I M Mary Ann Cherry: Bye Bye CRA

I M Mary Ann Cherry: Bye Bye CRA

Bye Bye CRA

Too much going on for me to say much at this moment.

I'll let the good folks over at Hollywood-Highlands entertain and bring you up to speed on what's important and what is funny.  They don't mean to make a joke of the powers in city hall, it just happens naturally.  It all seems so organic.  Maybe it's improvisational (with the right props, of course).  Whatever you call it, it shows a lack of respect for our first amendment rights (you don't have to be there for your rights to get kicked around).  H-H call themselves oddballs.  Others have said "gadflies" and I've heard them called much worse.  I prefer to call them successful wags.

The great news is that the California RDA (Redevelopment Agency), including LA's own CRA, is history.  Gone.  Kaput.  CRA was the worse use of public funds and probably the most damaging organization to hit the middle class.  With the CRA dissolved, no more areas will be declared "blighted" and families tossed on their butts to create "development" (note: shopping malls, high income housing, mixed use properties).  More wealthy people became richer and fatter and more bloated through RDA funding and dirty backroom deals due to the CRA.  And more working class people had the rug pulled out from under them, their homes seized (not from foreclosure, this was done through "imminent domain") as a result of the same development plan.

That's the beginning and a grossly abridged version of the whole story.  Check out Hollywood-Highlands for the end of the story. 

Red-Hot Cigarette

Red Hot Patriot: the Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins 
(at GeffenPlayhouse)

                The play lives up to all the hype surrounding the incomparable Molly Ivins.   Crisp and tight writing by journalists, and twins, Margaret Engel and Allison Engel quickly transports the audience into the sharp edged world of Ivins.  Equally crisp, and slightly sparse, staging (by John Arnone) helped and under the direction of David Esbjornson, I could almost feel the newsprint on my fingers. 

I learned a bit more about Ivin’s personal life, her key relationships, specifically her father “the General,” than I expected and less about the source of her “kick ass wit.”  This is Molly Ivin’s biography. While her story is at least as interesting as anything else on stage these days, the play is not really ‘about’ her wit.  It contains a good amount of the real Molly Ivins wit and repartee to make the 75 minutes move quickly and enjoyably.   It’s only gingerly theorized that Ivins spent her life, consciously or unconsciously dedicated her professional career responding to “The General.”  When in fact, the real Molly Ivins had so much more to say and I’ll just accept that some things, like the “kick-ass wit of Molly Ivins” must remain a mystery.

I love Kathleen Turner.  She is one of the few actors who can, in my book, do no wrong.  I wish she had quit smoking cigarettes about 10 or 20 years ago.  It was difficult to hear her and when I was able to hear, it was a bit painful to listen to her. 

I still recommend that you see this play.  It is refreshing in this time of watered-down, pristine, journalism and propaganda scantily clad as well researched editorial.  What Molly Ivins represents to me is the courage it takes to say the obvious and the fact that she had the ability to spice it with that kick-ass wit never cheapened what she had to say.  She said the truth over and over again.  And I miss that. 

I miss cigarettes too, sometimes.

Here's an Idea on How to Reduce the Deficit

This is an open letter to the Joint Select Committee-- the members of Congress who have the unenviable task of reducing the deficit. We all hear horror stories about the necessity for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We hear elected representatives fighting to protect the 2001 and 2003 tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. No one has mentioned the obvious place to begin all this deficit reduction-- the expenditure created by our representatives. We don't need to cut Government programs as much as we demand cuts to Government overhead. This includes salaries, benefits, office furniture, entertainment expenses, all the perks that members of Congress have grown accustomed to but don't really need. The American people are asking for congressional prudence before they touch one red-cent of seniors and disabled dollars. They need to come back to earth with their own salaries and benefits packages and join the rest of us taking "a hit" in this economy.

Please participate in our democracy, sign your name and repost for others to do the same.

Thanks!

They want a focus, focus on this: Step back. Let the people work this out peacefully

We must not allow the oligarchy to uproot the important Occupy movement.

Tax payers, registered voters paved those streets and built these city halls. This is OUR government. Dianne Feinstein, Councilman Rosendahl, and Mayor V must be put on notice that they work for us. The people are speaking now. 

I understand the oligarchies resistance and confusion because we gave them the keys to the castle a long time ago.  We elected so many corrupt politicians who have skewed the game by changing laws and deregulating or allowing "self-regulation" (what a disappointing joke that turned out to be).  Our representatives favor the corporate power structure.  The temptation was too rich and the opportunities too obvious and it's just the way human nature works sometimes. 

Before we, as a society, become anymore czarist, let the people speak.  Let the people be heard.

It is a long and arduous process to find their message.  They are doing this by consensus and we haven't seen anything done by a genuine honest consensus in a long time.  They don't teach this stuff in business school.  But the Senate and Congress have not worked efficiently to change things for the better any quicker. 

The people who think they are in charge need to sit back down and listen. No matter how long it takes or how creepy it looks or how bad it smells. It's not much different than giving birth, only this is a birth of new thought.  It will be painful and dangerous at times and not everyone will promptly accept the new born-- some will call it a bastard.  It makes it no less of a life.

They want a focus, focus on this:  Step back.  Let the people work this out peacefully. 

 

 

The 53% is missing 100% of the point

I am not going to take this 53% thing too seriously (file it right next to the 9-9-9 plan). The guy is doing it just to be contrarian. He has nothing to hold up but his silly ideal of a crappy life.

 

Erick Erickson started this movement by holding a handwritten sign that says:

I work 3 jobs. I have a house I can’t sell. My family insurance costs are outrageous. But I don’t blame Wall Street. Suck it up you whiners. I am the 53% subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain.

That sucks.  

 

He works three jobs.  He can't afford a house that he can't sell.  His insurance costs are almost prohibitive (but that's where those three jobs come in handy).  And he "doesn't blame Wall Street."  His advise to the rest of us is to "suck it up." 

 

He's a bloody fool if he doesn't see the connection between his lousy life and the legal corruption on Wall Street.  

 

Go and follow him at your own risk.

 

 

 

Occupy LA

I stopped in on the peaceful protest in downtown LA today.  It is absolutely peaceful.  It is laid-back, LA style.  Very well organized (lots of people walking around with clip boards so they must know what they're doing).  There are port-o-potties (which is something that was missing in NY, which might have caused some problems).  There is a first aid station, food, water, constant talking in small groups (and more people with clip boards taking notes).  

I saw mostly white people, 30-40 yrs old who are actually sleeping there (there are rows and rows of tents.  Really nice tents--like Eddie Bauer and Coleman tents).  They may be taking shifts staying in tents.  I expect there are a few masters degrees in the crowd.

Do not confuse this tent city with the other tent city in downtown where the people who sleep on the streets are not there by choice. 

At this tent city, the message is still a bit broad--but they are clearly in the process of peacefully forming a more focused mission.  Short of having corporate sponsors, I did not get the idea that this was an anti-corporate or anti-wealth group.  This is much more about addressing the inequities in the system and lessening the corporate stranglehold on our democratic process.  A true democracy is built around the people, for the people, by the people.  And these people are taking back the democracy.  

I did not get the feeling that these people had no other place to go or nothing else they could be doing.  I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of them slipping away for a relaxing beer or wine or something like that at the Redwood or the Biltmore.  They are in this to make things change. 

Police are mellow, they have road blocks up.  I'm sure the FBI is up on the surrounding roof tops snapping photos, taking notes.  Here are a few shots I took.  I didn't think to look up at the adjacent rooftops-- I don't really care.  

Enjoy.  Engage.