Here's what I learned last week: that the Russians removed Saddam's WMDs before we could find them, that L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attended a "Marxist law college," and that there's mathematical proof of God's existence.
You're wondering if I subscribe to a supermarket tabloid?
Nope.
I've stumbled upon some of the intelligence coming out of the office of longtime Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.
A county employee who didn't like being expected to help distribute these hair-raising bulletins supplied me with several inch-thick packets of clippings assembled and sent out by Antonovich.
At taxpayer expense.
One of the packets, dated April 2005, was a phone book-size monster of 283 pages. The packet weighed 2 pounds and contained dozens of clippings, including Wall Street Journal editorials, religious articles and an American Spectator story comparing President Bush favorably to FDR and Lincoln.
The bundle included a work order filled out by Antonovich's staff, requesting that the printer roll off 265 copies and return them "to Room 869 ASAP," Antonovich's office.
So how much did it cost us for Antonovich to share his world with a wide circle of friends and like-minded citizens? Unfortunately, the answer isn't easy to come by. The costs of that and many other mass mailings from Antonovich and his fellow giants on the board are hidden in the darkest recesses of county bureaucracy, as if by design.
"Your premise is correct," county public affairs director Judy Hammond e-mailed me, "in that it is not an easy task for a member of the public or media to ascertain how much is spent by a particular supervisor on mailings."
It oughta be. To make matters worse, formal requests for public information, like mine, result in a courtesy notice to supervisors, warning them someone has come snooping.
What is this, the Kremlin?
It's not breaking news that L.A. County supervisors are notoriously big on power and shockingly low on accountability even though the five of them rule over more than 10 million people. But this goes beyond the pale. I was told by county employees that Antonovich is the sultan of mailings compared with other supes, but these employees were reluctant to speak up publicly, fearing they'd be exiled to Siberia -- if not Norwalk.
