Breaking, from the LA Times:

A sales-tax increase, hike in vehicle registration fees, reduction of state workforce and cuts to state and community colleges are part of the governor’s plan to close a $41.6-billion deficit.

On New Year’s Eve? A big fat plan to cut spending for the disabled? Increase alcohol tax? Slash child-tax credits? Reduce staff? Cut spending for schools? All while the governor is on a vaca with his family in Idaho?!

We asked LAT’s Evan Halper if this is the ultimate example of a ‘Friday news dump’?

His response? “Pretty much.”

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It’s like the hooker with a heart of gold or the nun with no heart at all. A movie cliche. Like when someone coughs – they’re dying. Or a woman throws up – she’s pregnant.

Anyway, Ehrenstein’s piece was not about Barack Obama, it was about the image of the Magic Negro and what the public has projected on to him.

Enter, right-wing ‘knowhard’ Rush Limbaugh and ‘satirist’ Paul Shanklin. Shanklin wrote a spoof to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon”. Titled,”Barack the Magic Negro.” With the lyrics sang by an Al Sharpton impersonator,”Barack the magic negro lives in DC. The LA Times they called him that because he’s not authentic like me. The guy from the LA paper said he made guilty whites feel good…” and “Don’t vote the Magic Negro in…”

So, who cares? No one. But then Chip Saltsman, former Mike Huckabee campaign staffer (snicker) wants to be RNC chair, so what better to send out to all his associates for Christmas than a copy of “Barack the Magic Negro”.

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Anyway, over at ProBlogger, Darren Rowse has his annual poll to find out how much bloggers make blogging. The numbers are shocking. Apparently bloggers actually make money – like 9% of those that responded claim to make over $20,000 a month (we’ll assume that’s the American dollar).

Of course, the vast majority don’t make nearly anything blogging. But we were talking about what shocked us.

He also has been kind enough to post the same poll from 2006 and 2007. Nifty.

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Basically, the Weekly reported that Villaraigosa only does city business (according to his schedule) with 11% of his time. So Villaraigosa said that it wasn’t true because the Weekly only got his public calendar. Whole story is here.

Jill Stewart sent FBLA this email:

The question for us is, wtf is Antonio saying, exactly, in his slam on us?

Is Antonio saying that he has a second set of books that detail his real schedule and that prove he does actual city business? That would be news to us, and a big ethical breach by him if true, for withholding it from us. And that would be a really juicy new story.

More likely, and the only other possibility, is that the mayor lied when he said: “… they were upset because we only gave them my public calendar. They didn’t get to see what I was doing privately, with meetings here (at City Hall) or in other places.”

Nuh uh Tony. Never happened.

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And yes there is new footage that we haven’t seen before and YES just a little over 90 days until it’s released.

We were at ComicCon this year, so read about the Watchmen panel or lawsuit here.

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That said, the round-up of IndieWIRE staffers and contributors is always a good read. Here it is.

Take a look and see if your indie IQ is anywhere near the experts. My feeling is no. But if you have to indulge, buy yourself a black beret and foreign cigarettes and rent a few dozen indie films and dig right in.

At best, an education. At worst, a half-day you’ll never get back, but you’ll always remember.

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Plus Amanda Parsons, editorial assistant, has been reduced to part-time status.

Nice of Village Voice Media to wait until after Christmas…this time.

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Suddenly, Bart is puckering up and smacking one on Will Smith‘s very wealthy behind.

Whether Smith actually needs such accolades is a question for the ages. But his movie “Seven Pounds” isn’t exactly tearing ‘em up at the box office.

Maybe it’ll help.

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They join an illustrious list of such Hollywood royalty as Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

But FBLA can’t figure out how much BacWick might have lost. Maybe “The Closer” is taking off. We know it’s not $50 billion. “The Closer” ratings aren’t that good.

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The show only drew about 100,000 viewers (not great, by even CNBC standards).

But Eisner seems to be able to call the shots, even though he was deposed as Disney king years ago.

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The critics, well faux critics or columnists or whatever you want to call them, are in disarray as to whether Clint can cull an acting statue. Michael Musto of the Village Voice (who is not a critic), Anne Thompson of Variety (who also is not a critic) and blogger Jeff Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere.com (who, surprise, is also not a critic) all like Clint for best actor. They seem to think he does feel lucky, punk.

But competition is pretty stiff this year. Frank Langella is likely to get nominated for “Frost/Nixon,” Sean Penn looks like lock for “Milk,” Brad Pitt for “Benjamin Button” and dark horse Mickey ‘They took my fuckin’ thumb’ Rourke for “The Wrestler.

Now remember, the noms haven’t even been announced yet, so these could all be false conjecture.

But Clint is definitely a special case. He’s won for directing and producing but acting has always been a non-starter. Not that Clint couldn’t pull off a decent “Hamlet,” if needed (or maybe “Lear”), but he’s worth voting for because he’s Clint.

And because we here at FBLA aren’t quite sure whether he shot five times or was it six and we don’t want to be the sixth.

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Nominees include: “THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX” (DER BADDER- MEINHOF KOMPLEX); “EVERLASTING MOMENTS” (MARIA LARSSONS EVIGA ÖGONBLICK); “GOMORRAH” (GOMORRA); “I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG” (IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T’AIME); and “WALTZ WITH BASHIR.”

Each director will be available at 1 p.m. on Jan. 10 at the Egyptian Theater. So if you like docs, especially foreign ones, it’s an open house. Here’s the invite.

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“In Hollywood they have a different language that they speak. It’s spoken by these folks that went to school for just one week.”

Thanks to Milk and Cookies for this clip.

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Villaraigosa defended himself to the LA Daily News last Friday:

His active campaigning across the country for Clinton and, after her loss, Obama drew the most criticism this past year as he combined those events with his own fundraising. One newspaper, the L.A. Weekly, charted a period of his work then and concluded he only spent 11 percent of his time working on city business.

It’s a story that still rankles.

“It didn’t really go anywhere because it wasn’t true,” Villaraigosa said. “They were upset because we only gave them my public calendar. They didn’t get to see what I was doing privately, with meetings here (at City Hall) or in other places.

“Everyone who knows me, knows I work hard. That’s why both Sen. Clinton and Obama wanted me to campaign for them.

“And, I did most of that on weekends. I took a lot of red-eyes to make sure I was here.”

The answer to charges that the mayor is lazy? Red-eyes.

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Our thanks to Ana Marie Cox for linking to this on her Twitter feed with the note:

I disagree with one of the names on this list (“people who should be unemployed”) but gonna let you guess which.

And make sure not to miss the special mention for “Never Ever Get Fired Award”:

Tribune Company Innovation Chief Lee Abrams He is an insane person and every dollar spent on him is a dollar wasted, by a bankrupt company, but he is a treat, and we would miss his memos.

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