TTLBOATLDT!!!

Lan Astaslem!
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REX pissed backwards on a lot of loyal supporters from the Quartz Hill area with his decision and support of the Walmart being built across from QH High.

REX has impressed me with his meetings with China about bringing business here to Lancaster. What REX has over RODIO in this area is experience. REX is probably more qualified to bring in big business because he has the support of the Good Ol Boys network behind him. That is where REX has a positive image.

On the other hand, I can’t see having RODIO try and negotiate a possible billion dollar investment with China. I do not think RODIO has the skills to make an event like that happen. It would be like sending a junk yard owner to the White House for dinner (RODIO could be some sort of Czar for Obama though.)

I will probably vote for one of the other candidates, don’t know who yet, but I will keep researching. If not for the Walmart issue, REX would have my vote, I don’t like getting pissed on.

I am sorry, I could not watch all of the videos by RODIO, they are boring.
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As for the China trip, 15 hours ago BYD announced it plans to scale back its electric car ambitions- http://www.fastcompany.com/1586637/byd-cuts-back-on-electric-car-ambitions

and it appears this company has been doing this since at least 2008, when Portland, OR first got in the game trying to woo BYD into the US.

BYD in fact has quite a shady reputation for corporate theft (reverse engineering), bad labor practices, and some pretty iffy behavior. There is a lot of interesting information out there about them for anyone capable of using google.

If people are going to base their votes on this China trip, then they should also hold city officials accountable when nothing comes of it.. except of course they can’t.

Long Beach, the city who right this moment already has as concrete a deal as is possible with this company to build their corporate offices in that city, also had city representatives on this trip to China, and they came back as empty handed as Rex did as far as any future business developments goes.

Someone described this China trip as a very expensive and taxpayer funded photo opportunity on a local website, and after doing just a little bit of research, it appears they were probably more right than they knew.
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Someone handed me a raw diamond once and I had no clue what I was looking at. It wasn’t until I looked close that I even realized the value of what I was holding. On the surface, it looked kind of like a plain, rather ordinary rock.

We were down in Quartsite when this happened, a annual gem and mineral show. The guy put the raw diamond into a display with a very good fake diamond. Superficially anyway, the fake was the more attractive of the two.

Here was my big surprise of the day. There were people who were stopped by that fake diamond, they never noticed the raw diamond sitting next to it, or if they did notice it, they just thought it was a rock.

What surprised me was that a lot of people, after studying both, realized exactly what they were seeing. They were able to fairly quickly assess which of the two had real substance and real value.

Now, for most of us, if we knew what we were looking at, we would chose that raw diamond every time over the most clever fake ever made.

That to me is the difference between Arnold Rodio and Rex Parris. I’ll chose the real every time over the clever fake.
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What the AV has going for itself is a work force. With aircraft having been the big industry here, there is a qualified technical work force that would fit in nice with the automotive industry.

I would rather have a country other than China coming here, but China is better than nobody.

Denise, you did more to promote RODIO in your recent post than RODIO has. He needs to have someone like you doing some radio spots about his business experience. I knew he was a businessman, but did not know he had an international reputation. As close as the last election was, REX is going to lose a lot of QH voters with his Walmart push. A lot of voters have to pick from who ever is left on the ballot. It RODIO is going to win, he needs to promote himself. Everyone bashes the good ol boys network, and people keep hearing that. RODIO needs to show that he has some life in him. The videos don’t show it. He needs to show a postive energy and some excitement.
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As far as bringing business in from China, its one of those situations where even if we had the opportunity to do it tomorrow, it would have to be done with some research. BYD has a shady reputation, even by Chinese standards. We have to bring in business that does not threaten our local defense industry, which still employs a hell of a workforce here of highly trained, technical, well paid workers.

As Arnold pointed out at the Chamber forum, there are a lot of businesses that would love to come to a place like this, but won’t because of the high cost of doing business here. The city has been increasing fees, and instituting new ones for 2 years, making the environment very unfriendly to small and mid-sized business.

A good example of this would be someone I know that owns a small engineering and manufacturing company in the San Fernando Valley. They have been looking to expand, and for a lot of reasons came here to look for property. They ruled out Lancaster very quickly, and just bought property in Palmdale, property that was more expensive than what they had looked at in Lancaster. They gave three reasons for the Palmdale location- 1. The cost of doing business in Lancaster was higher, 2. they did not feel their “non Christian” owned business would be welcome, and 3. Whoever they were working with at the city in Palmdale made them feel welcome.
This isn’t a huge company, its not hundreds of jobs (but neither is BYD). It’s a company that employs 100-150 people in the Valley and will eventually employ 30-50 people up here. Instead of making it difficult for companies like that, we need to make it easy for them. Stop raising fees, stop adding new ones, and go after these businesses with the lure of cheap land and much lower cost of doing business.

Lancaster, under this mayor, has actually done a lot of the things that the state gets hammered for. They increased taxes in the form of fees for business owners in a very bad economic climate. They instituted a brand new fee on film makers, a huge daily fee. It’s simply remarkable to me that people aren’t aware of what’s been happening.

Lancaster has so much to attract business here, particularly during times where the economy is less than stellar, but we put our foot in it by increasing city fees. This sort sighted approach has made this city, the valley really, way to dependent on the boom and bust residential development market as our major source of revenue.

The answer, at least for me, is sustainable growth. Instead of giving money away to developers to build more houses, invest in a bounty program that rewards business owners that create new jobs, or companies who decide to relocate here. We don’t need a MALL to be successful, we just need to become a magnet for people looking to expand their business, or looking for a community that will reduce their cost of doing business.

Oh, and believe it or not, all the talk about crime doesn’t help us at all. Even if the big focus is “crime is dropping” its going to prompt companies to look at how safe the area is, and we are flanked by cities where land is just as cheap, but crime rates are 25-50% lower than ours.
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I have stated what you have about getting the word out over and over and over again for months..

And look how aggressive the candidates have become… Yard Signs, poorly attended, (compared to the 55,000 voters who could decide),forums, trash liner mail pieces, and a couple of websites..

Same old boring campaigns… you would think they would learn…

I still have not decided who will get my vote… these guys and gals are making it VERY Difficult to decide based on their plans for my city..

FRUSTRATING..

FRUSTRATING..

FRUSTRATING..
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Seriously, what would be a format that you would find acceptable whereby the candidates communicate to you? You don’t like the debates, you don’t like the videos, you don’t like the billboards, and you don’t like the mailers. You also don’t want to call them.

You accuse me of always bashing Rex and never saying anything positive. What do you want these amateurs to do? They are not Hollywood stars with unlimited budgets. With the exceptions of Parris and Rodio, none of them have much money. What do you suggest as a format of communication?
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every post by him is a bit nastier then the last, and yet he tends to think we all are awed by his brilliance!

i think the capt pointed it out accurately. delusional!!!
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someone told dontno that he was special, and he appears to have spent his life believing it! maybe his mom?
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Candidates with enough money to get there message out send out mailers that outline their positions, they put up signs, they put up websites that have contact links so voters can email them questions, they go to forums. If you look at the simple fact that 16000 people here are regular voters and most of these candidates have day jobs that require them to work for living doing something besides designing election hitmail, they really do all they can.
It’s up to the voter at some point to get informed. To make sure the candidates are consistent with their message no matter where they are. To hold them accountable when they aren’t.

Hopefully we are not so lazy as voters that we expect some sort of drive-through approach to candidates, where you can just pull up in your car and have the candidates tell you everything you need to know in 30 seconds or less.

As a voter, its my job to be educated, it doesn’t matter if I’m voting in a state race or a local race. I even research the judges I vote for, and read all the arguments on ballot measures. I also read the mailers and letters sent out by candidates, I even read Ron Smith’s letter.
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53,000 registered voters and 200 were at the only forum so far. And there is not even a guarantee that they were all Lancaster voters and how many of the 200 were family members and candidate campaign teams?

So here we go again blaming the voters
I give up.

Get ready for a once again 15% turnout as folks like Denise and others continue to not understand that a candidate needs to SELL themselves and a good salesperson does not wait for the phone to ring, they get out and present, when and where they can.

A Majority of the VOTERS will NEVER invest the time. NEVER

So according to toooooo many in here, let’s do nothing, accept it.

GREAT PLAN.
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18 so far. Outstanding.
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No Spin, you conveniently dodged my question. You say they need to sell themselves. I think they call that “whoring” and most candidates do that quite well.

HOW do you propose that they sell themselves? After 10 p.m. on weekends on Sierra Hwy.? Please…enlighten these poor candidates. Tell them how they can get No Spin’s vote. Quit being a vote tease.
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Maybe if they start healing the sick by the laying on of hands, he might perk up and take notice, but….he probably wouldn’t like Jesus either. The people hand to GO to Him to be healed, and No Spin doesn’t want to do that either.
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The candidates do everything they can to make it easy, and these days there is nothing easier than email.

Arnold even puts his own signs up, and its a very slow process because people actually stop when he’s doing it to talk to him.
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Tell you what.. you run next time and I will get you elected.

You want to make fun, go ahead. And in April love the 15% vote tally.

Denise, that is crap.

You are suffering from living with how it has been done forever and it does not work. NOT ANYMORE.

But you all go ahead and make cutsie little jokes and stay in your coccoon.

And the people who will make your lives better or worse will be elected by less then 5% of the residents..

And BTW..if asked by a serious candidate who truly wants to know, I would be happy to sit down and design a strategy centered around “getting out the vote”.

Until then.. I am mute..
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NEVER Said I did not like any of the methods you pointed at in your post..

Stop fabricating the truth.. I LOVE all those as PART, a small part, of a campaign..

Let me know when you can focus on real truth instead of your invented truth..

and btw.. Had I run Denise’s campaign last time.. she would be on the council.. Take that to the bank… :-)
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I apologize if my sarcasm gets the better of me.
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He didn’t want to be asked to vote!

He wanted someone to ASK him to run their campaign!

And if he has to volunteer, it’s not the same as being begged to show them the way.

a very important man indeed! LOLOLOL
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Like I am soliciting to be a campaign manager!

You are a funny little troll are’nt ya. Call Travelocity, they may have an opening for a live mascot.
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I respectfully diagree with your statement as I do not believe for a New York second that you would know how to run as complicated a thing as a campaign for office. It is not quite as easy and simple as you seem to believe.
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When I spoke with REX supporters, there was optimism and a positive confident approach and they did not make assertions about Lancaster sinking.

I have been around AV politics for a long time, and I understand that REX and AVRA, are a well oiled political machine and they will wreck you just for challenging them in an election. So I am not naive about the sugar coated REX and the angry RODIO supporters. That was last election.

With this upcoming election, I actually see RODIO having a good chance at beating REX. If voters on the west side are angry like I am about being betrayed by REX and the Walmart project. The narrow win last election might be in jeopardy.

Remember the post I wrote on the White Compound Lancaster Baptist Church, they are still tough to beat. REX with have an easy 5000 votes off the top. Maybe some off them have stopped drinking the Kool Aid and will vote for someone else.
REX’s actions have shown that he is looking out for the powers to be rather than the will of the people. Maybe some of those LBC people live on the west side and don’t want the Walmart there.
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Outstanding post.. some great points..
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You have never met me, have no clue what I do today professionally, what I did yesterday professionally, or what I am doing tomorrow professionally, so you came to your conclusion how exactly?
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As far as a “Machiavellian despot,” that is someone who follows the political philosophy of one of the early political scientists Macchiavelli. Macchiavelli wrote a classic work called “The Prince.” In it, he details that to be an effective leader, you use unscrupulous tactics to keep your opposition at bay and to consolidate one’s own power. Basically, if your opponent has a good idea, co-opt it and make it your own and pretend that it was your idea. While your opponent may scream about it, if you have the power, most people won’t care. Also, don’t be afraid to use your power to crush those who would oppose you if necessary.

It’s basically referring to someone who leads in an amoral, but effective, fashion. You should actually check it out, or at least get the Cliff notes. It’s a very influential work.
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Once again, I think avbornbred has a pretty good read on the political situation in this election. I think that is the big question: how mad are the West side voters about Wal-mart? Rex is pushing WAY harder in this election than he did last time as far as money being spent. I think many of the West Side voters are very bitter because Rex’ door knockers were telling people that he was opposed to the Wal-mart. Also, his Wal-mart position gave Johnathan Ervin a ready made voting bloc that didn’t exist before.

What may be the one two punch death blows for Rex is if a) he can’t get the “Eye in the Sky” working, and b) the Chinese decide that Long Beach is a better place for a battery factory.
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People who supported the recall last time around had good reason to be angry. They were sick and tired of the overwhelming influence that a handful of developers had in the city, they were upset at the fact that we were paying a really good city manager a million dollars to hit the road, and they were not happy at all that the city council paid zero attention to their concerns and tried to shut them out of the process.

Sometimes, citizens have a right to be angry. They got angry again over the west side Wal-Mart, little good that it did them.

It’s citizens that got fed up, angry and motivated that led the Boston Tea Party, the Civil Rights Movement, gave women the right to vote, that are driving the Tea Party movement as I speak.

PK- I guarantee you that there will not be a Chinese Battery Manufacturing plant anywhere in California. The type of materials used in the BYD batteries are hugely toxic, and California’s environmental laws make it impossible. You’d be hard pressed to find a state anywhere in the US whose regs would allow for that particular type of manufacturing that will allow the company to cost effectively produce them.

What Long Beach is getting is the corporate headquarters for BYD, and most likely a distribution center.
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I was disappointed that none of the other candidates had booths in operation for the show.

The Home and Garden show was pretty slow. I think there were more vender people there than customers. I don’t see it continuing with such a poor turnout.
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