Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Wednesday

The San Francisco Sentinel has a pretty lame puff piece on Mayor Villaraigosa. The Sentinel says the Mayor is sitting pretty with no opposition, plenty of cash and a City Hall in sync with his agenda.  In a second term, the Sentinel says, the Mayor can accomplish more of his goals.  Perhaps he will work for the people 22% of the time.  A piece in the Contra Costa Times, Villaraigosa campaign manager Ace Smith lays out the Mayor's re-election strategy.

Forty three Democratic members of the State Legislature filed a brief Monday urging that the State Supreme Court invalidate Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage in California.  No Republican members of the Senate or Assembly joined on board but Governor Schwarzenegger expressed support for the effort.  Though State Attorney General Jerry Brown would be obligated to defend Proposition 8 in court, supporters of the measure say they would seek to have their attorneys intervene to oppose and represent their interests in the case.

A number of LA's top chefs joined to compete in the 22nd annual "Great Chefs of LA: Go Green, Go Organic" at CBS Studios Sunday to benefit the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California.  Among the celebrities on hand were comedian George Lopez and Los Angeles City Council Member Dennis Zine.

Eric Garcetti has led the City Council in designating the site of a historic gay bar in Silverlake as a cultural landmark.  The Black Cat was the site of a horrific incident early on New Years Day 1967 when gay celebrants were savagely beaten by LAPD officers for the crime of kissing.  The bar today is now known as Le Barcito however it is still said to serve a gay clientele.

What happens when your dad gets elected President of the United States? You get asked to appear on the hottest kids TV series on today, The Disney Channel's Hannah Montana.  Billy Ray Cyrus, series co-star and father of star Miley Cyrus said the show has asked Sasha and Malia Obama to visit and appear in an episode. No word on if the Obama family has accepted the offer.

The Obama Women

She was elegant, poised, articulate and had the Dems at the DNC convention melting with her every word; yes, Sasha Obama stole the show from her hot, equally poised and articulate mother, Michelle. And Malia, looking like she wanted to jump through the screen to kiss her daddy...was so real, so achingly sweet and too cute!




Michelle garnered generally good reviews for her speech last night in Denver, (Washington Post, MSNBC), with the occasional kook (hello Leslie Sanchez!) who was left wondering (uh... wondering what?) after seeing Michelle in a "cocktail dress"? Seriously? Wondering about what she's wearing???

Danielle Crittenden at the HuffPo writes thoughtfully of her assessment of Michelle Obama as a post-feminist political candidate's wife:

Think of it this way: When was the last time a nominee's wife stepped forward to assert her children and her marriage were more important and satisfying to her than her career? Indeed, to speak of the necessity of putting her career aside for her husband's political ambition--and to do so without a whiff of resentment? Heck, when was the last time you saw a candidate's wife--any candidates wife! -- proclaim her love for her husband without that husband having been caught cheating on her first? And to do all this without driving the media into a hissy fit: "OMG she's setting women's rights back a generation!"

For neither is Michelle Obama some retro caricature of a "desperate housewife." How could she be, with her pumped figure, her confident, outspoken manner, and the way she sometimes looks, when goaded, like she's chewing on marbles? This is not a woman to be messed with. This is not a woman who feels inferior to her husband. This is not a woman without ambition or dreams. But she seems to possess the modern understanding that women's ambitions and dreams aren't always realized on a straight trajectory; that marriage and family are as much a part of those ambitions and dreams as a promotion or job title; and that when a husband succeeds politically, it does not negate her importance but amplifies it.

Hillary Clinton takes the DNC convention stage tonight for her speech. Wonder what she'll be wearing. I know Leslie Sanchez is wondering.