"A prominent supporter of the strong mayor initiative" might be referred to in the first paragraph as "The author of of the strong mayor initiative ..."

This watered down journalism ............. is what SacPress wants?

What a mess!! Shame on Mr Hiltachk and shame on Mayor Johnson!!

It must be nice to have so much time, energy, money to focus on a SMP... Personally, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of Mayor Johnson and his SMP.

I hope and expect " that the Appellate Court will side with the people," The people being Mr Camp and city residents whose mayor- a public servant- failed to involve and work with the public when developing a SMP and yet has the nerves, the audacity, to continuously state Judge McMaster isn't acknowledging city residents, ignores the people....

Never in my life have I been so disgusted with an individual, never have I had so much distaste for a local political figure that I now have for Mayor Johnson. This man doesn't see battles which are more immediately concerning???? He has nothing else to fight???? It must be nice to not focus on life and freedom... IT MUST BE NICE to be able to put all your time, energy and immediate focus on a self-absorbed SMP. And since he appears to be such a fighter I EXPECT him to fight with just as much determination, just as significantly, for life and freedom for city youth and if not he better use this SMP as practice for a bigger battle- a bigger fight THAT HE WILL HAVE once he's exhausted his SMP court run, IF he gives minimal effort towards LIFE AND FREEDOM. And this is not a threat- it is a PROMISE. Mayor Johnson engaging in a SMP fight and ignoring LIFE and FREEDOM is unacceptable and will not be tolerated and he will be held accountable.

Voters should know more about the man who is really behind the initiative. He has been the attorney behind many of the worst right wing causes pushed around California.

From Bossmayor.com, in the words of SacPress's frequent contributor and Mayor Johnson's spokesman, Steve Maviglio:

"Here’s what Maviglio wrote about that part-time initiative and its creator, just last month on the Calbuzz blog: 'Here in California, the initiative is Exhibit A for what’s wrong with our state’s initiative process. It’s the brainchild of the right-wing initiative factory propped up by an AstroTurf ‘citizens group.’ Its author is conservative Sacramento lawyer Tom Hiltachk, whose last failed effort was an attempt to divide California’s electoral votes.'

"Even more ironically, Maviglio blasts the part-time effort because it would weaken the legislature and hamper their crucial oversight, allowing the governor 'to drive the public policy agenda without accountability.'"

http://bossmayor.com/2010/01/written-by-doctor-of-darkness-of.html

'"We expect that the Appellate Court will side with the people," Hiltachk said in a press release Monday afternoon.'

I'm so tired of the Mayor and his supporters referring to SMP as what the people want. Who says this is what the people want? A list of questionably obtained ballot signatures does not reflect the will of the people.

READ HILTHCHAKCKCK'S APPEAL!!! There are at least two poison pills buried within it -- one opening the door to the ninth district seat and the SMI's silence on the measure (E&O count I), and the second opening the door to a discussion of the methods employed to gather signatures in support of the petition... hopefully pending investigation by a more official body....

I can't WAIT for Camp's response!

Mr. Hiltachk is a shill for conservative causes on all fronts but the move to mayoral control, or a unitary executive, follows a long line of cities that have recently done so, most notably recently Milwaukee. This is the trend towards authoritarian control by corporations that need coin operated politicians like Johnson and slick 'barristers or sham artists' like Hiltachk. He's little more than a hired gun for the leisure class.

Johnson is merely a representative for corporations, his backers. Mr. Hiltachk is the henchman and puppet-master. There job is clear: they wish to privatizes all of California's services but most notably education. Thus they will need to squeeze education by attacking proposition 98, gutting education.

Last Thursday, the attorney general released a title and summary for an initiative
<http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i889_initiative_09-0091.pdf>
that is one of the sixty-nine currently "on the street" seeking signatures to qualify for the November ballot. However, to my knowledge, this is the only one that would throw community colleges to the wolves. The initiative makes several changes to the state budget, most notably takes community colleges out of Proposition 98, and leaves our colleges fighting for funding the state general fund.

This is what they want. They want to make government fail so they can privatize every aspect of education. To do this they need a process like New Orleans, with little oversight, no transparency and complete managerial control. They form astro-turf organizations, make sure they are funded, usually in secret, and then hit the streets to convince people that public education is not in their best interests. They are the destroyers, not builders.

Johnson must go, his sweetheart Michelle Rhee is in the same killing fields in Washington, D.C. There, they have mayoral control and she is Chancellor of Education, assuring the public schools are not funded, fail, close them and then 'charter them up'.

If we do not stop them they will bankrupt California, slide all of our taxes, as the corporations pay none, to the silk pockets of the 'free market fundamentalists'. Be 'wery, wery careful, it is time to hunt rabbits.

See my posts at dailycensored.com

Dr. Danny Weil