My Stomach is Bothering Me

I have a sensitive stomach and sometimes it acts up, like today. Nothing serious. It just makes it hard for me to concentrate on writing. There isn't much in the news worthy of writing about anyways.

For those who are interested in the great pension fraud, here is a nice post by Zuma Dogg. I recommend that you listen to the radio posts.

If you listen to the show, you will hear the speaker talking about a company called Vivendi. Vivendi is into privatizing water companies. Hmmm. Isn't it strange how LADWP seems to be intentionally doing things to upset the residents of Los Angeles? Lets not forget about the CIM Group, remember when they bought that land in Kern County that LADWP wanted to buy; but, after it came out they sold it to the City of Vernon; but, kept the water rights. That deal was never about a solar or wind farm, it was always about the water.

Something I found interesting was that David Martin, Vice President of CIM Group from 1999 to 2009, has just become the Director of Planning for the City of Santa Monica. My guess is that his old job paid better.

Lets follow a trail. Mr. Ari Swiller was a principal in the Yucaipa Private Equity Funds and managed their Board of Advisors with included Bill Clinton and Henry Cisneros. Our friend Zuma Dogg needs to follow the Ari Swiller trail. Mr. Swiller also was a Vice President of Ralphs. Now that is interesting. Now Mr. Swiller was a friend and adviser to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and was a partner in a company with David Freeman who became the General Manager of DWP. Oh yeah, Mr. Swiller also worked for Ron Burkle along with Mr. Villaraigosa, Mr. Burkle, he owns a lot of stock in Ralphs Supermarkets.

Anyways, Ari Swiller and CIM Group partnered together to buy the land in Kern County for the wind farm that LADWP was going to buy. Mr. Villaraigosa said that he had never discussed any of what DWP was doing, nobody ever asked Mr. Freedman. Well that land got sold to the City of Vernon. Recently, John Perez (the Mayor's cousin and speaker of the assembly) attempted to get Vernon decertified as a city; but, just couldn't get the votes. I wonder how serious he was or why anyone would have voted to not decertify Vernon.

Water, unions, Democrats, Redevelopment Agencies, Public Pensions, the Clintons, why do they all keep crossing paths? Did you ever get the feeling that there is an in crowd and that you are not part of it? There is a lady named, Mercedes Marquez, in 2009 she was appointed as Assistant Secretary for HUD's Community Planning and Development. She had previously been the General Manager of the City of Los Angeles' Housing Department. This is the same Housing Department that is under an FBI investigation that has been going on for quite a while.