Mess

Re "Voting plan rejected in Anaheim," Aug. 9 The Anaheim City Council's refusal to create voting districts was totally predictable. Politicians rarely give up some of their power. There are cities all over the state like Anaheim without city council districts and fair representation. Too often this means that an entrenched majority of well-funded incumbents can be virtually impossible to challenge. What follows is permanent employment on the city council. Term limits would only cause a loss of capable and experienced leadership.

MEXICO CITY - Operation Cleanup was a showcase effort to stamp out corruption within Mexico's elite organized-crime bureau. Twenty-five top law-enforcement officials were arrested in the weeks after the operation was launched in 2008, most accused of acting as highly paid moles for a leading drug cartel, the very villains the officials were supposed to be chasing. Today, the cases against them are a shambles, yet another example of Mexico's systemic corruption and a weak judiciary unable to fix it. The operation is also the most high-profile prosecution among the many that fell apart under the government of President Felipe Calderon, which ended nearly five months ago. This week, a federal judge freed the highest-ranking of those ensnared by Operation Cleanup.

Sacramento's latest budget product may be the worst ever -- and the very best possible given the reality of California politics. Liberal interests are crying about painful spending cuts and no new taxes, not even on big oil or smelly tobacco. Republican legislators are fretting over the potential early release from prison of nonviolent inmates. Reformers carp about gimmicky accounting.

If the Supreme Court decides the two gay marriage cases it heard last week the way most court watchers believe it will, expect legal and political chaos. The court seems ready to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, while ruling quite narrowly on California's Proposition 8, allowing a lower-court decision to stand. Such an outcome would make gay marriage legal in California without deciding whether state bans on same-sex marriage are constitutional. And that would allow more of what we've seen up to now: a growing number of liberal blue states moving to legalize gay marriage, and a growing number of conservative red states enacting bans.

Movies don't come much worse than "Monday Morning," a rambling, incoherent, ineptly assembled mess about a conservative Minnesota radio host who travels to Los Angeles and falls in with the homeless, the very same group he's broadly railed against on-air. Writer-producer-director and co-editor Nat Christian may have something to say about tolerance and classism, but his message is all but lost amid an utter inability to craft a watchable story. Star Victor Browne, with his soap-opera good looks and hints of acting ability, is left to largely stumble around in a fog as his character, said radio host and would-be senatorial candidate (don't ask)

A smash hit on its recent release in China, "Painted Skin: The Resurrection" offers an over-the-top mix of fantasy, adventure and romance that plays as a fussy, convoluted mess. In an ancient world in which spirit demons roam the earth, the spirit Xiaowei (Xun Zhou), searching for a chance to become more human, finds herself matching wits with Princess Jing (Wei Zhao), who is on the run from threats against her, as the two both seek love on their own terms for their own ends. The film, a sequel to 2008's "Painted Skin," is directed by Wuershan, who also made the recent "The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman.

CHICAGO -- Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday that Mitt Romney has “made a mess of being a tourist” on his three-nation overseas tour, with stumbles that raise doubts about his ability to serve as commander in chief. Emanuel, who is Jewish and served as President Obama's first chief of staff, joined the Obama campaign in condemning the all-but-certain Republican nominee for remarks at a fundraiser in Jerusalem on Sunday in which he said he saw the power of "culture" at work in the large disparity between living standards in Israel and its Palestinian neighbors.

The original "Taken" may have earned an impressive $224 million-plus in worldwide box office receipts, but it apparently went unseen in one remote corner of Albania. That would be the home base of a group of men who, not knowing any better, feel compelled to menace Bryan Mills and his family one more time in "Taken 2. " Talk about slow learners. Led by taciturn Murad (grizzled veteran Rade Sherbedgia), these men are the blood relatives of the folks master of mayhem Bryan killed back in the day while rescuing his daughter Kim from the clutches of nefarious white slavers in Paris.

A unanimous panel of California's 2nd District Court of Appeal has at last cleaned up a shameful legal mess, ordering L.A. County Superior Court Judge Hilleri G. Merritt to end her prior restraint on the Los Angeles Times. Earlier this month, after first granting The Times the right to photograph a criminal defendant appearing in her courtroom, Merritt changed her mind and ordered the paper not to publish the lawfully taken picture. The Times, showing more respect for the law than Merritt did, obeyed her order while it appealed, first to her to reconsider and later, when she refused, to the higher court.

Re: "Another rating drop for the state," July 15: California will be paying more to borrow money. Guess who gets to pay the bill? And who do we thank for this mess? Allen F. Van Schaick San Marino

Mike D'Antoni laughed before the question could be completed, fully knowing where the query was headed. Was the Lakers coach referring to Kobe Bryant when he criticized his team's defense on Trevor Ariza and its tendency to go one-on-one Friday during an appalling loss to Washington? "Am I talking about Kobe?" D'Antoni said Sunday, the first time he had spoken with reporters since his postgame rant. "I'm talking about Kobe, I'm talking about me, I'm talking about Dwight [Howard]

Debra Messing, who stars on the TV series "Smash" set on Broadway, has sold her house in Bel-Air in a  month for $11.4 million. The traditional-style house, designed by architect Paul R. Williams and built in 1937, features bay windows, updated interiors, a den, a bar, a gym, four fireplaces, six bedrooms and eight bathrooms in 6,400 square feet. The more than half-acre gated property, sheltered by tall hedges, includes a swimming pool, a cabana and a brick driveway. Messing bought the property from actress Renee Zellweger in 2003 for $7 million, public records show.

After the coffee. Before doing something about these early hours. The Skinny: Monday's episode of "The Following" may have jumped the shark for me. Without giving anything away, I'll only ask if we're to believe that everyone is on it. Headlines for Tuesday include the backlash against Oscar host Seth MacFarlane and how NBC made a mess of Thursday night. Daily Dose: Anyone thinking "Arrested Development" is coming back for the long haul should guess again. Netflix chief Reed Hastings said the show is likely around for only one more season.

Gov. Jerry Brown ought to cut his Texas brother, Rick Perry, a little slack. Texas Gov. Perry arrived in the Golden State this week trolling for California businesses he could poach and carry home with him in his saddlebags. His trip here comes on the heels of a Texas radio come-on, which aired statewide, and which Brown memorably dismissed as "barely a fart. " But there are reasons why Perry's efforts deserve more serious scrutiny. One is that the campaign exposes an important shortcoming of Texas' job-development program: It focuses on using incentives to steal jobs from other states because it's not so hot at creating jobs from scratch.

Debra Messing, who stars on "Smash" as Broadway lyricist Julia Houston, has listed her showstopper in Bel-Air for $11.995 million. The traditional-style house, designed by architect Paul R. Williams and built in 1937, features bay windows, updated interiors, a den, a bar, a gym, four fireplaces, six bedrooms and eight bathrooms in 6,400 square feet. The more than half-acre gated property, sheltered by tall hedges, includes a swimming pool, a cabana and a brick driveway. Homes by Williams, who was popular among celebrities and designed homes for entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, still attract big names.

"Identity Thief" is a larcenous bit of funny business. It probably should be locked up for its crimes and misdemeanors against moviemaking. But its stars, Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, steal so many laughs from such improbable places that the bumps in this revenge/road trip farce can be mostly forgiven, though not forgotten. Directed by Seth Gordon, the film has the same R-rated tenor of his relatively horrible "Horrible Bosses" and his really dreary "Four Christmases. " More problematic, it has the same difficulty with the connective tissue - anything but the really funny stuff sags or is superfluous.

I found James Flanigan's March 30 column, "Next President Likely to Find Economic Mess," to be very perceptive. Too many people are ignoring the realities in the long political season in which we find ourselves. Maybe this is why some don't want the presidency for the next four years. DENNIS STANFILL San Marino The writer is the president of the Stanfill, Bowen & Co. venture capital firm and is a former chairman of 20th Century Fox Film Corp.

Re "But Mom, I Like It This Way" [July 21]: I am astounded at the spin you put on adolescent clutter. I stand for order, and I have no problem teaching it to my 14-year-old son. I try to continue learning about the mind and the effect we have on others, on the environment, by how we create our internal mental landscape as well as our external landscape. Your article appeals to the lowest common denominator, relieving parents' guilt over not teaching their children. "It doesn't matter if you make a mess in here" will someday translate into "It doesn't matter if you make a mess in your backyard or your corporate backyard or the Earth's backyard."

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us. Maybe it's the only day that you deign to watch football, or maybe it marks the culmination of five months of blood, sweat and beers spent glued to the television out of devotion to your favorite team. Either way, it's the one day of the year that America comes together over a singularly American sports obsession, and as such it's a darn good reason to party. Sports bars and restaurants across the city will throw open their doors in a high-def blitz. Here are a few of our favorite options: -- The Bungalow, 101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica.

The fact that David Bowie managed to secretly record his first full album in 10 years suggests that the glam-rock pioneer, who turned 66 on Tuesday, remains a mystery even in the age of Twitter. The seemingly inevitable leak of pre-release music - or indeed of information related to his return to the studio  - never materialized, and so Bowie was able to do what he's done best over the last five decades when he revealed Tuesday that "The Next Day" is due out in March. He surprised us. Unlike fellow pop-star enigmas such as Prince, Bowie actually is on Twitter , issuing pronouncements to the 66,000 followers he's amassed since 2009 about everything from deluxe reissues to his son's wedding.