Dawn Girocco has been hired by the L.A. Times to head the advertising department.

From L.A. Observed: “Those fears within the Tribune about Sam Zell‘s radio-izing of the company look even more justified now. A day after the Los Angeles Times hired a top executive with roots in the Phil Anschutz empire, he hires a new advertising senior VP from FM radio. Pretty sad that being mentioned as one of Los Angeles Magazine’s ill-fated 64 Best Things is written into a bio as a mentionable plus.”

Roderick’s got the memo. We didn’t even finish reading it. It’s our birthday, and we feel no need to make ourselves sad.

CJR‘s Justin Peters breaks down the reporters at the DNC by the numbers. There are 15,000 journalists attending the event. Peters starts with:

14,000 are wearing terrible suits.

And continues:

1,026 are drunk. This is as it should be.

500 don’t have credentials, but are trying desperately to get them. The credentialing process occurs in a Hampton Inn about a forty-minute walk from the Pepsi Center. Each morning, reporters have to come and claim their credentials for that particular day. The media members are separated by medium-newspaper reporters on one floor, magazine reporters on another, multimedia reporters on another. CJR’s credentials are issued from the leftovers pile (third floor). It’s Denver’s answer to the Island of Misfit Toys-bloggers, activists, eighteen-year-olds, men wearing giveaway T-shirts, men complaining about having to pay eleven dollars for parking. One intrepid credentialee is so devoted to his job that he is videotaping the room, like a tourist. A DemBot hustles over and stops him. “There is a lot of sensitive material in this room,” he says. There is most definitely not.

Then Peters lets us know that 7 of these journalists are having their picture taken with Captain Morgan.

Yep, that’s the word from CJ ‘Arrrr’.

We think it’s flippant, reactionary and trivializing to call someone a racist. It’s like calling someone you disagree with a Nazi. Really? They actually share Adolph Hitler’s views? Or you just think they’re bossy?

Anyway, we think WorldDailyNet‘s Craig R. Smith‘s ‘slip’ is showing:

If Barack Obama is to become our 44th president, it will be heralded as a moment of historic significance unlike any other. However, I think many are missing the real reason why.

It’s because Barack Obama will be our first hip-hop president.

I can only imagine how the world will embrace the leader of the free world when he introduces other foreign leaders with, “give it up for my man Vladimir.” Giving “props” for joining us in a treaty. Or the first lady Michelle talking about “my man” the “daddy of my babies” when referring to the president. That should go over well everywhere from 10 Downing Street right on down to the streets of the Middle East.

And he goes on:

After a few months on the job he can refer to his cabinet members as his “bitches.” Hey don’t get angry at me. Take a listen to any hip-hop song, and that is the type of endearing language you will hear. A group of playas that have no respect for the country. The same country that affords them a lifestyle most people only dream of, and all they can do is endlessly complain about it.

First – it’s “baby daddy” not “daddy of my babies”. And second…we think this might be uh…seriously racist. When they stop being ‘points’ in an op/ed and become paranoid fantasies about a group of people different from yourself…yeah, that’s racism.

It’s 826LA’s Fall-Time Yuk-Fest

“Insightful Comedy and Dogs on Tightropes”

Performing are Tim & Eric, Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, Jimmy Pardo, Bill Burr, Al Madrigal, Bob Moore‘s Amazing Mongrels and special guests.

The show will be at The Avalon Hollywood, Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 9:00 PM (Doors open at 8:00 PM) 1735 Vine Street (between Hollywood and Yucca Streets), Los Angeles, CA

Tickets: $25 VIP tickets: $75, includes gift bag, Premium, table tickets: $250-$5000. Tickets available through Wantickets

Adults only (18 and over)

What exactly does your hard earned cash go towards? They explained it to us:

All proceeds go toward 826LA’s free student programming.

826LA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

Writer Chris Farnsworth sent us this tip:

Internet is having serious issues in the L.A. area, which might explain why some pages aren’t loading… like the LA Times. Or FishbowlLA for that matter.

Check out this site.

Alright Dinosaur Media people – this is your time to be smug. Come on.

The LAT’s Scott Glover reports:

A man accused of posting nine previously unreleased songs by the rock band Guns N’ Roses on a website where they could be accessed by the public was arrested at his home early today on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws, authorities said.

Kevin Cogill, 27, is accused of posting the songs, which were being prepared for commercial release, on the Internet blog Antiquiet in June, according to an arrest affidavit. The site received so much traffic after the songs were posted that it crashed, the affidavit states.

We don’t know what’s more shocking – that the feds have nothing better to do than arrest fanboys or that Guns N’ Roses have fanboys.

LAT’s James Rainey asks if The Huffington Post’s hype will ever live up to its content.

In a word: no.

Varsity Fanclub will perform at The Grove tonight at 8pm. Mayrav snapped this picture of the group doing a sound check. For the sake of spiking our page views – we’re just going to say that they’re the Jonas Brothers because really if you switched them out we’re pretty sure no one would know the difference.

Seriously? After chasing Britney Spears‘ vagina, they’re taking a break from celebrities and are going after that other historically glamorous population: democratic delegates.

– Via LAist

Among the first moves of new LAT publisher Eddy Hartenstein was to snag Freedom Communication‘s Scott McKibben.

McKibben will be the LAT’s Chief Revenue Officer… which should be a pretty easy job seeing how there are fewer numbers to add up with each passing year.

Ed Padgett has the full memo here, but here’s your highlight:

“Scott already knows all the key players in our industry and how newspapers work—no learning curve here.”