The Doggy Diaries... gone to the dogs!

All I can say is I am glad I don't live in California. Is it like that south of LA? Like in San Diego?

Guess you will be happy if you ever move out of CA yourself.

Clear Channel is a big outfit. They own most of the stations in this country. Hard to believe they would cater to the Mexican population like that.

Hi Bruce, good to hear from you. The 605 Freeway actually extends from the northern part of the Los Angeles basin (near Arcadia and Azusa) all the way down to Long Beach. I do not know on which section of the freeway this photograph was snapped, but it was definitely within a 30 mile radius of Los Angeles proper. San Diego is actually about 2 hours South of Los Angeles, and from what I understand, most San Diegans are right-of-center. (Funny, I lived in San Diego for 2.5 years and never really felt that it was "conservative." Quite the contrary, on the San Diego State University campus, I got the feeling that people leaned Left.)

Like yourself, I find it very difficult to believe that such a large operation as Clear Channel Communications would cater to Mexicans. One thing is for sure; our governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has already gone on record that he wants Clear Channel to take down the billboard. Not that he can really force them to do it, but the pressure is on. Clear Channel will more than likely end up with egg all over their face for this one because from what I understand, this has caused a BIG uproar. No doubt it was meant to be a marketing ploy to raise a few eyebrows, but this time they started a fire and will hopefully be seriously burned by it. I do not want to see any company blatantly disregard America in favor of Mexico (or any other country) and get away with it, especially considering what a hot, push-button topic illegal immigration is nationwide, and especially in the southwest states like California and Arizona.

Love the doggie theme. My pooches thank you as they snooze in various spots around me.

To be correct, www.alipac.us broke the story which was first picked up by WorldNetDaily. Protests yesterday and again this afternoon were held outside KRCA studios organized by the John & Ken Show. It was on this show that Gov. Schwarzenegger called the billboards divisive and demanded that they be taken down.

While Clear Channel owns the actual billboard, Liberman Broadcasting owns the station and crafted the offensive billboard copy. They're not new to controversy either. Read a full expose on Liberman at http://mooreisbetter.com/nowayjose.htm

See http://www.alipac.us/article-381--0-0.html for photos of the protestors and a billboard "reclaimed" for CA.

Kasey, you are my sister and I love you dearly, but this is political, and you got my Irish up.
Just remember you started it.

I never thought I'd ever take up the position of defending Clear Channel Communications. I do, in fact, loath the company and their "stellar" track record as free speech advocates. However, the air of anti-Mexican sentiment fermenting here is just too much to bear. Are you that blinded by race hatred that you can't see the obvious satire in this stupid billboard sign?

This adevert is clearly catering towards the company's Mexican audience, but there is absolutely nothing anywhere near approaching an "anti-American" sentiment here. Nor should it shock or surprise anyone that a big corporation would cater to any audience. Nobody ever throws a fit about the deluge of middle to upper class white people advertising that Clear Channel spews all over the United States' landscape.

Showing a badly photoshopped blending of Mexican and American iconic architecture is in no way "divisive". Anyone with a clear perspective on this can see that homogeneity and acceptance were clearly the intent here. Considering the amount of advertising that comes from Clear Channel and Liberman Broadcasting I don't see how you could possibly say, "I do not want to see any company disregard America in favor of Mexico..." with a straight face. Comparatively speaking, the United States gets way more attention from the Clear Channel marketing department than Mexico ever will. (Obviously because the U.S. is a much larger and far more well established consumer base for them.)

The United States has always been a melting pot of cultural paradigms, and to witness this type of reactionary nonsense from one of the largest cultural blenders in the country is just sad. Considering California elected an Austrian immigrant as its governor, I would expect a little more tolerance from its populace.

And where exactly in this billboard does it say anything about illegal immigration. Is there some hidden picture of an impoverished Mexican family dodging a hail of bullets as they cross the Rio Grande in some grand last ditch attempt to make it to the golden land of Aztlan? Obviously I'm being hyperbolic here, but it seems to be in good company with ridiculous phrases like "... blatant attempt to manipulate the public into acceptance of Los Angeles belonging to Mexico."

A good chunk of our family is Mexican American (and bi-lingual I might add) I can't wait to get us all together. It should make for some really interesting dinner conversations.

Hmm, I added a very long comment in response to Dan's tirade against me, but apparently the comment was too long to post. And now I've lost my comments completely because I didn't save a backup copy. I'll have to try to recreate it later, but right now I don't have time.

But Dan, if you see this, you should know that I responded to your comments. I think my response ended up being something like 7 pages in length, so maybe that's why it didn't take here...

Just to be clear, it was by no means a tirade against you. To reiterate, "You are my sister and I love you." This is nothing but politics. If anything, it's a tirade against overreacting.

Hmmmm.... *Kristi grabs a bowl of popcorn and sits back to watch the show*

:D

I lived in San Diego for 30 years. While I lived in Southern California I always thought of L.A. as part of Mexico. L.A. is an "Amnesty International" city and L.A. has one of the wierdiest city councils of any of the major cities. I think that if I lived in West L.A. I'd consider a border fence. Oops forgot who'd run the leaf blowers.