Ames straw poll: Michele Bachmann beats Ron Paul -- by 152 votes

Rep. Michele Bachmann won the Ames straw poll today, but only by 152 votes over fellow Rep. Ron Paul.

Tim Pawlenty came in third with only about half the votes of Paul. Rick Santorum was fourth followed by Herman Cain (scroll down for vote totals).

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who wasn't on the Ames ballot and declared his candidacy only this afternoon in Charleston, S.C., before conservative writers, pulled something of an upset.

With only write-in votes, Perry topped Mitt Romney by about 200. They were both trailed by Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Thaddeus McCotter.

 The quadrennial straw poll was held in the Hilton Coliseum at Iowa State University, also....

What Gov. Jerry Brown said on national TV: 'The Democrats have to wake up'

Transcript of California Gov. Jerry Brown on 'State of the Union,' as provided by CNN

CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, CNN'S "STATE OF THE UNION": Governor, first of all, thank you so much for joining us.  I wanted you to take a California look at what's been going on in Washington.  We have just finished up a very grueling debt debate.  From your perspective, what did that tell you about Washington?

GOV. JERRY BROWN (D), CALIFORNIA:  Well, the obvious, that's it's dysfunctional, but more than that, that the Washington of today is suffering and experiencing a governability crisis.America can't govern when you have two parties so diametrically opposed. I think that is an ominous sign going forward. 

CROWLEY:  Do you have a solution for that, because I think you're right, I think people look....

George Lopez: I'd move to Canada if Palin were president

Sarah Palin hasn't announced that she is running for president, but if the former Alaska governor does throw her hat in the ring, and happens to win, late-night talk show host George Lopez says he will bid adios to the U.S.

Lopez, the hugely successful Mexican-American comedian, told CNN's Piers Morgan that he would leave the U.S. if the hockey mom became the next commander-in-chief, but he won't head south of the border. Lopez said that he would head to the Great White North.

"If Sarah Palin becomes president at any point, I would say 'allegedly,' I will move to Canada," Lopez said.

"I will go further north. I’ve been south but I will go further north. I will leave the United States of America,” Lopez added.

When Morgan asked Lopez why he would do such a drastic thing, the California native said, "I like my politicians to actually have a political background."

Lopez, whose TBS talk show follows Conan O'Brien's, was then asked why he thinks Palin appeals to a certain segment of the country.

“Is it that maverickness? Is is that homespun kind of Andy Griffith, wink-your-eye, shake-the-imaginary-gun thing. Maybe?" Lopez speculated. "Do we elect somebody by their smile? Instead of by their content? It’s a little bit of all of that,” he added.

Lopez may want to consider property in either Vancouver or Toronto. Although Palin hasn't made anything official, she continues to do extraordinarily well in the polls. A recent Washington Post/ABC poll has Palin right on the heels of front-runner Mitt Romney.

   

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-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Television personality George Lopez throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the game between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees at Wrigley Field. Credit: Jerry Lai / U.S. Presswire

L.A. Carmageddon one week later: Was all that really necessary?

One week after Southern California was gripped with the "Carmageddon" media drama of an actual freeway being closed to all vehicles for nearly two days, traffic on the 405 is back to its normal creep.

There was much advance talk of a likely municipal paralysis because of the unthinkable thought that every Angeleno could not go on any freeway at any hour to get in front of everyone else.

This doomsday scenario even crept into the passing national culture with late-night jokes about the reason for the closure: the regular need to sweep up shell casings from the city's highway shootouts.

The real reason, of course, was authorities wanting to demolish part of one bridge, there apparently being a surplus of such structures, according to the new administration.

And this being Democratic California, the protective politicians, who have their own drivers, had this cockamamie idea that regular LA drivers might not be up to the challenge of driving under a crumbling bridge.

First, some background for commuters outside Southern California.

Expressways here are called "freeways." This has nothing to do with the Founding Fathers. It is to emphasize the lack of tolls.

Officials knew they'd be mocked mercilessly if any word implying speed or rapid movement was used to describe the area's multi-lane monstrosities, which usually appear designed to carry upwards of 25% of the 16 million residents.

Great Weather Plus Too Many People

Not having a freezing climate, Southern California highway czars can tear up and build new lanes year-round. Same for constructing bridges to merge stuff on the side opposite where they now merge stuff. So they do.

In fact, they do it around the clock as well. Some of the worst LA traffic jams not on record occur in the middle of the night when construction crews jam six lanes into two to avoid creating the same monstrous traffic jams in daylight when TV camera crews are on the prowl.

California authorities are really into protecting citizens what with smoking laws and seatbelt laws and helmet laws and kiddie meal bans and cellphone laws. Under court order about 46,000 felons are about to be released to protect them from prison overcrowding.

San Francisco lawmakers realized recently they had yet to ban male circumcision. So, they're working on that protection. So naturally Golden state lawmakers are working on a law to protect Californians from laws to protect local residents from male circumcision.

To protect themselves against futile driver backlash, highway authorities for months have been warning area drivers through the media and with flashing highway signs about the impending big one, closing one of the nation's busiest highways from Friday night until Monday morning.

The hope was to inconvenience as few high-speed racers, illegal immigrant vans, drug smugglers and drunk drivers as possible.

Be Alert for Falling Girders

The media really bought into the sales pitch, day-after-day presenting the most dire scenarios and awkward alternatives because, hey, it's summer, no fires yet and who could dispute them?

But was all the horrendous hoo-hah really necessary?

Sure, there might have been some shattered windshields, shredded tires and crushed Coopers. And a few third-degree burns from welding sparks catching careless convertibles below.

But to think that real California freeway drivers need government protection from ordinary Southern California road hazards is ludicrous and presumptuous. Also patronizing.

Thousands of LA drivers each day on the 605 successfully dodge queen-size beds and couches. The 710 is known for 40-foot extension ladders sprawling across lanes.

Someone tests driver alertness on the 210 with indoor plant-lighting fixtures along the way.

And HOV lanes almost anywhere can provide that sudden adrenalin rush of a darkened Prius carcass just sitting there, having reached the end of its cord or something.

But the truth is veteran SoCal drivers could probably make better time wending their way through a bridge destruction zone, even dodging tumbling ten-ton cement cassons, than they do during a normal rush hour with its overloaded rental truck stalls, overturned avocado carriers, fuel truck fires and drivers trying to fix flats by staring.

Having failed to paralyze the metropolitan area for even a few hours, transportation officials gave up this time and re-opened the 405 freeway on Sunday about 16 hours early, enabling the mayor to make the evening news.

The next day they fretted that having successfully cried "Wolf!" in July, the same "OMG Battle LA II" won't work in several months when the other half of the surplus bridge is scheduled to come down.

But here's an alternative: Don't tell anybody which weekend. Leave the road open. And just do it. Chances are with only tons of cement rubble in the way hardly anyone would notice.

RELATED:

Bryan Chan's time-lapse video of LA's carmageddon

What should we name the nation's 51st state?

A World War II mystery that offered lessons for handling Osama bin Laden

HOW MANY HIGHWAY PATROLMEN DOES IT TAKE TO RE-OPEN A ROAD?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times; Reed Saxon / Reuters; Mario Anzuoni / Reuters; Jae C. Hong / Associated Press; Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images; Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times.

Obama endorses Sen. Dianne Feinstein's repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act

Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday announced a bill that would end the federal law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. Later the White House said it backed the California lawmaker's Respect for Marriage Act.

Feinstein's announcement precedes a Wednesday hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee that will discuss repealing all three sections of 1996's Defense of Marriage Act, which says marriage is a "legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife". 

"I think eyes have opened," Feinstein told the National Press Club on Tuesday.

"More and more people across this land know people who are gay, who want to have a lasting relationship, who look at marriage as an economic agreement as well as an emotional agreement," said Feinstein, who was one of 14 senators to vote against DOMA.

"This legislation would uphold the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples the same rights and legal protections as straight couples," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters on behalf of President Obama, who has recently said that his stance on same-sex marriage is "evolving".

Sarah Palin documentary 'The Undefeated' to roll out to other cities

 

Much of Sarah Palin's outreach since the 2008 election has been through social media -- Facebook and Twitter -- with considerable impact.

Now it looks as though the documentary about her, "The Undefeated," has sought success with a similar strategy.

Directed and written by Stephen K. Bannon, the film opened this weekend in AMC Theatres in 10 selected digital markets -- the closest to Los Angeles being the city of Orange in Orange County -- going up against the opening of perhaps the biggest film of the summer, the final installment in the "Harry Potter" series.

According to a release Sunday from distributor ARC Entertainment, which partnered with digital distributor Cinedigm, the film grossed approximately $5,000 per screen through Saturday night, with "large markets trending towards weekend per screen averages above $10,000."

That's quite modest by Hollywood standards, but the rollout was booked quickly over three weeks, with marketing carried out through word-of-mouth and low-cost social media.

The release quotes Jill Newhouse Calcaterra, the chief marketing officer for Cinedigm, saying, " 'The Undefeated' is the perfect example of how digital cinema can benefit both producers and audiences. Starting with theater location selection, we worked quickly -- with precision accuracy -- to generate a terrific box-office result with virtually no marketing dollars.

"This is a new model that is going to benefit the entire entertainment industry and audiences who want to see unique products."

51st state: 'South California' secession proposal unanimously approved for discussion at summit

South California, the proposed 51st state to the union, a long-shot concept that would see 13 California counties secede from the Golden State, was unanimously approved by the Riverside County Board of Directors Tuesday for more discussion and debate.

The board approved fellow member Jeff Stone's call for a meeting. The board voted 4-0 under the caveat that no Riverside County staff or funds be used for the meeting, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

Even though most parties involved do not believe that a 51st state will actually blossom from the summit, most applaud Stone's success in bringing to light his concerns with Sacramento politics and how it affects Riverside and counties like it.

"Although this proposal isn't going to happen, he has drawn attention to the real problem, which is his underlying purpose anyway," Jack Pitney, government professor at Claremont McKenna College told the Bulletin.

The next meeting is planned for the fall at which officials from around Southern California will discuss their issues with current state politics in a summit. Stone has asked that the 51st state proposal remain as an option if no other solutions could be reached.

South California would encompass Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Tulare counties, which have a combined population totaling approximately 13 million people.

The proposed 51st state would be the fifth largest by population, more populous than Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. South California would take nearly a third of the population away from California, making the Golden State the second-largest state after Texas.

Eleven of the 13 counties in proposed South California traditionally vote Republican, a fact noticed by California Gov. Jerry Brown's office last week.

"If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there's a place called Arizona," Brown spokesman Gil Duran said.

RELATED:

'South California' for 51st state?

What shall we name the nation's new 51st state?

'South California' proposed as 51st state by Republican supervisor

-- Tony Pierce
Twitter.com/busblog

Image: Map of the proposed 51st state, South California. Credit: Los Angeles Times

What shall we name the nation's new 51st state?

Monday our buddy Tony Pierce wrote here about an idea to create a 51st state out of 13 Southern California counties. It's so crazy it just might work.

That would mean carving a brand-new L.A.-free red state out of what in recent years has been a politically blue wasteland in national politics riven with fiscal crises and legislative deadlocks.

According to calculations by the idea's sponsor, Jeff Stone, a Republican member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, the new geographic entity would contain about 13 million residents, making it the fifth most populous state ahead of such dumps as Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Of its 13 existing counties, 11 have consistently voted Republican.So, unemployment would be low and the golf courses well-manicured.

Everyone over 18 could still vote. But for a refreshing change, surviving Democrats would experience the frustration of their presidential ballots being flushed down the toilet every four years.

One advantage of adding a 51st state is that President Obama would be a little less wrong when he refers to 57 states.

The new boundaries would also stick Nancy Pelosi's Bay Area California in with Los Angeles. The two crowded, polluted urban areas deserve each other, and their residents could chat all they want about wine and NPR without boring hardworking conservative neighbors who can't afford maids.

The change would ease the Democratic president's political fundraising trips because he'd no longer have to throw in a town hall to feign that he was on the left coast for presidential duties to cover the cost of Air Force One.

As for water, the new state would simply follow Southern California tradition and steal it from others.

Hollywood celebrities attempting to cross the new state for Las Vegas would encounter outrageously high tolls equivalent to twice the current price of a movie ticket or combo pack at the concession stand. (Tom Selleck, Patricia Heaton and Jerry Bruckheimer would be exempt from such levies.)

Barstow could be the new state's summer capital. With its triple-digit temperatures, no one in their right mind would stay there longer than it takes to fill a gas tank and escape back onto the 15 or 40 to somewhere else.

With legislators shunning an uninhabitable capitol, the new government would save millions on their per diem expenses and the cost of ridiculous new laws that begin as pilot programs and metastasize into never-ending budget items with their own self-perpetuating constituencies.

The winter capital could be San Diego, which would be renamed St. David.

The new state would, of course, get the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, the Miramar Naval Air Station and the San Diego naval base, including the nuclear sub facilities.

That's because with the GOP always in charge of the 51st state there would finally be some serious border security with old Mexico, possibly modeled on the Korean DMZ.

A new Republican state cobbled from the smartest part of old California would also benefit the nation, creating a solid southern defense line of GOP-run states from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

A mutual interstate defense pact would protect the country's southern border against further illegal gun-running operations into Mexico by U.S. federal authorities.

However, let's be honest, "South California, Not as Bad as You Might Think" is just a lame name. That implies some kind of parity with another California. So does California Adjacent. Flyover California doesn't sing. The Other California could confuse. We're working on alternate names and seek Ticket readers' input as well.

Valetland is a non-starter. Uruguay is already taken. New California could perhaps work. West Arizona might be good, reflecting the conservative politics of the new state and its Grand Canyon neighbor. Not Nevada has possibilities.

The state of Good California has a nice contrasting sound with what's there now. Maybe English Mexico could be a nominee. Or Newer Mexico.

What's your idea for the new state's name?

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-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of health, don't forget to follow The Ticket's Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters (South Korean troops patrol the DMZ with North Korea, file); Map of the proposed 51st state, South California Credit: Los Angeles Times.

'South California' proposed as 51st state by Republican supervisor

The 51st state should be named South California, says Jeff Stone, a Republican on the the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. But the proposed 13 southern California counties that would split off from the Golden State would not include Los Angeles.

Stone told the Times' Phil Willon that the ommission is intentional and is part of a plan that would make for a new conservative Californian state.

"Los Angeles is purposely excluded because they have the same liberal policies that Sacramento does. The last thing I want to do is create a state that's a carbon copy of what we have now,'' Stone said.

"Los Angeles just enacted a ban on plastic grocery bags. That put three or four manufacturers out of business,'' Stone, a pharmacist from Temecula, said.

Stone plans on formally proposing secession Tuesday during a meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

South California would encompass  Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Tulare counties, totaling approximately 13 million people.

The proposed 51st state would be the fifth largest by population, more populous than Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. South California would take nearly a third of the population away from California, making the Golden State the second-largest state after Texas.

Eleven of the 13 proposed counties in South California traditionally vote Republican, a fact noticed by California Gov. Jerry Brown's office.

"If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there's a place called Arizona," Brown spokesman Gil Duran said.

ALSO:

In 2009 Gov. Rick Perry said Texas may secede from union over Obama spending

Tennessee gubernatorial candidate floats secession; rival calls him crazy

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Map of the proposed 51st state, South California Credit: Los Angeles Times

Space shuttle ascends in down times -- 1981-2011

  

Once before, NASA and its shuttle program helped to lift America's spirits in times of political and economic uncertainty; now both are victims of changing times and shrinking budgets.

The nation at the beginning of the shuttle program in 1981 was eerily similar to the one at the program's end in 2011, which came Friday morning at Cape Canaveral, Fla., as the space shuttle Atlantis lifted off on the 135th and final mission, to the International Space Station.

"Employment displayed sluggish growth as auto manufacturing failed to keep pace with other industries and homebuilding remained depressed; unemployment held close to the late 1980 levels."

That's the sub-headline from a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which also states that during the first half of 1981, unemployment was 7.4% after years of recession, stagflation and oil embargos.

President Reagan got to preside over the launch of the space shuttle Columbia, but it was hardly his first momentous event of the year -- or of his presidency.

On Jan. 20, he was inaugurated after a landslide victory over former President Carter, and the American hostages in Iran were released minutes afterward.

Then on March 30, only 69 days into the new administration, John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan in the torso outside a Washington, D.C. hotel.

The 70-year-old president was released from the hospital on April 11, a red sweater concealing his bulletproof vest.

The next day, he, the nation and the world watched as Columbia lifted off, launching a new era of manned spaceflight.

Today, with a thankfully uninjured president but a persistently ailing economy, the launch of the shuttle Atlantis means the end of that era, with a loss of many jobs in both NASA -- particularly in Florida -- and in aerospace. 

NASA has no manned missions planned and will rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Ironically, for an administration that seems eager to involve goverment in many aspects of the economy, the White House now is urging the private sector to fill the gap in low-Earth-orbit transportation.

But in 1981, it was all a brave new world, and the excitement was clear in the voice of ABC News anchor Frank Reynolds, especially when he said, "Go, baby, go ... oh, honey, go, fly like an eagle, go."

Unfortunately, we can't embed the video, so click here and enjoy (Reynolds' exclamation comes at about the 5-minute mark).

After the jump, enjoy the live Tweeting the Ticket's Andrew Malcolm delivered.

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Behind the scenes at the last Atlantis launch; What to watch for as the shuttle program ends

-- Kate O'Hare

Media critic Kate O’Hare is a regular Ticket contributor. She also blogs about TV at Hot Cuppa TV and is a frequent contributor at entertainment-news site Zap2it. Also follow O'Hare on Twitter @KateOH

Don't forget to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photos, from top:  Screenshot of Atlantis launch on ABC News (Credit: Kate O'Hare); Nancy and Ronald Reagan (www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/)

Andrew Malcolm is on assignment