Daily Archives: July 25, 2007

Uncategorized

Right to Be Worried: LA DWP in Crisis

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(see also this Daily Kos post Workers Warn of Crisis at DWP that borrows from this and other earlier posts)

This is a follow-up to my post last week on the LA Department of Water and Power.  While the news stories about the DWP have died down, the workers are continuing to warn the public about the risk of catastrophe at the DWP.  They are working out a way for larger public distribution of the video that is over the flip.  It is the YouTube version of the DVD that the workers passed out to the media and the DWP board last week.

The time to fix our neglected power and water systems is now, before the next natural disaster strikes.  And Dr. Bill Patzert warns in the video, global warming is increasing the number and intensity of extreme heat days, putting an increased strain on our system.  The DWP is stretched so thin that it cannot handle a heat wave, let alone an earthquake.  As one worker so bluntly puts it: “The infrastructure is on it’s last legs.  It is ready to take a dump.”

As the narrator says:

For those familiar with today’s Department of Water and Power, the system’s inability to cope with the strain comes as no surprise.  Management has slashed the number of line crews responsible for critical testing, maintenance and replacement of aging equipment, decades past life expectancy.  As a result, the DWP has no idea where the weak points in the system are and a strapped workforce struggles to maintain, much less upgrade the system.  And any further strain threatens the supply of power and safe drinking water to millions.

Right now 32% of all LAWP pumps are running over capacity and are at risk of failure.  The average age of transmission and distribution equipment is over ten years older than the industry average.  We are now pushing fifty years old on many of our crucial pieces of equipment.  Instead of ramping up staff to replace the equipment over 1,500 positions have been slashed in recent years.  That is the wrong direction.

It’s past time for the DWP to invest in equipment, manpower and upgrades.  So watch the video and help get the word out by passing it along to your social networks.

California, Orange County

What Is Wasteful?

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OK, I can't stop thinking about this. All the Orange County Supervisors claim to be good “fiscal conservatives” who are “responsible” in spending our tax dollars. John Moorlach says that current pension benefits for county deputy sheriffs are “irresponsible” and “illegal under state law”.  Janet Nguyen tells us that we need a “county services office” in order to better serve taxpayers in Westminster. Now isn't THAT wasteful?

But then, this problem isn't just at the county level. In Sacramento, the Republicans in the State Senate think it's OK to “balance” the budget on the backs of the poor and needy.They decry health care for poor children as “wasteful spending”, and then do whatever they can to preserve tax breaks for the ultrarich and mega corporations that aren't really needed. Is that their priority? Is it really more important that the ultrarich get tax breaks than poor kids getting health care? 

Follow me after the flip for more as I wonder what exactly can be considered “wasteful”…

So why is helping those that can't help themselves “wasteful”? And why is helping those who really don't need any more help “prudent”? I don't get it.

 

I don't get how Republicans always miss the point of government. When we fight back against draconian cuts to services that are needed by the working poor who have difficulty helping themselves, we're chided as “fiscally irresponsible”. When we rail against pension cuts for hardworking public servants, we're called “imprudent”. But when we catch them padding budgets with pork projects and tax breaks for their superrich sugar daddies, they say we're not “economically minded”. And when we catch them spending public funds to help them get reelected, they say that we're on a “political witch hunt”.

So that's it. I've had enough of the Republican wasteful spending. I've had enough of them lecturing us on “fiscal responsibility”, while they treat our tax dollars like their piggy banks to dispose of whenever they want. I've had enough of them coddling their uber-wealthy patrons with pork and tax breaks while our poor neighbors go without health care as they struggle to pay the rent and feed their families. I just hope I'm not the only one outraged by all this Republican waste.

Budget

The Decimated Ranks of Reporter Bloggers and the Budget

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There have been some complaints here and elsewhere that the press has not been focusing much on the budget.  The argument is that the press is partially to blame for the length of this impasse.  Well, they are probably right, but it isn’t really the press’s fault.  There just isn’t very many of them these days to actually write on the topic.  The Sacramento press corps has been pretty well thrashed over the past few months.  John Howard over at the Capitol Weekly did a good job covering the actual departures.  What I want to focus on is the utter decimation in the quality stable of reporter bloggers we once had covering state politics.

In the course of a few months we have lost Dan Weintraub, the first reporter blogger in the country behind a pay-wall at the SacBee.  He was joined by Shane Goldmacher, behind the same wall.  When Shane moved to the Bee from the Cap Weekly he gave up his blogger blog that had gained a respectable following.  The Mercury News blog On Politcs has been on hiatus since late January.  Kate Fulmar used to be the main voice over there, but she was recently let go by the Merc.  Heck the url doesn’t even work any more.  Last but not least is Bob Salladay.  He promised us that Political Muscle would be back after a brief hiatus, but it has been almost two months.  I still have Political Muscle and On Politics in my RSS reader, waiting for the day when they come back to life.  It increasingly looks like that day will not come.

Why does this matter?  Well, the negotiations around the budget have been fast and furious.  The reporter bloggers tend to be the best source for breaking news.  It has been almost impossible to track what is going on until the next day’s paper comes out.  By then it is already outdated.  John Meyers has been a great resource and just maybe we will see a post out of the Chron blog, especially if it is salacious.  Frank is doing an amazing job over at the California Progress Report, especially with his interns.  However, I still miss the broader based coverage we used to have a short time ago.  I am not one of those bloggers who gleefully watches the press’s fiscal troubles.  We need them to do a lot of the real reporting and leave us to run commentary.  Either that or our independent folks need to be better funded and we need more of them.

California

Gary Miller’s lack of judgment

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It seems that Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) not only has judgment problems when it comes to his ethics, but also in the way he dresses on the Hill. On Monday, he apparently wore slippers and a Hawaiian shirt in the Captiol while conducting business.

 Granted, it is summer, when dress codes tend to get a little looser in the face of Washington's starched-shirt- wilting heat. But a slipper-clad Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) apparently took the summer casual look a little too far and he got a dressing down for, well, dressing down!

ROLL CALL reports: During a House vote at about 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Miller strode onto the floor wearing a look better suited to a backyard cookout than the House chamber: a loose-fitting Hawaiian shirt, linen pants and slippers.

The sartorial faux pas even prompted Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who was presiding over the chamber at the time, to weigh in: “The chair must remind Members that the proper standard of dress in the chamber is business attire, which includes both coat and tie for gentlemen.”

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_12/hoh/19541-1.html

 

 

California

Feinstein To Endorse Hillary

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I have to be blunt about one part of life in California since moving here. Election year 2006 was not a pleasant experience for me in the state. Before the June Gubernatorial Primary, I watch Dianne Feinstein among others campaign up and down the state for Phil Angelides. I voted for Steve Westley, but when the ticket was set for the November election, I was a good soldier and line up fore-square behind Phil. So where was Dianne?

 

I quickly reached the conclusion that her primary activities were nothing more than part of the CDP and labor making sure everyone knew who was in charge, November be damned. Because when it was time to put balls to the wall for the statewide ticket, Dianne, was nowhere to be found. I went to no less than three rallies in San Francisco and Oakland and never saw her. Now, she’s doing it again.

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Feinstein will endorse Hillary for President.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, bolstering what appears to be an increasingly formidable campaign operation in delegate-rich California, will announce her endorsement by Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California’s senior senator, today, sources close to the campaign have said.

The endorsement of the New York senator’s presidential bid by Feinstein — one of the state’s most popular politicians — swells what is now a growing list of recent Clinton supporters among key Democratic political figures in the nation’s most populous state. They include Rep. Ellen Tauscher of Walnut Creek and Assemblyman Sandré Swanson of Alameda, who announced his support for Clinton this week.

Feinstein told Clinton supporters and friends at a private fundraiser in Colorado earlier this month that she would back the New York senator in her presidential bid, but she has yet to make it official.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Hillary and will be there for her if she is the nominee. I also expect her to carry California on November, 2008. However, the California establishment should at least once in their lifetimes take theirs heads out of the sand and look at the big picture.

Charlie Brown will be running for Congress, Jerry McNerney will be running for reelection and we have a shot at picking up to other seats downstate. Why make the hill steeper by nominating someone who will motivate Republicans to turn out? We do not need to see who is “boss”, you’ve shown us plenty of times. For once, look beyong your own interests.

Uncategorized

The Calitics Show, now available online.

If you click that play button right above, you’ll get the first episode of the podcast. It seems that I’m louder than everybody else. I’ll see if I can work on that. I want to really thank Asm. Mark Leno for joining us. It appears that the end of the show was cut off, so I’ll put in the Assemblyman’s plug that he tried to make for his website. I think our discussion of Prop 89/public financing of campaigns was cut off. For that I apologize, but I suppose I know these things for next time. And if you’d like to hear Asm. Leno’s opinion on public campaign financing, check the flip.

Budget, California

Republicans Set Their Budget Priorities

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And those priorities are…

Leaving poor people on their own to die:

After holding up the state budget nearly a month past deadline, Senate Republicans offered Tuesday to end the impasse if Democrats would move tens of thousands of poor families off welfare and make dozens of additional program cuts.

The linchpin of the plan, Ackerman said, is a $324-million cut in the state’s welfare program. The cut was initially proposed by the governor in January, but Schwarzenegger had not been aggressively pushing for its inclusion in the spending plan adopted by the Legislature […]

Advocates for the poor were alarmed to see the governor’s January proposal revived. They said it would result in as many as 40,000 families losing state assistance.

… and ensuring that the planet continued to be destroyed by man-made causes:

Several Republican Party Senators have threatened to block the entire state budget unless the California Legislature accepts a recent polluters’ plea to ignore global warming pollution when assessing a project’s environmental impacts under CEQA. This “ostrich exemption” would allow polluters to continue sticking their heads in the sand, pretending that projects like oil refineries, freeways, and suburban sprawl simply don’t create greenhouse gases. It’s dangerously loopy logic, but if they can convince the Senate to play along, we could see California’s bourgeoning fight against global warming come to a skidding halt.

Hey, at least we know where they stand…

Blog Roundup, Budget, Orange County, San Francisco

Blog Roundup 7/25/07 & Podcast Reminder

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(3 minutes until showtime. Check out our hostpage. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Over the flip, you’ll find my best impersonation of jsw with a blog roundup. Boy, does he have this setup going smoothly.

Listen LiveAlso, don’t forget that we have our little chat show, tentatively titled “The Calitics Show” at 10AM. We’ll get started at 10. We hope to get Asm. Leno on the line shortly thereafter.  The call-in number is (718) 664-9561. Also, if you have broadband where you are at 10 or so, you can use BlogTalkRadio’s “ClickToTalk” VoIP phone service with your computer’s microphone in lieu of the phone. You’ll find that at our hostpage. You can also set a reminder to listen, if you are forgetful like me. 

[UPDATE: by Julia 9:55am] I added the Working Californians posts Brian missed and moved one post that was improperly categorized.

Uncategorized

Yes, We’re Still Here… The Draft Gore Movement – CA Primary Ballot Project

From The Santa Barbara Independent
“The People’s President”
The Draft Al Gore For President Movement
By Marta Jorgensen, co-regional director of AlGore.org (AGO), Southwest chapter.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
“In my heart, I do believe that democracy was harmed by my network and others on November 7, 2000.”
—?Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News Network, February 14, 2001. (How to Steal an Election, David W. Moore)
Most of us remember painfully well the 2000 election. But some of us aren’t content to let it be simply a painful memory.
In 2002, a dedicated group of individuals who had been involved with Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign set up a Web site called gore04.org and organized a rally in Nashville, Tennessee. Gore told them to stop. He wasn’t into it. In the middle of 2006, the group got it rolling again, teaming up with AlGore.org (AGO) and working with other sites such as draftgore.com, meetup.com, and algoresupportcenter.com. To date, the combined Draft Gore Movement has collected 120,000-plus signatures urging Gore to run. And this time Gore hasn’t told us to cut it out.
The Draft Gore Movement is a labor of love on the part of its rapidly growing membership. Members and organizers do not have deep pockets, but use their own resources and intelligence to try to accomplish what mainstream political parties accomplish with their special-interest money and media spin doctors. They intend to place his name on the primary state ballots and put in place a voting base. Just in case …
Why all this effort? Why not support one of the Democratic candidates who has officially thrown his or her hat in the ring? To put it bluntly, none of them come close to Gore. He has established relationships with numerous world leaders, is well-liked internationally, and is not in anyone’s pocket.
Given the Bush administration’s unprecedented expansion of the unitary executive and sweeping constitutional changes, our next presidency may mean the difference between preserving our constitution and the principles upon which this country was founded, and losing them forever. Gore put it best himself in his 2006 speech, “Restoring the Rule of Law”: “If the pattern of practice begun by this administration is not challenged, it may well become a permanent part of the American system. Many conservatives have pointed out that granting unchecked power to this president means that the next president will have unchecked power as well. And the next president may be someone whose values and belief you do not trust.” The Clintons were involved in various breaches of constitutional law while in office, including allegations that Hillary’s brothers received large sums of money in exchange for requesting (and obtaining) presidential pardons. Both John Edwards and Barack Obama are too inexperienced to adeptly lead America out of its current constitutional and diplomatic crisis.
Gore would make the climate crisis the number one issue for 2008, a necessary agenda no candidate from either party has adopted. By unifying world powers in pursuit of the goal to save our planet, Gore would restore America’s standing in the world, thereby changing the global dialogue on other geopolitical crises as well. If elected president, Gore would: eliminate all payroll taxes and replace that revenue with pollution taxes, principally on CO2; help negotiate a stronger second-generation Kyoto Treaty; create an “Electranet,” a smart electricity grid that would allow individuals and businesses to buy and sell electricity, forcing them to monitor their own consumption; and promote profitable alternative energy business models. Gore is also committed to ending the war in Iraq, which goes hand in hand with reducing our dependence on oil.
In The Assault on Reason, Gore stated, “Many Americans now feel that our government is unresponsive and that no one in a position of power listens to or cares what they think. They feel disconnected from democracy. They feel that one vote makes no difference, and that they, as individuals, now have no practical means of participating in America’s self-government.” Gore is well connected with the citizenry, even engaging in citizens’ Web blog discussions from time to time. As president, he would restore public participation in politics.
Gore has stated that he can accomplish his goals as a private citizen, without getting caught up in the political game. But that can only go so far. Real change in governance must come from the executive. The goal of the Draft Gore Movement is to show him that the people want him to run, and that he has enough popular support to win. According to a recent 7NEWS / Suffolk University poll, 32 percent of Democratic voters would support Gore over the candidate toward which they are currently leaning.
That’s why the Draft Gore effort is becoming so insistent and vocal. Members have shown up at all of The Assault on Reason book-signings. In Los Angeles recently, the “Gore People” were in full force, handing out Gore ’08 buttons, signs, and gear to the 2,000 attendees. Gore said he was “flabbergasted” by the level of organization.
This is real democracy in action. Since 2000, a sizable part of the nation has grown from its pain, is less naïve, and more politically active and vocal, thanks to the Internet. Gore has also grown from his pain, as a man and as a leader. He would be the People’s President. It’s high time the nation and the leader shook hands.
Visit AlGore.org to get involved.

Our latest project: Getting his name on the CA
Primary Ballot.

Budget

Budget Gimmickry

“Only” out of balance by about $700 million?! (to be fair, $699 million) Yeah, right. Let’s take a look at the gimmicks

Add on $330 million for the prison guard contract offer (the LOWEST estimate available for their salary increase)

Add on $190 million for the overstatement of property tax revenues (per the LAO warning)

Add on $184 million for the overstatement of tribal gaming revenues (ditto)

Add on $603 million for the failure to account for the May-June shortfall (yes, we were $603 million short, but this budget still assumes it was accounted for)

Add on $300 million for the postponement of reimbursements to local governments for mandates (we owe the money, the current budget just pushes them into next year’s budget in order to avoid paying it this year)

Add on $357 million for the acceleration of tobacco securitization funds (the tobacco securitization funds are supposed to pay for the 2008-9 CTA settlement costs, but instead are being accelerated into this budget to pay for general fund spending)

Add on $250 million for the theft of the Williams School Facility Repair funds (we’ll need to repay the ‘loan’ in future years)

Add on $260 million for the EPSDT prior year deficiency deferral

That comes to a $3.173 billion deficit

As if that wasn’t bad enough. We have $2.865 billion  on very shaky ground:

$709 million from escheated property DEFYING A COURT’S ORDER

$200 million for the “limited liability” court case  (state lost the case, will likely lose the apppeal, and LOWEST estimate is $200 million)

$176 million in unallocated reductions (assuming Arnold will make $176 million in unallocated reductions when he’s ignored most unallocated reductions in past budgets)

$300 million for the Medi-Cal FPACT waiver (likely NOT to be renewed this year, so the state will have to make it up)

$980 for the EdFund sale (has not gotten the federal approval it needs, has never been appraised, and real value is likely 1/5 of that)

$500 million for the CalSTRS court order (court order says state has to pay $500 million of $558 million adverse judgment due to its failure to fund CalSTRS. Likely to lose the appeal and will have to make this payment during the budget year)

That is about $2.865 billion, making a MINIMUM of a $6.038 billion deficit

We have a current reserve of about $3.4 billion. We need a LOT more than $700 million in cuts. We should do about $2.9 billion more in cuts, in order to have more than the bare minimum