Saturday, January 31, 2009

Quoted in The Times

Today's LA Times picks up on a theme I warned of; a Weiss-Villaraigosa pact would be a terrible thing for the City.

See the article here:

and of course, thanks to YouTube, see and hear me saying it:

Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy New Year!

To all my supporters in the Chinese community, I too welcome the Year of the OxPeople born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. I think I will need all those qualities for this campaign!

Friday, January 23, 2009

What Jack Weiss Doesn't Want You To Know Pt 1

KNBC's Emmy winning investigate report "Laundered Elections" focuses heavily on City Attorney wanabe Jack Weiss as well as the current (soon to be ousted) City Attorney Rockard "Rocky" Delgadillo.



Both Weiss and Delgadillo received illegal campaign contributions from one of Los Angeles' biggest developers, as well as contractors and other associated special interests.

Both Weiss and Delgadillo failed to return either the dirty money, or the taxpayer matching funds based on the dirty money. Weiss claims he "didn't know" the money was dirty, so he doesn't have to return it.

Jack Weiss claims to be some sort of "hot shot supper crime fighter" well what does him saying "I didn't know" tell you? He's either stupid or dishonest. Either way it stinks.

Any decent moral person would not want the taint of dirty money, and would put their hand in their pocket and at a minimum repay the taxpayers for the matching funds based on the dirty money. But Jack doesn't want to put his hand in his pocket, he'd rather put his hand in your pocket - that's what matching funds are; taxpayer funds that are given to candidates who raise more than $75,000.

Jack's raised a lot of money, nearly all from developers, contractors, and their like. Jack must like being in their pockets. The question is, do you want him in yours?

What Jack Weiss Doesn't Want You To Know Pt 2

Here is Part 2 of KNBC's Emmy-winning investigative report on Jack Weiss and illegal campaign contributions. It's appropriately titled "Laundered Elections."



Is Jack Weiss really what you want for your next City Attorney?

Had Enough of Weiss? See What A Real City Attorney Should Be

If you've just finished watching KNBC's Emmy-winning investigative report on Jack Weiss, and feel as disgusted as I do, then take a look at what I can do for Los Angeles. This is my interview on "The Legal File."

KPCC 89.3FM To Interview Candidates

A producer for National Public Radio station KPCC has invited me to participate in a live radio "candidates forum."

Larry Mantle the dynamic host of "Airtalk," a mid-morning current affairs program, will chair the debate.

I will post an update with the date of the broadcast as soon as it confirmed.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Sunday's Yard Signs

Yard signs are going faster than I can get them!

Perhaps it's got something to do with the campaign logo - some think it reminds them of a recent campaign....

I've asked people to send me digital photos of the "planted" signs, and here are a few of the ones I've received;











If you would like a campaign Yard Sign, please go to my website and send me an email. I'll find a way to get one to you.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Yard Signs Roll Out!

Coming soon to a neigborhood near you:



The striking Nigel Skeet inspired Yard Sign is an eye catcher.






Go to my website, click "Contact" and send me an email and I'll figure out how to get a yard sign to you.

Jack "No-Show" Weiss Ducks Questions

The Coalition of Homeowners Associations for Council District 5 held a Forum for Candidates for City Attorney. Now, you would think that Candidate Jack Weiss would be there. After all, he's been the elected Councilmember for Council District 5 for 8 years. Surely he would want to meet with the people he represents?

Take a look at this video from the Forum



It was no surprise to me that Jack Weiss didn't want to face the people that know him better than anyone else; his constituents - the people of Council District 5 whose interests and concerns he has consistently ignored in favor of developers and their associated special interests.

If Weiss won't face the people he represents as councilmember, how different will he be as City Attorney? My guess, and that of everyone else in CD5, is that he will be no different. He will ignore "ordinary" people in favor of Big Money. That's Jack.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

"Pay to Play" & The Press

Both of Los Angeles' leading print newspapers the LA Times and The Daily News published stories on the upcoming municipal election. Both seem completely intoxicated with fundraising. Only those candidates who had raised the most money got a mention, leaving their readers completely uninformed as to the very existence of other candidates.

Is this really the state of news reporting in Los Angeles? Haven't we seen enough of the evils of the "Mega Bucks" attitude that has led to our current economic woes? It's a very worrying message isn't it? Raise the most money and the press will roll over and love you for it without even questioning the source of the money.

Jack Weiss is the hero of the Los Angeles press, it seems, with a special interest warchest of $1.2M. The LA Times article at least mentioned that his campaign manager is non other than disgraced Mayor Villaraigosa, and at least mentioned two other candidates who have raised significant campaign funds. The Daily News article was strange. The Daily News has historically been less behooved to Mayor Villaraigosa and the special interests that fuel his campaign. Yet the Daily News failed to mention the names of any other City Attorney candidate whatsoever.

Worse still is that neither the Times nor the News conducted any analysis whatsoever as to of the source of Weiss's warchest. So here it is:

Yes. The ugly truth is that over $1M of Jack Weiss' money comes from developers, developers' lawyers, and their associated special interests. These figures are based on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission's figures.

We all know that print media is facing extremely hard times, with newspapers losing money faster than a Bernie Madoff investor.

Could it be that editors overrode their reporters copy? After all, with Mayor Villaraigosa and Jack Weiss poised to spend their combined warchest of almost $4M on advertising, perhaps the Times and the Daily News editors want to make sure they don't upset their political "bailout packages" by printing anything negative about the Mayor and Weiss?

Just a thought.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

CD5 Coalition Homeowners Associations rates me "Excellent"

On Saturday morning, January 10, 2009, the Coalition of Homeowners Associations for Council District 5 held a Candidates Forum for all five City Attorney candidates. I was rated "Excellent."

The forum consisted of an intense two-hour series of questions designed to probe candidates' qualifications, ethics and stance on issues. The goal was to find the optimal candidate who will fairly represent the concerns of homeowners.

Pictured above and below, from left to right are; Michael Amerian, David Berger, Carmen Trutanich, and Noel Weiss.
My thanks go to Marcia Selz for hosting the forum and to my fellow candidates for showing up and making for what was a lively and informative forum.

By the way, candidate Jack Weiss refused to attend. He was probably scared at having to face me in an open forum where I could fairly challenge him over his lack of ethics in receiving and keeping money-laundered illegal campaign contributions.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Protect Yourself - You Won't Hear About This In The Press

I don't want to cause a panic, but you should be aware of this.

So, while we have 26 less cops on the Westiside because the Mayor and Jack Weiss think that's "OK," and that despite the failing economy and time-proven statistics that show that crime goes up when the economy goes down, you might want to take a good look at the locks you have on your home, because burglars are getting all the information they need to "bump" the lock on your door.

The inconvenient truth for people other than elitists like Jack Weiss,, by which I mean ordinary people who don't have private security and certainly don't have the same level of protection from LAPD now that Jack Weiss has "approved" the reduction of police services in his council district, is that we're all more vulnerable to the inevitable increase in crime that will occur as criminals pay their bills by breaking into our homes.

Even if you don't vote for me on March 3, 2009, do please take a look at your personal security. Good locks, good lighting, and a strong bond with your neighbors are probably the best way you can protect yourself and all you've worked for.

Crime Down in LA? The Inconvenient Truth...




While the media headlines Chief Bratton and Mayor Villaraigosa's claims of their successes in reducing crime in LA, the rest of us know better. We see more and more ugly gang graffiti everywhere. As soon as it's painted over, it's back again.

Ask any expert on gangs and they'll tell you that gang graffiti is like an earthquake seismograph, it's a clear sign of what' is actually going on. And the clear sign here is that the gangs are getting bigger, bolder and more at ease in showing their colors, while the Mayor and his followers glad hand each other and try to palm us off with massaged statistics.

Mayoral candidate Walter Moore, a man who isn't afraid of confronting inconvenient truths, wrote a stunning analysis of the true state of crime in LA. I urge you to read it, then contrast what Mr. Moore says with what the Mayor says, or rather doesn't say.

The true statistics published by Chief Bratton show that you and I are almost twice as likely to be murdered here in LA, than if we lived in what was once the murder capitol of the USA; New York City. Yes, the murder rate in Los Angeles is 51% higher than that of New York City. Surely that should be a headline?

The fact is that in the City of Los Angeles, with a population of 4 million, there were 381 murders last year, that's 95.3 per million Los Angelenos. In New York City, with a population of 8.2 million, there were 514 murders in the same period, that's 62.7 per million New Yorkers. Do the math yourself, please don't trust me or Walter Moore. The murder rate in Los Angeles is 51% higher that New York City. Why?

Well we all know why. While we all know that Los Angeles is seriously under policed when compared to New York, and while Mayor Villaraigosa claims he's committed to increasing the number of cops in LA, the facts are wildly opposite to the Mayor's claims. Instead of hiring more cops, he increased his personal staff from 70 to 93 this year. 23 more aides to carry his bottled water, marker pens, pads and his Listerine breath strips.

As Mayor Villaraigosa's personal staff swelled by 23 more acolytes, the Mayor and his lap-dog in waiting, Jack Weiss, applauded a reduction of 26 cops on Westside so that they could be deployed at a new police station. The new police station in Koreatown had been built at a cost of $25M, but no money had been set aside for hiring cops to staff it, so they pulled vitally needed cops from the Westside.

All it would have taken is for the Mayor to suffer the inconvenience "only" having 70 personal assistants, and hired 23 cops to staff the new Koreatown police station. But, the Mayor and Weiss are determined to move on to being Governor and Attorney General, so they need aides more than we need cops.

In the meantime, we have to live (or die) with the inconvenient truth. The Mayor and the person he (only he) wants as his City Attorney, Jack Weiss, are more concerned with their political aspirations than public safety.

On March 3, 2009, you will have a chance to tell Weiss and Villaraigosa what you think of their abysmal lack of commitment to public safety. I urge you; vote Moore for Mayor, and Berger for City Attorney and let's put a stop to pretend play politics.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Bumper Stickers!

Thanks to a steady stream of much appreciated campaign contributions, I have ordered an initial batch of bumper stickers.

I hope you approve and if you want some, shoot me an email from my website.