OK, I just saw this on The Liberal OC, and I think I should share this with all the rest of you. Remember when I told you that Jim Brandt is running for the State Assembly in the 54th District, where Betty Karnette is termed out?

Well, Jim is looking for some help. He actually is looking forward to winning this race and serving the people of Long Beach, San Pedro, and Palos Verdes in Sacramento, but he can’t win this thing alone. If you’re in this area, then perhaps it’s time for YOU to step up and help Jim out!

Follow me after the flip to find out how YOU can help…

Here’s the email that Jim recently sent to supporters:

We’re launching the ground campaign for Jim Brandt for Assembly! We’ve targeted precincts throughout the 54th Assembly district, and we need you to Step Up for Brandt and help get them covered.

At the core of Jim’s campaign is the need for healthcare for all and building a healthier California. Studies show that walking is the best way to get healthier. With our Step Up for Brandt campaign, you can get healthier and help Jim at the same time!

Next weekend, June 9-10, the Step Up for Brandt campaign will launch with a literature drop to Democrats in our targeted precincts.

Here’s where you come in: We need you to adopt the targeted precinct closest to you and reach out to Democrats to let them know about Jim Brandt for Assembly. Once we’ve matched you to a precinct, our Field Operations Coordinator, Marc Barron, will get you all the training and materials you’ll need.

To join the Step Up for Brandt Team, reply to this email or contact Marc directly at [email protected].

P.S. If you are unable to walk a precinct, we still need your help! Please contact Marc and let him know what you can do for Jim Brandt for Assembly (writing letters, making phone calls, tabling, etc.).

Jim has what it takes to win this slightly Democratic district. Remember his good fight against Crazy Dana Rohrabacher in the 46th Congressional Race last year? If he can take on Crazy Dana, then he can win this race! But again, not without your help!

If you want to help Jim win, please send an email to [email protected]. He’s counting on a few good people to help him get to Sacramento and fight the good fight for the people of South LA County! : )

Hey, those of us who follow state government closely are really, really big dorks. It seems we are in a really small minority in terms of knowing what the state government is up to.  Um, I think many of us knew that (and that at least I am a dork), but I guess it's good to have some numbers behind that.  The numbers behind my dorkiness have always been there for the world to see.  From the Public Policy Institute of California:

Some findings of the current survey:

• Sixty-four percent of likely voters support  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to issue $43.3 billion in bonds to increase funding for education facilities, prisons, water storage, and other infrastructure projects.
• Fifty-two percent of voters admit that they know very little (43%) or nothing (9%) about how bonds are paid for in California.  Six percent say they know a lot.
• The share of residents who describe the state budget as a big problem has fallen 29 points, from 73 percent to 44 percent, since May 2004.

There are some serious ramificiations of this information. Flippy-dippy, ramalama, ding-dong, changity change, oooh- oooh oooh FLIP…

See, if that didn't prove my dorkiness, I don't know what will. But as for the ramificiations of the PPIC poll, well, they are really, really big. I mean think about this, at least half of California voters don't know how the bonds work, yet we just approved a massive bond package. And now he wants more, and he's asking for it through the will of uninformed voters.

See, that's one of the problems of direct democracy. The incredible system of representative democracy that the framers built in the Constitution relies on voters to pick people they trust and let them be the ones that make decisions, but the initiative system requires voters themselves be well-educated on the issues. And when they aren't well, we get srewed-up ballot-box budgeting.

 But, hey, maybe we can get around the road-block to High speed rail, Arnold Schwarzenegger, via the ballot. It looks like people will approve some more bonds. Where's that picture…Ah, yes, here it is:

By the way, doesn't it look like that person to the left of the big credit card has 3 arms? Not that there's anything wrong with that. 

Last night, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake met with Jewish students to discuss the recent unrest on campus. Here’s what The OC Register has to say about it:

UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake told several hundred concerned Jewish community members Wednesday night to join in on discussions and work together against what he calls isolated incidents of anti-Jewish speech by outsiders on campus.

Drake answered questions during a 90-minute town hall meeting at Shir Ha-Ma’alot in Irvine addressing concerns about what the Jewish community calls ongoing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity on UCI’s campus.

“We promote dialogue, understanding, growth and tolerance at UCI,” Drake said. “I’d like to enlist all of you in working with me to make Jewish life on campus as strong as possible.”

So what’s happening on campus? Is there an anti-Jewish problem on campus? Is there an anti-Muslim problem on campus? Why is UCI becoming such a hotbed of controversy? Follow me after the flip for more…

So what exactly is happening at UCI? Jewish groups on campus have been complaining about anti-Semitic incidents for quite some times now. Pajamas Media likes to call what’s happening an “intifada” against Jews on campus. The Jewish Journal asks if UCI is a hotbed of anti-Semitic harassment. So is there an anti-Semitic problem at UCI?

But wait, is this all that’s happening? After all, the very same Muslim Student Union that is being accused of being behind all this harassment is itself claiming harassment. In fact, police are still investigating the charge that an FBI agent threatened a Muslim student who was just taking down a protest wall on campus. And most recently, the folks at Red County/OC Blog accused the Muslim Student Union of “preaching terror on campus”, even though The Daily Pilot found no anti-Semitism and no incitement to “terrorism” at the previous speech in the week-long series on the Israeli-Palestinean crisis. If anything, it seemed like it was the commenters on the OC Blog story preaching hate.

So what’s the problem? Why do both sides feel so victimized? Perhaps there are incidents of radical extremists targeting Jews on campus. Perhaps there are right-wing extremists who seek to stir trouble with the Muslims on campus. Perhaps the controversy at UCI is getting way out of control. What can be done to quell the controversy? What can be done to reconcile the differences between the Jewish groups and the Muslim groups on campus? Why is the conflict at UCI almost reaching Israeli-Palestinean levels of intensity?

Hopefully, UCI Chancellor Drake and the administration can come up with a solution here. Something has to be done to address this bubbling cauldron. Something has to be done to stop this from bubbling past the boiling point.

I know there has already been a great deal of discussion on how the newspaper industry is falling apart and it sucks everyone will miss Bob Salladay. And he’s going to be tough to replace:

Dear Leader

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger brought to Canada his vision of an independent, new world, desired by all people, that will appear as brilliant features of Schwarzenegger’s century and remain forever under the rays of the great sun. The august name of Schwarzenegger represents glory and happiness of humankind and hope and future of the world and it would shine forever.

If newspapers were hiring writers like this instead of buying them out, maybe they’d be doing a little better.

And we’re back with a hip hop revival.

In your news roundup, San Diego women’s prison Las Colinas will close by order of a grand jury which found the overcrowding to have reached “barely humane” levels, whatever that means. 

Pre-trial hearings began today for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the commanding officer of the Marines involved in the Haditha killings.  On the menu: violation of an order and dereliction of duty.  Contrary to what I’m sure many on the Right wish was popular opinion, nobody wins in this.

And finally, our good friend Ruben Navarrette has a perplexing analysis of low-skill jobs and immigration.  He spends the first half of his op-ed establishing that Americans don’t want low wage jobs, and that they indeed look down on such jobs.  Then he dives right into the notion that maybe low-skilled workers would be better off if they got more skills.  Huh? Didn’t you just tell us that the problem was that America’s home-grown workforce was overskilled?  So your conclusion is, people need more skills?  He falls into the classic trap of “they’re stealing our jobs” blowhards while seemingly trying to refute it.  Nobody actually knows of large numbers of people who can’t get jobs because of immigrants, they just hear tell of them.  Yet they must be real, and I guess they need to call Lincoln Tech.

15 years after their last sighting, X-Clan is putting weak MCs on notice.  Now dance to the rhythm of the evolved drum.  X-Clan – Weapon X.
“You can be a strange fruit and be straight innocent.”

H/T to Orange Juice for this!

The California State Senate recently voted to pass SB 812, Lou Correa‘s (D-Santa Ana) legislation that would stop the type of “bounty hunting” that the Orange County Republican Party used to illegally switch unsuspecting Democratic and Independent voters to Republican against their will. Finally, something is being done to put a halt to this nasty practice!

Follow me after the flip for more on this important legislation, and how we can help it become law…

So what exactly would this legislation do? Here is how the Legislative Counsel explains it:

This bill would prohibit any person, company, or other
organization, except state political parties that reimburse their
central committees and clubs on a per-affidavit basis, from agreeing
to pay money or other valuable consideration on a per-affidavit basis
to any person who assists another person to register to vote by
receiving the completed affidavit of registration, would prohibit the
receipt of this per-affidavit consideration, and would make
conforming changes. A violation of these prohibitions would be an infraction, punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.

Wow, so that sounds good! So what happens next?

Now, this bill moves to the State Assembly. And if you’d like to end the type of bounty hunting that was part of the dirty tricks used by Orange County Republicans to win our competitive 34th State Senate seat (now Lou Correa’s), you can contact your Assembly Member and ask him/her to support SB 812. Now this type of illegal behavior occurred in Orange County last year, but this practice isn’t limited to Orange County.

We need to ensure that this illegal act doesn’t happen ANYWHERE in the state. That’s why we need Lou Correa’s legislation that would work to prevent this. Let’s help Lou get this passed, and let’s protect the voters in this state. : )