We thought it was nice revenge to unleash Sarah Palin on the Brits who have mucked up our coasts with their incompetence. Tit for tat. A shill for a spill.

But Patt Morrison in her column today points out how disingenuous and ghoulish Palin wanting to have a picture of her with first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is; Ms. Thatcher is suffering from dementia.

Morrison writes:

There’s word rumbling around Great Britain and beyond that Sarah Palin is angling to meet Margaret Thatcher, the first woman to be that nation’s prime minister.

It’s a photo op that would be a triumph for Palin, an image supposedly showing the solidarity of conservative female leaders.

But it would be bogus. Not photoshopped-bogus, but dishonest nonetheless.

Baroness Thatcher is suffering from dementia, according to her daughter, Carol. Writing in the Daily Mail more than a year and a half ago, Carol Thatcher chronicled her mother’s decline: “On bad days, she could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end.”

For a woman of Thatcher’s formidable intellect and unflagging energy, it’s a sad decline. For Palin’s camp to use her as a human prop, as in a photo op, it’s unforgivable.

Produced by Isaac Mizrahi and Saul Gonzalez, narrated by the lovely Patt Morrison, “Things that Aren’t Here Anymore,” is a waltz down the living history of our city. “Revisit the nightclubs, restaurants, stores, family attractions and hangouts that created fond memories for a generation of people growing up and living in Southern California,” promises the teaser.

If you’re not watching SoCal Connected, you’re missing out on some seriously good journalism. Just super tasty.

Below is the press release in full. Spoiler: Jill Stewart and Patt Morrison won for news commentary.

Los Angeles – January 23, 2010 – SoCal Connected, KCET’s hard-hitting weekly news program, won six Golden Mike Awards for Best News Public Affairs Program, Best News Special, Best Hard News Reporting, Best Light News Reporting, Best Individual Writing, and Best Original News Commentary.

The awards were announced on Saturday by The Radio & Television News Association of Southern California, which presents the Golden Mike Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism every year.

“SoCal Connected is honored to receive six Golden Mike Awards,” said Bret Marcus, executive producer of SoCal Connected and KCET senior vice president of programming and production. “SoCal Connected is committed to bringing viewers stories that can make a difference in their lives, and we’re proud to be recognized for our efforts.”

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We’ll recap: Chief of Police Bill Bratton has been touting this statistic about how LA, this LA – the LA we live in, is one of the safest cities in the country and crime is down to 1956 levels. Patrick Range McDonald at the LA Weekly wrote a piece refuting those numbers. Then Bratton on Patt Morrison‘s KPCC show said because of the piece rebutting Bratton’s stats everyone at the LA Weekly was smoking a little weed. Well played. Your move, Sir.

Today Bratton announced he’s leaving before his term is over and so we asked McDonald for his thoughts and he sent us this:

I’m mostly not surprised about Bratton leaving L.A. There have been very recent signs this was going to happen.

First, there was Bratton’s home going up for sale. Then a good source told me and other reporters at the Weekly about a certain event involving the chief that made us wonder about things. Lastly, Villaraigosa recently called an important press conference, saying he was against releasing criminals early from California prisons. It was the kind of high profile event that Bratton usually shows up for, so he can throw around his political weight. This time, Bratton sent over assistant chief Jim McDonnell. I thought that was interesting. It made me think Bratton was grooming McDonnell for the top job.

So, like I said, the signs were there.

McDonald is SO holding.

There is something very unsettling about a member of the LAPD accusing a reporter of doing drugs for disagreeing with them. That would go for any police force, but the LAPD – in a post-Rampart world – throwing around the ‘you’re a dope head’ dismissal for challenging his murky crime stats, is really…scary. And incredibly stupid.

But yesterday on Patt Morrison‘s show on KPCC, when Morrison asked about the oft cited (by Bratton) ‘statistic’ “LA is the safest its been since 1956″, Police Chief Bill Bratton refuted the LA Weekly’s findings. He said that the LA Weekly must have been ‘smoking a little weed when they wrote the article’. And then he called it ‘voodoo reporting’. The show is archived here (as if you don’t already subscribe to Patt’s show on iTunes). The comment is about 27 minutes into the second hour.

The article, written by Patrick Range McDonald gets into how mind-boggling absurd the claim Bratton makes is.

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We are very excited to announce that our little local TV program, SoCal Connected has won two Golden Mike Awards. We like any news that has nothing to do with people losing their homes, jobs, minds (Rob Blagojevich that’s aimed at you and your aluminum hat).

Anyway, SoCal Connected Executive Producer Bret Marcus used to work on “The News with Brian Williams” on MSNBC for all you stalkers out there.

KCET’s SoCal Connected, which launched
on-air and online in September 2008, this weekend won two Golden Mike Awards for Best News Public Affairs Program and for Best Original News Commentary.

The rest of the release after the jump.

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Mixed Media: Read this Patt Morrison blog post and then riddle us this: How many sci-fi films feature compasses? “Whatever Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Republican gentlelady from Minnesota, said or thought about Barack Obama‘s patriotism — and in the course of a couple of days, her stated viewpoint has evidently swung like a compass needle in a sci fi film — one thing she said in her own defense raises questions about whether she’s ready for the majors.”

Congrats, Russ Parsons! Yesterday’s Readers’ Rep blog gave a shout out to Russ Parsons for winning the Association of Food Journalists’ Best Newspaper Food Feature award — and for the entire Food section winning Best Food section of its size in the country. The American Assn. of Sunday and Feature editors also voted the LAT one of the top 10 feature sections in the nation. The Travel section won the Lowell Thomas Gold Award. Congrats, all around.

Huh? The LAT sends out e-mail blasts with the day’s top stories. Except when they don’t. Today’s “Top of the Times” e-mail blast contained two Carina Chocano reviews that were published last week. Don’t get us wrong, we’re into recycling and we’ll take all the Carina Chocano we can get — but maybe your other NEWspaper readers would prefer something, um, new.

Rock the No-Vote: Joel Stein suggests people should stay home and not vote. FBLA suggests Joel Stein should stay home and not write.

Fish In A Barrel: Patt Morrison points out that John McCain and his surrogates have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s funny stuff — until you realize that this man could become president.

Bradley Effect Affect: We’re going to coin a new phrase, The Bradley Affect, which is a condition that causes political pundits to talk around race issues rather than get at the heart of what’s really going on in this country. But that’s just us.

Celebrity Splits: Claudia Eller likens the breakup of DreamWorks SKG and Viacom Inc.‘s Paramount Pictures to a divorce, saying “the only issue now is who gets custody of the children. Like custody battles anywhere, this one could get nasty.” At stake, hundreds of movie projects and employees who work for DreamWorks.

Hollywood Going Bollywood? Indian movie mogul Anil Ambani is “in talks to help finance a move by DreamWorks SKG, the studio founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, to become an independent company again.”

Patt Morrison Throwing Signs? Patt Morrison compares her book club to a troubled youth book club and learns that all book clubs are kinda gang-like. At least, that was our read.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Makes Us Feel Fat And Lazy: LAT blogger Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (man, that sounds weird) speaks to the exercising-after-50 set, making us in the not-exercising-under-35 set feel like utter crap. Thanks, Kareem.

Britney’s Law: Patt Morrison takes on Britney Spears and mental illness, advocating for Britney’s Law. Might be a very good idea — and a very strange legacy for a pop star.

LAT Picture Book Team Tackles Sam Jackson’s Hair: It’s more insightful than it sounds. Check it out.