** Here is another problem with U.S. border security. In addition to the National Guard problem which had the Bush White House looking to California to pick up the slack in other border states, nearly five years after 9/11 there is apparently no intelligence on the border situation, either.
** KQED’S John Myers reports on legislative committee passage of LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s school reform plan.
** The comments problem seems to have been fixed. According to the tech, NWN’s aggressive anti-spam filter was interfering with the posting of some comments. The filter, incidentally, has caught tens of thousands of spam messages.
UPDATE: Spoke too soon, there are still problems.
** Speaking of the LA Weekly, as we have been, reminds of a bizarre episode late in the unlamented primary just past. A dyed-in-the-wool Phil Angelides supporter alerted me to what she said looked like a “strange” endorsement listed on Angelides’ web site. That of the LA Weekly. Which was especially intriguing, since the LA Weekly, like all but a few newspapers in California, had actually just endorsed Angelides’ rival Steve Westly in the Democratic primary for governor.
I looked at the endorsement section of the Angelides web site and found the listed endorsement of something called “Los Angeles Weekly News.”
What on earth was THAT? I ran a net search on the term, and — aside from references to, naturally, the LA Weekly — found no references more current than 1973.
I asked journalist colleagues and PR specialists in LA if they were familiar with anything called the “Los Angeles Weekly News.” Once they realized I was not referring to the LA Weekly, they all said they had no familiarity with any such newspaper.
So I e-mailed the various communications and political poobahs with the Angelides for Governor campaign, asking what they meant by this listed newspaper endorsement. (It was one of only a handful. The others were the Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and Bay Area Reporter, which I have also never heard of.)
I received no direct reply from Phil or his aides regarding this mystery. However, the endorsement of the “Los Angeles Weekly News” was removed from the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s web site.
** Well, I can’t post comments, either … There is something wrong with the comments section. I have e-mailed the stalwarts at LA Weekly tech support.
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24 Comments
Bill Bradley:Yes, the comment section is still screwed up.
Jun 28, 2006 - 11:37 am Bill Bradley:Let’s see if this works now.
Jun 28, 2006 - 12:00 pm AthlonGuy:The Governor continues to be right about there being spending problem. Giving schools that billion dollar bonus days before the teachers union endorsed the other guys seems like a mistake. It is simply not true that he had “cut” spending, and he was sucessfully defending that.
Jun 28, 2006 - 1:08 pm Eric Bauman:The Bay Area Reporter is an LGBT community paper in SF. I believes it’s the highest circulation gay paper in the Bay area.
Jun 28, 2006 - 2:28 pm CA Dem:Nice, they’re making up newspapers now?
Bill, given that Westly got the vast majority of newspaper endorsements, does this mean that such endorsements are irrelevant?
Jun 28, 2006 - 2:30 pm Bill Bradley:Maybe the newspaper endorsements helped Westly make it so close. Did that occur to you?
The weird thing about losing an election is that we sometimes to tend to discount everything that has been accomplished.
Jun 28, 2006 - 3:28 pm Bill Bradley:Maybe the newspaper endorsements helped Westly make it close.
Jun 28, 2006 - 3:30 pm mitchell:I think the newspapers helped sink 82. They repeatedly attacked the initiative and Reiner, especially the LA Times. So, in that race, I think, newspaper endorsements, as well as articles written about the initiative, were instrumental in its defeat. I think the ads for 82, featuring Villaraigosa were pretty good.
Jun 28, 2006 - 3:53 pm Bill Bradley:Print reports devastated Reiner first, then Prop 82.
Jun 28, 2006 - 4:15 pm mitchell:Right. Including your articles and posts, Bill.
Jun 28, 2006 - 4:20 pm Bill Bradley:I wonder if the LA times will go after the clean air/oil tax initiative. They clearly do not love the Hollywood types, Steve Bing included, who will be major backers of the initiative.
I don’t know about that. The Reiner initiative, at least in my view, was a fairly unique situation involving misuse of public resources. Incidentally, I have more material on that which I will be getting to.
It may be that the Clean Energy initiative will be seen as a good thing to do, especially given the reality of climate change we see around us. The Times just had a huge article on the melting of the glaciers in Greenland which was very alarming
Jun 28, 2006 - 4:26 pm Barbara:speaking of the LA Times, did you see today in teh WSJ Media & Marketing B3) that David Geffen, Ron Burkle, and Eli Broad are “among those” that have expressed an interest in buying it….I wish Mr. Broad would buy it!…he could turn it into a class act!…in fact he would demand that!
Jun 28, 2006 - 4:49 pm Bill Bradley:What, you don’t favor the NWN acquisition of the LAT?
Jun 28, 2006 - 4:54 pm Paul:Mitchell - I agree with Bill. Prop 82 sunk because it had the stench of misuse of public funds, and there was that social engineering thing too. Oh, and the public is tired of more taxes no matter who’s footing the bill. We’re trying to curb the pols of their dependancy problem on always raising more taxes, and floating more bonds everytime they need money. $125 billion is a lot of money. They should figure out a way to make things work on what we have or, like any other employee, they should be fired.
P.S. Whatever happened to all that “reforming” the current Gov promised?
Jun 28, 2006 - 4:58 pm CA Dem:No, it didn’t occur to me. I should have thought about it more before asking. I’m sure you’re right — all those endorsements (35 of 40, if I remember) were a factor in Westly’s relatively good showing. It’s tough to quantify their actual impact. How many people read newspapers? How many of those folks actually switched their vote (or came out to vote when they otherwise wouldn’t have) because of an endorsement?
Jun 28, 2006 - 5:01 pm Barbara:“What, you don’t favor the NWN acquisition of the LAT?”
Well that depends…. would WE ALL GET MORE OF YOUR TIME or less?! ? !
You are so FLY Mr. Bradley!!!!
I got lost of immigration news alerts today! .. .all kinds of interesting developments ….Comprehensive legislation will be back this year !
Jun 28, 2006 - 5:06 pm Barbara:that should read: LOTS!!! not lost!
Jun 28, 2006 - 5:08 pm Bill Bradley:Oh, I thought you were referring to immigration legislation having ended up as one of the castaways on that mysterious island on “Lost” …
Jun 28, 2006 - 5:18 pm K. Finn:Barbara wrote: You are so FLY Mr. Bradley!!!!
Did you really just call him “fly”? You’re so “retro” Babs!
Jun 28, 2006 - 5:41 pm Barbara:I’m adorable too!
Jun 28, 2006 - 6:19 pm Barbara:Mr. Bradley, I think those House Reeps obstructing comprehensive immigration legislation will end up as castaways…I won’t say where because I want them to remain “lost” ! …..woops! almost 7 !…summer hours for riding! Toodles!
Just my imagination (yeeaaaa)
running away with me (my baby, my sugar, my sweetie, look at my baby)
Just my imagination (ohh, soo fly look out my window)
Runnin away with me (It’s runnin away with me)
Just my imagination (yeeaaaa)
Babyface and Gwyneth Paltrow!
Song: Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
Go Gwyneth! and Apple and Moses!!!!
Jun 28, 2006 - 6:39 pm Jonathan Hemlock:Border security is lagging, is Arnold Schwarzenegger security coming?
Jun 28, 2006 - 7:27 pm Hap Hazard:My guess is that if an immigration bill passes this year, the only thing comprehensive about it will be the map coordinates and descriptions of where the fence is to be installed.
Jun 28, 2006 - 8:57 pm Jonathan Hemlock:How amusing of Mr. Angelides’ campaign to fake a newspaper endorsement. One wonders what else it is they are faking.
Jun 29, 2006 - 3:33 pm