I did too... ROFLMAO!!!

I predict, and I don't do so often, that he takes a job in DC for the DOE and Arne Duncan's charterization push in public ed. Of course, it too will be about as successful as KJ's SMI.... Good riddance...

The only 'speciousness' was KJ's rationalization of the benefits of his proposal, with not ONE SCINTILLA of evidence to support his claims. I believe Rob Fong captured it best when he challenged the veracity of the claims of '50,000 people' who 'signed a petition', given not only HUNDREDS of anecdotal refutations of just what subject matter was discussed when petitions were presented to signers, but also several investigations and actions against Arno Political Consulting, the signature gathering firm, for similar violations of law and simple human decency..., and the notion that this measure was anything about a 'vote of the people'... when in fact, it was one helluva shady process cloaked in the dark of night and secrecy of the backroom to paint deception as 'accountability' and the work of a few well heeled corporate thieves as 'the people'... This whole SMI debacle is filled to the gills with corruption, and attempted to open a pandora's box of insidious enabling of a willing petulant stooge of a mayor to abet such deeds... Frankly, I find the arguments, nay, demands, of those who voted 'no' on the measure to be most compelling -- First, there was no hue and cry to move this measure AT ALL, despite claims to the opposite by KJ and his crowd. Second, like it or not, process matters, especially when amending a city's charter/constitution, and there are quite deliberate steps provided in our state's constitution for doing so -- NONE of which were either acknowledged or adhered to by the SMI's backers, who seem cast aside the constitution of our state as some sort of pesky aside, in order to cynically bamboozle the same stupid people who voted for KJ in the first place, given the profound amount of evidence in his background that should have set off an atomic bomb of red flags against doing so... That the SMI's original drafters flaunted their attempted bypass via the inept drafting of such an instrument should, if the backers were so inclined, result in an errors and omissions claim against the firm and its manipulative Hiltchakkak (sp??? whatever...) in chief for just plain stupidity. Third, Thursday night's presentation of SMI backers, especially the cheap sales pitch by Kunel Merchant and that cheaper San Diego rep (who I am sure was paid more than he was worth by the measure's backers -- under the table, of course), was so fraught with lies and deceptions about the construct and comparisons of the measure that one could easily have driven a Mack Truck through the holes in the deal... It would have been interesting, and fun, actually, to have had an Oxford style debate on the matter, fully evidenced, and fully penetrating the flawed logic to leap to an SMI solution for problems that simply would never in a million years be enhanced by its adoption... In essence, the SMI has been our city's first incursion into 'big lie' territory, all on this very public stage... And KJ got caught in his abetting of the 'big lie', and demonstrated ever so clearly during his pathologically passive aggressive diatribe at the hearing's closing, overcompensating for just how culpable he really has been.... To paraphrase Shakespeare, methinks the KJ doth protest too much....

Mayor Meltdown's little lecture was better than a GLEE rerun, for sure....

KJ is a featured speaker at some charterization shindig hosted by the DOE next month, and Duncan has been courting him to mayoralize public ed in America for months. Duncan is no prize either,for he is reflective of the way Obama has turned his back on the progressives who 'brung him to the dance', on nearly every front, including healthcare and the sellout to ins co's and big pharma with no public option, Wall Street reform with no derivatives oversight and with a consumer protection agency hanging on by a thread in the Senate, with big oil and sanctions for deepwater offshore drilling until this BP thingy, and with public education and Duncan's 'charterization madness' in light of mounting evidence that charters just won't work for everyone -- of course Duncan has never taught in an elhi classroom in his life and is just a well placed well heeled Harvard lawyer associated with the DFER (Dem's (DINO's) for Ed Reform).... Btw, when you seem a Dem talking ed 'reform', head for the hills, for it's 'code' for 'charterization/privatization/choice' and union busting.... Given the Obama administration's 'magic hands' intervention to protect KJ from what would most certainly have resulted in a federal prosecution from the IG's report, I'd say that Duncan would indeed 'risk' appointing KJ to a federal makework job... They've attempted to conceal what really happened at St. Hope, and that's a fitting thing to do for someone 'in grooming mode' for some ephemeral post in DC.... I voted for Obama, and fundraised for him as well. I am PROFOUNDLY disappointed in his administration on almost all fronts.... However, the alternative, with Uncle Fester and his bimbette sidekick, would have been worse...

This has nothing to do with the Arizona law, which is perhaps the ONLY thing KJ has ever gotten right in his doomed incumbency.... Rumor has it (and just like Kathy Griffin says, "that's good enough for me"...) that KJ's going to 'pull a Palin' (and quit the mayor's office) to accept a makework job in DC for the Dept of Ed's Arne Duncan's effort to 'mayoralize' public education in America -- which is 'code' for 'charterization/privatization/choicing' of public schools, gutting what's 'public' in public education... and to be close to his 'fixer in chief', Michelle Rhee, Das Chancellor of DC schools... ('fixer' is one who aids in covering up crimes, btw, as was her role in 'fixing' allegations of child sexual abuse against KJ when KJ was a school marm -- this, per the IG's very interesting report on all things St. Hope).... For why this gutting of public ed won't work, please see Diane Ravitch's DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN SCHOOLS -- this year's must read policy wonk book on public ed in America..... Hopefully Ravitch will be visiting Sacramento this fall, btw.....

So, the IG's report into misuse of federal funds and mishandling of child sexual abuse allegations, collusive loans from the district to keep his teeny tiny nonprofit afloat because of abysmal financial management, shilling for a small group of well heeled real estate and corporate interests, and his public appearances denigrating his predecessor for everything from flood zone issues to world hunger... didn't raise a red flag for ya??? Some people shouldn't be allowed to vote -- and it appears those who voted for KJ are prime examples...

I spoke with people who were there late last night and early this morning, and whatever little 'boo's that were heard paled compared to KJ's tantrums... And no, I don't attend city council meetings. I write emails that get read by members, and use this new fandangled thing we call a 'television'...

Sheedy is far more honorable than KJ any day... She has never been accused of child sexual abuse, corruption, or running a teeny tiny little nonprofit into the ground... I'd say she's doing far better than poor ol' KJ...

His 'speech' had all the heft of the dribblings of one of K Streets paranoid schizphrenics, complete with jacket removal to expose enormous pit stains, as he strutted and strode to rationalize his misrepresentation (to put it mildly) of the SMI and the 'public input' he claimed as part of its manufacture.... Basically, he lied, and did so in an amazing piece of twisted and mangled jibberish unseen or unheard of in Council, save some of the paranoid schizphrenics to offer their wisdom on more festive occasions.... It was truly high theater - I wish I had had popcorn made....

Rhonda, I saw you on TV at the meeting -- good show!!! You were magnificent as always!!! Look below for my comments... Oh what shall we do with poor old Kevin....

At last night’s Sacramento City Council hearing with regard to Kevin Johnson’s newer kinder gentler SMI-lite thingy, and after a blistering 7 to 2 vote against requesting City Attorney Eileen Teichert to draft language to ballot the measure, Kevin Johnson launched into one of the most mangled twisted lies of his career, attempting to justify any benefit to be gained from the initiative. He lapsed into an historical diatribe that conflated his initial SMI, crafted and drafted in the dark of night by Republican lawyers as inside the GOP as one can get, hired by the ranks of the measure’s largely GOP (and DINO) backers, with the parallel efforts of the Council appointed Charter Review Committee, which he sought at every turn to derail while fronting for the campaign of his backers to gather signatures based on whatever convenient explanation was given to obtain as many signatures as possible, even if those explanations were outright lies. Now, his ‘team’ drafted a couple of pages of bullet points for Council consideration, having had his initial measure defeated in the courts for constitutional ineptitude and error, and drafting for ballot. After the damning vote, he read each member of Council their respective beads, in his own brand of argot that is as clumsy and pathological as any paranoid schizophrenic I’ve witnessed on the streets of downtown, punctuated by “but I accept your position”, or words to that effect. He was at once a petulant brat issuing epithets and drivel and anger at the discovery by Council that he had profoundly misrepresented his initiatives, seemingly in utter denial of press exposure and healthfully skeptical minds, and a defeated King Lear, reviled by his perceived ‘children’ on the dais, as he descended into madness… I must say, it was delicious to watch ��“ high theater, and all that. But he also appeared like the delusional Kelly Bensimone of the REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW YORK, flailing about in utter nonsense while attempting to rationalize what could be done if he was only declared king, and not making a whole lot of coherent points along the way. In ways, last night’s endgame was tragic, in other ways, it was just the silliness of a very naïve, very sad, and utterly inarticulate moron as mayor of this city. He is simply unfit for public office.

Potentially, yes. Their use of the water would have ordinarily required CEQA environmental reporting as a part of their permit process, which could potentially have taken years. This was acknowledged by the city attorney, and seconded by a report from the State EPA. The city's possible collusion was to allow Nestle to go forward without a permit, and therefore, without CEQA EIR's and the like, which was then stopped after the city attorney noted a potential violation of state law. The issue was 'accommodated' by allowing Nestle to go forward, for which KJ apologized to them, much like Joe Barton apologizing to BP, as an aggrieved party, rather than scolding them, and those who enabled them (including possibly his own office -- and perhaps he himself), for violating the permit process. The CEQA process could potentially have stopped the 'deal', for its use of water has impacts on water rights, aquifer access, and rate payer inequities, and how the 'deal' came forward in terms of process with absolutely no sanction by the city council. So, yes, much could have happened to prevent Nestle from getting that permit.

It isn't 'dereliction of duty' at all. The teabaggers caught wind of a legal term they'd like to bandy about knowing nothing of the elements of 'dereliction' in this case, or defining conduct as a violation. It's just more ridiculousness from ridiculous people who are probably racist, and would like to punish anyone who seeks to address the racism of the Arizona law.

Um, your logic is flawed. The charter prevents characters like KJ from going even further in backroom deals and the like, for every proposal must be aired in public. The SMI would enable these backroom deals without even being aired in public or being subject to Council approval. As for the Nestle debacle, conversations occurred between the mayor's office, the city manager's office, and Nestle regarding 'getting to yes' in the permit process which allowed avoidance of CEQA considerations, this per an inquiry by Member McCarty, and reported by the Bee -- I believe by Terry Hardy. That you aren't aware of deeper issues involved in this very insidious 'deal' is only germane with regard to your own awareness.

There is no way in HELL this measure should be brought to voters. This mayor has proved to be the single most corrupt Sacramento has seen - EVER! He has engineered secret deals to sell our already-paid-for water to Nestle at bargain basement rates, for jobs that never materialized, he has been behind scandal after scandal with regard to real estate developers attempts to skirt fees and protective processes, and he as twice now brought forward unprecedented powergrabs to the council, twisting language to Orwellian dimensions, one of which was so poorly drafted it failed constitutional muster. He has also behaved like a petulant brat when challenged by far wiser and saner minds, especially in his conduct toward the Charter Revision Committee, whose recommendations, after spending considerable time and thoughtful effort, are absent from this current SMI proposal altogether. He has been a national embarrassment, the subject of IG reports on the operation of his St. Hope charter schools, having defrauded the Americorps program to the tune of nearly $1 million, covering up allegations of child sexual abuse made against him directly, not once, but seven times, ducking potential prosecution by the skin of his teeth by a cozy federal administration seeking to charterize American schools at the expense of what remains of the 'public' in public education. Our city's charter has operated just fine for eight decades, and aside from minor alterations here and there, it has prevented the kind of corruption aided and abetted by this mayor -- and we need this decentralized authority model now more than ever, with a mayoral incumbent so willing to sell his soul to his backers for whatever he has garnered from them -- perhaps even protection from prosecution for his alleged past deeds with little girls. Perhaps this is why he sought office in the first place. But because of his odious performance in office, and for any future pretenders like him, we must not change Sacramento's fundamental constitutional charter, for to do so, and to do so in the manner Mr. Johnson seeks, with no available document of his proposal available to date, rushing to vet his proposal in one night, in a vain attempt to slide this greasy proposal in at the last moment knowing how it would grant unprecedented authority in one very corrupt figure, would be an abomination to this city's history of profound dimensions, and an injustice to the far more thoughtful minds that preceded this mayor and his tribe of thugs. CITY COUNCIL -- PLEASE VOTE NO ON THIS MEASURE!

Mo Mohanna's abusive ownership WAS the 'free market'... That didn't go so well....

Now THIS is going to be FUN! not to mention all that eye candy.....=).......

If Al Gore had won a relatively simple court case that should never have been tried in a federal court, in 2000, none of this would have happened.

That's true about at least the bar at the Julia Morgan. I guess I was caught up in the drama... Hell, I even drink there myself, on occasion... though they could ease up on the prices.... But that hotel is an abomination. It's unfortunate however that a more organic thing didn't develop over the years, even despite Mohanna's obfuscation... I hope the new plan works, whichever one is selected -- but I fear it won't.