When City Attorney, It Helps To Be Honest by Zach Behrens

Even when you are a dishonest person, a tiny bit of honesty can go a long way. LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo could have avoided a week (or more) of scrutiny if he only told the truth when asked by reporters if his wife was using his city-assigned vehicle when it was damaged and paid for by the taxpayers. Instead, he avoided questions for a simple answer until the LA Times put an incredible amount of pressure on him. But once Rocky ‘fessed’ up about his woes, it was too late.  The LA Times began asking questions about who was driving Delgadillo’s city car – a big GMC Yukon – when it suffered damage in the garage at Cedars-Sinai hospital.  Simple enough, except that Delgadillo’s answers were clumsily evasive – so the reporters had to keep digging. [LA Observed on KCRW] 

Earlier (in June), the Los Angeles Ethics Commission approved $11,450 for 30 counts of violating campaign finance laws for Rocky. But it seems in this town, that's just a tiny slap on the hand: no huge foul cries for Former Mayor James K. Hahn, who was fined $5,450 and the Valley's 6th District Councilman Tony Cardenas' $7,250 amount.  But that's not all for Rocky and this is where the dirt is. Check out his other offenses between him and his wife that came out into the public eye this week (note that the LA Times has written a total of 15 articles about Rocky's woes since June 12):

At time of the GMC Yukon crash, his wife, Michelle Delgadillo was driving on a suspended license, something Rocky publicly said Paris Hilton needed to serve time for (of course, unlike his wife, Hilton's suspension was for a DUI, but still, come on).

  - Also, she had an arrest warrant out for not appearing in court on an earlier ticket.

  - Not only did his wife drive on no insurance, so did the City Attorney himself.

  - Rocky used staff for personal errands and babysitting.

  - According to staff, Rocky comes to the Valley offices, like, never.

  - A consulting biz run by Michelle failed to file state tax returns and until Friday, she operated without a city business license.

  - Rocky lied about his pro football experience: a failed tryout and a small stint at a Canadian Football League training camp. Not to mention lies about getting into Harvard on a football scholarship, something the ivy league school did not give out in Delgadillo's day. 

Councilman Greig Smith called for the City Attorney position to be appointed rather than voted in by the public because that's how it used to be and it seemed to work a lot better than this nonsense. Though, we're not too worried that Rocky is going to make it too far after this. After all, last year when he ran for state attorney general, it was not even funny how bad he lost. © Zach Behrens  (Editor’s Note: Delgadillo’s name is on every prosecution made against Free Expressionists on Venice Boardwalk. Which means he is not only responsible for violating our First Amendment rights but for using taxpayers money to do it!)

Stop the Gravy train!
by W.George E. K. French

Every morning, you wake up, and get out of bed.  Your mind begins to settle into the thinking that gets you through the day, and you begin to realize that the world you live in leaves a lot to be desired.   You’re going to have to work like mad, just to stay afloat.  And when the day comes that you can no longer work, you may not even have Social Security to rely on, because the greedy bastards in Washington have stolen all of the money, and yours went with it.  You look around you, and see plenty of pitiful old people living on the street, eating out of garbage cans, and finally dropping over dead one day, and nobody seems to give a damn. This isn’t really a hell of a lot to look forward to, now is it?  Oh, sure!  There are always going to be a few thieving bastards at the top of the “corporate ladder” with billions of dollars.  The rest of us get poorer, and have to work harder just to keep afloat, with every passing day.  The government that we thought would protect us from the thieves is working for the thieves, not for us.  They protect the thieves from us instead of the other way around.  And most of these “elected officials” have become wealthy, by selling the rest of us down the river.

We can’t allow things to keep going along this way.  If we do, our children and their children will be slaves in every sense of the word.  Right now, this is only half true.  We still think that we’re free people.  More than half of our birthrights of Freedoms have been stolen from us with the willing cooperation of our so called “lawmakers” in Washington and elsewhere. As long as we continue to allow our elected officials to operate on a greed driven basis, we’re doomed to betrayed by most of them.  Honor, integrity and ethics are almost unknown to our new breed of political swine. They wallow in the ill-gotten gains stolen from the rest of us. We must take the profit motive out of politics, or we shall perish as a free people and a free country.

 We cannot allow any politician to accept money from any one or any organization. We cannot allow any politician to remain in office for more than one term.  If we do, they will figure out some way to get rich anyway.  And if they’re getting rich, then whoever is providing the riches is screwing US for those riches.  A politician NEVER does anything unless they are getting something out of it.  Either campaign contributions, blocks of votes, or whatever.  If they aren’t getting something that will help them get re-elected, they don’t do anything at all but to act very busy, because if they were to just up and do something, it might COST them votes or campaign contributions, and KEEP them from being re-elected. This is why Re-election must become a thing of the past.  Their re-elections cost us our freedoms, rights and the future of our country and our children.  Politicians will do ANYTHING to get re-elected.  Most of their time in office is spent working the system to get re-elected.  Thus, they don’t do what we elected them for, and they spend their time screwing us in favor of the money suppliers. They are Whores, at our expense.  It’s bad enough that they may take bribes while in office, secretly, but taking bribes to remain in office guarantees a corrupt politician. Power doesn’t corrupt anyone!  What corrupts a person is to be allowed to mis-use power without being punished for so doing.  Yes, I know Lord Acton said that power corrupts, but it’s a lie.  If you drive down the street, you hold the lives of every one you pass in your two hands.  That’s the power of life and death.  Has it corrupted you? Of course not.  But if you misuse that power and start killing people with your car, your corruption will be stopped; you can bet on that.  Our politicians are taking lives every day for their own personal gain, to get money, and re-election.  Even though we may not be able to completely stop them from taking bribes under the table, at least we CAN stop them from doing it for re-election.  We can eliminate that part of the equation.  Then maybe we can go to work on keeping the bastards honest, by demanding full disclosure of everything they do, whether they like it or not.  No more of this crap about keeping the people in the dark about everything.  No more bullshit secrecy about anything!!!!   Unless we do this, We’re doomed as a nation, as a people, and as individuals. Think about it.  They’re stealing everything we hold dear; our lives, our rights, our freedoms and our futures, behind closed doors, in secret.  Thanks to the fact that the corporations own the press, we don’t know a thing about it until after they have stolen everything.  DON’T just sit back and let them keep on going. You and I have to stop them. © W. George E. K. French

A Veteran's View of War

by Jerry Van, the Venice Fruitman

I have no problem walking between those who are with war and those who are against war.  This is our right, and I can only encourage all our people to use this right that I was sworn to uphold, the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. On Saturday morning, January 19, 1991, ABC TV had a war update, then they had a segment for the children to help them understand this war (the first Gulf war).  One of the children they interviewed was an 8 year old girl who said, “If President Bush and President Hussein were women, we would not be in this war.”  If there is a just Battle Cry, this should be it!  I must tell you what Hugh Downs said on ABC radio on a Sunday morning in October 1988:  “One of the reasons that our Constitution was written behind locked doors and closed windows may have been that Ben Franklin was basing much of it on the government of our Iroquois Indians, where the women elected the leaders and had impeachment powers over them.” 

With this government, the Iroquois were able to bring six warring tribes together under a peaceful existence for hundreds of years before white people came here.  A symbol is a powerful means of giving people something to believe in.  I must remind you to look at our symbol on the back of our #1 first veterans' bill, the Dollar.  Not the 13 arrows that represent the Commander and Chief; not the olive branch, that represents a peaceful election by the people; nor the shield of the 13 states; but the 13 stars for those who have paid the price.  These 13 stars were on our GI's field jacket and shelter half in World War II, the buttons.  If this was the last symbol a GI would see, can we forget him or them now?

In war we must think of peace.  The symbol of peace in Western religions – all three:  Christian, Jewish and Muslim – is the Cedar of Lebanon.  An Arab-American said, “My fear is that this war could make the whole area as hopeless as Lebanon.”  Since this symbol is over or under such madness, we must look to another symbol. Yes, we  are truly where two worlds collided. PBS had a program in the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers and an expert on the subject, named Campbell.  What I came away with from this is very simple:  the Western religions believe the earth is secondary and the Eastern religions believe the earth is primary.  This makes our Indians' religion, one with nature, much easier to understand.  Without the art of writing, which almost always resulted in the loss of the rights of women, I see our Indians carried the true Eastern religion here.  This is why I see it was to easy for the tribes of Iroquois to give this just power of government to those who cared for the future, the children and the land, because Indian women were the farmers.

I called a Chief of the Mohawk tribe, Jake Swamp.  I asked him for the name of one of these firs women to hold this just power.  He gave me the name of the first one, Jigonase (New Face).  He told me about 1000 years ago, a peacemaker came to the tribe and chose her to help in establishing this new government.  I told him we were looking for a name of one of these women to name the Incense Cedar that lives compatibly with the Giant Sequoia.   I believe this tree could be a very powerful symbol to educate a warring world in the right we have to be at Peace. Jigonase's purpose should be our own.

Jigonase Tree of Woman's Values

This tree was the most valuable tree to the first white man here in California. They were lumbered to 5000 feet above Baldy Village.  The Spanish sawmill was across the road from the saw mill built in 1933, the builder's grandson told me. Perfect wood for the missions?  This wood is stronger than the coastal redwoods.  You should go to Ice House Canyon and look across the canyon just above the parking lot.  (Remember to pay your $5.00!)  You will see the tree I call the Eleanor Roosevelt Tree, on the shady side – maybe 700 years old.  Just above this tree is an example of why I call this tree “the tree of women's values.”  I would like to know how long it has held those rocks from coming down.  Across the desert they planted tamarask (salt cedar) trees on all 4 corners of the bridges.  And we don't promote these roots to hold our bridges in place.  Vision?  (Or lack thereof? - Ed.)

Man's tree is not so.  Shallow roots, worthless wood.  Fibers too short on the Giant Sequoia. The largest one is named for General Sherman.  And his claim to fame:  burning a path across Georgia. We came here to see what we did here while Hitler was training his Youth.  At the Canyon, on the point, you can see the campsites that were in the Flood of 1968.  WPA or CCC?  I see this symbol and the trees they planted as Chaffey's Vision. I hope we all know by now that Chaffey left this school (Chaffey College, now high school – Ed)  to be a school of agriculture before going to Australia.  On coming back, he was able to get it back for US, but lost this first order.  In 1960, my father brought me to the school for the first time in his truck.  As I walked away from him, I felt I was leaving my teacher, classroom and my school, the road.  Later, I found out that the Class of 1960 was the last class of the Future Farmers of America.

Finally, after getting out of accelerated class, because I can't read or spell, into basic classes, two years in the 3^rd grade told me that today, I guess I would be on drugs and in Dumb-Dumb school.  But looking around Mrs. Grant's class, and then looking around again when I got to the Nam, Hicks, Spooks and Spicks, I felt right at home again.  Mrs Grant told us one day, “You boys, listen up here!.  You girls can go back to sleep.  You see this place on the map?  This is Viet Nam.  When you hear this name, listen up.  Good chance  you will go there.”  I did, but it wasn't until many years later I did understand it was a religious war.  On one NBC program about the 60s, they had a video of  a monk burning himself in protest.  I planted a tree from Mrs. Grant at City Hall.  That was a trick to do.  At the south side of the main entrance.  At the north side I planted one for Nino Ruggeri.  I've seen his name on the Wall at DC.  If I had to think of a nonviolent person, he would be the one! 

Updating the other side; Paul Harvey, ABC radio, Saturday before Thanksgiving, 1997, said, “Over one half of what we eat will be Indian food.  Their government was a blueprint for ours.”  CD:  Peacemaker Journey.  Picture of a singer with Jake Swamp on it and the story of his journey.  My grandmother was 84, as my father was dying (He built bridges for Patton's 3^rd Army in WWII):  Those boys on the Bataan Death March had mothers, too.  On PBS's Power of Myth, Campbell said the Iroquois young boys learned torture so if caught by an enemy, they would die well.  They had mothers, too.  Peace.  ©  Jerry Van

 
City Settles Art Dispute by Felicia R. Lee
The city has settled a federal lawsuit by 18 former Brooklyn College graduate art students and their teacher that charged that the city violated their free speech rights, awarding them $750 each, $42,500 in fees to their three lawyers and issuing a letter of apology. Details of the settlement were released yesterday by Norman Siegel, a lawyer for the students, and by Jonathan Pines, an assistant corporation counsel. "The lesson here is that the government is not the appropriate body to judge the value of art work," Mr. Siegel said. The suit, filed in district court in Brooklyn last June, claimed that the students' First Amendment rights were violated and their work damaged last May when their thesis exhibition was ordered closed by the Brooklyn parks commissioner, Julius Spiegel. Mr. Spiegel wrote the letter of apology, after saying at the time that some of the artwork was inappropriate for families. A live rat and a sculpture of a hand holding a phallus were in the show, in a World War II Memorial hall near the Brooklyn Bridge.   © Felicia R Lee

Invest In Peace by The Peace Alliance

Next week, we launch our first annual donor drive, Invest in Peace. It's an incredible opportunity to share something that seems in rare supply: Hope.

Choose Peace, Sept. Peacebuilder Event, New Yorkers for a Department of Peace

Think about it. Every time we ask someone to donate, we share our passion for the Department of Peace and the possibility it embodies. We invite them into the vision of a world in which peace and nonviolence are organizing principles of society.

Riding the wave from Mother's Day's Peace of the Pie and Father's Day's letters to the editor, Invest in Peace starts on July 3rd. Indeed our founders' spirits are with us, for few are the times in human history when a vision is so transformative it evokes a willingness to, "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred honor," as did the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

This July 4th, remember too, that the Declaration was just a vision. It took years to manifest. Its form echoes in the Constitution, created, as its preamble declares, "in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity?"

We are that "posterity." As we too articulate a vision and work to bring it into form, we know there is nothing more patriotic than peace. What a unique and powerful privilege we have to share this vision with others, and to let them help make it happen.