The Downside of Measure V

temp40Letters

      I want to tell you why I am opposed Measure V, the misguided Charter Reform proposition on Tuesday’s ballot.
      I don’t believe the system is broken and needs to be changed, as some people claim. Actually, the problem is the ineptness of the people who are running the system., namely the City Council. The Council has failed in its duty to operate within the guidelines of the Charter. For that reason, they want to change it, which will give them more time to get their act together.
      The Council has failed in any way they needed to justify changing our City Charter.
      I can’t read their minds. I don’t know why they think it should be changed. The Council appointed the Charter Review Committee with instructions to look at the Charter and bring it up to date.

Student Protestors March to City Hall

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

• Protest Photos by Cary Anderson on Photo Page
 
      Rhythmically chanting “Si Si Puede!”  (Yes, We Can) and “Viva la Raza!” (Long Live the People), hundreds of mostly Latino students from four high schools — Culver City, Culver Park, Venice and Hamilton — marched on City Hall at 10:30 on Monday morning to protest pending immigration legislation as Congress began voting on it yesterday.
      Off and on, the marchers stayed for several hours, until leaders were reasonably certain their message had been imprinted on the minds of everyone important within hearing distance.
      One student organizer, Oscar Vargas of Culver City High School, told thefrontpageonline.com that the purpose of the march “is to show the people of Culver City and the people of Los Angeles that we believe the legislation in Congress is a crime against humanity. I hope they hear us all the  way to Washington.”

Dopey Leftist Idea Fails Fast

Ari L. NoonanEditor's Essays, OP-ED

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Photo: NBC News

Liberal racists lost a humbling round last week in their unending campaign to portray America as a racist country. Race-baiting leftist Howie (I Can Be Tasteless) Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, fell onto his proboscis over the weekend, bruising only his massive, ironclad ego. Perhaps the arrogant Schultzie pictured himself as Martin Luther Queen, white adjunct to Dr. King. Howie’s hamhanded … Read More

Prop. 36 Could Free 3,000 Tame (?) Convicts. But Which 3,000?

Thomas D. EliasOP-ED

On the surface, Prop. 36 on the fall ballot seems as if it should be an absolute slam-dunk. That’s the initiative seeking to change California’s landmark Three-Strikes-and-You’re-Out law, the 1994 measure imposing an automatic 25-to-life sentence on most three-time felons.

Busybody U.S. Chamber Poking Its Nose Into the Wrong Corners

Thomas D. EliasOP-ED

When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a 116-page report last spring that ranked California dead last among all states in the way state laws affect both hiring by private businesses and creation of new businesses, it was good for a belly-laugh.

First Inspection of Teachers Union Proposals

Ari L. NoonanNews

David Mielke, the venerable President of the Teachers Union, dusted off the union’s adjustment proposals for the new school year and gave them their first public airing at last night’s School Board meeting — on Irving Place, by the way.

I Knew That Something Was Not Right

ShacharOP-ED

Dateline Jerusalem — I am always afraid I will run out of topics for my emails and articles. But just when I think I have writer's block, somehow something happens, and I have plenty of material. Unfortunately, this week the topic is my unemployment.

King Tut’s Name Is Invoked

Ari L. NoonanOP-ED

It must be drawing tellingly late in someone’s second/final term on the City Council when she who is known for loquacity turns to two of the boys on the Council and, seriously, tut-tuts them for wasting “the people’s time” nattering on about nothing. This was believed to be a first. And, no doubt, a last. You know how dull and abbreviated the latest City Council meeting was on Monday night when the highlight was Carol Gross, playing the role of the Mama, rebuking Mayor Gary Silbiger and Vice Mayor Alan Corlin for acting like little boys. Not that it was child’s play. They got steamed at each other. What may have resembled sibling squabbling actually was a familiar tableau of passion, both gentlemen laboring in separate vineyards that each one loves. Mr. Silbiger’s reputation says that he loves to pluck arcane gems of information from the remote corners of issues and to debate them, frequently to the consternation of his colleagues. Two of his favorite topics are non-competitive contract awards and certain arguably small expenditures. Mr. Corlin prides himself on personal and professional tidiness, nattiness as opposed to nattering. Two weeks running, his attire has attracted uncommon attention in Council Chambers. He never is bashful about chiding his power partner, the Mayor, for overlooking what the Vice Mayor regards as an overwhelmingly obvious point.