Slogan

As reported in "Kerry Moves to Revive His Campaign" (Nov. 22), Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said that Americans need a president who offers "answers, not just anger; solutions, not just slogans." Hey, senator, that is a slogan. Richard Stehr Los Angeles

It looks like the Obama campaign may have settled on its slogan for the 2012 election: "Forward. " Four years ago, Barack Obama ran on another one-word slogan, "Change. " Now, as President Obama prepares to hold the first public campaign rallies for his reelection, his team is giving a sense of what his pitch to voters will look like. A seven-minute Web video (watch below) lays out what it says was the precarious state of the nation when Obama took office in 2009 and the steps he took to begin addressing the challenges.

It looks like the Obama campaign may have settled on its slogan for the 2012 election: "Forward. " Four years ago, Barack Obama ran on another one-word slogan, "Change. " Now, as President Obama prepares to hold the first public campaign rallies for his reelection, his team is giving a sense of what his pitch to voters will look like. A seven-minute Web video (watch below) lays out what it says was the precarious state of the nation when Obama took office in 2009 and the steps he took to begin addressing the challenges.

Coming off a rough year, Taco Bell is ditching its old "Think Outside the Bun" motto for a new slogan: Live Mas. The Irvine chain plans to make a big show out of the switch, starting with a television ad airing during NBA All-Star events this weekend. Mas is Spanish for "more," emphasizing food as an experience instead of fuel, according to the company. The Mexican-style restaurant chain's revamp is part of an ongoing effort to recapture customers. Last year, a lawsuit — eventually dropped — over the content of the chain's seasoned beef filling hurt sales.

Coming off a rough year, Taco Bell is ditching its old "Think Outside the Bun" motto for a new slogan: Live Mas. The Irvine chain plans to make a big show out of the switch, starting with a television ad airing during NBA All-Star events this weekend. Mas is Spanish for "more," emphasizing food as an experience instead of fuel, according to the company. The Mexican-style restaurant chain's revamp is part of an ongoing effort to recapture customers. Last year, a lawsuit — eventually dropped — over the content of the chain's seasoned beef filling hurt sales.

Here's the winning political slogan for 2000: It's the lying about campaign contributions, stupid! WILLIAM H. SMITH Palm Desert

Given his position on firearms and tobacco, Bob Dole's political logo is inescapable. It has to be the "smoking gun." DENIS HICKEY Whittier

So Rosa Brooks has joined the bandwagon in deciding the reason Americans got stuck with President Bush for a second term is because the dastardly Democratic Party and, specifically, Sen. John Kerry, didn't come up with a sufficiently catchy slogan (Opinion, March 10). There was absolutely nothing wrong with Kerry as a presidential candidate in terms of a message, diplomatic skills, fiscal responsibility, understanding issues or military credentials. The only reason we're stuck with Bush today is because there were just enough Americans who wanted to follow Bush down the path he has taken us. Much as we may now wish for world history to go easy on us by understanding how the "other guy" just didn't have the right slogan, history is not going to blame Kerry or the Democratic Party for what we have done to ourselves and the rest of the world.

The Kings promised that this was the season of "Serious Hockey." It has gone way past serious. . . . It's grim. RONALD PETERS Thousand Oaks

After a hiring freeze was imposed at Los Angeles City Hall, employees of the Personnel Department were asked to suggest a snappy new slogan. The slogan that was being replaced: "We Have a Job for You!" FREEWAYS WE HATE AND THE DRIVERS WHO USE THEM: The San Diego Freeway, which has inspired such license plates as HATE 405 and GDDM 405, ranks up there as one of the most disliked roadways. But filmmaker Fax Bahr noticed a motorcyclist with an equally low opinion of the 91 Freeway (see photo).

Vaclav Havel, the former dissident playwright who led Czechoslovakia's 1989 "Velvet Revolution" against communism and then served as his country's president, died Sunday. He was 75. Havel, a former chain smoker with chronic respiratory problems, had been in failing health the past few months and died at his weekend home in Hradecek in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant, Sabina Tancevova, told the Associated Press. World leaders mourned his death. Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and Solidarity movement founder, called Havel "a great fighter for the freedom of nations and for democracy" whose "voice of wisdom will be missed.

Since the first days of Occupy L.A., protesters have used posters, paintings and hand-printed T-shirts to call for major political and economic change. On Tuesday, demonstrators turned to new canvases: two large wooden box-like fences the city built to protect a historic fountain and memorial to fallen firefighters outside City Hall. Shortly after the structures went up Tuesday morning, protesters took to them with spray paint, scrawling pictures and slogans. On the fence barricading the fountain, someone wrote "No Borders" and "Power 2 the People.

Another month, another White House catchphrase. “Pass this bill” looks to have been retired by White House message-makers. The heyday for President Obama's three-word exhortation came in September, after he put forward his $447-billion jobs plan. Speech after speech, Obama commanded lawmakers to “pass this bill. " Day after day, Congress refused. With the impasse in its seventh week, the White House is trying a different approach, encapsulated in a new three-word slogan that is part plea, part battle cry. “We can't wait.

In calmer times, the true blue Dodgers fan might decide whether to buy a Matt Kemp T-shirt for his wardrobe or a Clayton Kershaw jersey. In these turbulent times, the discerning Dodgers fan can decide whether to buy a shirt that supports a player or maligns the owner. As Frank McCourt has expanded his two-year legal battle to retain ownership of the team from divorce court to bankruptcy court, the opportunities for fans to share their discontent have expanded as well. And, for a few entrepreneurs among those agitated fans, those frustrations have turned into business opportunities.

At the height of Whitney Barry's marriage, she had a beautiful walk-in closet with more than 50 pairs of designer shoes, cashmere sweaters and handbags. Now, she's a divorced mother of two who has had to downsize her closet. But she's had help. She consigned designer pieces for The Divorcee Sale, a fashion event that has been held in Los Angeles, and for the first time this weekend in Orange County. A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Meredith Israel, a New York woman with stage-four breast cancer.

Edna Aliewine, a small woman who left a large imprint on South Los Angeles as founder of the Watts/Willowbrook Christmas Parade and co-creator of the Watts walk of fame, died at her home Tuesday. She was 90 and had lymphoma, her family said. The longtime Watts resident "got a lot of things done," said former U.S. Rep. Mervyn Dymally, who knew Aliewine for five decades. "She started a project, and you joined or the train would leave the station. " Aliewine stood by her community through two riots, adopting as her slogan "Don't move, improve.

The slogan "Instinct Made Us Walk; Education Made Us Fly," written by Maria Zangan of Sowers Middle School in Huntington Beach, won the top prize in the first Delta Kappa Gamma Educational Slogan Contest, sponsored by the honor society for women in education. The contest is designed to focus students' attention on what education means to them and their futures. Zangan was competing against 1,160 seventh- and eighth-grade students from schools throughout Orange County. She received $50.

In West Hollywood, critters are king. Stores are forbidden to sell dogs and cats, there's a ban on de-clawing felines and a city ordinance states that animals are not "owned" ? they are cared for by guardians. On Saturday, residents rallied around yet another animal-friendly campaign, this one directed at local apparel shops. Nearly 200 people crowded onto the northwest corner of Crescent Heights and Santa Monica boulevards to demand that the West Hollywood City Council prohibit the sale of fur in town.

A former police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of an unarmed man on an Oakland train station platform was sentenced Friday to two years in prison, sparking outrage from relatives and supporters of the victim who denounced the punishment as too lenient. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry said evidence in the racially charged case showed that the shooting was an accident caused when Johannes Mehserle mistakenly reached for a firearm instead of an electric Taser weapon he meant to use. As Perry spoke, the victim's mother rushed from the courtroom with other relatives and supporters.