The only thing that really stands out about the debate in Hollywood between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is that the softball questions and heavy focus on their strongest policy issues simply provided a long free ad for both candidates.

And while it's pleasant to watch, it can't be good for Obama, because tonight's debate, unless something very big happens before it is over, means that none of the voters who have already decided are going to switch from Hillary to him. And he needs some huge switching in California and several other major states if he's to catch Clinton.

Predictably, both candidates are much smoother now in this, the seventeenth debate. But that leaves you praying for a moment that isn't utterly canned. Take it as a near certainty that a Clinton speechwriter or aide many days ago wrote Hillary's great line, "It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush - and I think it might take a Clinton to clean up after the second Bush!" It earned her huge applause, plus she does herself a great favor when she laughs. But oh so canned.

And earlier, Obama got off some funny lines that will help the undecided voters warm to him - but his likable and chatty style simply serves to remind that the two candidates have so few real policy differences that this is little more than a contest of personalities, unless something amazing is said, or happens, before Super Duper Tuesday.

Aside from Wolf Blitzer's usual snarkiness and desperate attempts to get a controversy going with his questioning, the debate is cheery and fact-filled and pragmatic, and as a result it's a bore. It's slightly more interesting when CNN goes to the break, and the cameras rove across the famous faces of Diane Keaton, Pierce Brosnan - and hugely fat Rob Reiner, almost unrecognizable.

You're left wishing one of the TV or film stars will scowl horribly or hold up a tiny concealed sign for their choice for president. The most embarrassing moment so far has not been due to any hijinks by the media or the candidates, but from this VIP-filled audience: At about 5:50 pm, as CNN went to a break, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa saw a camera lens point his way and quickly stood up from his chair and slapped on that mechanical grin of his, thus grabbing his latest 15 minutes of fame.

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Hours before the Democratic debate takes takes place at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, hundreds of supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton filled the sidewalks along Hollywood Blvd.

In terms of numbers it was probably 85% Obama and 15% Hillary - at most.

Above, taking a picture of Gary Leonard, who is taking a picture.

The will call line for people waiting to get tickets for the debate.

CNN's Richard Quest, no doubt reporting on which candidate Princess Diana would be supporting if she was still alive.

The LAPD protecting the Planet Funk store.

Satellite trucks parked in the middle of Hollywood Blvd. - a mere fraction of what will be there for the Oscars.

CNN's random message board

Walkway from the Kodak Theater with TV lights already blasting

Wolf Blitzer. Every time people thought Blitzer might be on the air they began chanting Obama rally cries as loudly as possible.

All photos by Mark Mauer

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The wily civil rights lawyer from Venice Beach just won’t go quietly. Even though Steve Yagman was found guilty of multiple money laundering charges as well as bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion in June, sentenced to three years in federal prison in November, and told to surrender to federal authorities on January 15, the tenacious attorney is still nowhere near the clink.

It’s somewhat of twisted story, but, according to sources at the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, it goes something like this: Yagman and his lawyer Barry Tarlow filed an appeal of the jury’s June 22 decision a few days after the verdict was handed down. He was then sentenced to three years in federal prison, starting on January 15. But Yagman received a postponement from the court, with a new surrender date of January 29.

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I'm pretty much caught up on The Wire. After weeks of avoiding Slate's discussion and bickering with David Simon about plot points and cutting out the 12 page New Yorker article that I didn't want to read until after I had finished season four on DVD, I felt pretty good. For the first time since the show began, I'm pretty well caught up with the story line as it's playing out.

Then our features editor Tom Christie asked me, "Did you see what the Times did today? They gave away a major plot point to The Wire!" Tom is still stuck early on in season four and all of my conversations with him are peppered by him saying, "Don't tell me!" Any conversation at parties or dinners about The Wire is politely prefaced with "What season are you on?" so you don't actually give away a character's death.

As Tom continues talking I didn't realize the Times article he was talking about had given away a major point of the episode that ran on Sunday night.

Tom continued, "Right in the headline! they said that ... gets murdered!"

Then I yelled. Too late. I'd heard him say it, and now I've been robbed too. I haven't seen the most recent episode. I didn't know I'd have to sequester myself from the LA Times and editors still watching season four.

Don't read past here if you haven't seen Sunday's episode (that ran on Jan. 27, 2008 so there isn't any confusion). See what I did right there? I warned you. You'll not find that simple courtesy in the Times today.

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The death of Christian Brando is officially a Los Angeles County Coroner's case. According to sources, the coroner's office took possession of the 49-year-old troubled son of actor Marlon Brando earlier today after Brando's mother called for a full-investigation into his death, citing “suspicious circumstances.”

Brando was found unconscious at his Hollywood home and was transported to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center where he died several days later on January 26. He apparently died from complications from pneumonia according to a family attorney interviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

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Storm drains in the ritzy Hancock Park area couldn't handle an inundation of water from a storm the National Weather Service says dumped 4.2 inches on Beverly Hills and 3.4 inches in downtown Los Angeles - more than some areas have received in the past year. Another storm could dump even more. See the full slideshow here.

Photos by Ted Soqui

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County Museum board members busted in illegal art sting

The L.A. County Museum of Art got some unexpected visitors this morning, when federal agents arrived en masse with search warrants. The raid, the result of a five-year investigation into illegal dealing of Asian artifacts, according to federal search warrants, also targeted the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and Silk Roads Gallery on La Brea Avenue. Silk Roads, which specializes in Asian art, is owned by Cari and Jonathan Markell, both of whom sit on the board of LACMA’s South and Southeast Asian Arts Council, according to the gallery’s Web site.

LACMA, which is gearing up for the opening of its new Broad Contemporary Art Museum next month, can’t seem to catch a break. Last week, in an interview with The New York Times, Eli Broad – who funded the Renzo Piano design and building of BCAM, as the new wing is known, and who was expected to eventually donate much of his vast collection to LACMA – announced that he had decided not to donate his art to any institution and would instead continue to loan it. Although museum officials put on a good face, saying they never expected a full gift and were content to work with loans, the announcement was widely seen as a major disappointment for the museum – one in a long string of them. (The disappointment was somewhat mitigated by a large gift of modernist works from the collection of Janice and Henri Lazarof.)

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You can download the entire search warrant issued to Los Angeles County Museum of Art here, but these two pages provide the most details of LACMA's involvement.

Read the full story of the museum raids here.

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Fresh air for prisoners at Guantanamo

Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi, a Libyan meteorologist currently designated an "enemy combatant" and imprisoned by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay, has mysteriously contracted AIDS inside the notorious compound. According to his lawyer Candace Gorman, Al-Ghizzawi had already previously contracted Tuberculosis inside the facility, and may have been initially infected with HIV from a botched blood test.

Gorman says she found out about the diagnosis from a letter her client sent her, but that military officials would neither confirm nor deny the diagnosis. Says Gorman on her blog: "The military claimed it did a complete physical when Al-Ghizzawi arrived and the ONLY condition he suffered from at that time was Hepatitis B. So I guess there is good reason why they don't want to confirm the diagnosis."

This is the second time Al-Ghizzawi has garnered attention in recent weeks. A piece in the Forward last month by Leonard Fein, claimed that there was significant evidence that Al-Ghizzawi was being tortured inside Guantanamo as well as being denied medical treatment for his TB and Hepatitis B.

Fein's piece goes on to suggest Al-Ghizzawi has no business being detained as an enemy combatant in the first place.

Shortly thereafter a second tribunal was formed and held a hearing in Washington, D.C. — without the knowledge of Al-Ghizzawi — and decided to find him to be an enemy combatant, this despite the fact that no new evidence was introduced.

H/T to Solana over at Global Voices

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“No Guns” leader peddled guns while City Hall paid him to fight gangs

Hector Marroquin founder of the gang intervention group No Guns, was sentenced today to eight years in prison after pleading no contest to weapon charges. Charged alongside 51-year-old Marroquin was his 25-year-old girlfriend Sylvia Arellano, who is expected to be sentenced to four years in prison for weapons charges - including possessing a silencer.

The couple entered pleas before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven Van Sicklen on three counts involving the manufacture, distribution and transport for sale of an unlawful assault weapon. Marroquin was sentenced to eight years for each count, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Nicknamed “Big Weasel,” Marroquin, a one-time 18th Street gang member, was embraced by Los Angeles City Hall after he claimed to have gone straight as a result of being shot while defending his son from gang members.

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It's BCS Championship Game time and, two years after Katrina, New Orleanians are no doubt ecstatic to have the Sugar Bowl back in their fair city. They might not be so thrilled, however, to discover that their city is once again under a deluge.

Maybe I'm being a little sensitive, but check out the Sugar Bowl promotional display from ESPN's website. Looks eerily familiar doesn't it?

For those who haven't seen it in person, Bourbon Street isn't supposed to have gentle waves lapping up on its shores. And if the Superdome has any large bodies of water next to it, better call the National Guard because there's a problem. It's supposed to look like this.

I'm sure it's just an honest mistake, but seriously, come on. If Bhopal, India hosts a sporting event will ESPN's graphic designers put a bunch of discolored, floating mist in the background of their promotional images?

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They are the modern versions of monster stories.

True Crime writers seek out such tales every day, finding them in two sentence-long police blotter blurbs, law enforcement sources lamenting the one that got away, or victims looking for justice. They pile on hours of research and interviews, building a case while crafting a narrative. But unlike campfire tales, these monster stories cannot be embellished. The tale must be told straight. And as you will read in this collection, no amount of creativity can rival the treachery and depravity of the non-fiction world.

This year's tales include two internet identity hoaxes ending in mental torture or tragedy. One traces the final steps of a civil rights pioneer who vanished almost 70 years ago. Another outlines a daughter's slavish devotion to her criminal mother. A G-man turned criminal. A serial killer brought to justice. A crack-maker turned cake baker. A monster who gets his due.

These are the stories of the darker side of American life, told in Village Voice Media's newspapers across the country. —Compiled by VVM Staff

"Monster Next Door," by Malcom Gay, is the tale of Michael J. Devlin, who kidnapped two boys, one of whom lived with him for an extended period of time.

In "Broken Lives on Crystal Drive," Keegan Hamilton learns the tale of Lori Drew, a 47-year-old woman who used a fake MySpace profile to mentally torture her teenage neighbor, Megan Meier, who wound up committing suicide.

Josh Olson describes a twisted story of internet love and betrayal "The Life and Death of Jesse James," by Josh Olson.

R. Scott Moxley documents a sensational gang murder trial that puts infamous Southern California criminal Billy Joe Johnson on the witness stand in "White Power with a Lisp."

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Des Moines - After a stunning defeat and finishing third in Thursday night's Democratic caucuses, Senator Hillary Clinton congratulated Barack Obama and John Edwards, and vowed to jumpstart her national campaign and win her party's nomination for president.

"I am ready as I can be," Clinton told a crowd of a few hundred invited guests at a downtown hotel ballroom. "We're going to take this enthusiasm and go to New Hampshire."

But, as she spoke, shock and despair seemed to replace enthusiasm in the Clinton campaign. Months ago, the New York senator rolled into Iowa with an aura and attitude of invincibility. She now leaves the state for next Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire after suffering a humiliating finish nine points behind Obama and one point below Edwards.

Clinton was joined on the stage by her husband Bill Clinton and a pack of other Democratic luminaries including former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former General Wesley Clark and Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles.

As the TV networks projected Obama's insurgent victory about 90 minutes after the opening of the 7 p.m. caucuses, Clinton's rented ballroom seemed the loneliest place in town. Not a single guest was seen on the cordoned-off floor. And then shortly after the network projection was broadcast, the tightly disciplined Clinton campaign literally assembled the crowd for the batteries of TV cameras in the room.

Putting the best face on her stinging defeat, Clinton attached herself to what she called the "clear message of change" manifested in the massive Democratic turnout. After congratulating her two top rivals she claimed that "together we have presented the case for change" and declared the results to be "a great night for Democrats." Both Obama and Edwards, however, vigorously counterpoised themselves as agents of profound change and generational turnover against an ossified status quo embodied by Clinton.

Click here to read the rest of Marc Cooper's column at Huffingtonpost.com

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Obama wins the Democratic Caucus in Iowa, with 37 percent of the vote, leaving Edwards and Hillary to battle it out for second. On the Republican side, Huckabee took the gold, followed by Romney, then Thompson, then McCain.

All of this has been so fully gamed out that it's hard to add any new insight to the issue. Obama is now the favorite. Clinton's aura of inevitably has been banished, and whatever momentum she had has been crushed. It's tough, though not impossible, to imagine her regaining it. Edwards' path to the nomination is unlikely. Gravel's coronation looks increasingly uncertain.

More from Ezra Klein at the American Prospect

Huckabee was declared the winner at 9 p.m. Eastern time, easily besting Mitt Romney — a storyline that was unthinkable just weeks ago. With 76 percent of precincts reporting, Huckabee led Romney 34 percent to 25 percent.

More from Politico here

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Obama campaign top strategist David Axelrod said, "He can't help but be optimistic about tonight's results."

He described the energy bubbling at the Iowa headquarters as "incredible," but refused to predict exactly where his candidate will finish tonight.

"We're in uncharted waters," he said. "We've never in a campaign like this before."

Axelrod expressed confidence that there would be an elevated turnout in tonight's caucuses, saying that the campaign expects 150,000 Democrats. That would be about a 20 percent increase over the 2004 turnout and consistent with polling information that projects a bump of young and first-time voters. Polls that show Obama ahead in tonight's race suggest an increased turnout would be a key ingredient to an Obama victory.

Read the rest of Marc Cooper's post here.

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