viewfromaloft

A Palin Palm Pilot.

DOTDOTDASH: I don't plan to stray away from Downtown Art notes or Arts District neighborhood news for national politics. Still, e-mails are showing Arts District locals are puzzled over Sarah Palin's rock star reception from Tea Party Nation  . . –– This side of the Alameda curtain, after all, is Obama country. TALK TO THE HAND: These Traction Ave liberals have smirked at Palin's line tweaking President Obama as a “charismatic guy with a teleprompter” before a number of cameras show her reading crib notes written on her iSarah . . . on her left wing.

The Two Supers

It's the week the front runner switched leads with an opponent who had momentum going into game day, and the contest gave life to a U.S. institution that became so predictable, the television commercials surrounding it were considered more exciting. Record turnout saw a close ending, but before the victorious could celebrate on the field the clock was required to run out completely.

It may happen twice within a few days.

Super Bowl Sunday television ratings are second only to the final episode of  M* A*S*H. Today's voter turnout is already reported as high. Polls close at 8pm, but everyone is being counted so final numbers will be in tomorrow.

Round up of coverage [LOA]
Send your picks via e-mail or phone. [LAT]

This is viewfromaloft, and I approved this message.

Token Candidate-in-Downtown Watch

A band played "You ain't seen nothing yet" when John Edwards met with 1,000 of his closest friends in Downtown L.A. says Mona Gable at the Huffington Post. 'Many came in jeans and T-shirts. About the only people in suits were LA City Councilman Richard Alarcon and LA City Councilwoman Janice Hahn." Front runners Clinton and Obama had a visit with the LA Times, not on the same day. Photo: JohnEdwards.com

Other Downtown Dwellers

KNBC's "Forgotten Neighbors" was aired last night, and the segments, including The Working Poor and Homeless Students, can be found at KNBC website.. I'm in Downtown Dwellers, a segment that looks at blogs covering skid row.

Downtown Los Angeles is sometimes known as the 3bn (Third Bloggiest Neighborhood). After the jump are some of the other dwellers who "live in the shadow of skid row."

Before and after the jump: Screen grab of "Downtown Dwellers" via KNBC.

'The enemy is not in our stars, but in ourselves'

Forget the potential Telemundo telenovela that could casted from within the GE/NBC/Universal family. This is becoming Shakespearean.

Downtown's own Shakespeare Festival/LA, who stage the Bard's works using Los Angeles as the backdrop,  will present A Midsummer Nights Dream set in South-Central L.A.s early jazz era. They may have next years production developing as we speak. I'm looking forward to a Los Angeles of 2007 as the setting of Julius Cesar;  the story of a leader whose intelligence gathering was ignored by tunnel vision, failing to heed an impending blindside.

The current rumor irritates the current stab wounds on an injured image as the weekend brings reports the Mayor was outed by the girl friend herself another affair was discovered; this time with a governmental body. Rumors take on the same force as leaks.

It goes beyond the parody of politics. And in case you were thinking of casting the lean and hungry look of Paris Hilton, remember Cassius is accused of thinking too much.

LA' s Cesar is now beckoned to answer to rumors knowing a flat denial on ears of friends and Romans won't sway truth hidden by power, even if the issues in question have little to do with leadership of the state. The questions of credibility will remain blogger big brother fodder and lead items for columnists.

Vexed, am I.

Pictured: The Mayor at L.A.'s newest Rome, L.A. Live. Photo: View From a Loft

Add July 10: Release via LAO from the speculative 4th party:

Just Thinking

Before I muse on a few things,  I'll try and find the 1944 film, Maria Candeleria. It's set in 1916 Mexico and is about an indigenous village girl who gets stoned by her own people –– a story of prejudice and intolerance. Still current? Just thinking.

King

FREE AT LAST: Martin Luther King Jr Day mixes reflective musing along with joy that there is less traffic as goverment offices are closed for the holiday.  For those taking the high road, many websites are posting the August 28, 1963 "I have a dream" speech online. MORE KING: The Los Angeles Sentinel ran a special issue and the website links to MSNBC with a story on King's secretary, Dora McDonald, who passed away last Saturday at the age of 81: "...it was McDonald who told Coretta Scott King that her husband had been assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn." The King Center site is filled with information, including how the holiday came to be. ALSO Time 100's profile on King from 1998.

Mario Danelo, 21

After missing for a day, USC Kicker Mario Danelo, was found at the bottom of a cliff yesterday leaving some to speculate that it was suicide. LATimes reports it is being ruled out.

"I have no indication per se that it was a criminal event," Lt. David Pierson, commanding officer of the LAPD Harbor Division detectives, told the Los Angeles Times. "But we exhaust all leads to ensure that we're making the right categorization of the case."

Asked if it was being investigated as a suicide, Pierson said, "I don't have anything to indicate that it was that."

LAT The kicker's body is discovered at the bottom of a cliff in San Pedro. LAPD detectives are continuing their investigation.
Scott Wolf Inside USC `Where Nature Meets Man'
LAO (SoCal Sports Observed)
DailyNews Trojans' kicker is dead
BloggingLA Deaths Along Point Fermin Cliffs Not Uncommon
LAist  R.I.P. Mario Danelo

Death of a Dictator

Saddam Hussein is dead. He was 69.
CNN 

MSNBC

Time

NYT

LATimes

BBC

They Come in Threes

I would hold off on those "big news stories of 2006" lists you may be working on––at least for a few more hours.

From AP: Official: Saddam To Be Executed Tonight (4:02 pm)

Update from AP: Iraqi TV says Saddam Hussein executed (8:58 pm)