Free Republic

The Fair Tax would be a good idea if it was the first taxation system in a country. But we have invested so much in the income tax at this point, and the transition effects would be ludicrous. The minute this passes, everyone would start spending down their income and maximizing deductions on the income tax, so that when the Fair Tax rolled around, they would be able to spend as little as possible. While this would be a great one time shot to the economy, it would also have devastating inflationary impacts.

Basically. You can read some of the radio industry sites (radio-info.com) which confirm that, indeed, Zig was at Premier in Sherman Oaks. Also there was general Clear Channel cost cutting. Kim Amidon was dumped off KOST (the music station) just a month later, and certainly she had great ratings over the 20 some odd years she was on. They fired helicopter reporter Mike Nolan too, and there was no complaint with how he did his work. But experience costs money, whether it is a journeyman talker or a morning show host. So budget cutting + distance away from the station + bad office politics means “mutually deciding” to part company.

It’s pretty clear that it has something to do with the J/K thing (John and Ken basically rule the station once they were hired back after KABC). One telling note is when George Noory walked behind JZ at the end... George generally broadcasts out of the Sherman Oaks Premiere facilities (the same studios Dr. Laura broadcasts out of), not out of the KFI facilities in Burbank. Of course, J&K broadcast out of Burbank (unless John is broadcasting from his home studio, which happens several times a month... you can usually tell because his voice sounds somewhat clipped). From public records on the Yarmuth campaign, JZ lived pretty close to the station... now if this is the case, he has to fight rush hour traffic halfway across the Valley to prep his show and is distant physically from the rest of the staff. That can’t be good.

Batchelor is Drudge’s permanent replacement on KFI. A worthy choice to replace Matt Drudge.

It's official.

JOHN CAMPBELL (REP) 41450 44.7%
STEVE YOUNG (DEM) 25926 28.0%
JIM GILCHRIST (AI) 23237 25.1%

Never understimate the power of experience (for those of you who expected Gilchrist to win).

Latest results up. (10 PM)

JOHN CAMPBELL (REP) 35719 47.9%
STEVE YOUNG (DEM) 20532 27.6%
JIM GILCHRIST (AI) 16422 22.0%

The one bright spot is that Mike Antonovich is planning on putting the cross issue on the ballot once and for all. I suspect the silent majority will weigh in heavily on this issue. Even if the three supervisors who supported the ACLU vote opposed Antonovich's measure, you can still collect 20% of the number of signatures in the last Gubernatorial election and call a special election on the matter (or 10% and add it to the next statewide election in 2006, since it's too late to add it to November through petitions).

By the way, the lawsuit method will be the best way to prevail, at least in the short term. It should be noticed that Millard Sheets' family's attorney is suing over ANY change to the original County seal on the basis of breach of contract (when the seal was commissioned by Supervisor Kenny Hahn 47 years ago, Sheets drew it to his specifications and licensed it to the county on condition that it wouldn't be modified). I think that lawsuit is the best one to go forward, because it's a pretty cut and dried issue (did they violate the agreement or not???) and if they did violate the agreement, it forces the County to come up with an entirely new seal, and force them to debate it in public, with all the interest groups coming out there. (Yes, this is having all the disparate liberals fighting among themselves as to what's important.) The good guys get a temporary injunction first to prevent modification of the seal, and then the Thomas More lawsuit goes forth.

It's really a three pronged approach, now that the Board approved the settlement: the intellectual property argument (yes, we all know liberals like to steal), the denial of freedom/discrimination argument, and the cost argument. One will be enough to hold the fort, but you need at least two to win. I do think that the three supervisors are being stubborn right now and acting like they don't care, which they don't have to because it takes so much effort to run against them. I would continue to make phone calls and let Molina, Burke, and Yaroslavsky know as much as possible that you care through the phone calls and faxes (while laying off Knabe and Antonovich and sending them email or postal mail letters of support, so they can get back to business), but don't expect much in the way of response from their end.

By the way, the meeting will be transcribed by Thursday and you can read the transcript here when it comes out. Don't expect it earlier than Thursday, though.

It takes a lot of effort to recall a County Supervisor. For Molina it would be about 70,000 signatures, Burke 70,000, and for Yaroslavsky around 100,000. (See registration data here and add for padding).

Generally, how it works in LA County is that supervisors are re-elected until they choose to leave. Mike Antonovich is the only one on the current board that replaced an incumbent, and that because Baxter Ward promised to only serve two terms (although the fact that he was a liberal swept out by the tide of Reagan might have had something to do with it as well). It takes a lot of money to run, and not for glory, either, as the race is always scheduled with the presidential/gubernatorial primary (so the media has the horse race at the top of the ticket to cover) and the districts are too big to go door-to-door, but too small to waste money on TV and radio. And, usually, the job of the supervisor is obscure, which is why the three supervisors thought they could slide this by everyone without comment.

My suggestion, unless someone has a million dollars laying there to collect signatures (please, pretty please?) is to wait until 2006 to depose them. As bad as it may sound, the Supervisor is an obscure office yet has tremendous power. They have a discretionary fund to reward "important" constituents, can give special bus trips to favored groups, and basically run with no supervision and very little accountability (see above). Now, some of the supervisors, like Antonovich, are in the know and are awake at the important issues. Antonovich also does a good job of fighting for the North County. (Knabe I think kind of muddles through and doesn't have as good a relationship with the cities under him as Antonovich does, and he always wants to play Mister Nice Guy, but he stands up when the going gets rough).

By the way, Yvonne Burke has promised to leave in 2008. The problem is that district (essentially South Central with Burke's home in Marina Del Rey drawn in) will be hopelessly liberal.

A respectful editorial coming from the people at the San Francisco Chronicle, who understand when to shut their liberal pipes for a few seconds (something the LA Times needs to learn).

Oh yeah, FReep the poll on the home page. 64% of liberals can't think of a single great accomplishment of the Gipper. I'm sure America can, though.

Uh, yes they have. Report of Action Taken In Closed Session

   CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - ANTICIPATED LITIGATION 
(Subdivision (b) of Government Code Section 54956.9) 
  
Significant exposure to litigation (one case) 
  
Action Taken: 
  
The Board instructed County Counsel to negotiate with the American  
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to determine whether the ACLU would  
refrain from filing its threatened lawsuit against the County regarding  
the presence of a cross in the County seal, if the County were to  
replace the cross with a depiction of a California mission and add a  
representation of the region's indigenous peoples, to be accomplished  
within a reasonable period of time.  NOTE:  The ACLU has now agreed  
that it will not sue in light of this proposal; accordingly, the closed  
session action is reportable (Government Code Section 54957.1). 
  
The vote of the Board was: 
  
Supervisor Molina:              Aye 
Supervisor Burke:               Aye 
Supervisor Yaroslavsky:    Aye 
Supervisor Antonovich:     No 
Supervisor Knabe:              No (04-1465) 
 

Don't trust anything on indymedia. That's worse than DU.

Stater Brothers is union.

I stopped shopping at the big three a few years ago when they went with the club card (Albertson's still hasn't introduced it in SoCal, but have it in Northern California). Club cards suck, and Stater's doesn't do them. Neither does Wal-Mart.

I do have to say, though, that the Super KMarts were a complete failure when they were tried in California. I can't see how Wal-Mart would be any different. Let the Super Wal-Marts in and let the market decide.

Houston's bus system is already one of the best in the world. (No joke.) Low fares, frequent service, and a good amount of transit centers and busways (carpool lanes) to speed people along.

What they need to do is build more stations and extend the busways further out into the suburbs (maybe allow people to drive them for a toll to help pay for them), keep the low bus fares, widen streets to give them a lane, and give the buses signal priority. All of this will be much cheaper and more comprehensive than running a light rail system to a city that has a weak center.

Love that guy in the crewcut taking a picture of the back of Arnold's head.

Which is why the article said help bring down the World Trade Center. With no terrorists, there would be no 9/11 disaster.

I agree with the premise of the article, though, that one of the towers might have stayed for a bit longer, and that may have staved off the other tower collapsing. Even 15 minutes would have helped. The firefighters and the people that for whatever reason chose to stay and wait for help would have still perished, but a few hundred more people might have gotten out alive.

The point is that what you see in Van Nuys is the exception rather than the rule. Sure, there's the Van Nuys (Canoga Park/Reseda was actually pretty OK based on visiting people I know in the area) experience, much like there is the Santa Ana experience or the "Gateway Cities" experience (a broad swath from Huntington Park to Norwalk, with all the little corrupt cities).

But contrary to popular belief, the majority of houses being sold to people today are being occupied by single families. Some neighborhoods, like mine, are actually gentrifying, meaning that home prices are going up and better educated, wealthier people are moving in. And I live out in the Inland Empire.

Sorry to RGSpinich for doubting him on this. Interesting stuff.