The American Spectator : Attack Ad Goes Gangsta in California

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Attack Ad Goes Gangsta in California

By Robert Stacy McCain on 6.16.11 @ 6:09AM

Controversy highlights Democrat’s soft-on-crime record and championing of “gang intervention.”

Guy Benson called it “appalling… misogynistic… overtly racist, sexist, and generally despicable… totally beyond the pale.” What inspired Benson to unload every pejorative in his vocabulary was an online video attack ad against Los Angeles City Council member Janice Hahn, the Democratic candidate for Congress in next month’s special election in California’s 36th District.

Liberals were up in arms about the obnoxious rap-themed video — the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee used the word “immediately” twice in demanding that Republicans denounce the ad — but Benson’s condemnation was written for the conservative Townhall.com site. Benson was far from the only conservative repudiating the video, which was swiftly rejected by California GOP officials and by the campaign of Craig Huey, Hahn’s Republican opponent in the July 12 election.

As the video’s YouTube viewership skyrocketed on Wednesday morning, the man who directed it was laughing at the controversy the ad had provoked. “It will probably hit 100,000 [views] by the end of today,” said Ladd Ehlinger Jr., an independent filmmaker who was hired by a new political action committee, Turn Right USA, to produce what he calls “take-no-prisoners” attacks on liberal politicians.

Most websites appended a NSFW (“Not Safe for Work”) warning to the ad, which depicts Hahn as a pole-dancing stripper, with two black rappers shouting vulgar lyrics as they leer at dollar bills stuffed into her hot pants and demand money so they can “get back on the street” and “buy some more heat.” This lurid booty-shaking has been almost universally condemned, with several bloggers calling it the most offensive political ad ever made, but it has inarguably attracted widespread attention to the charge made by a narrator in the video’s opening segment: “In an insane effort to reduce gang violence, Janice Hahn hired hard-core gang members with taxpayer money to be ‘gang intervention specialists.’ She even helped them get out of jail, so they could rape and kill again.”

Hahn’s support for the “gang intervention” program was the subject of an investigative report by KTTV in Los Angeles in April 2008. That report focused on Steve Myrick, a member of the Crips gang who told police he was “working with Janice Hahn” and even had a certificate of appreciation from the councilwoman for his work with a summer job program. “That’s why I’m out [of jail] right now,” Myrick told police after he was arrested on a drug charge in 2006. “Miss Hahn got me out, like, three weeks ago.” He said he violated a police order banning him from a public housing project because Hahn “sent me over there to do some work. She got me off, so it was cool.” In 2007, Myrick was sentenced to life in prison for rape.

Hahn told KTTV it was “blatantly false” that she had made “direct payments” to Myrick or other gang-intervention workers, but defended the program’s hiring of convicted criminals: “I do know that it does take a different kind of person to be able to speak the language that convinces the shooters to not retaliate…. I see it as keeping the peace in a community that has been plagued by violence.” The report also exposed the case of Brandon Bullard, another Crips gangster who told police he was paid to work on Hahn’s gang-intervention program. Hahn spoke at Bullard’s funeral after he was murdered in February 2008.

That 2008 report also named gangsters Marlon “Bow Wow” Jones and Demarco “DC” Chaffold among those who had claimed Hahn as a patron, but KTTV did not mention other notorious examples of how L.A.’s anti-gang efforts have funded criminality. Mexican Mafia gangster Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin, whom federal agents of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms arrested in May 2007 on gun-trafficking charges, headed a group that received some $1.5 million in city anti-gang money. In February 2009, former Long Beach gang-intervention worker “Crazy John” Kennedy was convicted in the murder of a couple who were tied to an anchor and thrown off their yacht to drown. And in May 2009, a federal racketeering indictment named Alex “Rebelde” Sanchez as a top leader of the ultra-violent MS-13 gang. Sanchez had been one of the most high-profile gang-intervention activists in Los Angeles.

These spectacular failures of the anti-gang program were previously the subject of widespread media coverage, but political reporters covering the special election in California’s 36th District have all but ignored it as an issue in Hahn’s candidacy — even though the councilwoman actually proposed a tax increase to expand the program. Typical of media coverage of the election, the Los Angeles Times enthusiastically reported Monday that Hahn was endorsed by Bill Clinton, who said 36th District voters must choose between “a path of right-wing extremism or one of compromise and common-sense solutions.” Maybe California voters think it’s “common sense” to spend tens of millions of dollars in tax money to pay violent criminals, but Hahn’s connection to the gang-intervention scandal had gone unmentioned by the political press until Ehlinger’s video hit the Internet on Tuesday. Suddenly, the connection was newsworthy, even though Ehlinger had to take to his blog to excoriate the media for being “too lazy to do research” to verify the facts behind the ad.

While Ehlinger was busy Wednesday fielding media inquiries about the video (from CNN and National Public Radio, among others), the potential impact on next month’s special election was impossible to gauge. Some have predicted Hahn will “waltz to victory” in the district long represented by retiring Democrat Rep. Jane Harman, but others pointed to indications of trouble. Democrats had hoped that the state’s recently enacted “jungle primary” system (with multiple candidates from all parties on a single ballot, and the top two advancing to the general election) would permit an all-Democrat match-up July 12. But in what the Los Angeles Times called a “major upset,” the Republican Huey edged out Democrat Debra Bowen for second place in the May 17 primary. A conservative businessman, Huey has put more than a half-million dollars of his own money into the campaign, pushing a message of fiscal responsibility, while Democrats have tried to brand the Republican candidate as a Religious Right extremist. The new gang-banging PAC video — approved by neither Huey nor the GOP — is essentially the first direct attack on Hahn’s city council record.

The ad generated such a firestorm of controversy as to exceed even Ehlinger’s expectations. By late Wednesday, more than 200,000 people had watched it on YouTube, and a special “Hahn’s Homeboyz” website created by the PAC kept crashing because of unexpectedly heavy traffic. The video had clearly become yet another viral hit for Ehlinger (whom I previously profiled in an August 2010 feature for The American Spectator). A writer for the liberal Talking Points Memo blog, seeking an analogy to express his indignation, called the video “Willie Horton on steroids.” This comparison was obviously intended as criticism, but political historians will recall that the candidate targeted by that notorious 1988 ad actually ended up losing the election. Whether Janice Hahn will suffer the fate of Michael Dukakis remains to be seen.

About the Author

Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (64) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

ed| 6.16.11 @ 2:30AM

People are saying how aweful and racist and sexist this ad is.
Please...
This ad isn't sexist or racist. It just sucks. It is cluttered and poorly dubbed and edited.
It is hard hitting. Bringing up the failed gang counseling? Great. Keep that in her face.
But effective? Not a chance. I want nothing more than for this dem to be voted out of office. But Ladd's ads aren't going to do it.
The only decent ad he ever did was the Dale Peterson ad. And now, after seeing several more of them, I think that that ads awesomeness was more due to Dale Peterson rather than Ladd. His later ads had a much more amateurish feel to them.

Timothy L. Pennell| 6.16.11 @ 7:25AM

What are you people talking about? It's not a good ad? It's gotten 200,000 hits on you tube. It's being talked about. Written about.
And it's TRUE.
So, what's the problem?

Drunken Sailor| 6.16.11 @ 9:48AM

Bingo Tim.
It's a ad. Their job is to attract attention and get noticed. 200,000 = success no matter how bad the video may be. All PR is good PR.

SpiralArchitect| 6.16.11 @ 3:09PM

Yup - just look how PR has boosted these people along.
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011.....ians-2010/

ed| 6.16.11 @ 5:50PM

Yeah, it got a bunch of hits. And it's true. And that's well and good.

But the ad sucks. It is amateurish. You want to know a good ad? The nuculear "Daisy" ad. Man, that was powerful. When I saw that thing, I didn't know who or what it was for (thirty years after the campaign). But I did know that I didn't "want to go into the darkness", so since Johnson was offering a way out, I immediately supported him.

You see? I was generations removed from that campaign. Didn't have any skin in the game. Yet that ad *moved* me. Like you want to move the independents and fence sitters and undecided.

Look, Ladd doesn't really need to convince me. I'm convinced already. I like his underlying message. I just think his ad sucks at reaching the independents and fence sitters and undecided.

Here is what I suspect happens with Ladd's ads. The base loves them, because they are hard hitting and fearless. I give him that. Ladd is brave and fearless and willing to *get in their faces!* Which is awesome.

But the above mentioned undecideds probably reject his ads. Because they are a mess. Sloppy. Not well crafted.

Michael L. Hauschild| 6.16.11 @ 6:37PM

Did anybody notice how tacky it was that Reagan's shoelace was untied at the "Tear down this Wall:" speech.

Idiot.

Occam's Tool| 6.16.11 @ 8:07PM

Gee--A Democrat in LA is a Scumbag? I'm Shocked!

James| 6.16.11 @ 7:17AM

It's definitely sexist in my opinion
James

Dan Hirsch| 6.16.11 @ 9:01AM

James,

Simple question: How do you define "sexist?"

Thanks,

infidella| 6.16.11 @ 6:18PM

Treating a woman differently than a man in the same situation, especially whe it is derogatory. You might see a male politician as a "gangsta" in a ad about this subject, but he would not be portrayed as the "b****" or the "h*" in a rap song, which was what the ad implies ( Why else have rappers in the video, rather than gang members NOT rapping?)

It's got two layers -- the objectification of woman as stripper AND the connotation of women as represented in rap songs.

(Admission -- Yeah, I was a feminist in college. I've since moved on, but I can still see the symbolism in an ad like this, )

Jeff Lee| 6.16.11 @ 10:02AM

Who cares? Anything that makes liberal pukes feel uncomfortable is good by me.

The Bishop| 6.16.11 @ 7:33AM

Whether poor or sexist, isn't it awful that the underlying malfeasance and stupidity of Hahn's program were utterly ignored until this ad surfaced. Sort of takes away from Neil Diamond's line: "LA's fine, the sun shines, most the time, and the feeling is laid back..." That LA is long gone.

SpiralArchitect| 6.16.11 @ 3:12PM

Quite the oppisite. The issues outlined would clearly show that LA is still laid back, everyone notices the suuny days & everyhting is just fine. If people would have done soemthing about thsi previously then what you perceive would be the case.

Either way the issue is now the video and still no one seems concerned aboutt he true problem, the corruption. Absurd.

alice moore| 6.16.11 @ 8:06AM

Any opponent of the incumbent should portray her actions as bribery. I know this was attempted in the video. That point was lost with the loud rap music and pole dancing.

Paying Blood money bribes to thugs is as old as time itself and about as effective. About 1000 years ago, King Aethelred the Unready of England, payed Danegeld to pay off Viking invaders.

Maybe equating Hahn with King Aethelred may be more effective. The public may like the term Unready.

Dai Alanye | 6.16.11 @ 11:03AM

A scholarly note:
His name and nickname were Aethelred Unrede, which translates as Noble-counsel the Ill-counseled. A great pun.

Melvin| 6.16.11 @ 8:14AM

Sexist, Racist, who gives a flying fornication. We are so wrapped up in the minutia of not offending any damn body that the Liberals are tearing this Country apart.
But oh no we dare not slap the masses up side the head with the truth, because that would be bad and hurt someones feelings.
Do you think for one moment that George Washington and the rest of the Continental Army gave a rats backside of how the British Red Coats felt, while fighting for our war of independence? Do you think the Hessian German mercenaries gave gave a moments thought about the man feelings of the Continental Army?
The answer is Hell No! They realized that they were in a war, and anyone that is ever been in a war not it's not the prettiest or political correct things to partake in.
People, purge this Communist Liberal feces that has infected your that lump of muscle that sits upon your shoulders. We are in a war for this Country. Some call it a Cultural War, some call it the beginnings of a Civil War.
Do you think for one stinking moment that someone is going to pay attention to an political add with a suit with perfectly coiffed hair, and patriotic music murmuring in the background reading a teleprompter in how Hahn's been selling herself to the gangs, in politically correct language.?
Hell no! but if a political add is produced that shows Hahn for what she truly is, a prostitute for gangs in Los Angles, and it spares all this warm and fuzzy crap that the Republicans like to produce, then I say go for it.
It will be a broadside of waking people up into the underbelly of Liberalism. This is an add that gets people thinking and talking. I lived in California for almost six years, I witnessed the LA riots, I witnessed gang warfare two blocks from my rented house. Gangs run all of LA, San Bernardino and everything in-between right up to Palm Springs, then they take a left turn and run gang activity into the high desert of Joshua Tree, and Twenty-nine Palms.
Gangs were even infiltrating the United States Marine Corp at the Stumps, this is a little known fact that the Marine Corps likes to keep under wraps and not admit. This was during my tour from 86-91 so I couldn't tell you about right now, but I seriously doubt anything has changed.
Reginald Denny got the bejesus knocked out of him while he was yanked out of his truck during the Rodney King riots and some gang banger dropped a concrete block onto Denny's head ant eh LA court system gave this SOB a slap on the wrist because they didn't want to incite any more riots.
This frigging punk beat Denny within an inch of his life and the LA powers that be didn't want to through the book at the gang bangers who were mostly responsible for the carnage that prevailed in South Central.
The best thing that could happen to California right now is have a earthquake and let that cesspool of human refuse slip beneath the waves.
Hahn, does not need to go to Congress, now, or in the future.

Stormzeye| 6.16.11 @ 8:04PM

Good post Melvin. Great article. Fabulous video. I just checked it out and it has over 400k hits! Don't you love it when the "progressive" traitors get scared that the Conservatives might be coming after them. Political Correctness is Fascism.

Donna| 6.17.11 @ 8:11AM

I am with your Sormzeye. I thought this ad was great! Not well made but great all the same. Keep em coming!

obadiah| 6.17.11 @ 8:21PM

My reading of history is that politicians and rulers who go out of their way to offend large blocs of constituents do not prevail, at least in the long run.

JimmyMac| 6.16.11 @ 8:17AM

Sadly, this ad will probably be seen by most in the LA area as an endorsement of Janie Hahn. LA, as is California in general, is a lost cause.

Con Chef (NB) | 6.16.11 @ 8:25AM

Jesus, this whole thing sounds like an episode of "The Wire." Yeah, the video was terrible, but the point remains. THIS is the type of crap libs do with out tax dollars. And its disgusting.

Matthew Quigley| 6.16.11 @ 8:32AM

The 'rats are screaming, and so are the squishy 'rat butt kissing "respectable" Republicans. Therefore, the ad has hit its target square between the eyes and is working. That's how you know when you've done right: You get the enemy angry, and the 'rats and "respectable" Republicans ARE the enemy.

You don't win a war with a deadly enemy by using Marquess of Queensbury rules...you kick them in the balls and then ram their teeth down their throats before you chop their heads off with an ax. That's the only way to treat any campaign against the Commiecrats. It's stupid and suicidal for Republicans or Conservatives to put up this front of being "gentlemanly"...that only loses elections and takes us closer to being a vassal Marxist state paying jizya to the jihadis.

Dan Hirsch| 6.16.11 @ 9:12AM

Matthew;

I prefer your namesake's method of taking enemies out using the "Sharps" rifle from 700 or 800 yards out. It seems you would avoid a 'lot of dry cleaning' that would result from your 'kick-ram-chop' approach, and since they never saw you, they'd not know how to respond...

For real info on the rifle used in the movie go here:

http://findarticles.com/p/arti.....n15402263/

I find this article by Mike Venturino credible, after all it is on the Interweb...but I'm no expert.

Don't tread on me...

Gary| 6.16.11 @ 9:24AM

Mr. Quigley,

You are 100% correct!

According to the rules, Republicans have to get an A+ on the final exam to get a C in the class. Democrats, on the other hand, automatically get an A in the class even if they flunk the final exam, which they do on a regular basis.

Screw the rules. Win the fight. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us.

Gary

irish19| 6.16.11 @ 12:40PM

"Screw the rules. Win the fight."
Given where we now find ourselves, I would have to agree with that. We keep bringing fists to gunfights in an effort to not offend. Time to misbehave.

Occam's Tool| 6.16.11 @ 8:09PM

Matthew---I've not seen you before---but I like your style.

"Let the Thing Be Pressed." The Abester.

Michael Tomlinson| 6.16.11 @ 9:03AM

I've not seen nor will I see the ad, but what is really disgusting is the program Hahn and Democrats put into practice that put criminals onto the street to prey upon the poor and innocent Hispanics, African-Americans and other victims of Democrat inspired hate crimes (all crime is hateful). The Democrats who put these thugs on the streets should be behind bars and that includes Hahn.

We all owe a debt of thanks to Al Gore Jr. and the Willie Horton ad it helped sink Michael Dukakis. Let’s hope this YouTube ad does the same to this Godmother of Gangsta Crime Janice Hahn.

arlo price| 6.16.11 @ 9:54AM

Truth Hurts, eh?

Let's roll

Steve A| 6.16.11 @ 9:57AM

Somebody creats an ad that hurts Democrats feelings & it is front page news. A Democrat creates a policy that results in women being raped by convicts who should be locked up & barely a murmur. Welcome to the USA 2011.

dc| 6.16.11 @ 11:04AM

Steve A, not just rape, not just murder, but taxpayer-funded rape and murder. It isn't enough for Dem politicians to actively support violent criminals, they insist on doing it with your money. And then whine like 2d graders when anyone suggests that maybe, violent criminals should NOT be entitled to taxpayers' money.
As long as Republicans in CA or anywhere else insist on fighting with one hand tied behind their backs, and one or two feet in their mouths, while the Dems routinely bring out the brass knuckles, union thugs, deputize criminals, openly mock the law, etc., America (with CA leading the way) will continue to deteriorate into serious civil unrest and, inevitably, outright civil war. IF the Republicans, or some other party, actually stands and fights for what the Constitution used to mean, and runs on a platform of "it's YOUR (meaning taxpayers') money, not the government's to piss away on their destructive social re-engineering projects", then the nation still has a chance. I'm not optimistic.

Louis Jenkins| 6.16.11 @ 10:29AM

Rapists, molesters, child killers, pole dancers, lions, tigers, and bears, good grief. Kalifornia has gone crazy. Letting the interned govern the interned is about as stupid idea as I've ever heard. It is well past time to allow La Raza to have the dump. There were few places safe during the LA riots, except where the owners were well armed defenders.

Occam's Tool| 6.16.11 @ 8:14PM

What I did during the LA riots was pick up my gorgeous Asian girlfriend, THANK her landlord for knocking on her apartment door with a crowbar to brain me with if she gave me the heave -ho (I was glad another responsible male was looking out for her in this), find a large hotel (Tourists get the best protection in these situations), and hole up each night.

Each day one could go to an ATM and take out money for the next night. It was "Ozzie and Harriet go to Beirut."

What the riots taught me was (1) my GF was gorgeous but too strange for me, and (2) there was no future living in LA for a guy who wanted to raise a normal family. I left in 1993 and have NEVER regretted it.

Big Leo| 6.16.11 @ 10:59AM

Analyze the average commercial. The announcer's voice is annoying, the music is loud, obnoxious and repetitive, and it's laced with sexual innuendo. These are the commercials that are remembered, and it doesn't matter that you remember them with disdain. That's the nature of how advertising works.

This particularly obnoxious and vile commercial also has the rare virtue of being true.

RCV| 6.16.11 @ 11:31AM

The chances of Janice Hahn going the way of Michael Dukakis are slim to none, and this roundly-rejected attack ad has sealed her victory. The only reason Hahn didn't win outright in the special election is that there were three strong Democratic candidates who, together, garnered more than 75% of the vote, including candiates far more liberal than Hahn. The Republican Huey got into the runoff by capturing a whopping 22% of the vote, and thanks to this ad, will be lucky if he maintains that percentage in the final election.

Steve A| 6.16.11 @ 11:57AM

RCV, What's your point? Same old story. Liberals win, CA continues to self destruct. Since you live there, I think it may be a bit like being in a horse race with blinders on. You have a limited perspective & you root for your horse. Out here, watching from a distance, it's like looking at a slow motion train wreck. All that really remains is finding a creative way to blame conservatives when it all melts down.

I hope you all get a handle on things. It's a shame as CA has much to offer.

RCV| 6.16.11 @ 1:18PM

California will be just fine, Steve, no matter what it looks like to you guys in the lesser territories.

More seriously, the ad in question was vile, and it embarrassed the GOP candidate Huey greatly. Whoever was behind it did him a great disservice. The issue it addresses was a serious one, and if it hadn't degenerated into the racist and sexist cartoon quality, might indeed have precipitated a debate worth engaging in. But while this kind of garbage may be popular for the true believers, it doesn't go over well in this state, and it's a genuine shame for Mr. Huey, who appears to be a decent guy.

dc| 6.16.11 @ 2:02PM

I was waiting for the smug, provincial arrogance to ooze out of you, RCV, you never disappoint in that very limited respect.
It takes a special kind of see-n0-evil condescension to brag that a state that everyone outside of it (and even some inside) recognize is circling the drain, utterly unable to govern itself or pay its bills, will "be just fine." I think the massive population exodus (made to look better by the influx of new welfare addicts), and worse, the exodus of productive enterprises out of your socialist utopia to states that still value freedom and don't simply see businesses as tax crops, belies your idiotic (or drug-induced) optimism.
Whatever the nature of the video ad, the underlying policy, the confiscation of taxpayer money to subsidize rape and murder (and it's musical celebration) is far, far worse. But I realize that saying so "doesn't go over well" amongst people like you, who have long since abandoned common sense for the worship of "diversity" and other fig leaves for soft totalitarianism. Rot in your own funk--leave the rest of the country out of it. Or just have the courage of your convictions and secede.

RCV| 6.16.11 @ 2:42PM

dc: Even red states like Texas have massive budget deficits, and California's is already shrinking as its creative and innovative economy rebounds. Talented, creative, entrepreneurial people continue to swarm here, to Silicon Valley and to Southern California. They're drawn here because there is a large critical mass of similarly talented people to work with, because there is a sense of tolerance and progress and optimism instead of the constant whining and badmouthing of American culture we hear from your side each day. We like it here, and we like it in America. Unlike you, we don't see our country as a failure, but a resounding success -- where more people are freeer and able to live their lives as they choose than at any time in history.

Do we have problems? You bet. For those who want a quieter, less competitive, more conservative environment, they're welcome to leave, as they have.

dc| 6.16.11 @ 3:53PM

RCV, stuck in a drug-induced haze, thinking it's 1960, and your would-be totalitarian leftists haven't yet destroyed "American culture" and what's left of freedom. What freaking planet are you living on? There is no less free state in the nation than California. Your "Air Resources Board" rations your energy. Your gas prices are the highest in the lower 48. There is little/no manufacturing left. Yes, you've got Indians and Chinese in Silicon Valley, stealing technology as fast as they can, and building little electronic circuits that get sold to productive companies that locate elsewhere. Congratulations. The only way to "compete" in California is to become, effectively, a government-owned company and convince your employees that the pretty weather is worth a cost of living 2-3 times what it is anywhere else in the country. How's that working out for you? You can say you're comfortable in your tax hell, where eco-communist freaks run your government, where the culture is SF queer theory--and pretend it's America. It's not. I've lived all over the country, including in California for 8 years. It's a beautiful, once and potentially prosperous place, inhabited by the worst kinds of utopian socialists--like you--who have ruined it and now pretend that America should be more like it, instead of letting it go and wishing it well. I'm sure you'll be first in line for the other 49 states' taxpayers' money when, not if, you go bankrupt. In a language you can understand: No, gracias. A fuera!

RCV| 6.16.11 @ 4:56PM

Listen, dc: California, New York and the other blue states have been subsidizing your sorry butts for the last twenty years. You can look it up if you want to on the many sites that track taxes paid by states versus money doled out. Your little red state havens have been living off the productive innovative blue states for a long time, and will continue to do so.

Your nostalgia for an American past that never existed is what fuels your discontent. When the country was initially founded -- and a great advancement in liberty it was over the monarchies that prevailed at the time -- self-government was still limited to white male property owners. Americans to their credit liberated three and one half million black human beings held as chattel 150 years ago; women were finally granted a voice in self-government less than 100 years ago; it wasn't until the 1960s that black Americans in the South finally won their right to vote and the freedom to live, work and go to school on an equal basis.

We now live in a country where many more people have a voice in their own self-government than every before in history. And we live in an age where you are free to express your thoughts instantly to millions of people around the globe with a touch of the button, as we on this site do every day.

Does it cost more to operate an ordered society in the 21st century that is increasingly complex, urbanized and globally indterdependent. Yes. So stop whining, and be grateful to God for the blessings we all share and stop longing for a nirvana of the past that never existed.

dc| 6.16.11 @ 5:09PM

Listen, you pompous jackass, your writing is as sloppy as your thinking.
Even taking your theory as useful, that because of some measure of taxes paid into the federal Leviathan as opposed to direct payments from the feds, blue states are morally superior and more productive than red states, you simply can't account for reality, which is that productive businesses and people are hemhorraging from blue states as fast as they can. When was the last time a significant manufacturing operation was started in California? Other than expensive "peaker" natural gas plants, you'd probably have to go back to the early 1980s. Every real trend bucks your silly statistic--and I would be more than happy if whatever "subsidizing" you think your wonderful bankrupt paradise has done for us poor boobs in red states would STOP. We need nothing--nothing from you or your kind and will thank you to secede and go away. Or at least not stop us from doing the same.
If you'd like to try amending the Constitution to ensure that we red staters pay what you think we should for your socialist utopia, give it a shot. Until then we have every right and will make every effort to oppose asswipes like you who think you have a right to our money, and who insist on dragging the entire nation into the shit-soup of insolvency and welfare addiction that now, unfortunately, characterizes California.
There is no nirvana, past, present or future--only socialist utopians like you yearn for that. I prefer ordered liberty, and that's not to be found in over-regulated California, populated by arrogant pricks like yourself, for whom more government is the solution to everything. Please stay where you are--and by the way, get an effing job, so maybe you'll have to get off the hallucinogens you're taking.

RCV| 6.16.11 @ 5:32PM

I've been working productively every day for the last 46 of my 64 years, dc, and paying more in taxes than you'll ever earn in your sorry life. I don't need your dime or your whining. What California has produced in recent decades is not the 19th century manufacturing rust you're talking about, but the innovation, technology and intellectual property that now dominates our economy. The people I know who've left the state are those in dead-end careers that time has passed by. Young innovative, creative people continue to come to California, in no small part to get away from attitudes like yours.

Occam's Tool| 6.16.11 @ 8:30PM

Dear RCV,

I must profoundly disagree with you on one topic.

In Medicine, Minnesota has a far superior infrastructure to California. So does Texas. This is in part due to the swamping of Cali hospitals by 3rd world illegals, which is even worse in Cali than in TX, but mangled care did a number on California.

My career as a psychiatrist has been much more productive and fun in AL and MN than it could ever have been in CA. And I experienced quite a bit of private medicine in CA before leaving.

I must also point out, strongly and precisely, that my experience in California at UCLA from 1989-1993 demonstrated to me that California did a MUCH, MUCH worse job of taking care of their indigent mentally ill than Alabama. As a rural psychiatrist practicing in AL as an inpatient doc from 1993-1997 and a resident practicing as an inpatient doc from 1989-1993, this was hammered home to me in breathtaking detail.

The Mental Health treatment of the most vulnerable in CA is THE WORST I have seen in all the States I've practiced or trained in. That includes TX, NM, AL, CA, KY, MN. CA was even worse than New Zealand in its treatment of the mentally ill, and every other state I've mentioned, including Kentucky and Alabama, was better than New Zealand.

You know law, but I know Psychiatry and Medicine. I would not want to be a patient at Kaiser Permanente or UCLA if I had a choice of Mayo or University of Alabama, Birmingham (The Standard textbook in Internal Medicine, Harrison's, was originally written by an UAB internist.).

RCV| 6.17.11 @ 11:14AM

I do not doubt for a moment your comments on treatment of indigent mental patients. I have had, I must say, exquisitely fine medical care at both UCLA and Cedars-Sinai hospitals here in Los Angeles, but obviously I am far from indigent.

Michael L. Hauschild| 6.16.11 @ 7:22PM

Steel in your words, polymer in your hand, _____in your sights. (I did apologise by the way.)

Mike| 6.17.11 @ 1:42AM

Just don't expect the rest of us to pay for your screwed up state and your attitude!

Drunken Sailor| 6.16.11 @ 2:56PM

"might indeed have precipitated a debate worth engaging in"

But how would there even be a debate when everyone (read media) out there was ignoring it? To debate one must know about the subject. Where there better ways to get this message out? Probably. Where they tried? Unknown. Now the subject is out there and it can be debated. However, the media has already turned the debate into sexism and poor taste, not that the accounts depicted were true or not. Time will tell if it is effective. Afterall 3 weeks ago no one thought anything was going to happen to Rep. Weiner either.

Occam's Tool| 6.16.11 @ 8:18PM

My Dear RCV,

California is NOT fine, has NEVER been fine since I've been an adult, and, until you get another Reagan for Governor with a Republican controlled legislature, will never BE fine. You poor fellow, you have no clue what normal looks like. I admire you greatly, but you remind me of my friends in LA who used to warn me that by moving to Alabama I would be moving to the backwards place known as "America."

May G-d Bless and keep you well, you crazed man ;).

RCV| 6.17.11 @ 11:11AM

Occam, my equally dear and admired friend, that's why they make 27 different kinds of chewing gum. Like you, I have traveled widely and lived in a number of places. Your move from LA was truly our loss, but you couldn't get me to leave California for the more bucolic havens in our country if you tried. God bless you, as well kind sir.

wolflen| 6.16.11 @ 1:38PM

hahn..hiring hispanic criminals to "help" fight gangs...thats about right..

lets remember her brother, former mayor of los angeles (el A) ...who proudly proclaimed ".. los angeles is a mexican city.." her voice is in harmony with that statement..along with all the dems who run the city..with an agenda to making that statement more and more of a reality ... she can do no wrong...will she win..bet to it...and bet heavy..

Steve A| 6.16.11 @ 1:40PM

Yes, sometimes the straw between our teeth cuts into our vision out here in the old colonies:) Glad to hear your optimism. Quite a shortage of that these days.

Flee| 6.16.11 @ 3:14PM

Where was the liberal and Dem outrage at the ad depicting a Paul Ryan look alike pushing granny over the cliff? The subject there is not even based loosely on any facts yet this viral video sounds like it is based on sound research of the facts surrounding Hahn and her gang programs. As a resident of LA County I would be pleased if this seat went to anyone other than a Dem with ties to the city council. Linking them with gang members is quite appropriate. They both prey on the unwilling citizenry.

Bob Grant| 6.16.11 @ 3:40PM

Yes. I strongly favor mocking gangster rap and liberals. To do it in one fell swoop is genius.

Kudos?

Bob Grant| 6.16.11 @ 3:42PM

That would be Kudos!!! No question about it. Heh.

Matt | 6.16.11 @ 4:12PM

Even if you hate the commercial, you're hating it because you actually remembered it. And you remembered it.

Clark| 6.16.11 @ 8:46PM

Yet another illustration of the obvious principle: If the "respectable" people won't address an issue, then the "unrespectable" people will, in their unrespectable way.

jolizoom| 6.16.11 @ 11:38PM

I have three observations:
1) This was an incredibly offensive add
2) This is exactly the reason the feds want to take over the internet, so that they can prevent legitimate stories like dollas for gangstas from seeing the light of day
3) The end tag is priceless: "Definitely NOT authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee--so s--k it, McCain-Feingold."

THIS is EXACTLY the kind of thing we need to be doing--this is what gets us past the media gatekeepers and into people's minds. If we could do it tastefully that would be preferable, but tasteful doesn't get people talking.

I don't like the ad itself, but finding a way to get around gov't restrictions on campaign ads and making good use of the technology we have--priceless.

weddingdresses | 6.17.11 @ 5:40AM

I don't like the ad itself, but finding a way to get around gov't restrictions on campaign ads and making good use of the technology we have--priceless.

Bill Kamenel| 6.18.11 @ 1:37PM

The controversy surrounding this "ad" is non-sense.
Anyone who understands TV spots knows that no one can afford a 1:30 ad spot.
It was done to be controversial, not to be aired on TV.
This can only happen in a "You Tube" universe.

Mutch Moore| 6.19.11 @ 1:36PM

Bill Kamenel, you sum it up well and tell it like it is in this new "YouTube universe."

weddingdresses | 6.20.11 @ 2:27AM

Yet another illustration of the obvious principle: If the "respectable" people won't address an issue, then the "unrespectable" people will, in their unrespectable way.

shipley130| 6.20.11 @ 10:11PM

The liberals have always thought that you could love the poor to prosperity. Shower them with Love Money will get them to get off their backs. That caused us to shower them with more love money due to their endless love children.

Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 6:17AM

Guy Benson called it "appalling... misogynistic… overtly racist, sexist, and generally despicable... totally beyond the pale." What inspired Benson to unload every pejorative in his vocabulary was an online video attack ad against Los Angeles City Council member Janice Hahn, the Democratic candidate for Congress in next month's special election in California's 36th District.

珠海网站建设 | 7.10.11 @ 3:29AM

I read it and feel the same.I like it now.

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