He's the next mayor
I left LA for Chicago why?• Bob Hertzberg, chairman of the Villaraigosa transition team, will be on KPCC's Talk of the City Friday at 2 p.m. with guest host Jon Beaupre.
• Mayor-elect Villaraigosa has signed on to give the opening remarks at the L.A. Press Club's 47th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards, June 11 2005 at the Renaissance Hollywood hotel.
• Wonkette's Ana Marie Cox will chat with Slate blogger Mickey Kaus on July 19 at the Central Library, as part of the Zócalo lecture series that L.A. Observed co-sponsors.
• Blogebrity, a gossip site about bloggers, interviews Tony Pierce. (Via LAVoice) Update: Blogebrity is a prank?
• Blogger Luke Ford got a threatening letter from the lawyer for Hollywood figure Jeff Wald. Ford told him to go away. He also has an interview with the director of the Kinsey Institute running on the Science Blog. And I guess this is only loosely related (if that), but since we're talking about Ford, his pal Cathy Seipp is making fun again of his ex-girlfriend Tiffany Stone.
• My post yesterday about the Daily Breeze story on Fernando Guerra prompted a blast at me from blogger Joseph Mailander, suggesting my motivation for linking to the story was—get this—anti-Latino racism because I'm supposedly "a suburban white guy." In two years of blogging, nobody has written more inaccurate trash about me than Mailander's tripe. I know from his email and the timing of his rants that he's bitter I don't link to him more. Lately he invented the racist thing, apparently to attack posts that did not sufficiently praise Antonio Villaraigosa. I know we're supposed to laugh this stuff off—especially from idiots like Mailander—and when I get legitimate criticism I usually note it and move on. But I don't take talk of racism lightly, and I also don't want to encourage Mailander to tell more lies. So this time, I called him on it, pointed out he's the most unethical blogger I've ever encountered, and asked that he back up his words with facts. He declined, but an exchange ensued here where I made my point, if sloppily. For background, here's some history, some of Mailander's legacy in the comments here that prompted a few L.A. Observed readers to call him anti-Semitic, and Marc Cooper's post about earlier Mailander antics. Sorry, I don't usually do personal stuff here—and believe me, I won't be making a habit of it. [* But thanks to everybody who emailed their support and shared tales of run-ins with the village idiot of the L.A. blogosphere. He's deleting critical comments today and posting bizarre stuff on other websites, and I'm starting to think he might even be a bit dangerous. I regret sending the new traffic his way—won't happen again.]