Let's Call it a Comeback...

Republic of L.A. will be back online Tuesday, January 26. And RoLA has some new stuff coming that will be exciting to those we love and those who love us.

Obama, McCaine: More F22s Unneeded (Cuts to Thousands of Jobs in California)

Say Goodbye, L.A., to a Big Jobs Program...and a Really Bad-Ass Airplane

Sorry, I guess even a gay leftie still has an inner ten-year-old who loves cool jet fighters. Just look at it! I want one. Well, between the Air Force and the Navy, the U.S. military is getting 187 of them anyway. Truth be told, many experts believe the F-22 Raptor is a weapon in search of a mission, as it was designed to combat a never-built, advanced Soviet fighter.

The local angle is jobs. In California, contractors--the lead of which is Lockheed-Martin--claim 19,500 jobs will be lost as a result of the recent vote to ix-nay the ane-play. About 6,500 of those are workers working directly on the contract to supply the military with the ultra-fast, ultra-stealthy war birds. Another 13,000 in supporting jobs will be lost, they say. The job losses will begin to materialize this year, as the program winds down, with the bulk of pink slips to be issued next year when it ends altogether.


Award-winning blogger and former L.A. Times columnist Robert Scheer calls Obama and McCaine brave for not supporting the military-industrial complex's biggest pet project, noting that while some in congress were ready to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars to keep the F-22 Raptor contract flying, there was no one on earth who could find $50 million to keep L.A.'s summer school sessions alive.

Yay! Everyone's Favorite ROLA Topic: Parking in WeHo!

Typical? An electrical sign flashes a warning about construction, while taking up a precious parking stall in West Hollywood one recent weekend. At the same time, there was ample space near a driveway a few feet away that was neither parking, nor firelane. Wah-wah.

Republic of L.A. has waited two weeks for the City of West Hollywood to respond to our questions about the elimination of a few dozen parking spaces in an alley off of Melrose Avenue, and more than 100 others inside of West Hollywood park for construction and "safety reasons," and their replacement with $10 valet-only spots. The old spots were free between 6-10 p.m. Well, it turns out that Jake Stevens has gone to Washington for a new job. We wish him well.

Stevens was deputy for Councilmember Jeffrey Prang. He had been getting answers about the parking problems at West Hollywood park--an area that served as the only parking solution for many restaurant, bar, coffee house and 12-step meeting goers in the heart of the nation's most creative city--for Republic of L.A. since the issue first arised. His replacement, Mike Haibach is now looking into the issue. But, instead of making you wait any longer for the information Republic of L.A. has been promising to bring you, we've decided to keep you in the loop as we investigate. That said; here is the text of an email we sent to Haibach today. We'll let you know what the response is as soon as it comes:

Hi Mike,

It was nice speaking to you this afternoon. BTW, do you have contact information for Jake Stevens? I'd like to congratulate him on his new job.

Below are emails between Jake and I. As you can see, Jake addressed the concerns about lost parking and the dubious manner in which the changes had been executed, even offering to review the citations that may have been erroneously issued during the transition. However, he did not mention--and regrettably, I did not ask about costs--that the free (between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.) spaces had been replaced by $10 valet-only spots.

That's a big deal. I have interviewed people for an upcoming piece who have given up on going to their A.A., Crystal Meth Anonymous and other 12-step meetings because they were so frustrated by the lack of parking that has resulted from the recent changes. Of course the truly dedicated recovering alcoholics and addicts are going to get to some meeting, somewhere, some how. But, it's probably the ones for whom just being able find or not find parking may be the difference between relapsing and not relapsing.

Additionally, I have spoken to one business owner who said business dropped by about 10 percent as soon as as the new parking regime was initiated; and it's stayed down. I have spoken to patrons of restaurants, coffee houses and bars who are also upset by the elimination of spaces they had relied upon for years. Here is a quote:


"I know ten bucks is nothing for people coming over from next door in Beverly HIlls, but there are a lot of people who live right here in WeHo, who are out of work like my boyfriend, and maybe me next week. We live east of Fairfax, and so we drive to go out for dinner at our Bossa Nova on Friday nights. It's where we met five years ago. I can't take him out for dinner and drinks and then pay ten dollars for parking. I just can't afford it."

Tim Cahill, patron at Bossa Nova on Robertson Friday, July 3 2009.



Mike, I would like to know what the city council's response is to this situation. If it's simply been an oversight and work will be done to find a solution, I'd like a timeline of how the issue will be addressed. Or, if it's going to be more complicated than than, I'd like to interview your boss. I've interviewed Jeff before, and I know the councilmember's heart is always in the right place, so I'm eager to receive a response.

Best,

Thom

Exclusive Video Interview with Former Iranian Gov't Insider

A chilling insider's account of how the Iranian government works behind the scenes. In Part One of my interview with a woman we'll call Za-Za, because she fears retribution against her family still living in Tehran if her true identity were revealed, you'll hear what goes on behind the scenes in an ayatollah's realm.

The video is at OurLA.org, (<click) the new destination for deep-reporting in Los Angeles, founded by former Daily News editor Ron Kaye--not to be confused with Ron's blog RonKayeLA.com. This new site is a journalism-driven, multimedia website with all the bells and whistles. It promises to bring depth and weight to local online reporting. Thom Senzee and Repulbic Of L.A. are proud to be a small part of Ron's newest venture.

They're Back!

Iranians have returned to the streets, not yet in as great of numbers as last week, but in the thousands.

Axes. Chopping Young Iranians Down with Axes. Evil has a name: Khamenei

I don't care if you're a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, an Atheist, Agnostic or Bhudist. Watch this video, then pray, chant, speak encantations, meditate or scream at the top of your lungs: The Iranian People need a Miracle today.

Past Fervor Over Child Pornography may be Culprit if Iran Protests Fail

(photo (c) The Telegraph, UK)

It may sound like a grand leap, but it's really not. Here's why:

Last year, European telecom partners Nokia Group and Siemens AG, of Finland and Germany, respectively, sold the government in Tehran sophisticated Internet-traffic surveillance and control (and manipulation) equipment under the auspices of helping it combat child pornography.

Who's going to argue with that?

Trouble is, now the European systems are being used to block information from entering and exiting the country, and thereby supporting Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

In fact, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, thanks to Nokia's and Siemens' multi-million-dollar contract to help Tehran protect its citizenry against kiddie-porn, Iran's Internet control-and-capture system can even intercept, read, and alter (for disinformation and other purposes) anyone's (and presumably everyone's) Facebook updates, blogs, and twitter postings as they go out into cyberspace, then neatly pack the data back up and send them on their way--all within a nano-second.

That's the reason for the parenthetic use of the word "manipulation" in one of the paragraphs above. That capability is why some experts are saying Iran's Nokia-Siemens technology puts China's much ballyhooed Great-Firewall-of-China censoring program to shame as an Internet quashing instrument.

By the way, check out this paragraph from Nokia's Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) 20-F filing, and note the acknowledgment of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Of course, Nokia is a Finninsh firm, and is therefore not bound to adhere to U.S. sanctions. But at least (thanks to Franklin Roosevelt's 1934 financial regulations regime) because it does business in the United States and sells stock here, the company had to go on record acknowledging that the United States considers the Iranian government to be a sponsor of terrorism.

In Nokia's own words, from its SEC filing...

" Sales in sanctioned countries—Devices & Services,
NAVTEQ and Nokia Siemens Networks

...We are a global company and have sales in most countries of the world. We sold mobile devices and services through Devices & Services and network equipment through Nokia Siemens Networks to customers in Iran, Sudan and Syria in 2008. NAVTEQ did not have any sales to customers in these countries from the completion of our acquisition of NAVTEQ on July 10, 2008 to December 31, 2008. Our aggregate sales to customers in these countries in 2008 accounted for approximately 1.6% of Nokia’s total net sales, or EUR 791 million. Iran, Sudan and Syria are subject to US economic sanctions that are primarily designed to implement US foreign policy and the US government has designated these countries as 'state sponsors of terrorism.'" (Nokia's full 20-f filing is here)

A final Thought:

When multinational companies and governments team up to protect the public from pictures of child abuse, it's always good to examine the companies' quest for profits, and the governments' drive to stay in power, and ask what the respective parties' real motivations are, and what unintended outcomes might arise.

Consider too, when dictators win, every child is an abuse victim...and so are their parents.

Mainstream American Media are Missing Big Stories in Iran. Case in point: Aussie reporter sees presidential militia siding with Mousavi supporters.

(c) Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Shahram Sharif

Embarrassing. Pathetic. Anemic. Clueless.

That' s how I see the U.S. mainstream media's coverage of what is happening in Iran. While some of the network's cable-cast and digi-cast television news shows are better than their online coverage, or at least the presentation thereof, judging by their homepages, you would think we were still in the early post-election stage of the developments in Iran. But we're not. We're in potentially pre-revolutionary stages. While most American correspondents seem to be staying behind hotel and office doors at the order of the Iranian government, Iranians with camera phones are twittering messages and images to the outside world. HOWEVER, check out what ABC reporter, Robert Fisk saw when he disregarded the forced sequestration. Oh, by the way, this ABC is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

excerpted from :(LINK)

There were about 10,000 Mousavi men and women on the streets, with approximately 500 Iranian special forces, trying to keep them apart.

It was interesting that the special forces - who normally take the side of Ahmadinejad's Basij militia - were there with clubs and sticks in their camouflage trousers and their purity white shirts and on this occasion the Iranian military kept them away from Mousavi's men and women.

In fact at one point, Mousavi's supporters were shouting 'thank you, thank you' to the soldiers.

One woman went up to the special forces men, who normally are very brutal with Mr Mousavi's supporters, and said 'can you protect us from the Basij?' He said 'with God's help'.

It was quite extraordinary because it looked as if the military authorities in Tehran have either taken a decision not to go on supporting the very brutal militia - which is always associated with the presidency here - or individual soldiers have made up their own mind that they're tired of being associated with the kind of brutality that left seven dead yesterday - buried, by the way secretly by the police - and indeed the seven or eight students who were killed on the university campus 24 hours earlier.

Quite a lot of policeman are beginning to smile towards the demonstrators of Mr Mousavi, who are insisting there must be a new election because Mr Ahmadinejad wasn't really elected. Quite an extraordinary scene.

New York's, San Francisco's Mayors Address the Media Ten Times More Than L.A.'s

Three Cities;
Three Mayors;
Two Frequent Communicators;
One 'Shy' Guy

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been known as being very visible, but suddenly the guy who has been dubbed by some 'Mayor Photoraigosa' hasn't much to say.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and San Francisco's Gavin Newsom have issued at least one press release for every regular business day of June this year, yet the mayor of America's second-largest city, Los Angeles, Ca. has only--get this--found not one issue of enough import to formally address the press with a news release. That's not to say there have been no statements or comments from the mayor in June, but nothing official--not even a press conference.

At the same time, Mayors Newsom and Bloomberg have been churning out news about issues facing their cities' residents. On one day in June alone, Newsom's office issued press releases in which the mayor chimed in on New Hampshire's legalization of gay marriage, commented on Princess Cruises' marking of its 40th anniversary by setting sail from San Francisco, made a fuss over the city's Sunday Streets program--and, announced the addition of KaiserPermanente to the menu of coverage choices in the City by the Bay's universal healthcare system.

For his part, Mayor Bloomberg issued no fewer than five press releases on a single June day, and like Newsom, has had something to say every day this month. Among the issues addressed: World Trade Center talks, restarting stalled construction projects in the city, National Peurto Rican Day Parade; mitigation of Canadian Geese (remember the Hudson, but don't hurt the geese --ed.); and helping New Yorkers in foreclosure.

To be fair to Antonio Villaraigosa, the other two big city mayors are facing election campaigns, and so need as much exposure as they can get. Newsom wants to be the next governor of California, and Bloomberg wants to remain Mayor Bloomberg.

Also, Chicago's and Dallas' mayors each have released only slightly more press releases than L.A.'s mayor. But it does seem that we should at least have more going on than Dallas, and really, even Chicago.

Republic of L.A. gets City to Reconsider Parking Tickets

Republic Of L.A. got a lot of feedback on the Monday, June 8 post about ambiguous parking signage and what effectively turned out to be a parking-ticket trap near West Hollywood Park. I emailed all of the WeHo City Council Members a link to the post and got a prompt response from Council Member Jeffrey Prang's deputy, Jake Stevens. Addressing the subject line I included with my email to his boss, which referred to the situation as seeming to be a "sham" Stevens assured me in his initial email that a) there was no scam, and b) he would research the issue and get back to Republic Of L.A. with more information. He did get back to ROLA with some really valuable information, and a reiteration of there being no scam at play (it may seem like minutia, but it's important from my perspective to note that I used the word "sham," not "scam." The difference being, in my mind at least, that you can end up with an unintended sham, but a scam is always planned from the outset.) Here is the response we got from Prang's office via Mr. Stevens:

As part of Phase I of the West Hollywood Park Master Plan (which includes the construction of the new 44,000 square foot, state-of-the-art library, public meeting rooms, Friends of the Library space, a municipal parking garage with over 300 parking spaces, a 91-space parking garage and new tennis courts), the 20 parking meters in the Melrose alley are being eliminated for safety reasons since construction is going on in close proximity and to maintain a fire lane for the Fire Department.

The parking meters in the Melrose alley were removed and the curb painted red last Friday, June 5, 2009. Removing the signs was part of the work order but all the work could not be completed on Friday. The current signs are scheduled to be removed on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 and replaced with new signs that alert drivers that no parking in the alley is allowed. The situation you reported is not the result of any deliberate attempt to mislead the public, but rather a delay in getting all the work completed in the alley as requested.

We will evaluate any requests submitted by individuals cited at this location during this time and will take appropriate action if we find that the citation resulted because drivers were confused by signs. In order to mitigate the loss of parking in the area during the library construction project, the City recently built a 113 space parking lot just north of the Public Library and a short walk from the Melrose Alley that is open to the public from 6:00 AM to 2:30 AM seven days per week.

Without wanting to diminish the response, which was comprehensive and detailed, not to mention promptly delivered--and all but promises to forgive any tickets that were wrongly issued during the weekend in question if the drivers ask for a review--it left out the one thing that seemed most important: Parking Enforcement's wanton combativeness with the public.

As you may recall or may want to re-read here, a central point of the post was the fact that the shift supervisor ended up hanging up on me after saying the signs didn't matter all that mattered was the freshly painted red curb. "If they parked in a red zone, they will be ticketed," were his exact words.

I asked Council Member Prang's deputy if it seemed proper to him for Parking Enforcement to dismiss a sincere phone call about an issue that was clearly unfair to citizens of and visitors to the city (especially during the Great Recession). His response to that final question was a real eyeopener.

It turns out that those little white Prius's with "City of West Hollywood Parking Enforcement" emblazoned on the side are operated by a private company: Serco Inc., a global parking and traffic enforcement contractor.

This brings up a whole new discussion and ripe fodder for future blog posts: Is West Hollywood or are similar cities really well served by these contractors that allow them to avoid building their own police forces, parking enforcement divisions, housing programs and many other services?

The military has fired Haliburton after that contractor reamed the taxpayers for untold billions after promising to do the job of supporting the troops on the battlefield "better, faster and cheaper."

But here's a better comparison: the City of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power charges its customers considerably less than Edison charges its customers. During the rolling blackouts of the early 2000s, DWP managed to keep the power on for everybody.

But don't take my word for it. Ask a Realtor how much value is added to a property simply by virtue of being in DWP service area. The reason is because buyers know they will pay smaller electric and water bills, even with recent rate hikes. Besides, when the power executives' bosses are elected officials, i.e., city council members, it's fairly easy to keep up pressure to keep rates down.

Note: The city also promised to consider doing more to communicate with more signage the availability of temporary parking north of Melrose Alley.