Weekend Open Thread: Veterans Cemetery Debate, and the Devil Went Down to Georgia!

Diamond:

I previously covered the Irvine Council’s vote on that city’s hosting a veterans cemetery.  Now let’s review the glorious details at our weekend leisure.  Here’s how.

Go to this page hosted by the City of Irvine: http://www.irvinequickrecords.com/SIREICTV/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=4611

Click on the video in the upper right.  Move the slider to start at about 1:59:20.

From there to about 3:21:20, you can watch 82 minutes of veterans and their supporters urging the Irvine City Council to signal their interest in making at least 100 acres of land available to the state for a construction of a veterans cemetery.  (The only viable site option that has been presented, to this point, is on land located within the Great Park, but which is not within the section owned by Five Point.)

It’s really good, uplifting, video.  (If anyone knows how to embed it, please let me know.)

Then, from about 3:21:20 to about 4:23:20, you can enjoy (or watch without enjoyment, depending on how you’re bent) 62 minutes of the Irvine City Council deliberating over both the main motion to approve the expression of interest — and of a “killer amendment” intended to keep AB 1453 from having any substantive meaning by delaying approval until it was too late for it to clear the legislative hurdles by this year’s deadlines.

You keep hearing that the final vote was 4-1.  The important vote — shown in the screenshot below — was 3-2, in which Shea and Choi voted in favor of the killer amendment.  The debate preceding this vote is absolutely fascinating.  You will see politicians saying things that you never imagined that they would say.

Veteran's Cemetery -- Council Defeats Killer Amendment

For some reason, the camera never showed more than this long shot to document Mayor Choi voting for this killer amendment — but luckily, you can hear the City Clerk announcing his “yes” vote at around 4:21:50.  Or you can listen to his wacky speech, not too long before that.

Vern:  I’m gonna start putting up a YouTube once a week of me doing one of my favorite songs.  This one, I’m gonna have to re-do because I just noticed it only comes through one speaker, but you can’t really tell so much on a laptop:

This is your Weekend Open Thread.  Talk about that, or anything else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of discretion and decorum.  (A belated 1st anniversary Dearthwatch will appear if there’s time.)


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"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.