Daily Archives: December 10, 2007

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Weekly Democratic Address

Delivered by Assembly member Loni Hancock:

   Hello, this is Assemblymember Loni Hancock, chair of the Assembly Natural Resources

Committee.

    Last month, a cargo ship in the San Francisco Bay hit the Bay Bridge; 58,000 gallons of

crude oil were spilled into the San Francisco Bay.

    Fragile wetlands and coastlands were despoiled; more than 2,700 birds were injured or

killed; and important sectors of the Bay Area economy were crippled for weeks.

    While there are still many unanswered questions, we do know that the initial response to

the spill was delayed, creating a domino effect on several levels.

    The people of California deserve to know why this happened, and how we can prevent it

from ever happening again.

    Just a few weeks ago, I convened a special hearing of the Assembly Natural Resources

Committee in the East Bay.

    We invited all the involved state and federal agencies, Bay Area coastal preservation

groups, and the private companies involved with the spill and the subsequent clean-up.

    After listening to hours of testimony, I am convinced that much more could have been

and should have been done.

    To prevent future catastrophes, I will introduce legislation that will enable effective and

immediate local responses to spills in shoreline communities.

    The legislation will create local teams of disaster-trained volunteers, available

immediately when a spill is reported.

    My bill will require the Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response to supply certified

local responders with enough equipment to allow them to adequately clean-up any oil

spills.

    Another bill we will introduce will create more rigorous standards for ships with large

fuel loads in California ports, and increase the funding available for oil spill clean-up and

prevention.

    The Natural Resources Committee will also consider other important bills that will

increase the oversight standards of spill response companies, which are private companies,

and increase tugboat escort for ships with large petroleum cargoes to decrease the chance

of accidents.

    We will also establish a long-term monitoring program in the San Francisco Bay to

measure the environmental health impacts of the spill, and we will look into curbing the use

of bunker fuel to reduce air and water pollution.

    Finally, I and my colleagues are asking the Governor to establish an independent Blue

Ribbon Commission to review the oil spill and recommend additional action.

    We plan on working closely with California’s Congressional delegation and make sure

that all levels of government are working in a coordinated way.

    In many ways, we were lucky this time.

    The 58,000 gallons that spilled into our Bay is minor in comparison to the 10.8 million

gallons that spilled during the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 or the nearly 1 million gallons

that recently spilled in the Black Sea.

    By acting now, Assembly Democrats are committed to preventing such a calamity on

California’s shores.

    Thanks for listening. This is Assemblymember Loni Hancock, chair of the Assembly

Natural Resources Committee.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Beyond the Pale”: Paying for expenses without disclosure

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 Arnold?

There’s been a lot of noise about campaign expenditures, travel expenses, etc being too costly.  Well, one way to avoid that: Don’t disclose.  And that’s just what Arnold is doing.  It’s hard to imagine anything much worse for democracy than what was profiled in the LA Times today:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office has avoided fully disclosing payments of $1.7 million in nonprofit funds for private jets, hotel suites and support staff for his trips overseas, according to state documents and interviews. Record-keeping for many of the governor’s luxury-class jaunts has been by word of mouth. Asked how the staff tracks the costs, subject to public disclosure laws, Schwarzenegger attorney Daniel Maguire said: “Orally.”

In late 2004, the multimillionaire governor stopped reporting the travel expenses on state disclosure forms that itemize gifts to elected officials. Instead, Schwarzenegger’s top aides recorded some of the costs — and made only general references to others — in memos they wrote to themselves and filed away in the governor’s legal affairs office. (LAT 12.10.07)

Uh, so let’s see here, how many things are wrong in this picture. Well, let’s start off with the obvious thing: They keep the costs orally? Are you freaking kidding me here? By word of mouth. Oh, there’s some real sunshine. Do I have to personally speak to Susan Kennedy to know what hotels he’s staying at and how much they cost? What expensive restaurants is he going to? All of this is hidden away in some black box somewhere deep within the bowels of the “horseshoe” in Sacramento?

What’s next? Oh, right, the non-profit, California Protocol Foundation, that funds most of his lavish expenses doesn’t disclose its donors, doesn’t really itemize its expenses, and as a kicker, is a 501c(3). Yup, that means all the donations to keep Arnold in his swanky Hollywood action hero lifestyle of the rich and famous are TAX-DEDUCTIBLE.  So, if you’re a Chamber of Commerce regular (which is tied to the CPF) and you want to reduce your taxes, you can choose to give your money to some Opera or something. Or you could get a little return and contribute to the purchase of a big-time politician.  Which do you choose?

Oh, and if you want to talk about expensive hotel suites, don’t forget about the $65,000/year suite where the Governator resides while in Sacramento.  Oh, yup, that’s paid for by the CPF as well (PDF).  But perhaps Trent Stamp, president of Charity Navigator , says it best when he describes Arnold’s use of charity dollars as “beyond the pale.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Another Failure of Privatization

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( – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

At some point if we keep hearing of the so-called glory of privatization, they are going to have to show some results.  Well, how about these results from Lawrence Livermore Labs:

With a new corporate manager at the helm, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has entered a period of uncertainty unlike any other in its 55-year history with the University of California, putting employees on edge and threatening to erode the labs technical prowess.

The federal government predicted that adding private industry to the management mix would result in more science for the same money. Instead, higher costs led to 500 layoffs shortly after the new managements transition in October, confirming the worst suspicions of some and further roiling the labs once-comfortable culture.

That optimistic assessment stands in stark contrast to the reality on the ground at Livermore lab today. Eight weeks after the new company took the reins, the change from a public entity to a private company has resulted in $130 million in increased costs. And potential federal budget cuts to the tune of $150 million could necessitate as many as 300 more job cuts as soon as January.(TriValley Herald 12.9.07)

It seems the constant threat of layoffs and benefit cuts isn’t really the kind of culture that sought-after scientists enjoy. I can’t imagine why?

The federal government under the Bush administration, and to a lesser extent the Governator, have been doing just about everything possible to convince us that private industry will cure all that ails us. Yet where are the results of all of this grandiose talk?

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Deceptive headline tops AP feed

The headline on the feed read “Blogger threatens LA campus shooting”.

The title on the story read

Student Threatens LA Campus Shooting

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ

Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police arrested a 21-year-old Loyola Marymount University student in connection with an online threat to shoot people on campus, officials said Saturday.

Police arrested Carlos Huerta, a senior at Loyola, for investigation of making criminal threats. Huerta was taken into custody on Saturday night near his apartment on campus.

Huerta is suspected of posting a message that he would shoot and kill as many people as possible on campus before being killed himself by police, authorities said. The threat appeared on Juicycampus.com, a chat board that describes itself as having the “simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses.”

THe bottom of the story had this correction

“This version CORRECTS description of Web site as chat board instead of blog.)

I haven’t been blogging long and I used to think most of us lefties were paranoid but this is ridiculous. How by any stretch of the imagination is the subject of the story  a “BLOGGER”?

We must really be disturbing the MSM.Insistance on issues rather than solely covering the horserace is beginning to take it’s toll.That’s obvious when the stretch is as broad as in this instance. Bloggers are the enemy!Keep up the pressure, the more time they spend falsely flogging us, the less time they have to spin and spread GOP talking points.