According to an LA Weekly investigation, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa “has very quietly accepted — and even angled for — free tickets to as many as 80 pricey events, then failed to report all but one of them, as well as failed to keep records of his actions or the sources of this largesse.”

From an article published today:

It is not known who gave him the tickets, or the precise number of these events Villaraigosa actually attended, although it is known that he frequently did show up. The 80 events, which appear on the mayor’s private official schedule, were recently sent by Villaraigosa to the Ethics Commission amid an outcry from the public over his freebies. The Weekly obtained a copy of the list. Click here to see the Weekly’s exclusive ticket-price values of Mayor Villaraigosa’s 80 freebies.

According to L.A. Weekly’s calculations, Villaraigosa has taken tickets worth $50,000, and perhaps as much as $100,000 — a staggering amount for an American politician at any level, and more than he could cover with his $223,000 salary and extensive family obligations.

(more…)

—–

I thought Obama put an end to all this ugly America’s empiring? Or is Oliver Stone the last remaining critic of this country yet to receive a Presidential bow?

Anyway, here’s a glimpse of Oliver Stone’s pal:

Venezuela has asked Interpol to arrest the owner of the only TV station still openly critical of leftist President Hugo Chavez, the government announced Friday. ….

Zuloaga was previously detained in March, when he was accused of criticizing the government during a public forum outside the country.

International human rights groups have criticized the legal action against Zuloaga and other Chavez critics, calling such actions an attempt to silence them.

And here’s a glimpse of how much affection Chavez’s own people hold for him: (more…)

—–

If you’re going to criticize the trailer, please watch your words carefully. Jay Chou co-stars as Kato, which means Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman might brand you a racist for not gushing over “The Green Hornet.”

President Barack Obama meets with Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

Jon Voight in today’s Washington Times:

You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone’s enemy – and it has resonated throughout the world. You are putting Israel in harm’s way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world.

(more…)

—–

Kudos to CNN’s Anderson Cooper for having someone on who not only knows of what he speaks from first-hand experience, but obviously wasn’t going to say what Cooper would’ve have liked him to say.

Adkins handles himself with the class of a true superstar. He doesn’t get partisan and keeps his informed criticism borne of actual experience focused where it should be: on policies and ideas instead of individuals. (more…)

In an industry filled with quislings, appeasers, moral cowards, and politically correct, multicultural, progressive fascists, Rush Limbaugh’s pal is quite the breath of heroic fresh air.  You just get the sense that Elton John hates to be told what to think, which makes him a Big Hollywood kind of guy.

The Associated Press:

Pounding his piano in blue-tinted sunglasses before nearly 50,000 screaming fans, Elton John took center stage in a battle over Israel’s image.

The legendary British rocker’s concert on Thursday night followed a string of cancellations by artists like Elvis Costello and the Pixies. Resisting a growing wave of calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish state, John gave Israelis a rare reason to smile amid their increasing sense of international isolation.

“Ain’t gonna stop me from coming here, baby,” he told the cheering crowd in Tel Aviv, saying he believed music should spread peace and bring people together: “That is what we do. We do not cherry-pick our consciences, OK?” he added, in an apparent swipe at the artists who have canceled concerts in Israel. …. (more…)

Big Hollywood would like to welcome Janeane Garofalo, the inappropriately named Joy Behar and Ron Reagan to that infamous Leftist club known as Only Racists Criticize Our One.

From yesterday’s Joy Behar Show on HLN:

JANEANE GAROFALO: No, I didn`t feel that it was a strong speech, and I felt that the prayer thing he did was pandering and anti-intellectual and just sort of a waste of time.

RON REAGAN: Well, because [Obama's] a corporatist like all our other Presidents have been for a long, long time. That`s what`s being revealed here. Barack Obama is just as much a corporatist as George H.W. – or George W. Bush was.

(more…)

Hey, remember when mockery and ridicule of Their One resulted in charges of racism from the Left? Well, finally, Obama’s stunning incompetence has accomplished what sea-rising speeches could not: brought us all together.

Over the course of just a few days we’ve seen Rolling Stone, Maureen Dowd, the LA Times, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Joan Walsh, Rachel Maddow, Howard Fineman, and the NY Times all, by their own definition, become racists. Jon Stewart, however… Wow.

—–

Yes, we are all racists now!

E!:

—–

If you listen very closely, in the background, you can hear James Cameron’s teeth grinding.

—–

—–

(more…)