American Glob

If you know someone who works for a city or a state, you’ve probably heard them say something like, “The pay isn’t great but I have really good benefits.”

I’m betting you’ve never heard the same person say, “I work for a very poor small town but I make a cool $800,000.”

Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.

An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.

It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 — with annual 12 percent raises — and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.

$100,000 for part time work? I must have missed that listing in the help wanted ads on Craigslist the last time I was looking for a job.

Maybe I should be checking at the porn listings. Is there a section dedicated to gouging the public that I somehow overlooked?

More at Memeorandum.

Mysterious posters of President Obama are popping up around Los Angeles which portray Obama as Heath Ledger’s interpretation of The Joker.

The posters feature a green haired Obama with the Joker makeup and the word “SOCIALISM” displayed at the bottom. See the pic to the left.

So far, no one knows who created the poster or who is posting it around LA.

I have previously remarked on this blog that the actions of Obama’s base supporters may come back to haunt them.

The trouble with propaganda is that in a free society it works both ways.

Sometimes it works for you.

Sometimes it works against you.

More details on this story are available at NewsBusters, Atlas Shrugs and Tammy Bruce.

Funny, I don’t remember hearing anything about Attorney General Eric Holder’s visit to a Los Angeles mosque. Oh, that’s because he purposely withheld information on the visit from the media and the public.

“Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. made a well-publicized visit to Los Angeles this week to announce stimulus grants to help fight drug trafficking and to help the victims of domestic violence. But in a quieter event not announced to the news media or public, Holder stopped at a mosque to meet with Muslim American youths.”

“The point was to engage the Muslim community here in Los Angeles and make sure they understand this administration’s commitment to work with that community,” Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.”

So why all the secrecy? I can think of only two reasons.

1. The Obama administration is not transparent at all, despite candidate Obama’s repeated campaign trail promises to be the most transparent administration in history.

2. Eric Holder is a coward. You know, the same kind of coward that he himself accused American citizens of being.

Either way, it still seems a bit odd that the attorney general of the United States would be going out of his way to meet with “American Muslim youths” at a mosque in LA.

Will Holder be making similar visits to American Catholic youths and American Jewish youths?

If and when he does, will those visits be hidden from the public as well?

The Los Angeles Times has published an extensive piece on enhanced interrogation and the CIA but left out one teensy weensy detail: The fact that enhanced interrogations of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed prevented a 9/11 style attack on… wait for it… Los Angeles!

In fact, their two page article omits that little fact 100 percent. They do, however, go out of their way to bash the very people who kept them safe by preventing the attack.

“Whether those methods worked is facing independent scrutiny for the first time only now, three months after President Obama banned the CIA from using them.”

“As part of an executive order shutting down the CIA’s secret prisons, the White House has set up a task force to examine the effectiveness of various interrogation approaches.”

“I cannot describe the specific methods used,” Bush said. “But I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary.”

“By then, Bush administration officials had become concerned with a shifting legal landscape. Congress had passed new laws on the treatment of detainees, and the Supreme Court issued a ruling that undercut the administration’s claim that detained terrorism suspects were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Convention.”

All this and they never once mention that the CIA has confirmed a terror attack on Los Angeles was averted through the actions of the CIA.

“The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.”

Excellent reports on this subject can be found at NewsBusters and Patterico.

For the best explanation of enhanced interrogation and the hypocrisy of the sanctimonious American left, do yourself a favor and read this essay by Michael Rulle.

Hat tip to Robert Davi at Big Hollywood.

Also be sure to check out the brilliant cartoon below from Michael Ramirez at Investor’s Business Daily called “The Hokey Pelosi.”