A Federation of Dunces
Take what happened yesterday a few blocks away. In full view of the few people in this town who monitor political conduct, the bullet-proof bad guys carved a deal that would cause Boss Tweed and the dead men of Tammany Hall to drool down their wide green neckties. Strongarmed by the jacklegged boobs and boobettes of the County Federation of Labor an oily collection of part-time crooks, fulltime crooks and recovering crooks the Mayor of Los Angeles, William Shakespeare Villaraigosa, hooked arms with his labor thugs/sponsors and the Dirty Dozen union toadies on the Los Angeles City Council to pull a slick one on the voters of Los Angeles. To complete the family portrait of these soul-sellers, they should have puffed on their baseball bat-sized cigars while donning green eyeshades and ebony sleeve garters.
Whisper, Whisper
For nearly 3 months, the union thugs and their political handmaidens have been perspiring over a way to quietly put into effect the Federations living wage plan for 3500 workers in the dozen hotels near LAX. The corrupt boys and girls of labor had the surrounding hotels in a hammerlock, and they werent going to let go. Taking their cue from the slightly chastened Mayor Villaraigosa, the union thugs, the Dirty Dozen on the City Council and their virginal valets knew they needed to sidestep the voters at all costs. They reasoned putting the living wage to a vote was too risky. They feared that even the few and the uninformed Angelenos who vote in off-brand elections probably would see through their dazzling skullduggery. Mayor Villaraigosa, who became a one-man Hispanic employment agency when he took office, conspired, you will recall, with his equally slippery ex-colleagues in the state Legislature last year to strike a truly devilish deal. Legislatively, they collaborated to make it possible for Mayor Moral Beacon to take over LAUSD from the School Board without submitting a petition to the voters. Except a judge intervened a few weeks ago, at least postponing the mayors seizure of the schools.
Smile for Camera, Mr. Mayor
Yesterday, with Mayor Moral Beacon keeping one hand on the gun on each hip, he convinced the warring boys to work out a plan that brilliantly once again circumvents voters. With the oily boys from labor invisibly perched in their laps, the derby-hatted City Council voted 14 to 0 to rescind an extension of the citys living wage law from beyond its previously narrow borders to cover the dozen hotels closest to LAX. Before the present hoo-hah, the living wage applied only to companies doing business, under contract, directly with city agencies.
Plan B Feels Familiar
Extending the reach of the living wage would have likely would have put the matter before the voters in May, at the behest of the business community. Hours ago, the City Council voted 12 to 2 to pull a classic bait-and-switch, in the phrase of Councilman Greig Smith. They voted to draft a mysterious substitute measure. Presumably, Plan B will restore the same features that characterized Plan A with one crucial, messy difference. Plan B would not be placed before the voters. The only unclear parts about Plan B are its contents. The suspicion is Plan B, brazenly, will be a carbon of Plan A. Who will notice? The public is historically inattentive. The Los Angeles Times, as the main communication channel for the community, is distracted by its long-term study of the dietary and salutary traits of the homeless hoboes on San Pedro Street.
