Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Tuesday

Zuma Dogg is attempting to unravel an extremely tangled web of overlapping relationships, business arrangements and political alliances that could very well be at the heart of a deep scandal around public employee pension funds, perhaps rivaling Watergate in intensity and potential impact.  Rather than go on about it here, check out the story at Zuma's blog.

The LA Weekly's Patrick Range McDonald dissects a recent gun buy-back program sponsored by the Mayor where those who turned in uzis and other illegal assault weapons received gift cards. McDonald shows how the event, despite the Mayor's spin, was a useless exercise and was handled in such a way that may have discouraged some folks from turning in guns.  In the meantime yuppie sandwich shop and wi-fi hangout Panera Bread apparently classifies the Weekly as pornography and it's firewall blocks patrons from accessing the fishwrap.

Going into the final days of the campaign, City Attorney candidate Carmen Trutanich has significantly more cash on hand than his opponent Jack Weiss.  Trutanich has nearly $350K on hand while Weiss is just shy of $200. In the meantime Trutanich's campaign once again criticized Weiss for refusing to return funds from a fundraiser held by City Commissioner Kelly Candaele, in violation of ethics laws.

Political blogger Meghan McCain continues to piss off both Democrats and Republicans which leads me to think she must be doing something right.  Both Right Wing Blogging Dentist Flap and Left Wing Blogging Mommy Debbie Lopez once again bitch slapped the political scion over a recent celebrity PMS moment McCain had at the White House Correspndents dinner, itself an event where overly self-important scribes, pols and celebrities fete each other and spend way too much time after talking about it.  Most of the details come from the bitchy celebrity gossip site Wonkette which should be noted is a competitor to the site McCain blogs at, The Daily Beast. 

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

Mayor Villaraigosa broached the issue of privatizing the Los Angeles Zoo and the idea is gaining traction.  The Daily News agrees it's something that should be looked at.  Ultimately a zoo is a theme park or at best an educational instutition.  Neither is the job of municipal government.  Therefore the zoo should be turned over to Disney or perhaps the World Wildlife Fun to run. The next step would be to send large animals to preserves and replace those exihibits with virtual ones that can just as easily educate as penning up animals where they don't belong and don't prosper.  Los Angeles could actually set the pace for the 21st century zoo.

Ron Kaye marks the one year anniversary of his termination as editor of the Los Angeles Daily News.  "I got no regrets," Kaye says as after 365 days in his new role of blogger and agent provacateur.

So much for President Barack Obama's claims to be a man of the people.  Like most Democrats and Republicans he's all about the connected.  His recent town hall meeting in Los Angeles was supposed to be open to the people, instead, as the Daily News reports, most of the tickets went to Democratic elected officials, their staffs and major party fat cats.  Spin that one Jim Alger!

Blogger Cindy Lu at Loteria Chicana made her first ever batch of frijoles olla. Response from her mother: “Wow. Ya te puedes casar.” Of course that means that Cindy's mom is satisfied Cindy is now ready to get married.  Moms are the same in any culture; can't we all just get along?

LA Weekly notes that L.A. Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman has ordered a Catholic religious order to make hundreds of personnel files public. The judge's order is part of a $28 million settlement between alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse and the Franciscans. The lawsuit stems from allegations against Franciscan priests who are accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys and girls going back to the 1950s.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is actualy doing a photo op that doesn't have to do with nightclubs, turning off the lights or dancing with cartoon characters.  The Mayor will speak about the city budget at an appearance before several neighborhood councils and other community organizations Monday evening in West Los Angeles.

By the way does this conflict with this?

The City of Los Angeles spent nearly 40 years trying to make an airport work in Palmdale and could not do it.  So it makes sense to let a smaller, more efficient city take a shot at it. The City of Palmdale has voted to create an airport commission and department to manage and get Palmdale Regional Airport finally up and running.

Would someone actually run against Council Member Benard Parks as he perhaps seeks his third and final term in 2011? Possibly Assembly Speaker Karen Bass according to one blogger.

In the meantime Parks is pushing a city law, similar to a Los Angeles County measure, that would place civil penalties on the parents of under age graffiti criminals.  Good idea.

Blogger Flap, the ultra-right wing dentist, posted up an item that featured a Twitter tweet supposedly posted by Meghan McCain calling Rush Limbaugh fat.  I was about to call Ms. McCain to task for being a hypocrite as I had defended her when blowtard "commentator" Laura Ingraham could only challenge McCain's calls for a more big tent Republican party by referring to her weight.  However, the leading Republican sadist has now come out and admitted that the tweet is a hoax, under the guise of parody.  Good going Flap.  Anyone who has this man's fingers in their mouth needs to question their sanity.

Franklin Avenue reports bad news for both Walter Moore and Rick Dees.  Movin 93.9, which flipped from country to adult contemporary and brought Dees on board three years ago, is going Spanish language.  Oops.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

A blogger who writes about lighting thinks that LA voters were voting down solar energy when they defeated Measure B earlier this month.  Jim on Light posits that Angelenos would experience "delerium tremens" were we to "experience a withdrawal from foreign oil."  It's not that at all Jim. A slim majority of LA's voters were voting down government shadiness not alternative energy.

The billboard wackos are at it again.  They don't even want billboards at places like LA Live and Hollywood where most folks under 50 think they're cool.  Convoluted thinking that creates a crisis out of a non-issue leads to the notion that by allowing individual communities to set their own course as opposed to a suburban crank NIMBY driven one size fits all the billboard industry will sue.  Dumbasses, a Citywide ban will invite lawsuits as well.  If there are any billboard attorneys out there (except for Walter Moore) that want to file a class action suit against the city on my behalf I'm willing to advocate for sign districts and more billboards. (Don't we have a budget and crime problem that's more important the nutbar obsession with billboards?)

More special event fee waiver nonsense from your local City Clowncil.  The City is going broke but apparently we can afford to pop taxpayer money for an "American Idol Viewing Party."  Can't Ryan Seacrest pick up the tab here? Heck it would be a write-off! Who is behind this nonsense? Not surprsingly Jan Perry and disappointingly, Dennis Zine.

Catholics are expressing concern over Notre Dame University's invitation to President Obama to speak at their commencement following his recent decision to fund stem cell research.  Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt says at this blog, "Imagine the reaction if the National Right to Life Committee were to invite President Obama to receive its leadership award.  By contrast, imagine if the ACLU were to invite Secretary Rumsfeld to receive its leadership award."

Apparently it isn't just Senator Larry Craig who allegedly likes bathroom sex.  The Daily Telegraph reports that Britney Spears reportedly had a seven to nine minute tryst with one of her dancers in a john following a concert, while burly security guards were posted outside.  Uh oh, don't let Daddy Spears know!

Former President Jimmy Carter has gone off the deep end and apparently feels that the Civil War as "un-Christian." In a new book about the writings of Abraham Lincoln Carter comments on a comment by the 16th President that he was on a mission from God to end slavery by saying Abe's words were "very troubling" and "that that the leaders of both sides, overwhelmingly Christian, were violating a basic premise of their belief as followers of the Prince of Peace."

Flap the Blogging Sadist I mean Dentist has a Meghan McCain obsession.  I don't blame him because she's smart and very sexy but this isn't way you impress a girl, Doc.  Even when she's right Flap has to hate on Meghan and point out her age.  That might be because Flap is like three times Meghan's age.  Flap, I think there's a molar calling you.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday, Late Edition

Following President Obama's remarks during his recent Tonight Show appearance associating his poor bowling performance with the "Special Olympics" a disabled man who is a national Special Olympics champion in blowling says to the President "Bring it." Kolan McConiughey, a mentally disabled man considered one of the nation's top Special Olympics bowlers, with five perfect games to his credit told the AP "He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily."

Meghan McCain writing at the Daily Beat interviews Supriya Jindal, the first lady of Louisiana.  Surpiya, a chemical engineer regularly completes Soduku Samurai puzzles.

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota may be about to join the big government league of so called Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Pawlenty wants to hatch a scheme where the state would attach a device to your car and bill for the miles driven. At what point does government get out of our lives?

Some of the great promise of social networking sites like Twitter includes getting a peak into the mundane personal lives of celebrities. For example, We learn that Kim Kardashian didn't invite her sister Kourtney to dinner with some old high school chums.

Young Turks Frame Laura Ingraham's Meghan McCain Lies Perfectly

Meghan McCain Hater Flap Can Kiss MY Fat Ass

"You know the difference between a dentist and a sadist don't you? Newer magazines."

-Jerry Seinfeld

Dr. Flap is at it again. No better than the shrewtastic Laura Ingraham decided the only way she could debate Meghan McCain's views on what the Republican Party needs to do by calling McCain "fat," our favorite blogging dentist can only do as well to call her a "moron."



Here's the rub. Flap must be breathing in too much of the twilight sleep gas. Meghan McCain is an intelligent writer who clearly makes the case why the Republicans must make radical changes to bring in young people, moderates, libertarian leaners and disaffected Democrats. The problem is old farts like Flap and bitter women like Ingraham just don't get it. And they are so at the peril of the party.

Kiss my fat ass Flap! (With all due respect because most of the time you're right but this time you're acting like a Mayor Sam dum dum.)

Republican Dentist Doesn't Understand Meghan McCain

My old friend Flap the blogging Republican dentist doesn't get why Meghan McCain is calling on the Republican Party to change its old ways and have a shot at being relevant to anyone under 50.



Meghan has emerged as a thoughtful, elouquent spokesperson for the conservative movement that is based in her Arizona DNA, a state that gave us Barry Goldwater and of course, her dad. Meghan is far more effective at spreading the Republican message to others as opposed to hateful shrews like Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin or past their time blowhards like Rush Limbaugh.  There certainly is a place for humor, wry wit and sarcasm of a conservative bent - Tammy Bruce, Dennis Miller, Doug McIntyre and John Phillips do it well.  But it can be done without the often racially charged and homophobic rhetoric of the previously mentioned shrews and blowhard.

Dr. Flap says that Meghan appears uneducated (not true, she went to an elite prep school and Columbia University) and that she "expresses a generational angst and frustration but to think she is any future voice of the Republican Party is to fail to consider the source."  Hello, McFly? Doc, don't ya think that the best person to ask how to get young people to the Republican party is a young person? Or would you suggest we ask Pat Boone?

The Republicans are not going to get ahead hating on the gays, bitching about the Mexicans and telling the Jews they must be "perfected." It's not going to draw disaffected Democrats, moderates, Libertarians and other to the GOP to have Rush Limbaugh quoting Obama in a voice imitating Amos and Andy.  That schtick went out with Nixon.  We have to focus on core Republican values of lower taxes, less government, strong national defense, personal responibility and individual freedom.  With many Democrats around the country embroiled in scandals and shadiness, the Republicans could become the party of reform.  But first we have to rebrand and drop the Phyliss Schafly act.  Otherwise the party will continue to lose good conservatives such as this burro who recently dropped his GOP voter reg.

Addendum: Add to the shrew list Ann Coulter wannabe Laura Ingraham.  Following the modus operandi of a Mayor Sam reader who can't debate the issues but throw personal insults Ingraham calls Meghan fat.  That's great - a middle aged, left at the altar twice harpie calls a 24 year old woman fat.  Great work! Way to represent!

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Sunday

Turns out that Walter Moore was elected Mayor after all - in CD12 that is. According to the LA Times, Moore won 42.4% of the vote to Villaraigosa's 37.3%.  Perhaps Moore should consider moving to Chatsworth instead of France and running against rumored candidates Mitchell Englander and Jim Alger in 2011.

Following his election victory Tuesday, Mayor Villaraigosa's staffers started sending out notices that this win - along with his decent standings in a recent Field Poll - put him in prime position to run for Governor. Though the Villaristas hoped for a landslide, as the SF Gate said, "55 percent against nine pretenders, who most voters couldn't have picked out of a police lineup" isn't it.  In a recent Lake Poll, Villaraigosa comes in second to Jerry Brown and both Brown and fellow contender San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom would have no trouble defeating most of the so-far Republican contenders. Tom Hayden via Celeste Fremon says that Villaraigosa will run for Governor and has an excellent chance. 

Speaking of Celeste Fremon in that same piece she has an a-ha moment when she realizes that the reason Laura Chick won't seek Wendy Greuel's Council seat is she's expecting to run for Mayor when Villaraigosa is elected Governor.

Rick Orlov reports that despite the defeat of Measure B, the DWP is going to go ahead with a solar program, without all the shady parts deleted by the voters on election day. That's fine with the No On B folks as long as the DWP offers transparency in the process.

Actress Maria Conchita Alonso - a Venezuelan national - is speaking out about actor Sean Penn's legendary friendship with her homeland's strongman dictator, Hugo Chavez.  Maria says that Penn should "shut up."

John and Ken on another bombastic rant about elected officials and this time it's Governor Schwarzenegger and pro-tax members of the Legislature.  The radio talk show hosts held a rally in Orange County which drew thousands for a tax revolt.  Though most of us agree that the Governor and Legislature's response to our budget woes were basically giving the finger to the people, John and Ken - compared to hosts such as Doug McIntyre, John Phillips and Kevin James - don't have much of an idelogical committment personally and actually phone in part of their performance.  It is has been long rumored that the pair slips out of the studio whenever they feel like it during their final hour and pre-recorded bits fill the remainder of the hour.

Former GOP Presidential candidate John McCain's daughter/writer Meghan McCain finds dating following her father's defeat troublesome.  On one hand if she dates an Obama supporter who rambles on about how the President was a better choice than her fathe, it brings up old hurt.  Yet Meghan often finds herself going out with McCain voters who gush over her father and quote his lines that she says "It’s like someone taking Lisa Marie Presley out on a date and singing Hound Dog in the middle of dinner."

Meghan McCain and Mark McKinnon on the Future of the Republican Party

The Republican Party was essentially destroyed in November so Meghan McCain finds herself in the near lonely position of being a 24 year old member of the GOP; yet former Bush strategist Mark McKinnon makes the point that in four years Obama will be the establishment; opening opportunities for the opposition if they can get smart enough to seize upon on them.

Punk Rock and McCain

One of the things that bugs me the most about this election is how divisive it's become. I can only speak as a McCain supporter but I have never seen such vitriol come from a good chunk of folks on the other side. It will be over soon.

Back in the day when a lot of us had major issues with Ronald Reagan (I was wrong, but hey I was young) we all still got along. A great example of that was within the legendary punk rock band, The Ramones.

Johnny Ramone (real name John Cummings) was a born and bred Republican from Forest Hills in Queens, New York, one of a few conservatives in the rock music world. Cummings recalled growing up Republican in a union dominated, mostly Democratic, Irish Catholic community where he had his first political epiphany during the Nixon-Kennedy race in 1960.

Along with Tamás Erdélyi (Tommy Ramone), Jeffrey Ross Hyman (Joey Ramone), Douglas Glenn Colvin (Dee Dee Ramone), Cummings in 1974 founded the band that the readers of Spin Magazine would vote as the second greatest rock band of all time, second only to The Beatles (ironically, Colvin was inspired by an early pseudonym of Paul McCartney, Paul Ramone, in choosing the group's stage name).

The Ramones' 1986 album Animal Boy contained a track that Cummings didn't really like: Dee Dee Ramone, Jean Beauvoir, and Joey Ramone's My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) a protest song against Reagan's 1985 visit to Bitburg Cemetary in Germany.



Cummings was outvoted by the rest of the band to include the track on the album and graciously went with the decision saying "The band is a democracy." Friends say he played that song "like the professional that he was."

Cummings died in 2004 of prostate cancer following Hyman's death in 2001 of lymphoma and Colvin's in 2002 of a heroin overdose.

Cummings' widow Linda continues on in her husband's conservative tradition most recently campaigning for John McCain alongside his daughter Meghan in Nevada. The 24 year old McCain recalls that Beat on the Brat was the song playing when she had her first kiss.

Cummings tolerance of divergent views, particularly when he was under tremendous peer pressure as a minority in the entertainment world, is a lesson for all of us. Can't we just agree to disagree?

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Friday

The most noteworthy event of his career for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is that he's going to be immortalized in wax by the legendary Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  Other than that, an LA Weekly piece by Patrick Range McDonald paints a dim picture of the Mayoralty under Villaraigosa, that of a Mayor consumed by photo ops, press events and ego stroking, without a single accomplishment (including that the one achievement the Mayor does tout may have been fudged) under his belt.  Other than the grass roots candidacy of Walter Moore, no one has yet sought to challenge the Mayor, who has perhaps left the City so broken no one wants it.

Though the majority of Republicans appear to support the effort to deny rights to same-sex couples, Proposition 8, there is a growing GOP effort to oppose the measure.  At the same time local Republicans are criticizing the leadership of the County GOP organization for sponsoring an event against marriage choice at a time when the party's focus should be on electing Republicans to local office.  We've said it before, but booting County Party Chair Linda Boyd is long overdue. 

Evidently we've put an end to crime in Los Angeles, we've filled all the potholes, we've brought lots and lots of high paying jobs to the city and we've balanced the budget.  Because besides banning plastic bags and fast food in Los Angeles, the City Council took to that veritable scourge of society, banning smoking at outdoor farmers markets.

If you live in one of  LA's tony hillside or canyon areas, you better not be voting for John McCain or more importantly, don't put up a sign supporting the Republican Presidential candidate.  Not only will local liberals deface your sign, the City will tell you to take it down - despite Supreme Court rulings that say a City cannot prohibit political speech on private property.

I didn't catch this earlier, but when John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his pick for his running mate, his daughter, blogger Meghan McCain blogged the event with lots of behind the scenes photos of the announcement event.

Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

The Grand Avenue boondoggle becomes even more so. Developer Related Companies now says that the project has to be delayed at least 16 months due to current market conditions. LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich is angered by the moving; stating that other developers may have bid or been considered had they known the project deadline would be moved. Antonovich is now calling for the project to be put back out to bid. How about we go one better - cancel the thing now before it sucks billions and billions of dollars of tax money from police, fire, parks, streets, education and more.

Doug McIntyre admits that he forgot to vote last Tuesday. I too, for the first time in many years did not cast a ballot. Doug's reason is he was busy and engaged with other things; mine was I was pretty sick in bed. As bad as that seems, McIntyre and I are of the same mind: why bother? Voter participation is so low that the brain dead masses that do vote can be so easily manipulated by the special interests and idiocy reigns supreme. On a sidenote, given how abysmally low voter turnout was, we don't want to hear any more electeds complaining about Neighborhood Council election turnout.

Zuma Dogg has made a habit for many to watch Los Angeles City Council meetings on Channel 35 on cable TV within the City. However residents of Upland and Ontario will no longer get coverage of City Council meetings in those cities as the local cable operator, Time Warner, will no longer cover them.





Now that Hillary Clinton's dropped out of the Presidential race, Mayor Villaraigosa has jumped on the Barack Obama bandwagon. And maybe it's helping: a recent poll shows the Illinois Democrat capturing up to 62 percent of Latino vote over Senator John McCain.

They've been installed all over Los Angeles but an unusual coalition of the NAACP, the Libertarian Party and environmental groups are joining up to place a measure on the ballot to reject traffic cameras in Cincinnati, Ohio.

When it comes to potential Presidential daughters, blogger Meghan McCain appears to be one of the more interesting to come down the pike in a while. The 23 year old recent Columbia University grad is traveling with her father - Senator and Republican Presidential nominee John McCain - and blogging the campaign from the Gen Y point of view. Looks like Meghan will most likely be the next Eleanor Mondale or Ron Reagan.