"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
On a leafy drive in west Los Angeles, at a newly renovated home with cathedral ceilings and a backyard pool, 4-year-old Kate Eisenpresser-Davis’ friends have been known to pose an intriguing question: “Why does Kate have three mommies?”
Lisa Eisenpresser, 44, and her partner, Angela Courtin, 38, share custody of Kate with Eisenpresser’s ex-partner.
Is this “progress”? Donald Douglas is somewhat skeptical.
And by “results,” I don’t mean merely a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. No, as I report at The American Spectator:
Tuesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee debuted a new “Hahn Got Me Out” Web site telling 36th District voters: “Janice Hahn helped steer taxpayer money to support violent, inner-city criminals who mocked police officers and were involved in breaking the law — including assault, rape, drug possession, and home invasions.”
On Twitter, the TRUSA PAC ad’s director claimed victory. “My ad is working. … Welcome to [the] bandwagon, boys,” Ehlinger wrote, adding later: “I woke up the sleeping elephant.”
Meanwhile, the “Give Us Your Money, Bitch” ad is nearing 600,000 views.
UPDATE: Death threats?
PREVIOUSLY:
When the Turn Right USA political action committee (TRUSA-PAC) launched their controversial online video ad attacking Democratic congressional candidate Janice Hahn last week, TRUSA-PAC experienced a denial-of-service (DOS) attack that prevented people from reaching their Web site. Now the PAC is asking the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to investigate the hacker attack:
Turn Right USA PAC (TRUSA) has contacted the FBI and other organizations after being the subject of extended Denial of Service (DOS) attacks on June 15 and 16. They have been asked to determine whether the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and/or the Janice Hahn campaign have hired, instructed or colluded with hackers in order to launch DOS attacks against not only TRUSA’s websites, but Ladd Ehlinger, Jr’s personal websites.
Less than 24 hours after TRUSA launched the world’s most controversial ad, the “Show Me Your Cash, B—h!” on youTube, TRUSA’s websites www.hahnshomeboyz.org and www.turnrightusa.org suffered prolonged and sustained DOS attacks until we blocked the offending IP address causing the problem.
See also:
PREVIOUSLY:
Little Miss Attila lives in LA and caught this interesting story:
CBS Investigative reporter David Goldstein has learned that a top LAX official has resigned his post after allegations surfaced that he was sexting and sending sexually explicit messages on his LAX-issued phone.
Goldstein tracked Michael Molina down at his house but Molina had no comment.
LAX CEO Gina Marie Lindsay confirmed the resignation to Goldstein late Wednesday afternoon. . . .
Molina was with LAX for three years. His reported salary: $192,400. . . .
Prior to working for LAX, Goldstein reports that Molina was a chief of staff for council member Janice Hahn. She told Goldstein, “Mike used bad judgment. I asked him about it and he resigned…and I can’t say more.”
So the Democrat running for Congress had a sex-texting pervert as chief of staff, and she was also the patron saint of L.A.’s gangster community.
The New York Times is on the story:
Ms. Hahn, a Los Angeles City Councilwoman and a Democrat, released a statement deeming the ad “degrading to women in the worst way.” . . .
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising e-mail, calling for $150,000 in donations to help fight “vile right-wing attacks like these,” while Ms. Hahn, in her statement, urges supporters to “help Janice fight back with a $25, $50 or $100 donation.”
The “vile right-wing attack”? Yeah, that’s Ladd Ehlinger Jr.’s latest viral video in the CA-36 special election.
Last night on MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell and Ed Schultz both discussed it. So, when it comes to reporting on “vile right-wing attacks,” this blog is at least 36 hours ahead of the mainstream media. The Democrats are demanding an investigation:
Hahn’s campaign believes there was coordination between Huey’s campaign and Turn Right USA PAC, the group that launched the ad. The Hahn campaign is calling for a Federal Election Commission investigation into the ad . . .
Hey, geniuses: There was no coordination. You can ask Ladd Ehlinger Jr., who is on Twitter.
But once everybody is finished jumping up and down and screaming about the video, how about somebody do some reporting on Janice Hahn and LA’s “anti-gang intervention” program? Because that looks like a pretty interesting story, as you can see in this excerpt from my latest American Spectator column:
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 LA’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. . . .
Please read the whole thing. As I noted last night, some have disputed the accuracy of the KTTV report, but the larger question — Is this “gang intervention” program an effective approach to fighting violent crime? — is entirely legitimate.
Just for starters, it’s kind of hard for Hahn to deny her connection to Bullard, given that she spoke at his funeral. And it is impossible for Hahn to deny that she has spent year supporting this crazy program, even calling for a tax increase to fund its expansion.
So once you major media genius types are through recycling Democratic Party talking points about “vile right-wing attacks,” you might want to try reporting, y’know, facts and stuff.
PREVIOUSLY:
The Torrance (Calif.) Daily Breeze has an article that would appear to exonerate Democrat Janice Hahn of accusations that her “gang-intervention specialist” program abetted violent felons. I say it “would appear to exonerate” her, because the article leaves unanswered several questions raised by previous reports about Hahn’s involvement in the program. In an attempt to clarify the issue, I sent an e-mail to the Daily Breeze reporter:
I just saw your story about the Ehlinger video and, having previously scanned the Breeze’s reporting about the Fox11 story from 2008, I am having trouble reconciling the two stories. In addition to convicted rapist Steven Myrick, Fox11 named three other individuals — Brandon “BL” Bullard, Marlon “Bow Wow” Jones and Demarco “DC” Chaffold — as having told police they were involved in the LA anti-gang program, specifically mentioning Janice Hahn’s name.
Is it now your contention that NONE of these individuals were actually paid through the program? That is to say, have the police reports been proven false?
Reading your own newspaper’s reporting from 2008, I gather that Bullard, Jones and Chaffold were all connected to Unity One, a non-profit anti-gang operation that received city money, and they had interacted with Hahn through her role in the anti-gang task force. So while the Fox11 report may have sensationalized the accusations, are we to doubt that Myrick, Bullard, Jones and Chaffold all viewed Hahn as a sort of political patron saint, and dropped her name when talking to police as a way of signaling that they were “connected” and/or “protected”?
More generally, there have been other examples (including Alex Sanchez and Hector Marroquin) of “gang intervention specialists” who evidently continued gang-banging while involved in these programs. Isn’t it fair to suspect that these programs are being exploited by the gangs as a sort of non-profit “legit” hustle, so as to access charitable contributions and government grants for their own benefit? And aren’t voters entitled to ask why, when it comes to fighting gang violence, the city is hiring gangsters instead of hiring cops?
Beyond the narrow matter of how this controversy affects the current congressional campaign, it seems to me that the efficacy of LA’s anti-gang programs is certainly a matter of dispute, and that further reporting on this subject is warranted. I write to you in the hope that you will clarify the facts, which your latest story does not seem adequately to address.
— Robert Stacy McCain
correspondent, The American Spectator
From a strictly common-sense perspective, there is an awful lot of smoke here for there to be no fire. I’m grateful to Richard McEnroe of Three Beers Later for calling my attention to this 2007 report about the arrest of Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin:
FEDERAL ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS AGENTS knocked first, then entered the Downey home of purported anti-gang activist Hector Marroquin on Wednesday, arresting him for selling silencers and weapons — including three assault rifles and a machine gun — to an undercover ATF agent.
The gun sales, some of which Marroquin, the founder of the gang-intervention group No Guns, transacted at his bar in the city of Cudahy, were captured on videotape and audiotape, said police officers present at his arrest.
Inside the house, the 51-year-old veteran of the 18th Street Gang surrendered as his daughter’s boyfriend, David Jimenez, a parolee at large, jumped out a window, tossed a gun into the backyard pool and climbed on the roof, authorities said. Officials said ATF agents then confronted him, he climbed back inside and was arrested and charged as a felon in possession of a gun.
Marroquin, an alleged associate of the prison-based Mexican Mafia, has grown accustomed to such intrusions, having been arrested many times over the years while at the same time being the founder and CEO of No Guns, which has received $1.5 million from Los Angeles City Hall via the much-criticized L.A. Bridges program designed by the Los Angeles City Council to keep youth out of gangs. . . .
Along with his wife, son and daughter, who police say is a member of the Hawthorne L’il Watts Gang, the Marroquins made more than $200,000 a year in salaries — public funds paid by L.A. taxpayers — to steer children away from gangs and help active gangsters escape the life.
You see what I’m talking about? The Daily Breeze seems to be quibbling over details in the KTTV report about Hahn and gangsters, and let’s grant that the KTTV (Fox11) report may have factual errors or a sensationalistic presentation. Yet the Breeze‘s approach to the story overlooks the much larger and general issue of whether LA’s “gang intervention” effort amounted to a taxpayer subsidy for thugs.
Meanwhile, Newsy had a video report about the controversy over the anti-Hahn ad by Ladd Ehlinger Jr.:
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Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com
We have to distinguish between (a) criticism of Ehlinger’s ad, and (b) the significance of the facts about Hahn’s record on the LA City Council. Ladd’s ad has already passed the 125,000-views threshold, BTW.
PREVIOUSLY:
Janice Hahn, Los Angeles City Council member and
Democrat candidate in CA-36 special election
An online attack ad highlighting a Democratic congressional candidate’s support for a controversial “gang intervention” program has generated more than 75,000 views at YouTube.com since its release Tuesday afternoon.
“It will probably hit 100,000 [views] by the end of today,” video director Ladd Ehlinger Jr. said in a brief interview Wednesday morning. Ehlinger noted that the video now requires an 18-and-older age verification after it was repeatedly flagged as offensive by liberal blog readers. “I don’t see them going and flagging any other rap videos,” the director said.
Funded by a conservative political action committee, the rap-themed video focuses on the record of Los Angeles city council member Janice Hahn, a Democrat who faces Republican Craig Huey in a July 12 special election for California’s 36th District congressional seat, vacated by the retirement of Democrat Jane Harman.
The video has drawn almost universal condemnation, not only from Democrats, but also from California GOP officials and the Huey campaign. Ehlinger has refused to apologize for the online ad, which one leading liberal blog called “Willie Horton on steroids.”
As David Weigel of Slate reports, Ehlinger’s objective was to “create something so shocking that it would get people talking about a spot on the Hahn record that no one had paid attention to.”
Justin Elliott of Salon claimed that the ad relies on a “debunked” 2008 TV news report. However, the Torrance (Calif.) Daily Breeze article cited by Elliott did not address other evidence that the controversial “gang intervention” program aided criminals.
Criticizing media he accused of being “too lazy to do research,” Ehlinger posted three further items about the scandal:
The indictment of Sanchez was also reported by the New York Times. In May 2008, Hahn urged a tax increase to expand funding for L.A.’s gang intervention program to $40 million. Here is the 2009 report by KTTV in Los Angeles about Crips gangster Steve Myrick, a career criminal who received a certificate of appreciation from Janice Hahn, and other gangsters who collected checks from the program:
And here is Ehlinger’s ad for the conservative Turn Right USA PAC:
As of 11 a.m. ET Wednesday, both the PAC’s main Web site and its “Hahn’s Homeboyz” site were non-operational due to unusually heavy Internet traffic.
A new viral video ad criticizing Democrat Janice Hahn’s support for a “gang intervention” program has drawn a swift response from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Within hours of the debut of the online ad — sponsored by the Turn Right USA political action committee — the DCCC posted an online petition “calling on Republican candidate Craig Huey to condemn this offensive and sexist ad, and demand that the ad makers immediately take it down immediately.”
The duplication of the word “immediately” in the DCCC’s message may indicate Democrats’ concern that the ad, directed by independent filmmaker Ladd Ehlinger Jr., will focus media attention on Hahn’s controversial record as a Los Angeles City Council member.
Hahn is the Democrat candidate in the July 12 special election for the California 36th District seat vacated by the retirement of Rep. Jane Harman. Republican candidate Huey’s second-place finish in the multi-candidate, multi-party primary was called a “major upset” by the Los Angeles Times.
UPDATE: The liberal blog Talking Points Memo calls the ad “Willie Horton on steroids” and reports reaction:
“This ad is incredibly offensive and sexist to all women,” Hahn campaign manager Dave Jacobson told TPM. “The producer of this ad should be ashamed of himself and Craig Huey should be ashamed to have this kind of thing produced on his behalf.” . . .
EMILY’s List, which has endorsed Hahn, called the ad “the most vile, racist, sexist ad we have ever seen” and also called on Huey to condemn it. . . .
California Republican Party spokesperson Mark Standriff distanced the party and Huey from the web ad.
“The video in question is highly offensive and totally inappropriate,” he said “and has no connection whatsoever to the Huey campaign or the California Republican Party.”
No word if DCCC, Jacobson or Standriff were asked whether it was “offensive” for the Democrat Hahn to turn hardened criminals loose on the street with taxpayer money to pay them as “gang intervention specialists.”
UPDATE II: Dave Weigel explains the special election background:
Democrats sort of bungled a low-turnout jungle primary for Jane Harman’s open seat. They expected it to produce an all-Democrat race between Janice Hahn and Debra Bowen, but Bowen fell short, and Republican Craig Huey got the other runoff spot.
There is a Memeorandum thread.
UPDATE III: Yet another Memeorandum thread, including this rather predictable reaction from Charles Johnson:
Are people really so dense that I need to explain what Ladd’s video was intended to accomplish? Or, if they are that dense, should I be content to leave it unexplained? I’m torn.
UPDATE V: “Ladd Ehlinger Jr. Goes Gangsta,” says Andy at AOSHQ.
MacAoidh at the Hayride doesn’t know if he would have “gone there.” Yeah, but you’re watching it, ain’t you?
UPDATE VI: Jean Merl of the Los Angeles Times:
Democratic leaders and others on Tuesday reacted angrily to what they characterized as an offensive and sexist YouTube video that tries to portray Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, a Democrat, as friendly to gang members.
Hey, Jean, just a suggestion here: You work at a newspaper, right? You’ve got access to Lexis-Nexis, right? So that means you could try a couple of quick searches and find out if how the video portrays Janice Hahn “as friendly to gang members” actually has any basis in fact.
If a candidate for Congress was, indeed, demonstrably “friendly to gang members,” I think that’s what they used to call “news.” Just sayin’ . . .
UPDATE VII: Southern California blogger Richard McEnroe reminds us of the sorry failed history of liberal “anti-gang” efforts.
UPDATE VIII: The controverial ad inspires a reporter for the “alternative” tabloid L.A. Weekly to tout Hahn as “likely to waltz to victory.” Yet the reporter is apparently willing to ignore his own newspaper’s reporting on the disastrous, expensive failure of L.A.’s “gang intervention” programs.
Questions: Is Janice Hahn’s record as a city council member a legitimate issue in her congressional campaign? And shouldn’t she have to face tough questions about her record of support for this very bad policy? Are journalists in California just underpaid P.R. shills for the Democratic Party, or are they just too lazy to be bothered doing any actual reporting?
UPDATE IX: The Rhetorican is impressed: “Now That’s an Attack Ad!”
UPDATE X: Feminist blogger Margaret Hartmann: “Hunt For The World’s Most Offensive Campaign Ad Is Over.”
Da Tech Guy thinks the video should, at least, get people talking about CA-36.