Despite the general consensus of constituents in their respective districts, three Democratic congressmen representing Los Angeles areas have voted to pass a controversial bill " that would offer retroactive immunity to telephone companies that cooperated with the federal government’s post-Sept. 11, 2001, domestic spying program and did so despite widespread opposition in their districts," reports the Glendale News Press. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena), Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys) all supported the bill......

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that '24' co-creator Joel Surnow is bailing from the show and the Fox network. Surnow is the "right-wing nutjob" who is a personal friend of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and President Bush - he's the one that had the brilliant idea to come up with a right wing "answer" to 'The Daily Show' for Fox, but the failure to produce one is evidence he never understood the question. 8:00pm Survivor:......

President Bush landed this morning at LAX for a Southland visit to promote the free trade agreements he mentioned in Monday's State of the Union address with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. LAX shut down temporarily to accommodate the arrival of Air Force One, and at the airport Bush was greeted by sisters Marni and Berni Barta, two Harvard-Westlake students who founded a program called Kid Flicks, which "collects new and used DVDs that are......

President Bush's final State of the Union address by Just Say K.B. via Flickr President George Bush delivered his final State of the Union address this evening. As we mercifully begin the transition out of the Bush era, let us examine the President's speech in typical Washington fashion: taking out a few lines here and there for the most opportune response. We have faced hard decisions about peace and war, rising competition in the world......

WORDS SCI-Arc’s spring lecture series on design and architecture kicks off tonight with Jeffrey Kipnis, professor of architectural design and theory at Ohio State University. Kipnis will discuss “happy,” “zany” and other important political trends in architecture. So the title of his lecture -- *@$#*!#!! -- does make sense. Kind of. 7 pm // W. M. Keck Lecture Hall SCI-Arc, 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles // Free. MORE WORDS David Frum is a former......

Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons will be stepping down at the end of the year, letting Chicago businessman Sam Zell take over the company. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times. President Bush signed a huge Energy Bill yesterday, in hopes of "reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure."......

The Dodgers continued their off season wheeling and dealing, singing Japanese All-Star pitcher Hiroki Kuroda to a three-year deal believed to be worth $36 to $40 million. "This is a huge pickup for the Dodgers," said The Daily News' Tony Jackson, who may have been first to break the news. It's a lot of money, but winning the World Series does not come cheap. Just ask the Rockies. Two teens (age 18 and 19)......

How apropos; today on LAist it's Sex Saturday, but today also happens to be World AIDS Day. Several events took place yesterday and will happen today in order to remind the world community that HIV/AIDS remains a global threat. The LA Times reports today on President Bush's public appearance yesterday at a church in northern Maryland, and that his speeches did not propose new plans or funding, but rather focused on humanitarianism. According to the......

President Bush may have passed a $460 billion defense bill, but he has vetoed a $150 billion bill that would have funded the Labor and Health and Human Services departments according to a report by the Daily News. It is also rumored that he will veto an upcoming $105.6 billion transportation bill. Congress is gearing up for a battle, with House Republicans upholding presidential vetoes and Democrats accusing their GOP counterparts of ignoring the......

by Chuck Clayton for LAist Toothpaste is good and so is orange juice, but it’s a goddamn tragedy every time you try to combine them. Like power-pop. Seems like a no-brainer on paper, you know — mixing Beatles melodic values with bigger guitars and drums — but, in practice, power pop nearly never works. It’s usually whiny and wimpy and often flabby, too, all the wrong Paul McCartney moves played by, well, Beatle nerds......

In a stunning accusation of a crime that in most circles is tantamount to treason, former White House mouthpiece Scott McClellan claims that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove and others were all in on outting 20-year CIA agent Valerie Plame. Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity......

As firefighters sought to contain the smoldering remains of California, officials are keying in on how the fires started. One of the largest fires, the Santiago fire that burned 22,000 acres was, reportedly set by an arsonist. President Bush toured parts of California and declared, "We're not going to forget you in Washington D.C." I guess he didn't visit any poor children. There's at least one good story to come out of this tragedy.......

You'd think that two years after the slow-as-molasses response that President Bush was justly criticized for in the wake of Katrina, that he would have learned from his mistakes and treated the most recent California fires the way a leader should: quickly, decisively, and compassionately. Instead, he flew out to Cali on the fourth day of the fires (progress from the five days that it took him to set foot in the Gulf Coast......

That's what Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather said this morning:If we had more air resources, we would have been able to control this fire. Instead we've been stuck in this initial attack mode on the ground where we hopscotch through neighborhoods as best we can trying to control things. But OCFA is not the only frustrated agency in Southern California, as losses grow to an estimated $1 billion in San Diego County......

Pediatric doctors at the Mattel Children's Hospital rallied against President Bush last week upon hearing that he might actually veto a bill that would invest $35 million in children's health insurance, SCHIP. It was vetoed anyway. This week the UCLA School of Public Health received a $4.25 million grant to research/improve health in low-income families. -- Daily Bruin I guess we could start by, gee...investing in child health insurance for low income families? Football......

Today the worst president ever got to share his thoughts on the worst AG ever, and the lies seethed out like snakes from Medusa's slithery scalp. This morning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that he will leave the Department of Justice after two and a half years of service to the department. Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle, and I have reluctantly accepted his resignation with great appreciation for the......

Carole Meyers, the first female rabbi to lead a congregation in L.A., died at age 50 of bone cancer this past Thursday. A month-old wildfire in Santa Barbara County continued to grow and burned through another 1,000 acres, prompting evacuation orders for a dozen homes. An LAPD officer was killed earlier today after crashing his motorcycle on the 101 freeway. The Belmont Shore team won the 2007 ViewSonic Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival yesterday.......

The New Downtown Ralphs: "They went — loft-dwelling yuppies, SRO dwellers, office workers and even some homeless people — for a chance to browse the aisles of the long-awaited, 50,000-square-foot Ralphs on 9th Street." Not Putting in Crosswalks Near Schools: "'Our Department of Transportation is one of the slowest, most bureaucratic departments in the city,' said City Councilman Greig Smith. 'I am constantly banging my head against the wall to get them to do......

An Irish interview with President Bush....

Dear Mr. President, Since its your big 61st birthday today, and it seems as though things don't seem to be going so well for you, we thought we'd post a video from the good old days. Back when you were drinking and partying, back before people had to salute you, and before you had to think so hard about stuff. For the remainder of your term, we suggest you should start drinking again- you're......

While you were being yelled at yesterday by the lifeguard not to run by the pool, Maxine Waters was celebrating the opening of the nation's first Impeachment Center (8124 West 3rd Street), a place that has suddenly grown in interest in the wake of President Bush's recent controversial move involving Scooter Libby's conviction. Waters said that this impeachment movement, "is one of the most important efforts this country has ever seen." Indeed, some say......

Sometimes people act a fool so they can get attention. Everyone knows this. But what most people forget is our elected officials work for us, not the other way around. In any relationship, honest communication is key. So when our elected officials act up, it's on us to let them know that we disprove. And just like in the blogosphere, it helps when you have the guts to put your name next to it.......

In a move only baffling if you thought that President Bush and his administration had hit rock bottom, today the President gave Scooter Libby a get out of jail free card on his convictions of obstruction of justice and perjury. But it's deeper than all of that. Scooter Libby was convicted on a National Security charge prosecuted by a Republican prosecutor and sentenced by a Republican judge. Libby was helping to cover up the......

- Sunday Morning Travel Alert: Caltrans will close the northbound San Diego Freeway (I-405) connectors to the east and westbound Ventura Freeway (U.S. 101), Sunday from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. for maintenance work. -UK based Tesco will launch Fresh & Easy Neighbourhood Markets in Los Angeles stocking healthy, chilled food in 10,000 sq. ft. spaces. - The Parker Center, LAPD HQ, was evacuated today over a bomb scare. It was just a suitcase.......

You know that beautiful corridor between Westwood and Brentwood on Wilshire - all that grass, and lack of skyscrapers, and what's the word: open space? It belongs to the Veterans. It's called the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. George Bush and the feds want it, they want to be able to build on it, and lease or sell it to Big Business. And when it looked like the $120 billion Iraq War spending bill......

John Marshall Evans became the US ambassador to Armenia in August 2004. Six months later he visited California and was convinced by Armenian-Americans here to cut the political B.S. and simply say that the 1.5 million Armenians who were the victims of genocide at the hands of the Turks from 1915 and 1923... were indeed victims of genocide. Today President Bush will tapdance around the word in fear of insulting our ally Turkey, a......

When Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald began a six-week leave of absence Wednesday after being diagnosed with cancer, no one expect that Sunday there would be obituaries being written for the seven-term congresswoman. Rep. Millender-McDonald, the first African American woman to head the House Administration Committee, easily won her district (California's 37th congressional district) in last year's election by 82%. She lobbied to ban smoking in the Speaker's Lobby off the House floor, a request that was......

Trying to keep it light today people... HBOs 'Entourage' makes Los Angeles a character While "Entourage" is a show about four close buddies, the HBO series gets much of its charm from what is arguably the group's fifth member: the city of Los Angeles. El Lay's status at the center of the U.S. entertainment industry means lots of shows nominally take place here. But few — if any — shows approach the city with......

I guess you can't call them a do-nothing Congress any more from Barefoot Bum House Judiciary Passes Article of Impeachment Against President Bush WASHINGTON – The first article of impeachment against President George W. Bush was passed by the House Judiciary Committee in an emergency special session late Saturday. The article appears to have been prompted by new evidence that the FBI had abused its power under the direction of the president, who had blocked......

Recommended Dixie Chicks - Shut Up & Sing - Remember when rugged individualism was the hallmark of the "American character"? Remember when that individualism was defined by a willingness to speak your mind? Remember when criticizing your governmental overlords was a patriotic duty? Yeah, me neither. But maybe country music trio The Dixie Chicks were trying to recall that mythologized frontier spirit when lead singer Nathalie Maines criticized President Bush for launching the Iraq......