Daily Archives: April 12, 2006

Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Environment

Arnold: You play a fine fiddle, Nero

(Is it time to think about something else? Well, here’s the governor and the environment… – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Time Magazine did a cover story about global warming a few weeks ago.  It was not a pretty picture.  We are heading for disaster sooner rather than later.  Bush can hem and haw all he wants, but there is no longer any serious debate about this.  It’s just not possible to find substantial peer-reviewed literature which says that man-made greenhouse gases are not at least partially to blame for the global warming that we are experiencing.  You try, go look.  (To save you time, I can suggest a starting place, The Guardian).

So, Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a good proposal last year to form his “climate action team”.  (CAT) And in response to this report, he began strong:

“The debate is over. The science is in. The time to act is now. Global warming is a serious issue facing the world and California has taken an historic step with the release of this report,” said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Tiempo Climate Newswatch)

Very good governor.  But then he fumbles the ball and brings me back to Nero (it’s a good analogy for Bush).  He proposed a watered-down version of what the CAT proposed.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Tuesday for California to become a national leader in combatting global warming but cautioned that the state should move slowly in imposing controls on industries that emit greenhouse gases, a step environmentalists argue is a priority.

“We could really scare the business community,” Schwarzenegger warned during a summit at San Francisco City Hall at which he called for programs to help companies cut the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists say cause global warming.
The governor’s comments caused one environmentalist to suggest Schwarzenegger was a “Jekyll and Hyde” on the issue. The matter could become the focus of a battle this year with Democrats, who are backing legislation, opposed by some big business groups, that calls for enacting emission limits on industry. (SF Chron 4/12/06)

Now is not the time to play half-games.  All the business and good economy won’t help us when our children can’t breathe You can’t bring your money with you to the grave.  We can’t afford to be a laggard in environmental issues, either as a state or a nation.  Already our failure to agree to Kyoto has made us somewhat of an international pariah on these issues.  California has the opportunity to take the lead on environmental issues.  We should do that as soon as possible in a truly meaningful way.

Uncategorized

CA-50 Special Election Final (Unofficial) Results

1 Comment

The Busby express rolls on to June.  Bibray and Roach, too close to call.


Full Results are in the extended.

FRANCINE BUSBY  

55284

 

43.97%

 

BRIAN P. BILBRAY  

19065

 

15.16%

 

ERIC ROACH  

18143

 

14.43%

 

HOWARD KALOOGIAN  

9291

 

7.39%

 

BILL MORROW  

6785

 

5.40%

 

ALAN UKE  

5020

 

3.99%

 

RICHARD EARNEST  

2713

 

2.16%

 

BILL HAUF  

2010

 

1.60%

 

SCOTT TURNER  

1794

 

1.43%

 

CHRIS YOUNG  

1676

 

1.33%

 

WILLIAM GRIFFITH  

1026

 

0.82%

 

VICTOR E. RAMIREZ  

833

 

0.66%

 

PAUL KING  

766

 

0.61%

 

JEFF NEWSOME  

544

 

0.43%

 

SCOTT ORREN  

310

 

0.25%

 

DELECIA HOLT  

240

 

0.19%

 

BILL BOYER  

185

 

0.15%

 

MILTON GALE  

53

 

0.04%
Uncategorized

CA-50 Returns Watch

4 Comments

(Bumped to the top… – promoted by SFBrianCL)

6:20 AM Wed (Final Results) by Brian  All precincts reporting. Busby finishes with 43.92%, Bilbray 15.15%, Roach 14.46%.  The other Dem in the race, Chris Young, has 1.32%, for a combined Dem showing of 45.24%.  I think 44% is about what we expected.  It puts her in a good position for the run-off, especially considering that her opponent, Bilbray, is a lobbyist.  You have to figure that people that wanted a clean Republican will be more than a little hesitant to vote for Bilbray. (Hah!! The Joke is on them! There aren’t any clean Republicans!)

For the full results, see the extended

The San Diego Union Tribune’s results page for CA-50 is here.

Final Results:


































































































US REP. 50TH DIST.
Counted: 445 of 445 precincts – 100.0 percent
FRANCINE BUSBY – DEM 56147 43.92%
BRIAN P. BILBRAY – REP 19366 15.15%
ERIC ROACH – REP 18486 14.46%
HOWARD KALOOGIAN – REP 9525 7.45%
BILL MORROW – REP 6886 5.39%
ALAN UKE – REP 5120 4.00%
RICHARD EARNEST – REP 2751 2.15%
BILL HAUF – REP 2036 1.59%
SCOTT TURNER – REP 1831 1.43%
CHRIS YOUNG – DEM 1690 1.32%
WILLIAM GRIFFITH – IND 1042 0.82%
VICTOR E. RAMIREZ – REP 843 0.66%
PAUL KING – LIB 772 0.60%
JEFF NEWSOME – REP 547 0.43%
SCOTT ORREN – REP 313 0.24%
DELECIA HOLT – REP 243 0.19%
BILL BOYER – REP 190 0.15%
MILTON GALE – REP 53 0.04%

10.12:  OK, 33 precincts reporting, and Busby 42.19%, Bilbray 14.59%, Roach 14.02%.  The other Dem in the race, Chris Young, has 1.60%, for a combined Dem showing of 43.8%.  I have to be up at 6 am, so I’m likely to pack it in soon.  Chris Bowers at MyDD has vowed to stay up as long as it takes.  Or, if my colleague SFBrian cares to, he is welcome to take over.

8.19:  Looks like they dumped the absentee ballots into the system.  Busby has 42.23%, Bilbray and Roach both right around 14%.

For someone doing something similar with more experience and a much bigger audience, you should also check Chris Bowers.

7.58:  Words Have Power says the polls were dead quiet today.

San Diego County’s running results will be here.

Those appear to be pretty much the same page; North County Times has a different look, at least.

Here’s Chris Bowers’ prediction for CA-50, and Jerome Armstrong points us to the National Journal’s thoughts.

Updates will be posted as the results appear.

Blog Roundup, Environment

California Blog Roundup 4/11/06

Everything but CA-50, which is coming up next.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

California News Roundup 4/11/06

California News Roundup on the flip. Teasers: Immigration, a little CA-50, a lot of rain, and some news on the gubernatorial campaign, and RAIN.

  • Some tallies from yesterday’s immigration marches: 25,000 in San Jose; 5,000 in San Francisco, with pictures; 10,000 in Oakland.

  • And there’s a fair bit of rumination about the consequences: Roberto Lovato on how these marchers are orthogonal to existing political understandings; From the CC Times (originally LAT), a thin piece on the possibility of backlash among conservatives (how would more be possible?); a thicker piece on the follow up by movement organizers; a piece by Earl Ofari Hutchison on the effect on black Americans; a contrasting news piece on the same thing; last, an interesting explanation of the difference in Latino political influence in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

  • Phil Angelides tells the SacBee he’s the underdog. Read through to the end to see the nasty, slash-from-the-right quote from Westly’s spokesman, and see if you can spot the half-truth. Edwin Garcia from the Merc puts together a pretty good summary of the Democratic primary race.

  • Dan Walters and Daniel Weintraub both think that none of the three candidates are really squaring with the people of the state on finances, nor that they’re all that different.

  • Schwarzenegger is announcing a global warming strategy (probably already has as of this writing). We’ll all have to have a look to see how different it is from the Democrats’ plan.

  • Rain.

  • Rain.

  • Rain.