We political junkies all expected that a prominent Republican governor with presidential ambitions might resign over the long weekend. We are very smart and semi-prescient. We just expected that the governor would be love-besotted Mark Sanford. Sarah Palin, though as controversial as ever, looked secure in her job and in the hearts of conservatives.

As of this writing, we know nothing--but the Internet being the Internet and nature as well as blogs hating a vacuum--this won't stop us (okay, me) from analyzing this very curious and shocking development. First, across the political spectrum, let us hope that there is no family or medical emergency driving her resignation. Political friend or foe, there should be nothing mean spirited of a personal nature.

Sarah Palin was a major political talent. The raw talent that she showed on her debut in national politics was awesome. Had she remained in office and governed for another two years, schooled herself on issues and allowed herself to be coached, that rawness might have been polished and she could have been a contender. Now, we will never know. Sarah, we hardly knew ye.
©2009 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

On my commute home, I snapped this shot of Michael Jackson coverage outside Staples Center. Very nice look for the NBC reporter - suitcoat, shorts and clogs.

Given the times we live in, I'd much rather see most families stick together rather than stick it to each other. Take the currently reigning mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa (nee, Villar). Okay, he did do some nasty things to his wife, in the marital arena, but in terms of his bloodline, he boy has been more faithful than a bloodhound.

The name Mary Lou Villar may not mean much to the average Angelino, but she was given the dubious honor of swearing him in at Wednesday's Inauguration Ceremonies at City Hall. To anyone who has ever done anything dubious, the name may mean a lot, for she is the mayor's sister and is a sitting judge.

Never mind that she wasn't educated at an ivy-league school (because, hey, we all have to start somewhere, right?), she was appointed by the guvernator. In fact, her credentials read, UCLA Law School and Cal State-LA. Not too shabby, but not a direct path to the top.

Then there is John Perez. The average mope on the street may not know his name, either, but he is the former President of the Los Angeles Teacher's Union, as in John-there-was-a-lot-of-dissention-when-you, Linda-Guthrie-and-all-your-other-cronies-were-in-office-Perez. That one. Though in spite of his credentials, whatever they may be, the mayor, who also doubles as his first cousin, appointed him to the City's Community Redevelopment Agency, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Proving once again that it's not what you know but who you know.

I really don't like writing about Michael Jackson, but what can I do? His life and death clog the news, the cable stations, the Today Show and all the special Hollywood oriented tabloid-type shows. There is just no escape--except for PBS which had the nerve to lead Wednesday's news hour with our withdrawal from Iraqi cities, the unemployment numbers, Obama pitching health care reform and the Korean ship turning back. No Michael. No Governor Palin and not even Governor Sanford. What could PBS have been thinking?

Save for PBS there is no escape--not from the pseudo-news and not even physically. Last week I was trapped in Westwood where Michaels dead, but not certified dead, body was taken. This week, all week, I'm trapped in the hills of Encino. The police and parking enforcement have closed off Havenhurst, blocking escape. As Andy Rooney might ask: "Did you ever wonder who authorized the closure of a street and who pays for the policing?" I wonder.

Every contradictory rumor is spread--and not just on the internet but on broadcast and cable shows. There's a will. There's no will. He is not the biological father. His ex-wife is not the biological mother. My favorite on MSNBC yesterday was the report that an African American Jewish woman living in England is his secret wife--and just possibly the biological mother. I'd be less surprised to find that I'm the biological mother. His brother opined today that Michael was in great health and didn't use drugs. This leads me to believe that like Elvis, he's faked his death and he and Elvis are serving burgers in Toledo.

©2009 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

Once a skeptic of downtown LA, I'm now a convert. I've been a downtown LA resident for five months now and remain convinced that the place is poised to become a major urban center. Allow me to offer an admittedly South-Park-centric list of some top attractions for locals, visitors and would-be downtowners:

1) The wine tastings at Ralphs, generally held on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday evenings. I once laughed at how downtowners were so thrilled to get a Ralphs -- then I realized that this was one hell of a Ralphs, positively Whole Foodesque in its all-around excellence. Wine steward Mike Berger's wine tastings -- complete with elegant cheeses and occasional roasted meats -- are a hidden delight of local living. You can get schedule updates from Mike at downtownster.com. Then get down there and bask in his friendly wisdom about all things red or white.

2) Bottega Louie. The place is buzzing. I said, THE PLACE IS BUZZING -- sorry, it gets so noise there that a person has to shout. Its cavernous dining area has terrific pizzas, its elegant bar has great cocktails, and it also has a deluxe heaping of deli and bakery and grocer items. The fact that it's so packed late most evenings and on weekends may be the best evidence yet that downtown has popped.

3) The Cork Bar. A classy wine bar, with California specialties and wonderful food. Try the hanger steak or the cheeseburger.

4) New Zealand Natural Ice Cream. Believe it or not, the ice cream really comes from New Zealand. If you like mango, you will quickly become addicted to the Mango Passion there. Others rave about the rocky road and espresso, though. In any event, you can't go wrong.

Those are the first four that come to me. What am I missing? Disney Hall, Cafe Pinot, the Edison, what else...? More later....

Gail-Tzipporah and I have some similar views about America -- with important nuances. She loves America's free expression, but it "kills" her to see anyone use free expression to criticize America. She loves how immigrants such as her father or my father can come here to build a better life but is more wary than I of future immigrants. She believes that people who don't like it here can "leave the kitchen" -- but I note the irony, as Jonathan does, that it's usually the most brazenly patriotic persons (the Palins, anyone?) who are quickest to argue for the right of their state to secede from the great experiment of our Founding Fathers.

Me, I'm incomparably proud to be an American and would exchange it for nothing, under any circumstances. I love how America filled itself up with people from around the world who said, "We can do better," and who put their money where their mouth was. That progressive and reforming spirit imbues this country with the spirit of reinvention that always keeps us at the forefront. Other great nations were mainly just proud of their ancestry -- but we always believe we can do things better -- and over the long haul we always do.

If a stranger were to stop me on the street, not with the intention of mugging me but of asking what being an American means to me, I may have to say that I do not know because I may have been one of the lucky ones. I was born here. I did not have to hide and cower or over my religious convictions or political affiliations, I do not have to wear a burqa or veil for modesty of reasons or risk being stoned, and growing up, I did not have to engage in child labor laws by squatting over a loom for ten hours a day. You can't say that over many places on Earth.

While this country is not perfect, there is a reason why we have an immigration rather than an emigration problem. And that's because like it or not, this is still "the land of the free and the home of the brave." This is one of the few countries on Earth where a person can come here with nothing, set up shop and do rather well for himself. Just look at Arnold Schwartzenegger, my father, my Armenian mechanic or anyone else who came here with little more than a hope and a dream or maybe a family connection or two and made something of himself.

And this is one of the few places in the world where you can pretty much write or say anything you want without fear of being carted off in the middle of the night. That's why it always kills me when people criticize this country. Sure there are those things that are wrong, sure there is still discrimination and those who are unfairly jailed, but if someone doesn't like things, they can always work, and here's the keyword here, in appropriate ways to try and change things. Otherwise, if they find the heat not to their liking, then they can always leave the kitchen.

But unless we tighten up our laws, stop making excuses for those who have spent a lifetime making excuses for themselves and stop letting any yahoo in, then we won't remain this way for long. Otherwise, I predict we will soon be riding away into third world country land.

The general stereotype is that liberals aren't patriots. We're accused of worshipping foreign idols--usually the French. We're libeled as rooting against America and seeing only our errors and faults. This is worse than stereotype. It's caricature. You can take the most extreme and find self-hate and rejection of country. You can do the same with the extreme right. Ironically, some people who told liberals "America, love or leave it," are today threatening secession from the union.

The truth is that beyond the caricatures we draw of one another, most of us love our country. And ours is a country worth loving. Yes, we see the flaws--as we see the flaws in our own families, but please don't let anyone outside the family criticize my kids, my spouse and certainly never my grandchildren. Me? I can make a gently snide observation. You better not try. Not with my family and not with my country.

I have travelled, studied and lived all over the world, and while there're many lovely places to visit, there's no place else on earth where I'd rather live. I see our imperfect elections--Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, Chicago, well, every year. Then I look at Iran. We cannot imagine a situation like in Honduras where the president tries to change the constitution to serve his own interests, ignores his supreme court and congress and then is removed by the military. I complained about Nixon. But I never doubted he'd obey the Supreme Court's order. There was never a coup to fear.

We won't agree on many important issues, but we can and should give thanks for a nation whose founding motto is E pluribus Unum--out of many (peoples, ideas and visions) we become one nation. Happy Birthday USA!
©2009 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com

What part of "it's better to ask forgiveness than permission " does a wayward husband not get?

Through a spokeswoman, Mrs. Sanford declined requests to be interviewed for this article, but told The Associated Press she learned of her husband's affair early this year when she found a letter he had written. She told him to end the relationship, but he repeatedly asked permission to visit the woman in Argentina in the months that followed.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Dr. Conrad Murray can't win. The Michael Jackson family through their surrogate Reverend Jesse Jackson hints that the doctor may have done something terribly wrong in the death of Jackson. Jackson fans were brutal. On the website vitals.com that rates physicians there were more than 100 comments (as of Saturday). The writers mostly railed against Murray as "Michael's Killer." What Murray did or didn't do in the tragic hours before the fateful 911 call that brought the paramedics rushing to Jackson's home is nothing but wild conjecture and speculation and grist for the tabloid mill.

Yet, that Murray finds himself on the medical and legal hot seat is no surprise. When things go wrong with their celebrity client-patients, doctors always feel the heat. Because invariably the things that go wrong deal with drug use, questionable medications and treatments that they allegedly give their ailing or troubled celebrity clients. The suspicion is always there that the doctors did something either negligent or unethical in catering to and indulging their clients real or imagined medical needs. The hunt to scapegoat the celebrity attendant doctor is then on with a vengeance. Their background, training, and experience are quickly called into question.

That's the case with Murray. His training at Meharry Medical College School of Medicine, one of the oldest and most renowned black medical training facilities in Nashville, Tennessee, his internships, his years of experience and work as a cardiologist are under an intense microscope. The tons of money that Murray racked up in unpaid bills, and the liens and pending suits to get the money back have been dredged up to paint Murray as a doctor with a checkered and shady history.

The glare, however, is even more intense on Murray's clinic, Global Cardiovascular Associates, main location in Las Vegas. In a call to the clinic, this writer was referred to a contact phone number to a doctor on call. The number was a pager beeper.
HealthGrades which rates America's physicians based on their training, experience, patient responses, and quality of care, did not give Global Cardiovascular Associates a glowing four star rating. In the crucial area of patient care, there were six patient responses. They rated Global Cardiovascular on ease of scheduling appointments, office environment, cleanliness and comfort, office staff friendliness, and most importantly the wait time before seeing a physician. Murray's three person staff rated only fair in the responses. Vitals. Inc. gave Global Cardiovascular a marginal rating on the critical areas of patient response time; follow up, and most importantly, accuracy of diagnosis. The clinic ranked below the national service average in a couple of these rated categories.

This is not damning proof that the clinic doses out substandard care, or is any way deficient in its medical practice. However, patients, medical rating boards and health care providers do place major emphasis on these as measures of patient care in decisions about the effectiveness and competence of physicians and their hospitals and clinics.

Even if Murray's clinic had received a world class four star rating from the rating physician services, Murray or any other doctor who attended Jackson would still raise eyebrows even if they did everything by the book. It comes with the turf.

Heart related deaths account for more medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuits than for any other medical problem. One survey found that they account for thirty percent of all dollars shelled out by doctors and insurers to settle malpractice suits.
Malpractice awards for heart attack typically allege misdiagnosis or mismanaged diagnostic methods or medical tests. Because the outcome of a misdiagnosed heart attack is obviously poorer than a rapidly treated heart attack, the patient may suffer severe consequences. This is the prime reason that the dollar award for heart attack malpractice cases is almost always much higher than the average payout for other alleged medical screw-up cases.

It may be that Murray did not do anything wrong in how he handled Jackson. But that won't end things for Murray. He'll likely be slapped with a lawsuit, or even multiple lawsuits. That's been the lot of legions of other cardiologists. And possible lawsuits may be the least of his problems.

He will carry an even greater burden; and that's the burden of being the doctor who was there when Jackson died. And everyone expects that doctors are supposed to save lives and not raise suspicions that they did something to end a live. It's a terrible dilemma for any doctor. Dr. Murray is hardly the first to face it, but it's one he'll have to live with.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard weekly in Los Angeles Fridays on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and live streamed nationally on ktym.com