It's a commonly held belief that if you wave a cross at a CityBeat staffer, the journalist will flee in terror. Not true. However, if you do want to see us cower and scramble for cover, just make us watch a five-and-a-half-minute music video that asks the U.S. Supreme Court not to force the removal of the giant cross from Mount Soledad. 

The Liberty Institute, a pro-Christian advocacy group that's been battling the American Civil Liberties Union and a bunch of atheists over the issue, produced the video as well as the website that goes with it. It stars country lyricist Jon Christopher Davis, who can't lip sync to save his life, as well as a platoon of sad-eyed veterans. 

Warning: This video is not safe for vampires or anyone with any taste whatsoever. 

A political action committee supporting District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis' campaign for mayor has raised $118,000, with the largest donation coming from an obscure company registered to a Mexican citizen.

The independent-expenditure committee, or Super PAC, is called "San Diegans for Bonnie Dumanis for Mayor 2012, Sponsored by Airsam N492RM, LLC." The second part of the title indicates that a company has contributed at least $50,000 to the committee and must be disclosed as a major donor. Airsam contributed $100,000. The company does not have a website, but public records indicate it is an aviation firm controlled by Susumo Azano, a Mexican businessman based in Coronado.

Azano was in the news last year when U-T San Diego and 10 News reported that Azano had bankrolled lawsuits in a land dispute against Sempra Energy in Mexico. The paper described Azano as a "Coronado tycoon."

Republican political strategist Kevin Spillane is managing the PAC's fundraising and spending with the help of professional campaign treasurer Rebecca Luby, who previously worked as deputy finance director of the California Republican Party and still has the party as a client. According to a recent campaign-finance disclosure, the committee spent just short of $30,000 on a mailer this week.

Spillane says that Airsam is only one of many donors to the Super PAC, each of whom has been thoroughly vetted. Although Azano is a foreign national, Spillane says Airsam is eligible to contribute because it's a U.S.-based entity and Azano has a green card.

"I can just tell you we’ve been casting a wide net, soliciting contributions from a wide variety of people," Spillane says. "[Airsam] was one of the earliest contributors and we’re expecting others in the next few days."

He describes the other donors as a diverse group, but would not reveal who they might be. One campaign finance report attributes a $15,000 donation to the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation and a $3,000 donation to a retiree named Ernesto Encinas.

"The only thing the people have in common is they like Bonnie Dumanis and would like to see her elected mayor," he says.

While other Super PACs have been very vocal in announcing their independent-expenditure campaigns (the pro-Nathan Fletcher Super PAC icPurple actually cold-called us to pitch us on a story about its launch), Spillane says he's not revealing any of this new PAC's plans.

"I would be happy to tell you more, but it’s just not a tactically smart thing to do to let other committees know what we’re doing," Spillane says.

Correction: The original version of the story incorrectly stated the committee was formed today. Rather, the committee was first formed on April 19, but it's name changed today with the addition of the donor, Airsam N492RM, LLC. The story has been updated to also included more campaign-finance information.

When it comes to protecting his animal friends, Morrissey has been on a roll lately. 

Working in partnership with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the English pop icon and outspoken animal rights activist recently urged the president of the Philippines to release an Asian elephant held in a Manila zoo to a sanctuary, "where she would have room to roam." He also called on the Indonesian government to shut down a run-down zoo where hundreds of animals had died in 2010 and 2011. And he asked Japanese clothing company Uniqlo to stop working with farmers that use the controversial "mulesing" technique, which involves removing pieces of skin from sheep.

Remember in The Nutty Professor when Eddie Murphy, all decked out in his Prof. Klump fatsuit, takes Jada Pinkett to see a cheesy stand-up comic (awesomely played by Dave Chappelle) and for no reason the comedian yells out “women be shoppin!â€?  Well, as much as I like to challenge the stereotype that colors all females as crazed spendthrifts who squeal at the sight of really nice towels or killer platforms priced at 75-percent off, I have to admit that in my case it’s kind of true. I may not squeal because I’m a feminist, but I am very guilty of letting out a gasp and an “Oh my God this is so awesome I need to have it!†at the sight of even the dumbest things, like a salt-and-pepper shaker shaped like a topless sunbather, then swiping my debit card even if the balance on it is dangerously close to zero. Lucky for me, as your new Urban Scout blogger, I now have an excuse to buy a bunch of stuff I don’t need and call it “research.† And lucky for you, I am pretty broke most of the time so it means I have to dig for killer bargains wherever I can find them. And I’m not afraid to disclose any sweet deals I get my greedy little hands on.

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Feline-themed electro-pop duo Lion Cut has been known to make some delightfully silly music videos, and the new video for their song "Tiger Bomb" (below) is no different. I mean, seriously, what's more delightfully silly than Russian-style dancers in tiger costumes romping around on a snowy mountain landscape? 

This time, however, the duo known as Zoltron Monsieur and Kittytronis is getting catlike for a cause. If you buy the track, the money goes directly to Save Tigers Now, a campaign headed by the World Wildlife Fund. As you'll read on the campaign's "Problem" page, the world's tiger population is down to about 3,200 from 100,000 a hundred years ago and much of the wild tiger's habitat has been destroyed.

Lion Cut will celebrate the release of the video at Tin Can Ale House on Friday, June 1. A DJ duo called Relax Baby Be Cool (composed of music-man Rafter Santos-Roberts and his wife, Lizeth) will spin tunes and the Culture Shock Dance Troupe will open. Naturally, proceeds from the night will also go towards helping out Lion Cut's tiger friends.

Anders Wright: So, in a recent issue, we compared Carl DeMaio, a weasily Republican candidate, with the character you played in Bob Roberts.

Jack Black: That's what this mayoral candidate is like? But he doesn't look like he's 12 years old, because that's what I think of when I think of me in Bob Roberts. I look like I was just a child.

No, but he is very youthful-looking. There are similarities.

Does he have some Nazi Youth qualities to him?

He's the sort of candidate who takes money from the anti-gay-rights lobby, despite being gay himself.

Wait, he's gay? He's out?

Yes.

That's a very rare bird indeed, a guy who's out of the closet who's fighting against gay rights. That's an amazing creature. I don't know what to do with that situation.

Many a member of San Diego's LGBT community has taken a swipe at mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio for seeking support from the community's worst enemies on the Christian right. A gay man himself, DeMaio's accepted campaign money and endorsements from arch-conservatives such as radio host Roger Hedgecock, who openly mocks gay rights, and Brian Caster, one of the biggest donors to Prop. 8.

But DeMaio's not the only one accused of selling his soul in this arrangement. These same DeMaio supporters are facing bitter accusations of betrayal and hypocrisy from folks on their side, too, like James Hartline, a devoutly religious "ex-gay" activist. Hartline says they've abandoned their morals and family values for political gain.

Hartline stopped by our office last week to share an email exchange he had with Charles LiMandri, a Catholic lawyer best known for his pro-life, anti-gay legal crusades. LiMandri considers himself an expert on "countering the gay agenda," having served as an attorney for the National Organization of Marriage in the Prop. 8 battles and for the San Diego firefighters who sued the city after being required to march in a Pride parade. More recently, LiMandri launched an attack on University of San Diego for hosting a drag show; he's currently demanding that the Catholic university forbid its students from doing internships at organizations that support same-sex marriage.

Yet, LiMandri also donated $500 to DeMaio's campaign.

Hartline went on Facebook and accused LiMandri of "selling out Christianity." In response, LiMandri sent Hartline an email defending the decision, which was based on a personal pledge from DeMaio.

We've pasted the first email at the end of this post. You can also download the entire exchange, which quickly devolved into a Biblical flame war.

Two key points from LiMandri:

"I have told [DeMaio] that I would pray for him. By endorsing him for Mayor, I am not endorsing his lifestyle. Yet, out of Christian concern for his well being, and the well being of our City, I believed that he deserves my support. I hope that by associating with good Christians, that he will become a better person, as I hope for all of us."

and

"Carl DeMaio specifically promised me, as a condition of my support, that he would not push the gay agenda issues (including same-sex marriage) as did Mayor Sanders. Rather, he was emphatic with me that he did not believe that the Mayor should concern himself with these issues as they are not his responsibility."

Even if DeMaio won't carry the marriage-equality flag as has Mayor Jerry Sanders, whose daughter is gay, DeMaio can't completely avoid LGBT issues. In May alone, DeMaio seconded successful motions to name a street after gay-rights hero Harvey Milk and to fly a rainbow flag over Hillcrest. We emailed LiMandri to ask whether these votes violated a pact he made with DeMaio. He did not respond.

But if DeMaio really did promise LiMandri he wouldn't push the "gay agenda," it might be time for DeMaio to scrub the "LGBT Community" section from his campaign website. This testimonial from Benny Cartwright, a supporter who was hired this month to serve as executive director for the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus, could become a liability:

"Carl DeMaio is a role model for the LGBT community. Not only does he stand up for full equality, but he has been a tireless supporter of our LGBT organizations."

The role model's campaign did not respond to inquiries. 

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Last year author, SDSU professor and Chicano-about-town, Bill Nericcio, and a group of his artsy friends were set to bring Mextasy, a traveling exhibition featuring tongue-in-cheek artwork that identifies and challenges stereotypes of Mexican and Chicano culture, to the Centro Cultural de la Raza. They even had a taco truck ready for the shindig. But the world, or rather Southern California and parts of Arizona, had other plans, choosing to have a full blown blackout and thus killing the party. The taco truck stood empty, which can be considered one of the saddest things in the world.