betty's los angeles

JFK-44 in LA May 5

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry will be in LA to celebrate Cinco de Mayo next Wednesday, May 5th. I guess if he runs any sort of competent campaign (not a sure thing yet), this guy will be our 44th President. We should go check him out!

The announcement (below) reminds me painfully of how hokey politics is. I guess when people are playing a high stakes game, it's hard to keep a sense of detachment and humor about the whole thing.

On the other hand, some people are very down to earth: http://johnkerryisadouchebagbutimvotingforhimanyway.com/

[From the Kerry-Socal mailing list, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kerry-SoCal/]

Start spreading the news: JK will be here next Wednesday, May 5 for a rally in East LA to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. JK will have Teresa with him and will speak, along with Antonio Villaraigosa and other local and national figures at East Los Angeles College sometime that morning. I will pass on details as soon as they come down the pipeline.

This is an event to reach out and bolster the enthusiam for Kerry in the Latino community. Please especially encourage all the supporters you know from that community and any student groups, associations, etc. to come on out!

If you creative types with markers and posterboard want to get on the homemade rally sign-making tip - could be a great thing for new and old supporters looking for activities to do. Be sure to make signs two-sided - so cameras and people get to read it no matter where it's pointed. A critical mass of signs in Spanish would be the best. Here are some slogans the campaign offered pre-primary (Spanish-speakers will easily come up with more exciting ones - just be sure grammar and spelling are correct! And avoid controversial
messages - keep it positive):

a.. Bienvenida a Los Angeles [Welcome to Los Angeles]
b.. Latinos con Kerry [Latinos for Kerry]
c.. Bienvenida Senora Heinz Kerry (squiggly over the "n" in "Senora" - my
computer won't do it. . . ) [Welcome Mrs. Heinz Kerry]
d.. Los Latinos te apoyan (accent over the "e" in "te") [Latino support]
e.. Estamos contigo [we're with you]

Or a classic: Sí se puede!

Dean in LA Friday, April 30th

[from the socalcouncil for dean mailing list]

Come one, come all!

Gov. Dean will be visiting East Los Angeles April 30th. Congresswoman Hilda Solis is hosting Governor Dean and Latinos For America (formerly Latinos For Dean) is working in cooperation with this event.

We would love to show Gov. Dean how much we still support him and his efforts by getting lots of folks to show up and fill the hall. All are welcome, so invite your friends!

When: April 30th

Time: 3pm

Where: East Los Angeles College
Student Union
1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Note: He's also at UCLA at 8:15 in the morning, but I don't have details, and you have to RSVP for it. More info here if/when I learn it!

Do It Yourself*

Update: Kimmy Cash announced today that the May 30th BBQ in Long Beach is cancelled due to legal matters. (no details.) She's still looking for volunteers for all sorts of purposes and still plans a BBQ in California eventually. Also, there's a DIY Politics blog.

Kimmy Cash, creator of the influential Punx for Dean, is now working on a new org called D.I.Y. Politics, aimed to get more disaffected and disenfranchised voters back into the political dialog in this country.

Step One is a massive barbecue, concert, and political festival in Long Beach, May 30th.

For an encore, D.I.Y. hopes to take the show on the road and reach out to voters in this year's projected battleground states - sort of a grassroots, do-it-yourself answer to Reggie, the Voter Registration Rig. I think Kim Cash is just amazing and will go really far with these ideas.

signature gathering

Take a page from the anti-immigrant folks. They're using their grassroots resources to gather signatures for an intiative that's important to them.

This looks like a good model for any cash-poor group or grassroots-based effort. Clear instructions; download the petition, print it out, fill it up, get some friends to sign - voila! I'd add instructions on getting voter registration forms and registering voters as well.

Walmart: No Sale

Voters in Inglewood rejected Walmart yesterday, voting No in a ballot measure that would have allowed the retailer to circumvent some local government hurdles.

The numbers in this thing fascinate me: Walmart reportedly spent $1,000,000 promoting this thing in a town of only 40,000 registered voters. Turnout was 28.2 percent.

In fact, more people signed the petition to put this on the ballot than eventually voted for it. This is a huge public relations failure for Walmart.

Does this mean we can autocross at Hollywood Park again?

Santa Monica Ranked Voting

There's an organization in Santa Monica promoting instant-runoff and "choice" voting:

http://www.smrankedvoting.org/

If you want to learn more, they're having a meeting on Tuesday, April 6th at 7:30 pm in West L.A.. See the site for details.

Bullet Train to Frisco

There's a high-speed rail bond measure on the California ballot this November.

The bond is for ten billion dollars; nine billion is directed to building a bullet train between LA and SF through the Central Valley. Supposedly it would eventually (2020) be a 700 mile system, reaching south to San Diego and north to - wherever.

A lot of what I've read is based on the four or five year old business plan at cahighspeedrail.ca.gov. This plan claims top speeds of 220 miles per hour. LA to SF travel time would be 2.5 hours, for a fare of $24 - $42.

So? I guess fast trains are cool, but it's a bad time for bond measures, and who wants to wait 20 years for these things? Note that the plans claim a capital cost of $25 billion. (In 1999 dollars?) Supposedly federal funds would be brought in for some stuff. Seriously, does it take twenty years to build a railroad? How long did the transcontinental railroad take?

Anyway, the CA High-speed Rail Authority is currently holding a series of public hearings on an initial environmental impact report for this thing. There's one April 13th in LA.
(Note: April 13th is also an election day in many local municipalities.)