Yesterday was a big day in the battle over gay marriage. The California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, but also unanimously agreed to keep in place the 18,000 marriages that took place before the November election. Protestors gathered all across the state to condemn the decision, and we’ve got audio from the West Hollywood protest, featuring Kathy Griffin, Drew Berrymore, and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. But these protests weren’t anywhere as big as those right after the election, and this brings up the question: how does the movement sustain the enthusiasm and organization that it lacked during the “No on Prop 8″ campaign?

A big question mark on this issue is President Obama, whose support of civil unions was often believed to be a feint for a truly progressive stance. That belief hasn’t bourn out, as the President has been virtually silent on both Prop 8 and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. What gives, Mr. President? You can commend yourself for nominating a Latina to the Supreme Court while you totally ignore another minority group that desperately needs leadership? Maegan and Teresa discuss what would be the best way forward for marriage equality, including legal arguments and possible best practices.

That big nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a big deal, of course, and while it’s pretty unlikely Sotomayor is going to be denied, could she turn out to be the Democratic version of David Souter? And what is the media doing paying any attention to what Mitt Romney says about this issue? He has nothing to do with Sotomayor’s confirmation. It’s all the media’s push for drama. But since we love the drama, what can the GOP hang their opposition of Sotomayor on? Racism? Playing identity politics, which Teresa denounces as a big part of why she doesn’t consider herself a Democrat?

Finally, we touch on Mr. Bow-Tie Himself, Tucker Carlson, and his feeble-looking attempt to counter The Huffington Post? With The Daily Caller, is the Right starting to believe that talk radio is being marginalized, so they have to jump into the online realm? Can the conservatives match the relentless nature of Arianna Huffington and her work with the internet newspaper? Carlson’s got his work cut out for him, certainly.

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

My latest for LA.com is a write-up of a new eatery over on Main Street in Santa Monica, La Grande Orange. It’s a fun place, even if it’s a little pricey. Here’s an excerpt:

Along Main Street in Santa Monica, La Grande Orange is enjoying a promising start as a new dining destination. The multi-faceted space is bucking to become a local favorite among the lunch, brunch and dinner crowds, even offering options for early morning breakfast types, if you’re into that the type of thing. Weirdo.

Read the rest here.

Here’s my latest for iMedia Connection, the online trade covering the marketing and advertising industries. It’s the first article I ever pitched (not counting little things) that I got approved, wrote, and then published. I’m pretty proud of that. The article is a quick look at a couple of different ways companies are trying to monetize the micro-blogging service. Here’s an excerpt:

Like MySpace and Facebook, the young social networking tool has to grow up, move out of its parents’ house, and probably engage in a little youthful experimentation.

Is Twitter for marketing? Bringing in customers? Developing a brand? Improving company performance in other ways? Since Twitter is such an open-ended tool, there’s no obvious approach to using those 140 characters to benefit your business, but many companies have been willing to take a chance and see what it can deliver. That means trying new things and diving in without a life preserver.

Read the rest right here.

As the recently released film, “The Soloist,” has focused the country’s attention on the hidden beauty in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, music photographer Scott Schultz has taken things a step further by embedding himself within the community, where he discovered a thriving scene of artists – songbirds and warblers alike – making the most of their situation at Skid Row Karaoke. After months of visiting with residents and participating in their performances, Shultz has begun a photo essay for LARecord.com which shows the faces of poverty in a new light. Schultz joins hosts Ted and Maegan to share the story of how he discovered this group of people who gather each week in the basement of a church to sing, dance, and take their minds off their troubles. (Since the last time they had updated music was in the mid-90s, it’s not surprising that the most popular song is Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West.”)

The pictures, which can be seen here, are inspiring and remind us that Skid Row is more than just a street corner where people with bad luck end up. It’s a community, with photography groups, basketball clubs, and other organizations. The big question is, can these images, and The Soloist, change people’s perception of homelessness or inspire them to take action?

Schultz encourages anyone interested in donating new karaoke tunes or heping out in another capacity reach out to him at scott@larecord.com. He also recommends visiting the Downtown Women’s Center or Food Not Bombs.

In other news we discuss the gossip surrounding Jon Huntsman, the GOP Governor of Utah, who was named Ambassador to China. He’s a telegenic figure, a moderate and popular Republican, and a possible threat to Obama in 2012, so is this a shrewd move by the President, eliminating a major challenger? Is he the best person for the job? (Who cares? What are his politics? That’s FAR more important than qualifications!) Could this work against Democrats in the long run, elevating Huntsman and giving him real foreign policy credentials for a 2016 run? And why is Huntsman agreeing? A curious situation, all around.

Maegan also addresses a new study released by the Center for American Progress, showing overwhelming support for progressive issues among younger voters. It’s from a liberal think-tank, so you have to take it with a grain of salt, but still, it’s an interesting development. And finally, the first Twitter lawsuit has emerged, where a conservative blogger, #tcot founder Michael Leahy, is suing someone for tweeted libel because she mocked his tax situation. If successful, it would set a huge precedent for online rights, and Maegan and Ted ponder its possible ramifications on the online world for both “citizen” and “real” journalists.

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: baseball games are fun, and watching the Dodgers play at home in their (stolen) stadium in Chavez Ravine is one of the great outdoor pleasures in Los Angeles. The crowd is always interesting and generally good-spirited, and that’s what counts, right?

But after the game, as the darkness envelops the ballpark and people clamber down the millions of exceedingly precarious steps leading to the parking lot, a madness takes over. Getting out of the stadium at night is a colossal mess. We know traffic jams in LA, and this is a jam to rival the 405 at 6 pm on a Friday.

Of course, it’s no picnic getting to the game either, mostly because the stadium is located at the top of a hill in the middle of the surrounding Elysian Park (kinda). Try walking (or biking) up Elysian Park Avenue at the tail end of a sunny day here in Los Angeles. Go ahead, it’s only about three quarters of a mile. Oh, and it’s a 30 degree upwards slope. Have fun, and hopefully you don’t have a heart condition.

This could all be amended by a simple solution: public transportation. Now, the city tried to team up with the Dodgers last summer to offer the Dodger Trolley, a half-hearted attempt to bring people to the stadium with ease. But it was free, and went from Union Station to the ballpark. That’s a pretty good start.

Too bad the City of Los Angeles is currently going through a $500 million deficit. That means the Dodger Trolley is no more. Last year, the city was footing the bill, supposedly around $400,000, according to Eric Richardson at BlogDowntown.com, and this year, that’s just not going to happen, quoting LADOT’s Jim Lefton at the Council’s Transportation Committee.

“In June, when the council approved the two month demo, the Dodgers had committed that … they would go out and the end of the season and talk to their sponsors,” Lefton told the committee. “When we met with them in December, they indicated that they did not want to talk to the existing sponsors and that they did not want to mess with their existing sponsorship arrangements.”

Richardson writes that, “Dodgers have been emphatic that the cost for any public transportation option should be borne by the city.” So without city bailout then, the Dodgers are telling all their fans they can go back to driving, and shouting, “Screw you, Environment” to the whole town. Because it’s not like making it easier for fans to come to the games would increase ticket sales. That’s an absurd notion.

People love nostalgia, and in baseball it’s no different. But without any reasonable option for public transportation, the Dodgers organization is so stuck in the car-centric past.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers organization just doesn’t get that its stadium is practically unreachable by anyone who doesn’t want to fork over $15 for parking, and then sit steaming in a traffic jam for 45 minutes after the game. There’s an increasing number of Angelenos to whom that’s simply not an acceptable option. And you know what they’re going to decide? They just won’t be fans anymore.

Here’s my no-bones feeling on the matter. The Dodgers should offer a trolley, and they should foot the tab for it. If the Dodgers are willing to fork over $45 million for Manny Ramirez, they can afford a basic trolley system. They can afford to sponsor the trolley themselves, and not rely on the city to try to fix their problems. They chose the ridiculously unreachable location for Dodger Stadium, and if they care even one iota for their fans, the organization should help them get there.

If you agree, call 323-224-1507 or email FanFeedback@ladodgers.com and demand the Dodgers organization get their act in order. Bloody savages.

In my latest review for LA.com, I tackle Salute Wine Bar, a nice little place in Santa Monica, with one horrible secret: it employs CYBERDYNE instead of bartenders! Here’s an excerpt:

Of course, Saluté’s best feature is a key-card system for self-pour (2 oz) wine tasting. Trade your VISA for a white swipe-card, and take a gander at the bank of electronically distributed wine. You’ll never need a living, breathing bartender again as you sample the red, white and rose selection, from nice Italian reds and Malbecs to good California Zins.

Read the rest of it right here.

This week, Ted, Teresa, and Maegan talk the ethics of outing closeted lawmakers. Last week, the movie Outrage opened, a new documentary by the compelling filmmaker Kirby Dick, who’s previously confronted the MPAA’s rating system and the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal. This time he’s going after Congressmen, Senators, and other elected officials, most of them Republicans, who have held anti-gay positions in public while hiding their own homosexuality in private. Kirby names names in the film, which many news outlets have refused to do in reviewing the film. We have an exclusive short interview on today’s show with Dick, as he talks about the news coverage and calls out these lawmakers as hypocrites. But the film raises thorny ethical issues. A person’s sexuality is intensely personal; what right is it of Kirby’s to expose these people? After all, it’s not against the law to be a hypocrite.

Moving on to lighter subjects, the White House Correspondents Dinner held its own fair share of laughs and even a few groan-worthy moments. But most people agree President Obama knocked it out of the park, right? He was hilarious, certainly, but should the President of the Free World be making so many mean-spirited remarks? Obama’s acid tongue has more than a few similarities to a past presidential jokester: President George W. Bush. And what about the Wanda Sykes roast? She had a few choice lines, and the biggest one – calling Rush Limbaugh a terrorist and accusing him of being the 20th hijacker – is getting some nasty responses from the beltway. Was she out of bounds? Can a joke about 9/11 be funny, even if it’s tasteless?

Finally, we talk the new Star Trek movie. Our resident trekkie, Teresa, calls out the moviemakers for their portrayal of torture: they show it without dealing with any of the issues surrounding it. Can a summer blockbuster like this preserve the brainy thought-provoking aspects of the Star Trek franchise while still corralling a new audience? And what’s with all the mocking of trekkies by the movie’s stars, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, on SNL? You do know that trekkies pay your bills, right? All this on today’s Wilshire & Washington!

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

My latest for LA.com on the Annenberg Space for Photography, the new photogs-only gallery in Century City. Here’s an excerpt:

The most surprising work comes from Lauren Greenfield, whose disturbing shots reveal the ill effects of young girls growing up in the shadow of Hollywood. Chilling stuff, all playfully delivered. But Carolyn Cole’s work on international war zones feels out of place in this LA-centric exhibit. Thouhg, the three LA Times photojournalists and brilliant conceptual artist/photographer John Baldessari feel shortchanged (or unnecessary) here.

Read the rest here.