City Attorney is tasked with enforcing our laws. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to have our laws enforced? All it takes is a City Attorney whose eye is on serving us, the public. All it takes is for US to elect a new breed of City Attorney. More to come…
Know Jack Weiss.
NO Jack Weiss.
Installment #2 of 7: The Subject was Rape
RAPE VICTIMS COUNTED ON JACK WEISS FOR HELP
When he first ran for City Council in 2001, and again in 2005, candidate Jack Weiss made this pledge: he vowed to make the female victims of violent crime his priority. When he spoke to the National Council of Jewish Women, he reaffirmed his promise. But Jack’s post-election inaction was deafening. By September 2007, our expectations had dimmed. We sat with Weiss and a thousand others at the annual Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center brunch. Now chairman of the Los Angeles Public Safety Committee, Weiss had yet to lift a finger. Rape victims spoke movingly about their personal ordeals and heroism. Civic leaders told us about the volume of untested LAPD rape kits. Perhaps this time, on this late date, we could goad or shame Jack Weiss into action. We approached Weiss, yet again, for his help.
WEISS TURNED HIS BACK UNTIL RAPE COULD HELP HIM
Jack brushed away our September 2007 appeals like so many flies. That is, until late 2008, and the ramp up of his campaign for City Attorney. Jack Weiss and the City Council directed $250,000 from the City street furniture fund to test the waiting rape kits. Reports stated that as many as 20% of the DNA samples had degraded to unusable. Weiss publicly proclaimed himself the white knight, rescuing rape victims from the City’s dallying. We cringe at the avalanche of television ads broadcasting the “leadership” of Jack Weiss in the fight against rape. City Council Members Jan Perry and Dennis Zine, and rape victims, have called Weiss on his deception. Why did Jack Weiss make victims wait seven long years? Grateful for even his tardy, manipulative attention, they (and we) will never know. More to come…
Know Jack Weiss.
NO Jack Weiss.
Installment #3 of 7: One Man McMansion Band
LA: THE WILD McMANSION FRONTIER
You’re not surprised. Until 2008, there were few limits on the size of what could be built on a single-family residential lot in our City. This lack of regulation produced McMansions: grossly oversized houses that took away light, greenery, shade, and views, that hogged natural resources, that diminished every other home on their street. After each of our surrounding cities had imposed curbs on these Hummer-sized homes, the City Council pushed the LA Planning Department forward. The planners and Planning Commission held dozens of public meetings -- more hearings than on any other topic. A proposal was drafted that would permit mansions to flourish, but that would prohibit the most outlandish abuses. Dozens of communities and hundreds of emails supported the new ordinance. Kudos! Consensus!
JACK WEISS: KING OF THE McMANSIONS
You’re still not surprised. The proposed new law then began a slow and painful death. It stalled for more than six months. Why? Councilman Jack Weiss became a one man band in favor of McMansions. Check the record for yourself. Weiss single-handedly held the matter in committee so that it could not be voted upon by the very same City Council whose members had initially pressed the Planning Department into action. He publicly lobbied against passage. No other Council member stepped in to ally with Weiss; he had threadbare public support. So, we ask ourselves, who or what motivated Jack Weiss? Today, Los Angeles forbids wildly excessive homes. The effort to get this measure adopted nearly undid the neighborhoods, which kept the measure alive through countless additional rounds of hostile hearings, courtesy of Jack Weiss. More to come…
Know Jack Weiss.
NO Jack Weiss.
Installment #4 of 7: A Tale of Two (Century) Cities
PARADISE FOUND: CENTURY CITY
Until our current worldwide economic meltdown, the real estate market in Los Angeles was red hot. Post 9/11 brought us the gold rush of 1849 all over again. Buy some land. Convince the City Council to double, triple, or even ten-fold its zoning and make your fortune. Nowhere was this gold rush more in evidence than in Century City. This mostly “office park” had not realized the promise of its specific plan zoning of the early 1980’s. The original idea had been to tie the growth of Century City to the number of car trips that its few streets could accommodate. But by the mid-2000’s, planning had moved beyond simply counting cars to the notion of mixing uses for the purpose of shrinking the overall number of vehicle trips. Dozens of developers perked up their ears.
PARADISE LOST: CENTURY CITY
Briefly, good news. Girding for a half dozen gargantuan development proposals, the homeowner associations surrounding Century City formed a collective. They called on the developer of two new towers offered for Avenue of the Stars at Constellation. With the traffic-relieving “subway to the sea” still just a twinkle in the Mayor’s eye, they swallowed, and negotiated neighborhood protections with the developer: $5 million to be paid into a fund monitored by the California Community Foundation. Its beneficiaries were specifically named and allocated neighborhood improvements. How smart! Followed by lasting bad news: Jack Weiss arrived to witness the happy resolution. He dismissed the collegial round table, announcing to his astonished constituents that his office would control and earmark all money. City Hall lobbyists spread the hushed word that homeowners were seeking personal payoffs. Litigation ensued. The coalition went home, some deflated, others nearly destroyed. Goodbye community-designed mitigation fund. Hello unchecked development.
More to come…
Know Jack Weiss.
NO Jack Weiss.
Installment #5 of 7: Backrooms and Billboards
IT’S NO ACCIDENT: LA IS AMERICA’S BILLBOARD CAPITOL
It’s like that shell game that you were suckered into in your youth. Ready? In 2002, our City Council banned new billboards and all upgrades to existing billboards. They adopted a billboard inspection and illegal billboard removal program. The billboard industry sued. Because LA had followed the tried and true model of other cities, we were winning in court! But wait. In 2006, the City settled. We simply folded our tent. The City Council gave the billboard industry the right to install 840 digital billboards at locations of the industry’s choosing. Not a single public discussion. All closed doors. We were represented by two lawyers in the negotiating room that day: current City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss. The digital signs began sprouting up in 2007 and 2008, followed by public outcry. We learned that no inspection or removal of billboards had taken place. We met a new enemy, supergraphics, those huge tarps now affixed seemingly everywhere. We realized that LA is the laughing stock of the billboard industry.
MEET JACK WEISS: THE BILLBOARD INDUSTRY’S BEST FRIEND
And where is Jack Weiss today? He is calling press conferences to talk tough against billboards. But talk is cheap. Where was Weiss when your neighbors, instead of the City, began an inventory of our illegal billboards? We guess he was out raising campaign contributions. Where was Jack when digital billboards popped up in your backyards? We guess he was diverting your attention to supergraphics while hiding from his backroom blessing of the deal that gave the digital signs life. Where is he on the subject of enforcing our billboard laws? No guessing required. Jack is aggressively pressuring City Hall to rewrite all of our billboard rules, when all we need are strict standards for sign districts and penalties and enforcement for the laws we’ve got. Jack’s proposal contains billboard-friendly loopholes the size of Mack trucks, such as its grandfathering of many pending applications for flashy sign districts. More to come…
Know Jack Weiss.
NO Jack Weiss.
Installment #6 of 7: Follow the (Dirty) Money
LAW, POLITICS, DIRTY MONEY
A war chest of more than $1 million. That is the size of the gift from developers and their special interest teams to Jack Weiss in support of his campaign for City Attorney. Shocked? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Walk back with us to 2001. Attorney Jack Weiss was making his first bid for elected office. The election turned on 369 votes. Jack Weiss won. Three years later, in 2004, the vice president of developer Casden Properties and 14 of the firm’s subcontractors pled “no contest” to charges that they had laundered money to the 2001 Weiss campaign. The illegal dollars were delivered in envelopes each labeled “Casden.” Estimates of the total laundered amount range wildly, from $20,000 to $90,000. Neither figure includes the bonus dollars of public matching funds that Jack received for each dirty contribution. Trivia buffs: care to add insult to injury? This was the self-same 2001 campaign where Weiss unlawfully failed to register each one of the 23 mass mailers that he sent out to tout his candidacy.
MEASURE A MAN BY HIS DEEDS
Jack Weiss rose to this day, to this race for City Attorney, on the back of his cloudy 2001 City Council victory. The record of the 2004 no-contest proceedings raised devastating questions about what Weiss knew and when he knew it. We are ashamed to report that the City Ethics Commission never answered those questions. But we can tell you two things. One, the laws of the City of Los Angeles require the return of dirty money and the corresponding matching funds. Two, Jack Weiss never returned a single penny. This sounds unbelievable, but it is true. What does Weiss say? He mumbles about the passage of time and the closing of the specific fund into which these sums were deposited. He says nothing about the opportunity he has had to raise money to clear this record, to do the right thing. So we have a question of our own: How can someone ask to oversee our laws who is himself unwilling to live by them? More to come…
Know Jack Weiss.
NO Jack Weiss.
Installment #7 of 7: The Man and His Record
COMPARE: WHAT A RECORD OF PUBLIC SERVICE LOOKS LIKE
As City Hall watchers, it is easy to become shrill and cynical. But do not give in to the temptation to dismiss our indictments of Jack Weiss as the unavoidable stuff of politics as usual. His practices dip well below that dismal standard. Consider for one moment the selfless accomplishments of just a few of his City Council colleagues: Bill Rosendahl’s campaign on behalf of the tenants of Lincoln Place; Ed Reyes’ championship of a revitalized LA River; Jan Perry’s one woman effort to solve the desperation of Skid Row; Wendy Greuel’s stand up opposition to Home Depot; Tom LaBonge’s daily vigilance to preserve Griffith Park; Eric Garcetti’s leadership of the design “walkability” teams in Hollywood; Greig Smith’s refusal to go along with the sprawling possibility of Las Lomas. Forgive us for the partial nature of this list.
WE DESERVE BETTER: THE UNACCEPTABLE JACK WEISS RECORD
Contrast those stories with the accomplishments that define Jack Weiss. He has the worst attendance record of any Council member, missing one-third of their sessions. Surely anyone else would be fired for failing to show up for work with such frequency. His Council District constituents, 21,000 of them, signed petitions to recall him for his disservice -- a full 75% of the number that voted to elect him to office. You cannot locate the causes that he supports because, in advance of this current campaign season, there were none. As for his history of disrespectful treatment of his colleagues and constituents, we leave others to bring those messages forward. We ask only that you educate yourself. And then we ask that you vote on March 3. Make an informed, heartfelt choice for the important post of City Attorney. With thanks for reading.
Yes, but he won two elections and a "recall", didn't he?
Former Fishwrap of Record reports that the Supervisors possibly made criminal attempts to influence land use decisions, notably Antonovich pressuring someone to sell his land for incorporation into the Antonovich Mountains Park, including having building inspectors issue alleged violations on the property.
(Zev's alleged involvement to keep someone from developing condos on a large chunk of the mountains seems less blatant and generally in keeping with public wishes.)
Really disturbing is that person in charge of the investigations is a Controller who was hired last year by her bosses the Supervisors.
Watanabe is NOT elected like the L A City Controller so how can she be impartial whatever she claims? All she could answer was "My reputation is at risk" with this. So what, there are lots of jobs elsewhere -- these people move around the country when fired.
The head of land use who brought these possibly criminal activities to light was fired for no reason after a closed door meeting by the Supervisors failed to yield his "voluntary" resignation.
No way will she probe into anything that could become criminal.
No way will DA Steve Cooley probe into his Republican buddy Antonovich's activities.
Interestingly the article mentions how transparent L A City land use decisions were by comparison, how careful officials are to go through formal public channels.
If anything close to this shady were happening at the city level Higby and the Republican nutjobs on this blog would be screaming.
This blog is a joke.
10:26 AM:
Yes, but Jack Weiss had a 5 - 1 advantage in money for CA and only got a third of the vote. He only got a third of the vote in his own district.
Feuer got 59% of the vote in his own district when he ran.
Ouch. If Weiss was really doing any type of job, you would think that he could do a little better than a third of HIS OWN district.
PS: He only won the first race by 400 votes after accepting illegal contributions which, to this day, have not been returned as required by the charter.
6:34, Feuer ran against one guy, the "first Latino City Attorney Candidate" Rocky Delgadillo. Weiss had 4 opponents and your percentages about relative funds don't add up eithe: with matching funds Trutanich accepted, almost $300,000, he spent a lot on this campaign. Then he had his sidekick Berger/Rumpole spew his manic vitriol about Weiss at every joint appearance, and as Walter Moore's running mate on the anti- immigrant platform, they stirred up the anti-Latino West Valley vote, the people who comment on blogs like this and Daily News.
Plus there was a unique skew with general voter apathy and fatigue coming so soon after Obama's excitement, the anti-B vote (which City Hall seemed to underestimate) and certain other unique aspects which didn't reflect the general population. Coupled with the demise of the MSM so that all of the Times' long-time City Hall reporters who'd have ferreted out Trutanich's lies and spins until recently were replaced by newbies who are easily spun, affording him an easy op to go unvetted.
Meanwhile there's no real local political reporting or blogging of any quality or objectivity, nothing which generates real intelligent debate without "the screaming talking head" equivalent so that this blog, Kaye, the "new" rightwing L A Weekly under Jill Stewart, all tag-team with the a.m. talk show screamers to rouse their base, while the other side hasn't organize.
Weiss' campaign not responding to him, taking the high road to tout his own record while Trutanich's site and ads were full of nasty, low-class digs and lies about his OWN record, and leaving it to the media to expose Nuch's lies and shameless opportunistic pandering belied by his real record. Relying on "respected" media to educate the public would have worked in earlier times but the confluence of all this made for a very unique race which didn't work in his favor. So they and City Hall in general seem to be running a campaign which has been forced to respond to Nuch in kind, though still trying to keep to a level he can be proud of later -- there's nothing like the guttersnipe lies and nastiness about Weiss on Weiss's own site.
Nuch's entry onto the scene with his dirty game, like how he plays in court, was a new low for the City Attorney's or any city-wide race that I can recall and a sad day for Los Angeles. But now the more people learn about him and as he exposes himself, they're starting to see him for what he is and the comments aren't pretty.
Jack Weiss is terrible.
I should know...he's my poor excuse for a Councilmember. I live in CD5
A career politician who is so out of touch with his district that he was the object of a recall petition.
I'm going for Trutanich and will say so on my website.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Good to know, Phil. That's a Weiss endorsement far as I'm concerned. Phil & Wacko Walter's choice = opposite for me.
No kidding. If Phil and Walter are pro-something, I must be anti.
Of the 5 City Attorney candidates:
*Weiss and Nuch are in the runoff
*Noel Weiss endorsed Weiss
*Berger endorsed Nuch
leaving one candidate: Amerian
(only guy who works in the office)
Who is he endorsing?
JACK WEISS IS THE DUMMIST CHOICE ANYONE COULD MAKE JUST READ ABOVE AND GO TO; lacity.org READ HIS RECORD ON THE ISSUES. WHO HEARD OF RAPE KITS BEFORE LAURA CHICK BROUGHT IT UP. THIS GUY SUPPORTS GANG MEMBERS OVER CITIZENS. p.s. AMERIAN SUPPORTS TRU.
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