Thank God Los Angeles may get the leader it so desperately needs. You got my vote and time to convince LA you are their guy. I hope all the comments below are based on facts and are positive. I know you can do it LA - stay positive.

Actually, the clock is ticking away the minutes until someone, probably Lonewacko, comments about MeCha.

Strangely enough, I don't think this is a laughing matter. If a white candidate had formerly been the president of the UCLA chapter of, say, Concerned Conservative Citizens I'm sure a) it wouldn't be a laughing matter, and b) our non-liberal press would be all over it.

So, herewith: MEChA, Villaraigosa And The LA Mayoral Campaign. It's not just about his past membership, it's also about the press' selective coverage of the candidates. If I hadn't stumbled upon mayorno.com four years ago, I would never have known about this. Can we really trust what we hear from the L.A. Times or the Daily News? Why didn't those fine papers print anything about this story? The facts are undisputed.

Also, nowhere in L.A. is our coming two-tier system more evident. Start out in one of the more slumlike areas of Cypress Park and keep driving up the hill til you get to the $700,000 homes.

This election should be even more interesting the previous one. With presumed electorate alliances broken down in a four way contest: Parks gets South LA, Villaraigosa gets the East Side and some West Side, and incumbent Hahn fights it out with Hertzberg for the Valley vote. So the South LA that Hahn took advantage of probably wont be there for him this time around. I just hope Hahn resists the urge to run dirty ads against his rivals as he did last time against Villaraigosa with the drug and gangs ad. Oh who am I kidding, this is politics after all!

10 whole hours. He must have been sleeping in.

I was starting to worry that Lonewacko might not comment. Now I can relax.

Yeah, AV lives in Mt. Washington -- long a major stomping ground for the filthy rich (when they get tired of San Marino). Its reputation as a moderate-priced, ethnically diverse, boho hang for artists, architects, and anyone who wants a modest house with a good view is a cover for the INCREDIBLE TRUTH: it's a major front for the coming takeover of LA by the forces of AZTLAN! Why isn't the LA Times taking notice?

Because that is nonsense.

You have to admit Kevin everytime Villaraigosa appears on your site - alot of energy is devoted to your comment section. It can only be a good thing that Villaraigosa has so many folks paying attention as oppose to the current mayor or anyone else running for this office.

While Antonio’s entrance promises to bring more early media attention and interest to all of the candidates and posts such as these, let's hope this exposure will actually allow the city to have a real public dialogue about how to make LA great, providing multiple forums in which all of the candidates ideas can take center stage.

It isn't that people are just now starting to pay attention now that he has announced as "Meat" would lead you to believe. People have been responding and paying attention on multiple sites from Bob Hertzberg's ChangeLA.com site to Richard Alarcon's "Alablog".

Hahn and Villaraigosa fought a bitter contest in 2001. This year, no matter what mud people throw, let's talk about how to change LA and make city government work again.

Turmon: Yes, your comment was nonsense. It also wasn't based on the argument I was making. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough however; my observation about Mt. Washington pre-dates the knowledge that AV lives there, which I just learned from this post. My comment about MW has very little to do with AV.

Realtor.com shows 71 out of 237 single family houses in 90065 over $500,000. At the bottom of the hill off San Fernando I doubt whether you'd find too many of those 71. At the top of the hill it's not Bel Air, but it's certainly far more upscale than at the bottom. The SacBee article New data prove that two-tier society is a fact of California life might provide you with a starting point to attempt to understand what I was getting at.

P.S. It's not that the L.A. Times doesn't provide us with the information we need to know, it's just that they serve as a powerful filter preventing us from learning about negative things. But, hey, keep those ad hominems coming since providing an argument seems beyond your grasp.

i think "campaign hack" (BH) has a good point. Villaraigosa's entrance does create some good early media for everyone - also campaign hack is correct about the number of folks that have been posting and responding to the various blogs now online. I mean Alarcon's blog isn't really a community one so Alarcon can only have a one-sided conversation while the hertzblog while a community blog - it's only gotten 35 comments since the opeing statement - unfortunately stephen sulkes accounts for most of your comments - great comments - not really a true "blog community" quite yet.

Wacko blog dude - your name says it all.

Hoy, Mt. Washington!

Manana, el mundo!

I pledged the Sigs in college, and did eight years in the Uncle Sam's Canoe Club shortly thereafter (I'm not sure there was a connection, although that part of my life is generally a blank, for obvious reasons...)

Lo these many decades later, my allegiances (other than to cheap beer) must be to young women with eyes the color of prairie skies over brown-eyed girls and the Middies over the Bruins, right?

With five declared leading candidates - much less the Republican guy from WLA - it should be an interesting and reasonably well-informed discussion about what makes Los Angeles a livable place...and how to make it more so.

One hopes the Mayor's campaign will avoid the Evil Latino meme they used last time around.

I look forward to Antonio's, Parks', and Alarcon's community dialogue sites taking shape and starting some conversation. As your site develops, it can only help the conversation move towards changing LA's current lack of leadership, something I think everyone in this city deserves.

Does Shirley Bebitch Jeffe ever say anything that isn't totally obvious and hasn't been for weeks?

Wacko: Here is my line of thinking: It's that you don't know AV at all, and if you did, you would stop advancing a tired claim that he is a racial separatist. The Mecha articles keep referencing the same anecdotes about OTHER Mecha members -- guilt by indirect association, inconsistent with DIRECT evidence about AV, and years out of date to boot.

My point about AV living in Mt Washington is that he has deliberately chosen to live in one of the *more* ethnically diverse areas in Northeast LA. If you knew and considered some of the direct evidence about AV, I think you'd come to see that the Mecha critique of AV is a red herring. The only interesting thing about it, IMHO, is why that particular red herring is appetizing to anyone at all.

This issue goes beyond AV and provides a lesson on two broader subjects: press bias and the current bankrupt state of much of what is called liberalism.

Whether AV is as bad as Tom Metzger or as good as MLK or whether the organization he used to be a chapter president of is like the CCC or the United Way, the fact remains that (AFAIK) the only time the L.A. Times has mentioned the topic of MEChA was to say that having belonged to the group showed ones ethnic bona fides.

And, the fact that "liberals" attempt to apologize for a group whose founding documents propose the physical liberation of Aztlan and a deep hatred of European-Americans shows the abject bankruptcy of that particular strain of "liberalism." An objective observer who reads the various weak attempts to apologize for ethnic extremism would be forced to conclude that to "liberals" some forms of racism are OK.

For those who want to make up their own minds about this, I'd suggest following the links in the following repeat of a comment I made. The first part in italics is what I was replying to.

AV has never ever ever supported such a plan, and those who believe or like to bring this up have their heads in the sand still.

Thirty years or so after Antonio Villaraigosa was the president of the UCLA chapter of MEChA, that chapter still refuses refuses to renounce El Plan de Aztlan and El Plan de Santa Barbara.

There are more articles on this organization here and here.

And, here's one from the past mayoral campaign. The author lives in Mexico where he teaches English. I'd imagine his translation of their motto can be trusted.

And, here's a long answer to those who attempt to dismiss this subject.

And, here's AV deflecting questions about his past membership in the group. You have to admire his honed skills, but the objective reader will note he did not answer the question.

OK, well, as if we didn't know already, we now know how you feel and you've given us your links (again). So let's call this your quota as far as AV and MEChA goes on this blog. Later on, if I post an item about MEChA becoming an issue in the campaign or media coverage of the issue (or lack of it), then by all means have at it. But every time there's a post about Villaraigosa? Nah. You can always start a blog called www.villaraigosaandmecha.com and buy an ad if you want to pursue it here. Thanks for listening.

OK. Except google shows 51 to 80 instances of villaraigosa on laobserved.com (some are archives, etc.), and I could only find 3 or 4 posts where I brought up "that" topic. Henceforth if I'm allowed to comment here on the mayoral campaign I'll keep it "positive," even upbeat.

"Meat" is such a great handle. Is it a translation of "Carnal." You know, the EME term for blood brother, made man in the Mexican Mafia.

Villaraigosa is a committed Leftist. He bankrupted the state budget as Leader of the Assembly, and as mayor would do far worse for Los Angeles. Why is it that the hard won lessons of socialism learned in the 20th century are so casually disgarded by liberals in the 21st century? It's as if the Left wants to roll the clock back to the 1930s and pretend all the carnage and misery caused by progressive policies never occurred.

Do we really want to pursue a Latin American civic model of corruption, patronage, graft and wealth destruction? That pathological model has been this guys road map in political life. I see no indication that he would change. It's just mind boggling that anyone could support a relic from a failed past, relying on failed ideology, not to mention his association with known racial hate groups. Los Angeles doesn't need a populist hate-monger as mayor.

Don't expect the LA Times to show the full portrait. They made their desires known the last time around. Pravda would be proud.

wow! thats some exceptional hypothesizing there calvin. "meat" is short for "meatball" a nickname only. i do appreciate the thoughts however - i only have a couple of questions regarding your post - can you help explain what is it specifically he passed or authored that bankrupted the state? and for that matter what is it exactly he would do as mayor that would be worse? I'd just like to be educated on these facts that you obviously know.

Last time AV ran for an open seat, had labor support, and the demo party support. And lost. This time he runs against an incumbent, who fired Bernie Parks (when everyone said he couldn't), hired Bill Bratton (when everyone said he wouldn't), and fought the valley against secession (when everyone said he shouldn't). Hahn will also have labor and the dems. AV loses again.

baseball - i like your post. I disagree but it's about time someone give some good reasons to vote for hahn. If you wanna play inside baseball lets; your are correct about the support av had last time around, but you are wrong regarding the support hahn will get this time around. Labor was suppose to endorse this august, then mysteriously it is now not. i wonder why...the daily breeze all of sudden had a story about hahn appointing miguel contreras as chair of the airport commission, but instead of being coy contreras says things like "well if hahn did that, that would be pay to play" supporters don't go on the record saying such statements.

next, kicking out Parks may perhaps have been a strong leadership move, but politically for hahn it sent a grenade into his base. The same base that gave him over 80% of the vote 4 yrs ago. As for secession, hahn again - showed leadership, but again threw sand in the eye of his base where he won 55% of the vote. Hahn vs ANYONE does not get those same %'s within his old base again. Thats my belief, if you disagree i'd love to hear it. That said, if hahn does not do as well in those bases he prevously had then he should've groomed another base for himself, i personally do not see where he tried to do this in.

can you tell me?