Once upon a time in the land
of the free and home of the brace, you could trust a man’s handshake and his
word was as good as gold.
We celebrated the virtues of
frugality and modesty, idealized those who could not tell a lie and made legends of war heroes and Honest Abe.
Those were the days my
friends, if only they had never ended.
Today, our bankers and
financiers can’t be trusted with a dime of our money, we can’t do the simplest
business without a lawyer, envy celebrities their fortunes and their sexual
prowess.
And our politicians? They
aren’t crooks anymore, they aren’t the take. They are part of a system that
itself is corrupt, from our cities to our state’s to our nation’s capital. Corruption
is the business of politics. The two parties have divvied up the graft from the
broad array of special interests and legalized it. They have turned political
discourse and debate into a war of divisive messages meant to segment us into
antagonisms while lulling the masses into passivity and helplessness.
Trust, honesty, courage are passé.
We now look for no more than their abstractions in integrity and transparency
as if the coherency of their behavior and its visibility alone were the real
stuff of leadership.
Personally, I long ago
reduced my own political philosophy nothing more, or less, than right of
everyone to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as they see fit, just
as long as they respect those same rights for others.
When I go to the polls June
8, I will vote against who holds public office almost without exception. My
judgments have nothing to do with Democrat or Republican or any other party or
their positions on any particular issue.
It has solely to do with my
sense of their character, whether there is any reason to believe that they
might show courage, honest and are trustworthy.
There may be dozens of great
people running for office but I only have come across four of them that I
believe are people who strive to be honest, have shown the courage of their
convictions and just be worthy of our trust.
Politically, they are all over
the map, left, right and center.
At the top of the ticket,
running for the United States Senate is Mickey Kaus, a journalist who became
one of the first great bloggers with the Kaus Files and became a mainstay at
Slate.com.
Kaus is a maverick Democrat
who believes Barbara Boxer is the worst kind of political hack who achieved
little or nothing in her three terms except wasting a seat in the Senate and
pandering to the party faithful’s prejudices without actually achieving what
they want or looking after the interests of her state.
Then, there’s Marcy Winograd
who is an ultra-liberal environmental idealist who has mounted an aggressive challenge
to long-time Rep. Jane Harman in the
Congress of the
States
the country club except that the perks and sense of self-importance is so much
greater.
I’ve spent some time with
state Sen. Gloria Romero because I believe as she does that are schools will
never succeed unless parents are fully involved and have at least as much say
in their educations as unions, bureaucrats and the education establishment. She
stood up to all them and brought enough of her party along to get legislation adopted
earlier this year that gives parents real power over the schools. Other states
may soon adopt the “parent trigger” as well.
Romero is the only major
candidate for the non-partisan State Superintendent of Education who is
independent of the education lobby and has intellectual credibility to embrace
new ideas.
Finally, there is Sunder
Ramani, who is running in the special election to succeed Paul Krekorian in the
state Assembly representing
There is nothing idelogicial
about Ramani. He is a successful businessman who has devoted himself for 25
years to volunteering in a broad range of community groups and won the respect
of hundreds of community leaders.
In my list of political
virtues, I left some that may be the most important: Common sense and a caring
heart. That’s why of all the candidates I’ve encountered, Sunder Ramani is the
one I most want to win.
Frankly, I don’t care if you
agree with me on any of these four people. That isn’t the point.
What matters is that you get
past the slogans and the attack ads and ideological nails hammered into your
brains with money raised from special interests and remember the values you
hold dear, the values you look for in a mate and hope to see in your children.
This isn’t some war game we’re
playing where one side wins and the other surrenders. This is our city, our
state, our nation. We’ve all got to win or feel like we had a fair chance at
winning or we’re all just a bunch of losers.
Your Big Pick Krekorian voted with Alarcon and his faction Friday on supporting the freeze on rent hikes, and against the struggling mom and pop landlords most affected. The ones who own pre-1978 buildings they’re struggling to maintain with the low rents they’re allowed to get, while their power and other rates increase. The jury is still out on whether he’s just another former Assemblyman who votes with his peers like Alarcon and Wesson on taxing the middle class and suburban valleyites you presume to champion.
Your Big Pick Tritanich refused any pay cut because “I was making more in the private sector” in Long Beach where he’s renting out his house until he is finished with having to carpetbag into L A and can move home. His saber-rattling without proof has earned him the monikor “Clown Carmen” from numerous sources, and things like “Carmen the Soap Opera” and “Tailgunner Nuch in Freefall.” THAT from his friends the conservative blogosphere. Never mind “liar and demagogue” from those who no longer are. He still has the Controller tied up in court so she can’t audit him or other elected officials like he solemnly promised, including to Doug McIntyre. So there’s no confirmation of how much he’s really “saving” as he claims, which many have disputed. He admitted to the L A Times editorial board that he’s done no such expense-revenue spreadsheet, no proof that he’s got any claim to be spared the city’s budget cuts because he claims his dept. is “just as important to public safety” as the cops. Maybe losing some staff will make it harder to sue the likes of Jan Perry or dig up dirt on Rocky for his puppetmaster Steve Cooley. (Not that he needs it, with the same Times editorial board in his lap.) His whining that the Times doesn’t support him enough and dared run the “high five” article and report him as he really is for once is further evidence of a man whose idea of a “free press” is to serve as his PR organ.
Tossing people under the bus soon as he doesn’t need them and in jail on arbitrary million-dollar bonds, threatening companies like AEG with jail if they don’t comply with what they felt was an arbitrary shakedown, has made for a more than bumpy year and just aggravated tension and an air of crisis at city hall.
Never mind that he campaigned on overturning SO40 and Chief Bratton’s entire vision of policing, in favor of a law that is exactly like what Arizona just passed – he AND Zine did and joined McIntyre, Kevin James, the Shaws and Walter Moore’s running mate David Berger and the other “teabaggers” to grandstand on the issue. But NOW are in hiding on the matter because Zine voted WITH the City Council to boycott Arizona. For doing what he and Tritanich demanded that L A city and county do first. Because their mentor Steve Cooley’s and Sheriff’s Baca’s staffs released from County prison an illegal gangmember who allegedly killed Jamiel Shaw, Jr. but they couldn’t put blame where it’s due, on their Republican allies, so they dumped it on a Democratic city candidate who had nothing to do with it.
Sundar Ramani was allegedly meeting with a rival of Gatto’s to split the Armenian vote in some sort of deal – Mayor Sam has pictures to prove a meeting, if not the text. The Shallman plans and promises and dirty campaign tricks didn’t work for Essel, and the Daily News didn’t buy them, either.
Gloria Romero although a longtime pol part of the culture of fiscal mismanagement combined with higher and higher taxes does sound prosmising for the post on Board of Education, but she joined Gloria Molina in opposing the extension of the subway through the westside where it should have gone decades ago and where there’s the greatest proven need, playing regional, anti-”rich” Westside, Latino politics. However her opponents may be worse.
Not sure your track record is all that sound, Ron, based on nothing more than being whoever you deem least associated with the status quo.
Also according to a Mayor Sam thread, Ramani has been calling Armenians warning them that Gatto supports “homosexual legislation.” Of course he’ll be endorsed by fellow Republican Armenian Philibosian to get out the conservative Armenian vote, but such a comment still sounds foolishly blatant.
Another one never to fear Republican Foot in Mouth is their cohort Dennis Zine, who told the L A Times’ Rainey (featured in his Calendar column today) that the new rules restricting the press from contact with council members was only to quiet the chambers and for security, because “you never know” when someone can sneak in and spray them all with a semi-automatic, just like he saw some nut do in a hospital on the Grey’s Anatomy episode he watched. Uh=huh.
Mary C take a hike.
The “Gatto Truthers” have found their way to ronkayela.com
Scott Johnson in CD 14
To the first commenter: Are you saying the alternatives were better (Weiss, etc)?
I agree that Council actions have been foolish, to say the least, but the implication that their opponents would have done better is equally foolish.
Let’s correct a few things in the comments here. Mayor Sam did NOT report Ramani met with Gatto’s opponent to split the Armenian vote. It was Gatto who met with his opponent which was reported on Mayor Sam along with pictures.
We also did not report that Ramani was calling Armenians and telling them that Gatto supported gay marriage. We linked to a Valley Doll blog posting with a video that was posted by Gatto supporters that claims some Armenian supporters of Ramani were calling Armenian voters to remind them of Gatto’s support for gay marriage. The video is dubious at best and has been debunked by experts I’ve spoken with.
Agree that Winograd is better then Jane Harman. Harman like many politicians do nothing for their constituents. Romero, sorry Ron but bad choice. Yes, she wants to help schools but when you look at her record as Public Safety Chair she’s against and voted against law enforcment and not a big supporter of cops. Romero’s constituents call her Tijuana Rose for good reason. None of the Latino politicians in office right now have done anything for their own communities. They are worse off and look like 3rd world countries.
Who cares what Mayor Sam reports anyway. The blog owner always has a personal favorite and skews the blog wildly to support that person, whether it was Krekorian so that some thought he was working for the campaign, Trtanich or Ramani in this race. He posts hostile and often gratuitous slams on others, usually opponents of those he’s doing PR for but sometimes just those the blog loves to hate in general. Especially the English lanaguage challenged Red Spot. He brushes off Valley Doll’s allegations about Ramani accordingly. The blog’s lack of objectivity makes this one look downright balanced, whereas even Ron admits he is nothing if not opinionated and hyperbolic, often to entertain.
What is more persuasive are the reasons the Daily News is endorsing Gatto. And they are NOT a liberal rag. They usually lean Republican.
Ron – I applaud your courage to endorse Ramani. I’ve met him while he was on the campaign trail and have been incredibly impressed by him as well.
We need more elected officials like Ramani.
As I’m blogging tomorrow (on a piece about government bureaucracy, and how the supposed government watchdogs like the FDA are pretty worthless), I know Mickey, and have read him for years, and went to hear him speak on Saturday, and agreed with almost all of what he said. He’s principled, highly intelligent, honest, and reasonable, and a good guy, and he has my vote, and if you live in California, I hope you’ll give him yours.
Gloria Romero’s ideas for changing public education have failed elsewhere, yet she continues to impose them on California. She will cost our state a fortune in wasted tax dollars. Gloria is more interested in satisfying her wealthy supporters than providing our children with a quality education.
Informative write up, good job. Can’t wait to see more comments on this. Pest Control Houston, 9501 Bayou Brook St, Houston, TX 77063 (281) 296-6023