TRUTANICH OPENS CAMPAIGN FOR D.A.

One of the worst kept secrets in L.A. is that Los Angeles City Attorney CARMEN TRUTANICH is running for District Attorney.  Today, he made it official.

Immediately, the sputtering campaign of Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson put out their own press release claiming Trutanich made a pledge to serve two terms.  What made the Jackson press release seem all the more bizarre was it was put out by Jackson's mouthpiece, John Thomas, who was slamming an original press release put out by none other than, JOHN THOMAS, when he worked on Trutanich's campaign.  In other words, John Thomas was criticizing his own press release.

And we thought we'd seen everything. 

It makes perfect sense that Jackson would try to attack Trutanich because an analysis of fund raising reports filed with the County reveal that Trutanich has over 5X more cash on hand than Alan Jackson.  In fact Trutanich has more cash on hand than the other six candidates in the race put together. If money talks, then these other candidates have received an early indication that the voting public is probably not too interested in their candidacy's.

Hopefully, Trutanich will demonstrate that he's worthy of the tremendous support he's received thus far.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Just back from a nice two week vacation on the Hawaiian Islands.

Thanks for all the hot tips everyone sent over the holidays. We’re investigating all of them and hope to be reporting on many of them in the coming days.

Just finished watching that freak show otherwise known as the Republican Debates.

The more these knuckleheads talk, the more President Obama’s numbers go up.

It seems the America public is getting an up close view of what these extremist wackos are all about, and running back to support the President in droves.

Has-been Mitt Romney can’t seem to crack the 25% mark.  In the Iowa Caucus he received a few less votes than that other has-been, Rick Santorum. *For fun, Google the word “Santorum”

All the newspapers in New Hampshire have endorsed everyone but Romney.  However, Romney was endorsed by Christine “I am not a witch” O’Donnell. She said, “Mitt Romney has been consistent since he changed his position on every issue.” So there! Can’t beat that endorsement.

Thankfully there weren’t any major headlines while we were away, except maybe “The Hollywood Arsonist. *We’ve already trademarked the name. 

Fire department furlough day

Several Deputy D.A.’s had to suspend their campaigns long enough to get back to work, and file papers against the man-child accused of these crimes.

Steve Cooley had to put down the booze, and sober up long enough to grandstand for the cameras and make sure the public could notice the similarities between him and the main-child. They’re both chubby, confused, glassy-eyed, etc etc.  I mean, if the shoe fits, which I’m sure it doesn’t……..

I won! Goodnight.

P.S. Expect Steve Cooley to declare victory in the District Attorney’s race any day now.  That’s right, you read it correctly. Once again, against the advice of his political consultants, he will probably down a couple of belts and publicly declare victory in the District Attorney’s race, similar to how he did it in the Attorney General’s race. This will not be good news for Jackie Lacey, Mario Trujillo or Deputy D.A. Alan “Jacko” Jackson, who’s still clearing the dung off his face after getting the Pete Wilson endorsement.  Cooley seems hell-bent on crushing Mario Trujillo and Alan Jackson’s campaigns any way he knows how. One would think sending Jacko Pete Wilson and John Thomas would do the trick, but Cooley wants to “finish him off” as Tony Soprano used to say.



That's the guy who ruined my campaign!

And speaking of John Thomas, it looks like his other big client, Kevin James has qualified for matching funds while we were away.

Well, whoop dee dew dah.!  Que the band! Stop the presses! Is this really BIG NEWS?



Thank you, but I'm not suppose to take checks on City property.

Kevin’s a good guy and could probably do a better job than the current occupant of the Mayor’s office, but right now his chances of qualifying for the run-off are slim to none.

Sure, he just passed the $150,000 mark in campaign contributions, however that only amounts to approximately $50,000 in cash on hand.  Considering the other candidates Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel, and Jan Perry have raised over $1,000,000, and Austin Beutner can write himself a $5,000,000 dollar check, Kevin has a lot of catching up to do.

Those who enjoy political debates for entertainment purposes will enjoy Kevin debating all the City Hall insiders.  We wish him luck, and hope for his sake, he gets more votes than Zuma Dogg.

I'm a legend. Just ask me.

Also, it seems while we were away, the Occupy L.A. folks have gone from complaining that L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has put too much energy into prosecuting them, to now complaining that he’s not putting enough energy into prosecuting them. They need to make up their mind. They’ve gone from protesting financial inequity caused by Wall Street and the major banks, to whimpering about being arrested and having to go through the judicial process.  I hope Trutanich sentences these fools to watching a full episode of the TV show “Barretta”, and then making them write a hundred times on a chalkboard, “DON’T DO THE CRIME, IF YOU CAN’T DO THE TIME”, and keep your eyyyyyyyyyyeeee on the sparrow……...

and dats da name of dat tune!

Is D.A. wannabe Alan Jackson another Herman Cain?

"I think I just shot somebody"

The chatter among Los Angeles political observers lately is that Phil Spector prosecutor and District Attorney hopeful Alan Jackson is on his way to running one of the dumbest campaigns in recent memory.

On Saturday December 3, 2011, the L.A. Daily News reported that Jackson was put on notice that he had infringed the intellectual property of Miami photographer Scott Redinger-Lebolt, when he used a photograph owned by Redinger-Lebolt of Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, without the photographer's permission.

After he was caught red-handed, Jackson took a page out of the Herman Cain playbook by employing Cain's strategy to blame everyone but himself. As one keen political observer noted, (not connected to any campaign for D.A.), "Rather than (Cain) take responsibility for carrying on numerous affairs, his camp tried to divert attention by blaming fellow Republican Presidential candidate, Texas Governor Rick Perry.  It didn't work for Herman Cain and it won't work for Alan Jackson."

What makes this story peculiar is that it appears the Daily News was tipped off to this potentially tortuous conduct by none other than Jackson's chipper campaign manager, John Thomas, a young, staunch Republican campaign operative who's track record includes quarterbacking former right-wing radio host Kevin James floundering campaign for L.A. Mayor, and Sunder Ramani's ill-fated campaign for a Los Angeles based Assembly seat.

Essentially, Jackson's campaign was highlighting the he was flagrantly misappropriating intellectual property while infringing the rights of a struggling artist trying to make a living. To add insult to injury, other photographers, not related to Redinger-Lebolt or his lawyer, famed Pasadena copyright litigation specialist, Nicholas Connon, are now claiming that Jackson stole their copyrighted work as well.

Attorneys for Warner Brothers Pictures, the owner of "The Hangover" property are also said to be exploring their legal options against Jackson. One high-ranking motion picture executive at Warner Brothers noted, "It's astounding that someone seeking a top law enforcement office in Los Angeles County would attempt to build their campaign on ripping-off copyrighted content from creative artists and businesses who make their living licensing such works."

Jackson has reportedly only raised an anemic $218,000 so far, less than half of what Trutanich has raised for his exploratory committee.  What has political veterans shaking their heads is that Jackson seems to have foolishly wasted most of those funds on innocuous video clips, built on the apparently unauthorized use of copyrighted materials.

The way this is going, Jackson could find himself spending his remaining dwindling campaign resources fighting numerous lawsuits for copyright infringement which carry a penalty of $150,000 per each willful copyright violation.

What's troubling here is that Alan Jackson seems to have a pattern of playing fast and loose with the law.  On August 10, 2010, Jackson was reprimanded by Department 35 Judge Craig Richman after attempting an unethical end-run around the court in a search warrant matter. Judge Richman stated in open court, "I have never, in my entire legal career - and certainly in my judicial career -- felt so slimed by, frankly, the very office I grew up in. I was raised to believe the District Attorney's office stands for truth and Justice and the Constitution and should not be afraid of the truth. I am beginning to wonder if that was ever the case, or it's just changed since I left the D.A.'s office." At the hearing, Jackson tried to blame colleagues and underlings for what was obviously his own sleazy tactics. The Judge wasn't buying it.

"Bragging about stealing other people's work is not considered an intelligent way to launch a campaign." One observer noted, "Who starts a campaign by shooting themselves in the foot, while blowing all their campaign donations, and then try to blame others for these rookie mistakes?"

It raises questions about whether Jackson is suitable to lead the largest prosecutorial office in the country. A source close to the Jackson campaign commented, "He obviously got caught red-handed and thought the best way to divert attention away from this blunder was to falsely accuse others. If he thought he was innocent, he would've intelligently responded to the photographer's inquiry with points and authorities. Talk about consciousness of guilt. Maybe this guy is not ready for prime-time."