#jan perry

[pleitezforla-blog]

Pleitez gives specifics at LALWV, ABC7 mayoral debate

Emanuel Pleitez, candidate running for mayor of LA, participated in the Los Angeles League of Women Voters on February 18th, 2013. He started strong, "I want to be mayor because I'm tired of the status quo."

Emanuel wants to capitalize on our potential - creativity, diversity, technology, hard working people - so that we can be as innovative and foreward thinking as we should be. 

The debate opened up with the sales tax increase, which Emanuel opposes. Band-aid solutions like this affect low-income individuals. His plan to bridge the gap is to expand the tax base by creating more educational, skill-building, and business opportunities so that everyone can contribute. 

In regards to city employee contract renegotiations, Emanuel proposes a pension buy-out plan so that  can have money now as opposed to nothing later. The leaders in city hall have lacked the back-bone to make the tough decisions

The pension buy-out also ties into infrastructure. It will create revenue over the first year, which he will use on programs that make an immediate impact, like bike-sharing programs. Long-term vision is also important, which is why Emanuel will create a position for a Deputy Urban Planner. 

When it comes to racial injustice from and within LAPD, Emanuel will ensure departments follow through with investigations in a timely manner. He will execute this with a culture of collaboration, starting with an organizing fellowship that grows the public safety department by getting community members involved.

Fellowship programs improve the relationships between LAPD and local communities, while giving skills to work with and build on for the people of Los Angeles. 

On education and skill-building, Emanuel knows it's not about authority but about service delivery. Intervention when a student is drifting is key, as is opening up doors for people of all ages to learn more and to pick up the skills necessary to get jobs they deserve. 

Emanuel's pespective on medicinal marijuana comes from real life experience. It's easy to get on the street and illegal marijuana sales hurts our community. We need to provide guidance to our young people so that they understand the dangers of drug use.

Balance is key and safe access is important, which is Emanuel will ask for input from the actual communities to decide how dispenseries fit within them. He wants to create a market that can actually be regulated while benefiting the city. 

Meeting the future water needs of a growing population can be solved by growing public-private partnerships to capitalize on new technology while creating jobs. Low-flow toilets, better technology to clean our water, and rain-water capture are solutions that need to be explored. 

Students also had an opportunity to get involved in the debate. On engaging young voters, Emanuel has a track record of leadership and mentorship programs, Emanuel's fellowship programs not only provide job opportunities for young people but also gives them a input into the policy-making process while getting them involved in the community. 

Two great examples are Voto Latino and the Latinos On Fast Track. Emanuel was Voto Latino's first volunteer and created their online platforms. While working with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, Emanuel started the LOFT Network, a nation-wide program that creates opportunities and connects young professionals. 

Emanuel was asked why he deserves to be mayor of Los Angeles, considering he is only 30 years old. His response was simple and truthful - Los Angeles needs someone new with energy and innovative thinking. Experienced, career politicians turned LA into the nation's metropolitian city with the highest unemployment rates, lowest graduation rates, and highest drop-out rates. Emanuel has cross-sector experience, worked on the economy at the national level, and has unmatched technological know-how.

The debate was moderated by ABC7's Marc Brown and was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles and the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.

[pleitezforla-blog]

LA Magazine's "The Evolution of Kevin James" Shows Candidate's Biases

Below is an excerpt from an article in Los Angeles Magazine, written by staff writer Gabriel Kahn, which argues that LA mayoral candidate Kevin James holds extremely conservative beliefs and questions how likely his stances are to resonate with LA voters who are predominantly Democratic and Latino.

"On the trail, the persona James projects is that of an independent, no-nonsense Republican determined to root out what he insists is a culture of rampant corruption at city hall. In a city that handed President Obama a more than two-thirds majority, James has been able to shirk the stigma of his Republican Party affiliation by sticking mostly to fiscal issues. The fact that he’s openly gay appears to put him out of step with the national Republican agenda. Add to that the “aw, shucks” speaking style that comes from his still-detectable Oklahoma drawl and you’ve got a compelling alternative to L.A.’s status quo.

But not that long ago James cast himself in an entirely different light. During his years as a host on KRLA and KABC, he pounded away on the need for a border fence to stem the “illegal immigration invasion,” mocked global warming as junk science, and railed against any local politician who dared consider raising taxes—for any reason.

That kind of talk still echoes frequently on KRLA, the station where James had a show from 2007 to 2011, and which features prominent conservative voices such as Denis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, and Michael Medved. The station is a part of Salem Communications, which bills itself as the leading purveyor of conservative and Christian radio content.

James has no hesitation about dialing up the rhetoric to make a point, even a hyperbolic one. In one op-ed he penned for KRLA’s Web site in 2009, he offers seven reasons why President Obama should appoint Daffy Duck to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Really. Reason No. 2: “Daffy is a black duck,” and hence would qualify as a minority appointment. Reason No. 4: “Daffy is a disabled duck” because of his “severe speech impediment.”

James says he was trying to make a point about how the mainstream media was ignoring qualifications for the Court and instead focusing on “identity politics.”

Global warming also makes him particularly hot under the collar. The problem: “the theory of human-caused global warming is challenged by the fact, among others, that average temperatures were higher during the Medieval Warm Period a thousand years ago,” he wrote in a 2008 piece. At the time, he was particularly irked by a quickly-shelved California Energy Commission proposal to require programmable thermostats in new homes, which, according to James, “would allow the government to control the temperature inside your house.” He explains, “’Carbon footprint’ is code for limitless intrusion into every detail of your life.”

It’s not all that clear how much affinity he might have with the voters of a Democratic stronghold like Los Angeles, where close to half the city identifies itself as Hispanic. And yet for years James staked out the territory on the far right of the immigration debate, imploring Washington to seal the border with an impenetrable fence.

He self-identifies as an “enforcement-first conservative,” and, ahead of the 2008 election, lamented that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain was out of step and would “never be one of us when it comes to the illegal alien invasion of this country.”

Though illegal immigration was a mainstay of his early radio show, James now says he’s softened a bit on the topic. “There’s a learning process that takes place” on the campaign trail, he says, and that meeting with different communities in Los Angeles helped him understand the issue from “the other side.”

That hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for a fence, though. Progress on security at the border, he says, would help move the anti-immigration forces toward compromise on other aspects of immigration reform. “Fences work,” he says.”

Read the original article as published on February 04, 2013 at http://www.lamag.com/citythink/citythinkblog/2013/02/04/the-evolution-of-kevin-james-.

Learn more about Emanuel Pleitez at www.pleitezforla.com and www.facebook.com/pleitez.

[thi-riffic-blog]

just watched this documentary about LA taking land away from farmers.

now i'm mad

everything makes me mad

i h8 people

[omarshamout]

Video package of South Central Farmers story from Intersections South LA, Nov. 6, 2011.