Boy, if it's come to that -- if we're looking at city mayors to "take the lead," I think it is unlikely that they will step up and do so.

You'll forgive us Mr V but I for one have heard more hot air about 'jump starting' just about everything from jobs to peace processes to health care to education to shutting down Gitmo and we continue to languish on all fronts. Talk is cheap, go for it Mr V I for one wish you well but well...you know actions speak so much louder than words.

If we would pay more attention to more local elections, then we might have more mayors ready to listen to us. That and we might go a long ways towards having a better national government.

This is exactly how the repugs started...getting candidates into the pipeline. Mr. V. was on Meet the Press this weekend, and threw a nice monkey wrench into the 'Pauperize the citizenry' budget talks. He commented that beltway politicians are living on another planet. It was SO good to hear someone on an accesible tv program say that!! And he said the republicans especially are out of contact with what the people want. That kind of talk can get a lot of people raised up on a little hope, and a little hope can be very powerful.

Also to note, the Mayors actually passed that resolution asking to bring the troops home and use the money for local projects. They didn't do that because they are sweet people: they did it because their constituants are holding the Mayors feet to the fire.

May Mr. V. have a long and healthy life.

Sorry to burst your bubble, gentle readers, but Tony V. is primarily out for Tony V. In the current insane climate he can look good by advocating for war dollars to be spent "at home," he can act very green as long as no serious money is involved, and he's all for federal dollars to help build city infrastructures. Some labor folks still support him because he can leverage dollars into programs to employ their members. And compared to the usual suspects on the Sunday talk shows, he is able to voice a different perspective. But don't be fooled.

Yes, in a former life he was a staffer for the United Teachers Los Angeles, but he long ago came to enjoy the fancy suits and the celebrity golf tournaments.
He's bought into the neoliberal corporate agenda on education lock, stock and barrel, attacking his former employers UTLA now as the chief obstacle to reform in Los Angeles. In a recent op-ed in the LA Times, he included enough verbiage about fair taxes, full funding, etc. to lull the unwary, but teachers have seen his work up close and personal in the schools he runs, and it's not pretty.

The lesson here is that as long as politics is dominated by big money and politicians operate as individual entrepreneurs unbeholden to actual constituencies, we will continue to be betrayed by smooth talkers like the Mayor. No working class hero here, folks. Keep looking for a champion.

Good luck! First you have to convince jerry Brown that a 17 percent austerity cut won't create prosperity. He has his jesuit head up the ass of the frugality monster. Calif needs to be issuing bonds and investing in infrastructure and then tax the rich. So far Jerry has only taxed the poor. No justice there--or much money. He is brain dead! Austerity is the antimony of what California needs!

Good point, I1. Unless Dem politicians develop actual spines, and we shouldn't hold our collective breath, they'll continue to impose "austerity with a human face" rather than actually challenge the status quo. In "good times" it didn't matter, but in a fiscal crisis such as now the "race to the bottom" continues, just more slowly, with Dems in charge. As Martin Luther King pointed out in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," it wasn't the outright racists that were most dangerous, but the liberals who claimed to support him but did nothing.

As long as the only "industrial policy" we have is to export weapons, movies, and food, the future looks bleak, indeed.