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Posted 8/14/09 We have a little political play to present wherein we ask a few questions, take a look at shadows past and speculate on the ghosts of parallel futures. NO it’s not the twilight zone, it’s something far less real - Los Angles politics. Quick, what does Downtown Playboy Prince Antonio, uber playboy ex-president Bumpin’ Bill, anti-playboy ex VP Green Al, $50,000. sandwiches and squeaky clean President Cool-O have in common? A hint, two attractive ill fated ingenues are involved, but no sex please - unless you call a three way political deal that insiders are buzzing about, the ultimate politician sex. Let’s see if we can make a treasure map of these dirty dancing steps. What a chorus line. What a cast. Here’s the libretto- two intrepid young female reporters are sent off by Duke Al of Green to do a story in the wilds of Korea, they get imprisoned by Bush’s evil axis of North Korea. Desperate to get them back, the lines to power and money around the country light up. Was the deal struck, a die cast, a cast of characters put into motion? Connections made? In a starring role, Silver Fox Buba will fly in and swoop them up on Steve Bing’s Bling Jet, since President Cool & Clean can’t have the government pick up the air fare, could be very messy foreign implications. This is the cue for the money in the person of Long Green Steve Bing who foots the bill. No, he didn’t star in the reputed porn favorite of Justice Thomas, that was someone else long and silver - but not the glittering kind. Actually this silver is more obscene - it’s LA Politics money. Even in our little drama there are no free airplane rides for Bumptious Bill, even without a $200.00 Beverly Hills haircut. But, sources contend, Bing has just the piece of bling he wants in mind, and just the guy to sew up this part of the deal. Enter his good pal and the recipient of a lot of Bing Bling Stale Prince Antonio who has been waiting tremulously in the wings, eager to finally get back into the game with the big boys. He pines for President Cool more than he does the next curvaceous news reporter on his list. Having been banished to the sidelines after his Hillary dreams didn’t pan out, inside tipsters say, Antonio gets his big chance. (Check back to the Walsh Confidental post of 11/2/08 in Walsh Archives). Bing, it is said, has his heart set on a rail trip to Shangri-La - specifically his company of the same name - snagging a contract (there is always a contract lurking somewhere in these tales) and building a green little factory underwritten by lots of government green to turn out shiny light rail cars for the endless Red-Blue-Gold-Green, always in the red, lines here in La La Land. Antonio, it is reported, promises to deliver the local goods and tie the knot with a grateful nation and it’s pleased Prez. who, insiders buzz, has agreed to be the Deus ex machina descending from on high, to kick in, as it were, the essential long green taxpayer stimulus to get those little rail cars chugging. Now there has to be a little something sweet in every deal for every dealer in our little play and there is a little something federal that Prince Antonio and some key local supporters would like, or rather would like to see the last of...US Attorney Tom O’Brien. He of the investigations into former LAUSD board member David Tokofvsky, Current Council Member Huisar and LAUSD Board President and Antonio protege LAUSD President Monica -limited immunity to testify, is she still on “vacation” in Mexico- Garcia. O’Brien keeps rustling around in corners where many of our city Hall big wigs don’t him stirring up dust they hoped has settled. O’Brien, a Bush appointee, is overdue for the political tap on the shoulder, and the DC folks (Rahm Emmanual?) seem more than happy to make way for a nice fresh Democratic appointee who may not have such an appetite for investigating local Democrats. Maybe someone with ties to Prince Antonio and ex Us Attorney, Alejandro Mayorkas, he of the Vignali connection Clinton Pardon-gate scandals and long time Iago to our Downtown Prince. Thus we read in the hardly ever vigilant LA Times that US Attorney Tom O’Brien is stepping down to turn his badge for a nice berth with Paul Hastings Law firm -a global conservative powerhouse that has proved to be a cushy berth for other ex Bushies like Laura Flippin, former Special Assistant to President Bush, and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Do we hear the gears of the ex machina grinding ever so precisely as the deals slide into place? There it is, a rail ride to Sharngri-La on the Downtown Orient Express, for our cast of characters, or is it more like the Cash in Express? The ride on those shiny Bing Bling rail cars bring to take a little side trip, for what is a play without side stories, back stories, flashbacks and flash fires. Let us look back at some other characters lurking in the shadowy past and maybe reaching out to the shady present. You may remember Horatio Vignali as the father of a convicted major drug dealer who got Antonio (and a who’s who of California politicos) to write letters to then President Pardoning Bill to pardon his wayward son, Carlos, known to undercover cops who tracked him down as “C Low”. When Buba did so, it became “Pardongate”. Vignali and then business partner and grocery /real estate king George Torres had put bling in Antonio’s war chest, to say nothing of smoothing out the Prince’s ride at Vignali’s body shop for a nice little trip down the boulevard of broken and not so broke dreams. It was the Vignali connection that led to those bad, bad crack pipe ads that put Hahn in the Mayor’s seat and left Antonio, pardon the expression, in the smoke in the Prince’s first mayoral run. Torres, who the “Mayor Sam “ blog called Antonio’s “Numero Uno suporter” (Torres’ grocery chain was called “Numero Uno”) for his contributions to the Playboy Mayor’s campaign and Torres’ real estate ties to oh so many Antonio connected cronies, has recently slipped through the worst of his Federal convictions on racketeering and murder for hire charges, though conviction on a number of charges remain. Is there still enough there to make those heavy hitters in City Hall and the downtown real estate development crony club (it’s almost the same thing) nervous? We’re wondering just where all those ties bind. Vignali and Torres have long had huge holdings in the South Park area of Los Angeles by the Convention Center, where Antonio and friends are up to their ears shoveling money and favors for the Anshultz Entertainment Group - AEG’s properties and expansions of expansions. AEG, a downtown pet, has a history of working with Vignali/Torres on major real estate - what else - deals. Others who have dealt with Vigneli/Torres are some folks featured in character parts, such as the MTA with all those millions of dollars of contracts for those shiny little multi colored rail cars and of course, never to be left out of a deal, good old LAUSD, where Antonio’s hand picked Board President Monica Garcia, reigns over the infamous LAUSD deal making machine. Now when we think of deals, we just can’t help thinking about AEG. It was AEG who put on the big dead superstar bash for Michael Jackson. Oh, and it is said that the investigation City Attorney Truranich scared city Hall with when he announced it in those staid chambers, may center on some of those deals surrounding the city taxpayers’ unwilling bankrolling of what was, in reality, a big AEG superstar production. That taxpayer bankrolled blowout stands to pay off in the millions, maybe even hundreds of millions for AEG. That is, when all the DVD, product and movie deals for it are done and guess who doesn’t stand to see a penny back - but guess who might. Inside sources say a not so secret ingredient of that investigation that, you’ll pardon the expression, sandwiches AEG, City Hall, LAPD connections together is none other thanPolice Chief Bratton’s dealings with AEG. DEALings which may have provided inspiration for the odd and awkward timing of not so True Blue “Bye Bye Bill’s” (as the LA Weekly called him) sudden resignation. When it comes to money, real estate and all those sweet deals, this sure is a small town. Sharp eyed reader Maryann says not to forget that $50,000 dollars in way out of town sandwiches trucked over the mountains from Wrightwood for those 3000 plus overtimed LAPD officers who outnumbered the never ending Jackson ghoul extravaganza exhausted attendees. Sandwich-gate. Okay does someone’s brother-in law own this sandwich place or what? What a cast. Together again, Vignali, Torres, exPrez Bill, Prince Antonio, ex Us Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas of Pardongate, Money man jetster Steve Bling Bing, Councilman too handsome Jose Huizar, LAUSD President - Antonio pet - partial indemnity Monica Garcia, Not So True Blue Bill Bratton, exiting US Attorney Tom O’Brien, AEG, Green Al, two ingenues rescued from the clutches of Bush aixis of evil favorite Kim Jong-il, President Cool and, to top it off, the ghost of Michael Jackson past, present and future. Or maybe we should say looming over some futures. Is it true? What is truth? Do any of these people even exist? Are we in some parallel universe run by Rod Serling on acid? Where is Timothy Leary? http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/northkorea/index.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/05/stephen-bing-wealthy-holl_n_251989.htmlhttp://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multipage/documents/02598657.htmhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/anecdotes/2.htmlWCA_8.13.09_LA_Times_date_rape.htmlhttp://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten22-2009jul22,0,2943553.columnhttp://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/deusexmachina.htmlhttp://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13011863http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13011863%0Ahttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-prosecutor-resigns,1,7902745.storyhttp://www.paulhastings.com/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsId=34http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2005/04/bone.htmlhttp://lapd.axxiomportal.com/article.aspx?&a=2825http://lapd.axxiomportal.com/article.aspx?&a=2825http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2007/06/villaraigosas-numero-uno-campaign.htmlhttp://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2007/06/villaraigosas-numero-uno-campaign.html%0Ahttp://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime/2009/06/numero-uno-store-owner-torres.htmlhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1850500/postshttp://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2009/07/morning-briefs-and-outtakes-for-day.htmlhttp://ronkayela.com/2009/07/nuchs-bombshell-criminal-and-c.htmlhttp://ronkayela.com/2009/07/nuchs-bombshell-criminal-and-c.htmlhttp://laist.com/2009/07/30/citys_potential_lawsuit_against_aeg.phphttp://www.laweekly.com/2009-08-13/news/bye-bye-bill-bratton/http://www.laweekly.com/2009-08-13/news/bye-bye-bill-bratton/shapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1shapeimage_3_link_2shapeimage_3_link_3shapeimage_3_link_4shapeimage_3_link_5shapeimage_3_link_6shapeimage_3_link_7shapeimage_3_link_8shapeimage_3_link_9shapeimage_3_link_10shapeimage_3_link_11shapeimage_3_link_12shapeimage_3_link_13shapeimage_3_link_14shapeimage_3_link_15shapeimage_3_link_16shapeimage_3_link_17shapeimage_3_link_18shapeimage_3_link_19shapeimage_3_link_20shapeimage_3_link_21shapeimage_3_link_22shapeimage_3_link_23shapeimage_3_link_24
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