The L.A. Daily News reports on community activist Hal Netkin's attempts to get the word out about Antonio Villaraigosa, the leading candidate for L.A. Mayor. The election will be held on May 17, with Villaraigosa facing off against the incumbent, Jim Hahn. This is a repeat of the mayor's race from four years ago.

Netkin's site about Villaraigosa is mayorno.com. If you can filter out the terrible design it has some interesting information on the candidate.

For instance, Antonio Villaraigosa is the former president of the UCLA chapter of MEChA (more on them here). In 2001 he was asked to repudiate that group's goals, and he refused. He responded by accusing those who were accusing him of belonging to an intolerant separatist group of... being intolerant. Unfortunately, in L.A. that's considered an acceptable answer.

At mayorno.com you can also find a screengrab of Villaraigosa sharing a stage with Augustine Cebeda of the Brown Berets. Here's something Cebeda said on a different occasion:

"…Go back to Boston! Go back to Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims! Get out [of the U.S. Southwest]! We [Mexicans] are the future. You are old and tired. We have beaten you. Leave like beaten rats. You old white people, it is your duty to die."

It's good to see the L.A. Daily News at least linking to Netkin's site, but it would be much better if the Daily News and - more importantly - the L.A. Times did their jobs and reported the truth about Villaraigosa instead of papering over his past. For instance, does Villaraigosa regret sharing a stage with someone who suggested that white people should go back to Plymouth Rock and/or just die? Here's the L.A. Times' contact information page if you'd like to suggest they do their job.

(Note: The Daily News article gives the impression that the site is new, when in fact it's been around for over four years, since the last time Villaraigosa faced Jim Hahn in the run-off.)