Mayor Sam's Hotsheet for Monday

With YouTube video showing Maxine Water's duplicity in what lead to the current banking crisis precipitated by the fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, voters in Los Angeles can send a message to the Macy's shopping grand dame of Los Angeles politics, finally ejecting her from Congress (long overdue) and elect Ted Hayes to Congress. Check out this video of Waters being challenged on Real Time with Bill Maher (hardly a Republican show) about her alleged lies about contributions she received from the two mortgage banks.


More than $40 million is being spent by both sides in the battle over Proposition 8, which removes the right of same-sex couples in California to wed.  Be sure to read my commentary urging you to vote no on the measure.


A blogger runs into Council Member Dennis Zine having lunch at the Eastside Market Italian Deli in Downtown Los Angeles.  No word on what Dennis was actually eating.

Here's yet another story illustrating the politically correct goofiness that has changed the meaning of youth sports in America.  It used to be that sports were to teach kids teamwork, responsibility and being their best.  May the best team win.  However in recent years because of concerns about children's "self esteem" these sports programs have worked to make everyone a winner such as giving a trophy even to losing teams and anything else to deman the efforts of the best performers.  The latest is a story about a prodigy nine year pitcher from a Connecticut Little League team, who has been disqualified from playing, because he is "too good."  Unbelievable.

You may wish to read my essay "The Audacity of Non-Conformity" over at my personal blog, Absolute Random Nonsense.  I detail my experience of being on the opposite side of the Presidential question of most folks I know as a young idealistic Democrat in 1984 and as a middle aged pragmatic Republican a quarter century later.

LAUSD Sticking It To The Little League? The Sequel

Time for some public outrage. A few years back, the Los Angeles Unified School District tried to charge youth groups, sports teams, etc. for use of school facilities. Thanks to an outcry from the citizenry, the District backed off. Once again however school officials are making noise about charging youth groups substantial fees for using school campuses.

The problem with this - beyond the obvious hardship it will have on these groups - is that in recent years the LAUSD has built - at great impact on many communities - new campuses with the understanding of "joint use." That is that school facilities such as playgrounds, sports fields, classrooms, etc. could be used by the community for purposes that benefit the neighborhood when school is not in session.

So it's time to gear up again and let Superintendent Admiral David Brewer know this is just not okay.