Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Billboards are a big issue in the 5th District Council race and for the first time I've seen reported something I had suspected all along.  Most regular people don't care about billboards according to surveys.  That being said, the NIMBY core is fanatical about this issue, more so than crime or the economy it appears and they represent a good chunk of the current voting masses given LA's apathy.  Politicians beware.

Speaking of billboards the LA Weekly takes a look at Walter Moore's legal career representing billboard companies.  Nothing really new here if you've been reading Street Hassle or Ron Kaye but the Weekly does get Walter on record as denying that he is Satan.  First comment on the Weekly post is from Moore's opponent Phil Jennerjahn who appears as a chihuahua nipping at Walter's heels.

Controversial, conservative, evangelical preacher Pastor Rick Warren seems to present an odd fascination for some liberal Democratic politicians.  First President Obama chose Warren - much to the chagrin of liberals and some gays - to deliver the invocation at his inaguration last month.  Next, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa chose the anti-gay and anti-choice cleric to headline Villaraigosa's "Prayer Breakfast" over the weekend (is this an appropriate event for an elected official to hold?).  According to Politicker.com it was a contest to see how much Warren could avoid mentioning gay marriage and abortion and how often Villaraigosa could say he was much in favor of both.

Supporters of Measure B - the controversial solar energy plan on the March LA ballot - appear to have union members bamboozled.  Though trades and other unions think the plan means more jobs for them, it doesn't.  Well for the DWP IBEW members possibly, but that's about it.

The New York Post reports that the Empire State's Governor David Patterson has quietly raised the salaries of key staffers despite asking for cuts in state employees' pay due to budget cuts.  Some raises amounted to as much as 46%.  No word if Mayor Villaraigosa contacted Patterson to ask how he did it.

Same-Sex Marriage Issue Should not be Divisive

Democrats are trying to make hay over Republican (some) support for Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in California.  Yet it wasn't that long ago (and conveniently forgotten) that Democratic legislators were squeamish about supporting efforts for allowing gay marriage in California which ultimately led proponents to court.  From our Hotsheet on May 23rd of this year:

Interesting article in the LA Weekly about the recent State Supreme Court decision permitting gays to marry in California. At the time the case was about to go through "tolerant" Democrats squirmed and wanted to stick it back in the closet. But it was Republican judges that made the difference.

Indeed, Republican jurists of the California court appointed by Republican governors were in the majority of the decision that affirmed same-sex marriage albeit for a short time.

At the same time Democrats are showing intolerance on the issue, Republicans need to drop it.  I understand how hard this is for some of you on the right and I've heard many times your tired old claim that giving gays and lesbians equal marriage rights is "re-defining marriage." (An argument I just don't get; I have yet to see how one gay marriage has impacted anyone's heterosexual marriage.)  If the Republicans want to win they need to take this energy and focus it on tax cuts, government and corporate accountability and economic opportunity for Americans (and getting the government out of the way of it). If you want the economy to continue to get worse, for taxes to go up and to give full control of the government to liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Antonio Villaraigosa and others keep hating on the gays.

In a related story, in light of opposition to President-Elect Obama's choice of Pastor Rick Warren, an opponent of gay marriage, to lead the invocation at his inauguration, a liberal, bisexual blogger sides with Obama.  "Evilgrrl" states she is not supportive of Warren himself but takes the position that Obama has a right to choose whom he wants and that he's the most qualified to make this decison.  Though I too am in opposition to Warren's view on same-sex marriage (as well as other political views of Warren I would characterize as liberal, something more common around the new-age evangelical movement) I would agree.

That being said, Evilgrrl makes the comment "It's hard for me to like someone who is so opposed to a lot of the things I believe in."  That's sort of a recent development of late; something I think has come out of the divisiveness and hate that came out of certain elements of both Presidential campaigns this year.  We can't base our personal affection for individuals based on idelogy; if we did, we would have no friends.

America has to learn to be mature enough to agree to disagree.  Otherwise we're going to find ourselves on the opposite ends of a divided and torn nation not unlike what happened during the Civil War.  Let's talk through the issues, hear each other out and try to stay friendly.

NOBAMA!! A scorecord from Saddleback Church

No teleprompter will cause these types of moments.

From Hugh Hewitt at Townhall.com

The consensus on yesterday's forum at Saddleback Valley Community Church is that Senator McCain had an exceptional night, that Rick Warren pulled off a very difficult job, and that Senator Obama was smooth as usual except for his "above my pay grade" gaffe,

*** Warren comments on Obama's "above my pay grade" gaffe,

"No. I think he needed to be more specific on that. I happen to disagree with Barack on that. Like I said, he's a friend. But to me, I would not want to die and get before God one day and go, 'Oh, sorry, I didn't take the time to figure out' because if I was wrong then it had severe implications to my leadership if I had the ability to do something about it. He should either say, 'No scientifically, I do not believe it's a human being until X' or whatever it is or to say, 'Yes, I believe it is a human being at X point,' whether it's conception or anything else. But to just say 'I don't know' on the most divisive issue in America is not a clear enough answer for me.

which is one of those phrases that will stick and hurt.

Obama also had on display yesterday a very troubling slipperiness that is increasingly defining him.

The senator has tried, somewhat successfully for the time being, to slip away from his associations with Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. He has also managed to slip into a "reformer" shtick that has zero connection to his hyper-partisan voting record.

But yesterday he tried to slip past at least two issues on which such obfuscation shouldn't work --same sex marriage and Senate ethics reform.

My point here is not to argue the policy positions Obama takes, but to point out his firm denial of his real positions on both issues. He flat out distorted his positions, and did so without even an arched eye-brow from the MSM.The transcripts of the interviews are here. (HT: Red County).

But what is more telling about Obama's performance at Saddleback is the response by the usual suspects in the Main Stream Media. This is highlighted by the McCain's Campaign's complaint against NBC's Andrea Mitchell.

In this case, the campaign is objecting to a statement by NBC's Andrea Mitchell on "Meet the Press" questioning whether McCain might have gotten a heads-up on some of the questions that were asked of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was the first candidate to be interviewed Saturday night by Pastor Rick Warren at a presidential forum on faith.

Warren told the audience that McCain was being held in "a cone of silence" so he wouldn't hear the questions, which were similar for both candidates.

Warren referred again to "the cone of silence" when McCain came onstage, and the senator joked: "I was trying to hear through the wall."Mitchell reported that some "Obama people" were suggesting "that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well prepared."

Warren adamantly denied these charges just a few minutes ago on the Sean Hannity Radio Show.

***The Drudge Report is flashing that Obama will announce his V.P. tomorrow in the A.M.***