Throwdown at the Kodak Theater

Item! If you missed star spotting at the Golden Globes, don't worry! The California Democratic Debate had all the stars you need!  That guy from Seinfeld? Check! Diane Keaton? Check! - and looking awesome as usual clothed head to toe in . . . clothing.  And is that Mayor Villaraigosa? Why yes it is!  And was that Debra Bowen on stage at the start? Awesome!

Gavin Newsom! I wonder if he and Antonio threw down outside.

Oh, and there were a couple of candidates talking about stuff - mainly health care - for quite awhile. That was cool. There was some bitching, which is cool. And some agreement, which is cool.  There was a lot of cool. It's LA after all. I'm not necessarily closer to having a candidate. That's not so cool.  At one point, each candidate got to list their resumes. Suddenly, it felt like we were watching a high school election. Kinda like this: http://slatev.com/player.html?id=1377935786

Hispanics and Blacks

Mayor Sam reports that the Mexican American Political Association endorsed Obama. *clap*

So, I guess all that crap about Latinos not voting black was, well, crap.

President Nativo Lopez said this in his statement:

"We have observed with utter disgust the use of racially divisive and polarizing tactics employed by the Clintons, both Hillary and Bill, against Senator Barack Obama, not the first presidential candidate of African American origin. This is something that we would have expected from Republican candidates, but instead it surfaced from the bowels of the center-right institutional currents of the Democratic Party. The tactics are absolutely deplorable and clearly demonstrate what the Clintons think of all people of color."

I'm not sure I agree with his view of the situation entirely, but I was sick of hearing about how minorities always vote for thier own minorities. It's nice to see a little disagreement. It's almost like we can think for ourselves.

On a related note, the Clintons were suppose to campaign in South Central, but the black churches said no. It seems they're kind of pissed about the Clinton's use of race in bashing Obama. Hmm...

And, as everyone got worked up about the 'person who called clinton the first black president endorsing obama', why don't we try to remember what she meant when she said that. It certainly wasn't a compliment.

A public service announcement

Please, don't get too crazy over Sunday's big game. You shouldn't. After all, there's no L.A. interests at stake anyway. No team, no worries, right?

That's good, because apparently big games can kill.

Reader poll: what mayhem cometh?

So, there might be a "subway to the sea" for reals? Check it out.

Okay, I'll bite - lord knows we could use the public transit and lord knows if anyone gets the good stuff, it's the Westside.

But here's our question - if they do complete the project, it will be destroyed in the first film about it by:

A) A tsunami
B) An earthquake
C) A confused California Grey Whale
D) Whatever is eating New York
E) A tsunami caused by an earthquake caused by whatever is eating New York that wedges a California Grey Whale in the subway tunnel

Enter your guess in the comments below!

ICE is Coming

ICE has a warning for immigrants, oh wait I mean 'illegal immigrants': we're coming for you. They will be increasing their raids and crackdowns this year.

And it's just getting worse and worse:

Martinez had been warming up his car waiting to take his children to school when agents arrested him. Though he is a legal resident, he was convicted in 2002 in the oral copulation of a minor - his wife's younger sister - and sentenced to three years' probation.

So he was arrested for being Latino?

There Go The Lights

Since it started it raining, more power went out.

Because why would we want our power to work when there's bad weather?

SoCal MOC Love

... Given to the President tonight as he gets a big kiss hello from Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, fetching in a traditional power red suit. But why does everyone need to look so happy to see him?

Of course, tonight, perhaps everyone is happy to greet him because it is his LAST State of the Union. Pretty cool!

Time to stop living in the now

I know it would be hard for pundits to do, but maybe, if they just try a little bit, they could back the hell off making final determinations about events that are still unfolding. Like right now. All around us.

Remember that scene in Spaceballs? No?*

The LA Times has a teaser headline on its front page saying "Super Tuesday Could Cut Obama Down To Size." Seriously? Was he more than the correct size again? Just because of Saturday's South Carolina results? I'm not discounting his victory, I think it's great. But really, this was the year of the Hillary until Iowa and then again once we made it to New Hampshire, and, come Super Tuesday, it likely will be in some big states. And don't get me wrong, I would LOVE the national convention to be a nail-bitter of delegate lobbying and network newscasts, but, c'mon. Can we all have just, like, half a break?

*Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie?
Colonel Sandurz: Now. You're looking at now sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now.
Dark Helmet: What happened to then?
Colonel Sandurz: We passed then.
Dark Helmet: When?
Colonel Sandurz: Just now. We're at now, now.
Dark Helmet: Go back to then!
Colonel Sandurz: When?
Dark Helmet: Now.
Colonel Sandurz: Now?
Dark Helmet: Now!
Colonel Sandurz: I can't.
Dark Helmet: Why?
Colonel Sandurz: We missed it.
Dark Helmet: When?
Colonel Sandurz: Just now.
Dark Helmet: When will then be now?
Colonel Sandurz: Soon.
Dark Helmet: How soon?

Prop 13's Birthday

The budget crisis is bad. Really bad. And it's going to hit us at the bottom the hardest.

And despite the Governator's promise that 'we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem', the fact is we definitely have a revenue problem.

Where did the revenue problem come from? Prop 13's massive property tax cuts crippled local governments and lead to pretty much all problems we have right now. And Prop 13 celebrates it's 30th birthday this year.

CityBeat looks back on Howard Jarvis and the passing of the Prop, with quotes from Jarvis on the effects of the cuts:

“What we’re really doing in the public school systems is nothing short of manufacturing people for the welfare rolls.”

and we don't need libraries since, "63 percent of the graduates are illiterate, anyway”

LA to turn garbage into energy

And that's actual garbage, not the shit coming from people in charge.

Hoping to make landfills relics of the past, the city wants all 3,600 tons of trash picked up daily from Los Angeles residents to be recycled or turned into compost or alternative energy by 2030.

But don't worry they aren't planning on doing this just for environmental reasons. The city hopes to make $100M annually.

Gangs

Saturday a teen's birthday party resulted in a shooting that led to two deaths and one student hospitalized.

Now, police are concerned gangs may have crashed the party.

Several sources had said the party was advertised on Internet sites such as MySpace, which may have attracted the wrong crowd.

That's what police should do, ban MySpace.

Instead, they want to tax gangs. MayorSam makes this point:

One of the reason's Janice Hahn's gang tax is such a bad idea is that it would turn the policing of gangs into whack-a-mole; we'll spend all this money here but they'll pop up there.

The Presidential Race, California and Latinos

Maria Elena Durazo gave her endorsement to Obama this week.

Obama has been trailing Clinton in California, particularly among Latino voters. But Durazo ould turn that around, especially if she has the resources of the LA County Federation of Labor. Unfortunately, though, she'll be taking a leave of absence from the Fed to campaign for Obama, so how will that play out?

Clinton, on the other hand, has the (rather loud) endorsement of Villaraigosa and Speaker Fabian Nunez.

"Many Latinos are not ready for a person of color."

We're about 20% of the California electorate, so how are we going to vote?

Bad Math

How are our schools suppose to teach our students, when our Governator can't even do his math well.

At the same time he was suppose to release public info about the sanctions facing our 'failing' LAUSD schools today he's asking for our schools to cut $36M this year.Wait, the year that's already half over? Yeah, that one.

Cut the programs that are addressing the reforms to fix these failures? Yeah, those reforms.

This is just bad math.

Tax on Talking

The phone tax, or more officially known as Measure S, will be on the ballot come Feb 2nd.

Mayor is calling it a 'tax reduction', but is it?

If you ask the voters to reinstate a tax after it’s been thrown out by the courts, it’s a new tax. But if you beat the courts to it — by convincing voters to approve a slightly lower tax before the higher one is invalidated — is it a tax “reduction”?

That's right. The courts area hearing cases about this tax, right now, that might throw it out completely.

The fight around this Measure is the most heated debate in the city, and that's counting the presidential primary on the same ballot.

From the Daily News:

Everything about this tax stinks of the type of bad policy dreamed up by a delusional Los Angeles City Hall crowd in the throes of its addiction.

Britney

Oh well, if today was the State of the State.. That's boring news, involving old people.

More importantly, Britney Spears is falling apart. Again. Just like lots of other people.

And the Associated Press decided this is a 'big deal'.

From: Baker, Frank S.
Sent: Tue 1/8/2008 11:58 AM
To: News - Southern California Editorial Staff
Subject: Britney
All:

Now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal. That doesn't mean every rumor makes it on the wire. But it does mean that we want to pay attention to what others are reporting and seek to confirm those stories that WE feel warrant the wire. And when we determine that we'll write something, we must expedite it.

Thanks.

Frank

The Storm

The local news has been warning of storms to come, but this morning I didn't see a whole lot of anything.

Apparently, we need to keep waiting.

The city is preparing warning systems and shoring up for emergency conditions.

A flash-flood watch was issued for recently burned areas from this afternoon through Saturday morning.

In case, the fires weren't enough.

Or, you could just use the high-winds as an opportunity to go surfing.

From SF Gate

The New Americana?

Pasadena Weekly runs an interesting story on David Gonzales and his Homies characters.

After being criticized for glorifying Mexican gang culture, he's sold millions of little toys, created comics, video games and now is featured at the Pasadena Museum of Art.

“This is Americana. This is the world that — what’s that guy from the Saturday Evening Post, that painter? Norman Rockwell. He painted his world. The people he saw were farmers, little country kids at the pop shop. I’m painting the world I saw, this part of Americana. I really believe this is folk art; this is Latino, Hispanic, Mexican-American, barrio folk art, whatever you want to call it, and that’s all it is. No one can deny these characters exist in Latino communities,” said Gonzales.

Lots of characters exist, but he didn't choose to paint them all, did he.

And one part of the government sues another part...

'California' is suing the 'government' over emissions standards.

As ridiculous as some aspects of this are and regardless of the fact that every politician who wants to seem environmental is leeching on, I think there's still probably some value to the suit.

When the Environmental Protection Agency is stopping the state from enacting standards to, I dunno, protect the environment, someone's not doing their job right.