mcjoan has a post up on DailyKos about the DNC granting 56 media credentials for the DNC convention to state and local bloggers.
I think Calitics deserves to be represented. The applications will open on December 10th.
Daily Archives: November 13, 2007
Desalination: The Next Front in California Water Wars
“Water, water, everywhere, not any drop to drink.” – Coleridge
I think back to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner whenever I read about California’s worsening water crisis. Outside my window is the Monterey Bay, an arm of the world’s largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could apply some of our spiffy modern technology to solve the Ancient Mariner’s dilemma and turn all that water into something potable?
Desalination is poised to become one of the next big things in California, and already is becoming a major political issue. In Carlsbad, located a few miles north of San Diego on the coast, a consortium of cities and water agencies has allied with Poseidon Resources to plan the nation’s largest desalination plant, to be co-located with the Encina power station. The plant would create 50 million gallons of water per day, and 56,000 acre feet per year – “enough for 300,000 residents of San Diego County,” touts the project website.
As promising as desal is with our water crisis, however, it has potentially damaging effects on ocean life and on global warming – which led the California Coastal Commission staff to recommend the Poseidon plant be denied its necessary permits. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to determine the ultimate fate of this project. Similar fights are brewing or have already begun in Orange County, Marin County, and here on the Monterey Bay.
The growing controversy surrounding desalination reveals a deeper truth about our future. The problems we face with water, global warming, and energy are not separate. They are, in fact, facets of a broader crisis of civilization. A solution to one facet must not aggravate another. Like pieces on a chessboard, or blocks in a late-night Jenga game, each piece exists relationally to the others. Building an energy-sucking, pollution-spewing desalination plant is likely to have some unpleasant blowback.
There are at present two primary methods of desalination. The first is known as “reverse osmosis filtration” and the second is “multi-stage flash distillation.” Most of the world’s existing desal plants use one or the other method, which have some differences but also some fundamental similarities. Both require large amounts of energy to produce the potable water, and both require intake from the sea.
Where will this energy come from? Fossil fuels, primarily. The Persian Gulf nations, such as Bahrain and Qatar, run their massive plants with cheap and locally available oil. For the US, however, we’ll have to import oil or natural gas – both of which are facing peaking supplies and rapidly increasing prices – to power desalination plants. And of course, running desal with either of those fossil fuels produces significant carbon dioxide emissions, adding to global warming.
In order to address both the power problem and the intake problem, companies promoting desalination plants here in California have championed what is known as “co-location” – that is, putting a desal plant alongside an existing power plant. This allows desal plants to take advantage of existing energy production as well as use the water discharge normally generated by the power plant. That’s the plan being floated for as many as THREE desal projects at the Moss Landing Power Plant here on Monterey Bay, and for the Poseidon plant at Carlsbad.
The battle over the Poseidon plant, which reaches the full California Coastal Commission on Thursday, is pitting environmental advocates against those who see desalination as a necessary part of California’s future. The project is supported by much of San Diego’s political establishment, from State Sen. Christine Kehoe to SD Mayor Jerry Sanders, most local cities, and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi.
The opposition is led by the Surfrider Foundation, which doesn’t oppose desal in general, but is concerned that this particular project would damage ocean life and contribute to global warming:
A proposed ocean desalination factory in Carlsbad, California will create between 95,905 metric tons and 170,000 metric tons of CO2 (the variance depends on the source of electricity servicing the desal factory).
Poseidon claims that the plant will be carbon neutral, but the claim – made only two weeks ago in the face of growing opposition – is not fully explained, and appears to rest on the unverified notion that locally produced water would have a smaller carbon footprint to water moved by the State Water Project’s electric pumps. Surfrider has voiced concerns that the plant might fuel further urban sprawl, which would negate any carbon reductions the desal plant provides.
Yet another wrinkle is private ownership itself. In the late 1980s Monterey County approved an ordinance that mandates any desal plant located within the county be publicly owned. Should private companies have any more control over our water supplies, or should desal, if it proceeds, be publicly owned and controlled?
San Diego farming advocates have argued that desal would help save agriculture in the region, stressed by drought and Delta water delivery cutbacks. But as Israel has discovered, desalinated water is actually harmful to agriculture, as the water lacks vital minerals and nutrients the plants need to thrive.
Environmentally friendly alternatives do exist, particularly sub-surface extraction, where salt water is taken from beneath the ocean floor, through beach wells, using sand as a kind of filter. This is being proposed for the Monterey Bay and has been studied for Dana Point in Orange County. But the momentum seems to be instead toward the larger surface plants, using either reverse osmosis or multi-stage flash distillation. As these can produce more water, the possible profits are correspondingly higher for the private companies involved in these projects.
Solar power is also a possibility. World View Water claims to offer a desalination technology powered by the sun that would produce potable water without the carbon pollution or the dependence on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.
Finally, we need to ask if desalination is even necessary. In 2006 the Pacific Institute released a report Desalination With A Grain of Salt that argued desalination is likely much more expensive than conservation strategies and suggested desalination should be, at best, a last resort. The onset of drought in much of California, the likelihood that global warming will reduce the Sierra snowpack dramatically, and the fact that several parts of California – such as the Central Coast – have already overshot its carrying capacity and are overdrawing local water sources all suggest that desalination should be on our list of solutions to our looming crisis.
If desal is going to be part of 21st century California, we need to do it right. We need to not do further damage to our oceans, to our warming atmosphere, to our unsustainable dependence on fossil fuels. Smart desalination offers many benefits – but dumb desalination will simply make our problems a whole lot worse.
Further Reading:
Aquafornia – fantastic news aggregator covering every aspect of water issues in California
Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Chapter
Poseidon Resources’ website on the Carlsbad desalination project
Dianne Feinstein Censure Resonates with Democrats
(bumped – promoted by Robert in Monterey)
Disclosure: I do some work with our friends at the Courage Campaign
The effort moving in the California Democratic Party to officially Censure Senator Dianne Feinstein that is being lead by the Courage Campaign, the Executive Board of the California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, Progressive Democrats of America, East Bay for Democracy Democratic Club, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, San Diego Democracy for America, and Sacramento for Democracy is clearly resonating online.
The initial story on the Huffington Post already has over 700 comments. There is a top recommended diary on Daily Kos: California Dems move to censure Feinstein.
It is already moving on Crooks and Liars and Open Left and Down with Tyranny and Towleroad and Hoffmania and Brave New Films and d-day and From the Left and After Downing Street and The Stranger’s Slog and Political Truth and Joshing Politics and The Most Important Blog…Ever and The November Blog and Cliff Schecter and — of course — Calitics.
With the traffic on these blogs and the volume of email being sent, I’d predict around 100,000 California grassroots Democrats will know of the censure movement by the end of the day and that number could easily triple by this weekend’s vote. And it isn’t just the raw numbers, which really are astonishing. It is also the degree to which the message of accountability is resonating with Democrats.
This is a defining moment for the California Democratic Party and there will be a lot of people watching what happens.
UPDATE: It resonates and has momentum. Fire Dog Lake and the San Francisco Bay Guardian Politics Blog and Amor Mundi and Maha Blog and Chris Weigant and Later on and the front page of Daily Kos. The primary story is now up to 860 comments. You can censure Dianne Feinstein yourself.
Vote Hope Fills Void in Latino Political Media
(Good stuff from Vote Hope here. – promoted by Julia Rosen)
(Cross-posted at Vote Hope.)
Last Spring, America saw the potential power of the Latino community as a political force. Millions of people, in cities across the country, poured into the streets, marching in solidarity for equality and justice for immigrants. In November of 2006, Latino voters proved again that they could help deliver victories, as their turnout increased by 33% in Congressional races, and was much more heavily Democratic than in years past, according to a recent report by NDN’s Hispanic Strategy Center. The GOP’s constant drumbeat of anti-immigrant rhetoric has opened up an incredible opportunity for Democrats and progressives to solidify Latino voters as a reliable – and fast-growing – part of our coalition.
But in California, where the largest majority of Latinos in the country live, that potential has barely been tapped. In our state, there are still more than 5 million Latino voters who are eligible but not registered to vote, or who are registered but don’t regularly come out to the polls. When you consider that only about 3.2 million people voted in the 2004 Democratic primary in California, you can see the potential that the sheer numbers of this population could have on the outcome of our state’s upcoming primary election on Feb. 5, 2008.
And yet few campaigns on the Democratic side have invested any resources into Spanish-language or Latino-focused media in this state, and the 2008 Presidential Primary is no exception. Vote Hope, a new statewide political network, has stepped in to fill that void. Working with the Los Angeles-based Amigos de Obama, another independent group trying to increase Latino participation, we have produced a series of 4-minute, Web-based films called Tu Voz, Tu Voto, which are inspired by the wildly popular Latin American telenovela genre, and promote Barack Obama as the candidate for hope, unity and change in America.
The films were written, produced and acted by California Latinos, and they reflect issues and experiences that are rarely, if ever, portrayed in mainstream political media. Like telenovelas, these films use humor and drama to convey serious messages. They follow the journey of a typical Latino family in Southern California, the Ortiz family, and how they come to support Barack Obama for President. They are significant not only because they represent the first Spanish-language media effort in the 2008 primary elections, but because they are a unique attempt to connect mainstream politics with Latino culture.
The first episode, “La Marcha,” invokes the excitement of the immigrant rights marches of 2006, and puts forward the desire that many Latinos felt to take that energy and transform it into voting power.
In the second episode, “Amigos,” the immigration issue hits home for the Ortiz family, and 19-year-old Gaby Ortiz grapples with her own political involvement. This episode features the hit “Obama Reggaeton” song produced by Amigos de Obama and heard by thousands of people around the country.
In the third episode of the series, “About Us,” Latino and African American characters grapple with the difficult issues of multi-racial unity, and come to see how Obama’s candidacy can help bridge old divides and galvanize a new multi-racial movement for change.
Each of the stories touches on a different, but very real, part of the modern Latino experience, in California and America. Vote Hope’s goal is to reach Latino voters and potential voters who may not have thought much about the upcoming primary yet, but who will respond to this unique kind of outreach.
At Vote Hope, which employs Latinos and Latinas at all levels, we support Obama because we see him as the only vehicle for real change – change we can believe in – in this country. We see him as an opportunity to build multi-racial unity and solidarity – one that has not come around in a very long time. And we believe that his life experience, from growing up as a person of color in America and overseas, to working as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago to teaching constitutional law and going on to serve his state and his nation in public office, is exactly the kind of experience we need to lead this country right now.
We also believe in the overwhelming need to create more long-term, lasting infrastructure that can engage Latinos in politics more regularly throughout the year, avoiding the cyclical abandonment that happens with campaigns that actually do outreach to Latinos. That is why Vote Hope will continue to work on registering voters, and building political networks, in the Latino community even after the 2008 election.
It’s an incredible political moment we are in. Vote Hope is here to seize it, and build on it for the long term.
Augustus Hawkins Dies
California’s first African American congressman died Saturday in Bethesda, MD. He was 100 years old. Hawkins was first elected to the California state legislature in 1935 and became the first African American to represent California in the House of Representatives in 1962, serving until 1991. He was the oldest living former congressman.
While in office, Hawkins was instrumental in legislation like the Civil Rights Act (sponsoring Title VII- the equal employment section), the Job Training Partnership Act, and the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act. He was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
When he left office, his seat passed to Rep. Maxine Waters who said he was “the author of some of the most significant legislation ever passed in the House . . . particularly in the areas of education and labor. He cared about poor and working people.”
“It was Gus Hawkins who gave us the credibility,” said Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles. “It was Gus Hawkins who gave us the ideas. . . . He has left a sterling legacy.”
It’s a good opportunity to remember the good things government can do.
Feinstein Faces Censure Resolution At CDP E-Board
(Visit the Courage Campaign censure page for more info or to support the resolution. – promoted by Lucas O’Connor)
Progressives are angry with Dianne Feinstein to a degree that I’ve never seen before. She followed up the Leslie Southwick nomination with the Michael Mukasey nomination, and this week she may tip the balance on telecom immunity in the Senate Judiciary Committee. This weekend, at the California Democratic Party executive board meeting, she may get a reprimand.
One day after voting to elevate a divisive conservative judge to the federal appeals court in New Orleans, President Bush invited California Sen. Dianne Feinstein aboard Air Force One to survey the damage from the recent spate of Southern California wildfires.
The senator later remarked privately that she found her conversation with Bush aboard Air Force One “illuminating,” a source close to Feinstein told the Huffington Post […]
Now, a coalition of progressive Democrats upset with Feinstein’s controversial votes will ask the California Democratic Party to censure her at its executive board meeting this weekend, the Huffington Post has learned.
The move comes as Feinstein again finds herself under fire for saying Thursday that she now supports granting legal immunity to telecom companies that shared customer email and phone messages with the federal government as part of the warrantless surveillance program.
“Dianne Feinstein does not listen to the people of California,” said Rick Jacobs, president of the Courage Campaign, a progressive organization in California. “She supports George Bush’s agenda time after time.”
Knowing what I know about the e-board, this is not likely to pass. And if it did, it’s not likely to mean anything or change any opinion. But it’s a symbol of exactly how upset the grassroots is with Feinstein, and how they are grasping for something to express their disapproval.
The resolution text is on the flip.
Whereas Senator Dianne Feinstein voted to support the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey as United States Attorney General, thereby elevating to the highest position in law enforcement a man who refused to renounce the right of the President to resort to torture and who refused to recognize waterboarding as a form of torture, and by this action Senator Feinstein failed to oppose President Bush and failed to stand for the ideals of the Democratic Party, which abhors torture and stands firmly against its use by the United States at all times and places; and
Whereas Senator Feinstein voted to confirm Judge Leslie Southwick for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit despite his clear record of racism and gender discrimination, thus failing to stand firmly with the Democratic Party, which supports gender equality and opposes racism in any of its manifestations; and
Whereas these examples are far from the only instances where Senator Feinstein, after seeking and securing the support and endorsement of the California Democratic Party, has failed to support the policies and principles of our party
Therefore be it resolved that the California Democratic Party expresses its disappointment at, and censure of, Senator Feinstein for ignoring Democratic principles and falling so far below the standard of what we expect of our elected officials.
CDP: It’s All About Connectors
(Basic Blocking and Tackling – promoted by jsw)
Cross posted on The Progressive Connection
On Highway 99, near Chowchilla, stands a vacant metal building with a canopy that shelters a large orange sphere.
In the land before time, before there was McDonald’s or Burger King, there was Mammoth Orange, and its smaller relative, Giant Orange. These quintessential fast food joints, shaped like a citrus fruit and painted a violent shade of orange, served hamburgers and orange juice all up and down California’s Central Valley.
There were hundreds of them, landmarks of popular culture — and now there is just one left, the Mammoth Orange, on the east side of Highway 99 near the turnoff for Highway 152. Its days are numbered.
Progress is coming to this stretch of 99, one of the last bits of old four-lane highway with local access roads.
The old highway is being turned into a full-scale freeway. The crucial difference is that a freeway has limited access — drivers can’t enter or exit except on special on- and off-ramps. That means there’s no room on a freeway for roadside joints, like the Mammoth Orange.
The Mammoth Orange lost its battle earlier this year. Cut off from customers because of its poor access, the last-of-its-kind business weakened and then finally failed.
But the Mammoth Orange struck me as an apt, if peculiar, metaphor for California Democratic Party politics. You see, I have this image of the CDP as the new Highway 99 freeway. The Mammoth Orange is, of course, the grassroots…
Much like Hwy. 99 has what the Mammoth Orange needs (customers), the CDP has much of what the grassroots is desperately seeking. As promised in its 58-County Strategy, the CDP has the ability to offer both financial and logistical support in registering voters; it has materials and technological tools that it can make available; it has finance expertise it can share; it has liability insurance it can provide; and it has communications and research capability that it can deploy on behalf of Democrats.
But for the grassroots, much like the Mammoth Orange, the access provided by key connectors is critical to their success. With its 58-County Strategy, the CDP made the decision, for better or worse, to rely on the county Central Committees to deliver its services to the grassroots. In some counties with high-functioning Central Committees, this is a good plan. But in many, many other counties with dysfunctional Central Committees, it’s a lot like having a Mammoth Orange with no off-ramps.
So what’s to be done?
Well, the CDP unveiled some of its new plans at last weekend’s Central California Democratic Convention in Fresno. It’s my understanding that more details will be fleshed out at this weekend’s E-Board meeting in the OC (check out the Rural Caucus). In an attempt to strengthen the connectors that link the CDP to the grassroots, the Party will be meeting with every Central Committee to develop unique strategic plans for each county. Individualized goals will be fixed, timetables will be set, and benchmarks will be established which each Central Committee will be expected to meet.
Here are the guidelines set out by the CDP for the Central Committees:
Party Business:
- Regular monthly meetings, Executive Board meetings, and Standing Committee Meetings
- Full membership (either through election or appointment), alternate selection and associate memberships encouraged. Alternate and associate memberships to be aimed at diversifying the membership to reflect county demographics to the greatest extent possible
- Regular communications to members, Regional Directors and the CDP
- Formalized endorsement process
- Chartering and re-chartering process for clubs and encouraging club participation in the formal local party structure
Finance/Budget:
- Year round budget for all activities
- Establish fundraising goals with diverse methods of sustaining funding
Electoral Strategies/Voter Contact:
- Short and long term field plans: voter registration goals and targets, walk programs, key races, coordinated campaign development (coalition building with stakeholders)
- Using the CDP’s Online Campaign Center voter file to maintain and build data from cycle-to-cycle
Volunteer Recruitment and Management:
- Use of the Volunteer Management Database — to track, monitor and manage volunteers from within their county or those from outside who have indicated an interest in working in their county
- Trainings — Campaign Skills, Treasurer’s and others, as needed
Visibility and Outreach:
- Advertising events
- Sponsoring and speaking at affiliated events
- Earned media/Rapid Response team development
- Current and viable websites for each central committee
- Commitment to notify the CDP in a timely manner of changes in local party officers, chartered clubs — as well as upcoming events, so that the CDP website contains the most current information
Candidate Recruitment:
- Candidate training for Congressional, Senate and Assembly races
- Candidate training for down-ticket, non-partisan races
- Working with labor and other allied groups for non-partisan seats
- Elected official outreach; incumbent relations
Now, of all these guidelines, apparently only two will be optional: the use of the CDP’s Online Campaign Center voter file and the use of the Volunteer Management Database. Our Central Committees will be expected to fulfill all of the other duties listed above. Maybe, just maybe, these new and improved connectors will be just the shot-in-the-arm the grassroots has been hoping for.
Moment of (Inconvenient) Truth
“It is my greatest hope that those who read this book will choose to become part of a new movement to rekindle the true spirit of America.”
– Al Gore in The Assault on Reason
For those of us entrenched in the Draft Gore movement, we think we know exactly what that means.
And in California, we have been going full bore to qualify him for the Democratic Primary, whether he runs or NOT. The beauty of it is, that if he doesn’t want to be on the ballot, he can simply ask Secretary of State Debra Bowen to remove his name. And by law, she will have to.
And it will not have been a wasted effort. We will finally have our Shermannesque statement. Thus far, we have had nothing close to that.
We are 3 weeks away from the deadline, and are on the cusp of doing it, and things have gotten weird…
When I first stumbled upon the California Election Codes (back in March) that would allow this exercise in direct democracy, I was ecstatic!
It was a no brainer. We would put Gore on the California Democratic Ballot and that would propel him into the race. This is California! It will be easy! We only need 500 signatures (from registered Democrats) in each of the 53 Congressional Districts. We will have volunteers lining up around the block! It isn’t as if it is an open ended commitment! Only 500 signatures. That is 10 people per district, each collecting 50 signatures. Cake!
The only catch? Well… Given a primary date of February 5th, the window in which to collect the signatures (tied to the primary date) is October 8th to December 4th. So I can sit on my laurels for a few months and start organizing after the summer. Luckily for naive little me, Roy Gayhart had other ideas. He started organizing right away, and thank goodness for that because, well, we wouldn’t be here right now in the final stretch.
As I have stated, we have about 3 weeks left to complete this. We have made progress across the entire state, but our volunteers are starting to loose momentum. And that brings us ever closer to the Moment of (Inconvenient) Truth…
But let me step back for a minute. The other thing I had been proud of in this entire event is that this had been a purely volunteer and grassroots effort. We had an ActBlue page, but we really hadn’t tried to raise money for it. (Draft Gore is people power, baby!) Well… Until last week…
See, as we came into the home stretch it became more clear to me than it ever has before that there is a Red California out there. There are actually places where Democrats don’t wear their party affiliation on their sleeves (no news to those here, I am sure). So…
As anathema as this may be, we were left with resorting to hiring signature collectors! Does it make it better that we are sending them to the Red Areas? Or that it is for a good cause? It doesn’t matter. It is the reality. An inconvenient truth of its own.
The amazing thing is that the people have stepped up! And the (fabulous) truth of the matter is that in the past few days we have raised over $30,000!
…and we had some donors that wanted to give so much we were left scratching our heads to even conceive of a legal way to accept that kind of money (OK, so I exaggerate a little)…
Now, I really don’t know how much that gets us. That probably gets us pretty close to the finish line, and if it doesn’t demoralize the volunteers, we slide across it like the needle coming out of a junkie’s vein! But it is all moot…
Hello everyone,
Today I had a communication from a member of Al Gore’s staff discouraging any efforts to put Al Gore’s name on any primary ballot. Accordingly, effective immediately, we should all cease our signature collection and related fund raising activities. I will communicate tomorrow with the California Secretary of State that they should stop tallying any Nomination Papers. Further, I have communicated this information to the coordinators of the campaigns in Massachusetts, New York and New Hampshire, as well as with representatives of draftgore.com and algore.org.
I want you all to know how much I appreciate the experience that I have had working with and getting to know all of you. I am confident that we were on the cusp of doing something that had never been done before. There is no doubt in my mind that we would have succeeded. I believe that our efforts have not been in vain. I also believe that this does not represent a “Sherman statement” by the Gore camp. We know that Al Gore knows how to say “No.” For reasons he explained in the Rolling Stone interview, he continues to leave the door open on a future decision.
For those of us who are passionate about Al Gore, we can shift our time and money to the Alliance for Climate Protection. In his recent interviews, one of Gore’s consistent messages is that he is committed to changing the consciousness regarding climate protection before he can entertain political aspirations. Those of us who are in this for the long-run can choose to work with him to remove the obstacles and shift the consciousness. Al Gore was quoted as saying in his recent Rolling Stone interview: “It is a mistake to think of the climate crisis as one in a list of issues that will define our future. It is the issue.”
He also was quoted in that interview as directing the following to those of us who have placed our hopes in him: “Well thank you for felling that way about me. Please trust me to make good decisions about where I can do the most good, and don’t automatically assume that running for president again is the right thing for me to do. If you feel that way, and I decide for sure not to be a candidate again – well, sorry. But if I do get back involved in the political system at some point in the future – well, keep that energy stored up and let’s have a go at it then.”
Thanks a million!
Roy Gayhart
What does that mean? I don’t know. It isn’t exactly a Sherman statement. But there it is. It is the Inconvenient Truth for us Draft Gorers. It takes a bit of the wind out of our sails…
Now, in the last few month, I have started to feel powerful. Like I we had a voice that we were delivering to the establishment. I don’t think that will go away. We were on the cusp of making history. We still have something to say…
The thing is, that is our ultimate Moment of (Inconvenient) Truth. We are a movement without a clear cause. For the moment… You tell me… What does it mean? How do we best use our momentum?
Feb 2008 Ballot: Indian Tribes Fight Employee Rights
(This is going to be a major battle and February is just a few months away, so this is a good rundown of what’s at stake. Full disclosure: I have done some video work for UNITE HERE. – promoted by David Dayen)
If you don’t follow the daily happenings in Sacramento, you can easily be confused about four ballot initiatives slated for the February 5th Presidential Primary Elections. In four separate propositions, voters will be asked to approve state gaming compacts with four individual tribes looking to expand their casino fortunes. If approved, worker rights will continue to be non-existent at the Las Vegas-styled resorts.
At issue is the lack of basic worker rights that were passed into the California constitution generations ago, but don’t apply at Indian gaming casinos and hotel resorts because of their official sovereignty. California penal code doesn’t apply in France, nor does it apply at Pechanga’s resort just outside of Palm Springs.
Thus, Indian tribes and the American companies managing their properties don’t have to honor anti-discrimination, sexual harassment or workers’ compensation laws. Imagine that.
This is only complicated by the fact that nearly 99 percent of employees and management of these resorts are non-Indian, California citizens.
Seems unusual, but since the tribes are raking in a reported $7 billion a year in revenue with residuals going to tribe members in the form of direct cash payments, college scholarships and the like, members don’t exactly need to work there.
But the Californian citizenry who make up almost their entire workforce are afforded no basic civil rights on the job.
Of course, their jobs wouldn’t exist if the State of California didn’t reach gaming compacts with specific tribes which allow them to operate the gambling cash cows in return for a share of the revenues.
At the end of this year’s legislative session, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez worked their magic to ensure four tribes could increase the number of slot machines at their resorts without limits, paving the way for them to directly rival Las Vegas as the gambling Mecca of the United States.
These new compacts also ended the Hotel worker’s union (UNITE HERE) who represent several Indian gaming casino and hotel resorts long-struggle to earn workers rights at these major employers. Even under Pete Wilson’s administration, gaming compacts included language that paved the way for unionization and basic civil rights on Indian land.
But Nunez, a former Los Angeles labor leader lead the effort to approve compacts without basic worker rights. Apparently, the Indians are such a powerful lobby in Sacramento these days; he was scared they might spend your gambling money against his self-serving effort to expand term limits.
We get to vote on this selfishly written ballot measure in February too. Personally, I can’t wait to vote no.
His fright is understandable, since the beginning of this year; four individual tribes have been throwing their weight around Sacramento. Totaling more than $17 million in cold cash; Democrats, Republicans, advocacy groups and others are all feeding at the Indian tribe ready-teller.
Nunez has styled himself as a progressive leader, he did help deliver global warming policies which have made him an international star worthy of the fine living reported in his campaign disclosure forms. Meanwhile, the typical low-paid worker at the Morongo resort will never live his lifestyle or have protection form workplace injuries or sexual harassment.
If you repudiate this brand of politics, “VOTE NO” on the gaming compact referendum. Protect workers in California and elsewhere.
Don’t allow Nunez to continue to claim to be a progressive leader when he leads anti-worker crusades. Stand up to the Indians money. It’ll take a lot of standing, because they’ve got a lot of money. Below you will find what just four tribes have spent between January 1st and the end of September to stop basic worker rights:
Morongo Band of Mission Indians ($5, 172,286)
Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation ($657,770)
Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians ($5,880,200)
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians ($5,447,863)
All you have to do is “VOTE NO,” four times.