Monthly Archives: October 2005

Bay Area

CA-48th: Two Weeks Until the Final Push

In the CA-48th the final push for victory will come starting November 9. That’s the day after Gov. Muscles Statewide Special Election that is filled with toxic proposistions.

Until that is over the Unions, the Democratic Clubs, the volunteer base that we would rely on are fully engaged in a war, and I do mean war over that election. After that is over it is our hope that the SEIU, The Unions in general and our Democratic  Base can immediately suck in a little more oxygen and give us the help we will need to accomplish our goals.

Since this blog is regularly visited by the competition forgive me if I don’t layout in detail the entire plan beyond the above portion…and it is just a portion that does not include the media, debates, mailings and other things.

There was a diary on dKos today asking for questions for DNC Chair Governor Dean. Apparently the poster was in a function with the Governor and was solicting good questions to ask. Mine was more specific to this campaign:

Why are you not supporting the last

Congressional race in the US, the CA-48 in Newport Beach California? Without Party support it is difficult at best.

The ’50 State Strategy’ takes on a  different meaning when a Candidate
that won his primary, has Union endorsements, national endorsement from
Progressive Democrats of America, Teachers for Excellance and many
others can’t get any Party support.

Just a question…not a judgement.

Governor Dean has done a great job and I’m sure this would be the first he’s heard of the race.

And this question is honestly asked. I sincerely doubt the Governor has ever been directly involved in any of the decision making about the race. Yet the lack of support for a Candidate, while not perfect, who is willing to spend his own money, throw himself into the race with such gusto and gather such Democratic support throughout the District who is still essentially ignored by the Party establishment brings into doubt the supposed ’50 State Strategy’.

We fight for the win. For those who read this we honestly ask for your financial support. We need that last mailing, that last unusual tactic to overcome the Republican Machine we face in this race.

We won’t give up. We ask the Blogsphere not to give up on us either.

Los Angeles Area

Bush Visits California: Terminator Becomes Invisible Man

Alphaliberal.comPresident Bush was in Southern California recently to raise more money for the culture of corruption that has infested the American government. Not only is Bush in one bluest of blue states trying to advance goals that most Californians find offensive, but he has snarled traffic on the 405 freeway making it very difficult for alot of Californians to get to work.

Republican Governor Schwarzenegger will not take part in the events. Aides say Schwarzenegger is too busy campaigning for next month’s ballot initiatives. The Governor’s campaign expressed disappointment that Bush would travel to the state to raise millions of dollars just a few weeks before the special election.

It is unfortunate that the Governor is distancing himself from Bush. This is the same tactic he used to win the recall election. In reality his actions have shown him to be a Bush-clone at best and a parrot of the GOP’s corrupt agenda at worst.

A major reason Schwarzenegger succeeded in the recall election is that he seemed to be different. He seemed to be a Republican that Democrats and Independants could support (or at least not actively oppose). He claimed he had no hard feelings toward gays, was pro-choice, supported working folk, and wanted to reform government in a good way. That is the image he is desperately trying to maintain by distancing himself from Bush. Instead, through his actions, we now know who the real Governator is, and that is why his approval rating keeps dropping.

Alphaliberal.comThe real Arnold is aligned with the anti-gay movement (he vetoed the recent gay marriage bill). The real Arnold is helping advance the anti-choice movement (his special election includes illegal restrictions on a woman’s right to choose). The real Arnold, like all other Republicans, is an anti-worker, union-buster (he has taken on the “speical interest” teachers, firefighters, police, and the like, and now seeks to silence them with Proposition 75).

The real Arnold, despite being once an undocumented immigrant himself, supports anti-immigrant policies (he pays lip service to the minutemen militia who continue to harrass Latinos). The real Arnold has the same illegitimate goals as Tom DeLay, (by trying to change redistricting to elect more conservatives to office). The real Arnold is ready, willing, and able to bow to the mantle of the corporate greed, (the same forces that brought us the energy de-regulation distaster and the associated mythical blackouts and huge power bills).

Hopefully voters in California won’t be fooled twice. The terminator has turned into the invisible man now that Bush is here because he is hoping to make us think there is a big difference between him and Bush. There is not.

Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. The Gropenator is 100%l liberal-populist in his talk, but in reality he is a right-wing conservative corporatist of the worst kind –just like Bush and DeLay. Hopefully his dissapearing act will not fool Californians again because when it comes to being the different kind of politician that this Californian hoped he was, Schwarzenneger is all talk and no action.

Alpha Liberal: Recommended Diaries

Balletshooz blogs at Alpha Liberal: Blogs, News, and Opinion.

Uncategorized

A legacy of Prop. 13: laying the groundwork for the corporate power grab in this special election

11 Comments

(Wanted to bump this back up, as there’s some good conversation in the comments. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

When was it decided not to dredge up from the past into our conscious awareness the legacy and consequences of Prop. 13? I’m not sure who can be blamed for this, whether it be the media or ourselves, but I regret we collectively are clueless about the legacy of Prop. 13.  

Prop. 13 laid the groundwork for this special election in California on November 8th.  Passed in 1978, Prop. 13 was something most people in CA knows simply as the one which froze property taxes.  

Another thing it did, something we should have seared into our brains, is this: because of Prop. 13 (and resulting developments), we lost local control over our property tax money. And this loss of control has had huge political implications.

From a Rand report:…local voters lost some of their incentive to spend so much on schools, thus precipitating a substantial decline in statewide school spending relative to that in other states. The decline in spending likely led to larger class sizes and, perhaps, to lower achievement levels for students in California compared with those across the nation…

Our tax money goes to Sacramento, to be stirred into one huge pot and then to be divvied out to those who have the most power; prior to this, much of that money went to a local pot, where local control and access ruled.

But so what, you might ask?  

Prop. 13 legislated learned helplessness, used colloquially. We, the moms and dads, the regular people in California, now had to literally learn a whole new skill set if we wanted to effectively compete with corporate lobbyists and other professionals who literally live in Sacramento to lobby for our state money.  Learned helplessness, btw, is the response, in experimental settings, of creatures such as rats, who find they no longer have any control over outcome and so they give up.

Now did we rise up to this challenge and learn a whole new skillset so we could go and lobby for our interests in Sacramento?  Uh. No.  It’s asking a lot, and we just haven’t risen to this challenge.

One consequence has been erosion of funding to the schools.

Prop. 13 made it infinitely more difficult for parents to have any say in money for school funds. And to reiterate, we know the cold reality is the average parent does not have the political savvy, time, money or skillset to wander over to Sacramento and advocate for school funds for our kids.  Prop. 13 thus ended up fostering a sense of complacency, and we’ve ended up supremely disconnected from the politicking going on in Sacramento.  

According to Governor Schwarzenegger, Sacramento is this mythical place where special interests have taken over California.  He’s simply calculating people don’t understand what’s going on in Sacramento.  By calling unions a special interest group and denigrating their important role in the whole fight against corporate interests, he’s hoping he can skunk us.

The unions representing public workers, under clear attack in this election in Prop. 75, the anti-union bill, have stepped up to the plate to protect the public interest. The rest of us, the parents, have really taken a back seat in Sacramento; we aren’t organized, with the ability to fund people to help us advocate, unlike corporate interests.

Prop. 75 backers hope to castrate public worker unions with this bill, thus setting the stage for unfettered big business access in Sacramento for our money.  When the Governor states the special interests are the problem, he’s really saying the unions are in the way of his agenda.

Along with Prop. 76 which gives amazingly wicked budget-cutting powers to the Governor, a Prop. 75 win will allow corporate interests to win.

It’s all about power and money in this special election, with Prop. 13 setting the stage decades ago.  

This election will be won by the side with the most votes.  Getting out the vote will make the difference. Email your friends and family. Get involved in your local Democratic party and with the Alliance to get out the vote.

Bay Area

Arnold Breaks Law: Illegal Mail, Fake Union Bug

(Dirty governator…bad…bad! – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Originally posted on the BetterCA blog.

The California Recovery Team (CRT) has been violating the law by sending out campaign mail that illegally uses discounted non-profit postage and displays a fraudulent union bug.  Both actions are violations of federal law.  We have requested an investigation by the USPS and announced possible legal action unless they cease their activities.

From our attorney Lance Olson:

CRT’s use of a non-profit permit to get cut-rate discounts on their blatantly political mailing is outrageous.  This permit was either unlawfully issued or is being unlawfully used.  Only organizations that satisfy special standards and have received official authorization from the USPS may mail items using the Nonprofit Standard Mail rate.

By misusing the nonprofit mail permit, the governor’s campaign saved about seven cents per piece mailed.  A single small mailing of one million pieces would have saved $68,000, while a larger six million piece mailing would have saved $408,000.  According to the California Secretary of State, there are currently 15,839,327 registered voters in California.

A fake union bug on the Proposition 75 mailer identifies the piece as being printed by a Allied union shop in Los Angeles (“9”), but no such printer exists.

Howard Dudley, president of Communication Workers of America Local 14904, representing printers and mailers in Southern California, and delegate to the Southern California Allied Printing Trades Council says:

“Union label #9, which Governor Schwarzenegger put on his mailer, is not authorized by the Southern California Allied Printing Trades Council. The unauthorized use of this union label not only raises the question of legitimacy about the governor’s mailer but further raises questions of violation of federal trademark laws.

This is a major mistake by the Schwarzenegger campaign and it further underscores their attempts to win at any cost and portray themselves as friendly to union members.  Clearly, the need to save money outweighed any ethical or legal concerns.

Click images below for more detail, or see the full mailer here