Conservative leader and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich writes about the California court ruling that children – even home-schooled children – must be educated by credentialed teachers, saying it is an example of “Judicial Supremacy.”  In his article he quotes a Wall Street Journal editorial calling the ruling a “strange new chapter” in the “annals of judicial imperialism.”  Later in the piece he writes,

The decision represents yet another case of a special interest — in this case, the education unions and bureaucracy — using the courts to get what they can’t get through the popular vote.

This is yet another example of judicial supremacy: Rule by an out-of-control judiciary rather than the will of the people. It joins court rulings such as the removal of “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance on a long list of usurpations of the freedom and self-determination of the American people.

Lets take a moment to examine what Gingrich is really complaining about here.

Here’s how the American system of law and justice is supposed to work:  We have a Constitution and we have laws that we are all supposed to follow by mutual agreement.  And we have in place a judicial system for interpreting our Constitution and laws, again by mutual agreement.  So when there is a dispute we take that dispute to the courts, and the judges rule according to the Constitution and laws.  And then we agree to follow their rulings.

Newt Gingrich and the conservatives complain that this is “Judicial Supremacy” and “judicial imperialism.”  Wow, this sounds pretty bad!   But look at the meaning of these negative-sounding words.  Isn’t “Judicial Supremacy” really just another way of saying that we agree to follow “rule of law?”   When Gingrich uses language that casts a negative frame on the concept, isn’t he undermining public respect for the rule of law?   Gingrich and other conservatives are happy enough with our American system when it works in their favor but when it rules against their agenda they launch another anti-government screed.

This post is not written in opposition to home or private schooling, but to point out the importance to all of us that we all operate under the same set of agreed-upon rules.   At least in California, another agreed-upon rule is that our children should receive the best possible education.  Article 9 of our California Constitution states that a good education is “essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people.”  The wording at the beginning of Article 9 is as follows:

A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement.

To this end Article 9 describes how California will manage a system of free, public schools.  And Article 9 makes it clear that to this end our children deserve qualified, “credentialed” teachers.

Once again, We, the People of California have decided that a good education is “essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people.”  This is what we want.  Just what is it that Gingrich and other conservatives want instead if it doesn’t involve qualified teachers providing education to our state’s children?

Click to continue.

Plug In America, an electric car advocacy group, has been organizing a campaign around this week’s California Air Resources Board (CARB) meeting, where the board will vote on a proposal to reduce the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) yearly requirement for automakers to just 150 through at least 2015. Currently the requirement is 25,000 ZEVs for the years 2012-2014.

Chelsea Sexton, executive director of Plug In America, has been posting an open letter to Arnold Schwarzenegger around the blogosphere, including at Open Left. It reads in part:

Gov. Schwarzenegger, you showed true leadership when you signed the nation’s first global warming law. You showed true leadership with your vow to “turn back the clock on pollution” through your Million Solar Roofs Plan, an initiative that is the equivalent of taking one million gasoline cars off the road.

Now, how about putting one million electric cars on the road?

Please continue to lead our state by asking the California Air Resources Board to strengthen their staff proposal and get more electric cars on the road.

As you prepare to take delivery of your electric Tesla, we ask you to support a stronger Zero Emission Vehicle Program that will help us all turn back the clock on pollution.

I especially like the reference to Arnold’s order of a Tesla Roadster – their 2008 model is completely sold out and a waiting list is already in place for the 2009 models. This despite the car’s base price of $98,000. Given the success of cars like the Toyota Prius it stands to reason that there is a broad market for ZEV cars in California, even among those who can’t afford a hundred thousand dollar car. If it’s good enough for Arnold, surely it’s good enough for Californians.

CARB has long taken the lead in forcing automakers to improve mileage and emissions standards. Now, as the state works to implement its AB 32 goals, CARB needs to take a strong stand and drag these reluctant automakers into the 21st century. For their own good.

Plug In America is holding a rally in front of the CARB offices, tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 10:30, ahead of Thursday’s CARB meeting. And on their website they’ve got contact info for both the governor and CARB.

Let’s hope that their activism is a success. It is long past time for this state to get serious about ZEV transportation.

Wake Up Walmart has released its first video of 2008.  Walmart is a key issue for progressives to focus on- because of their awful health care benefits, California citizens are estimated to be paying $39,141,590 a year in taxes to cover poor Walmart employees and their families with health care- while Walmart is making huge profits.

Please check out this video, and let your friends know why we need to “Wake Up Walmart”.

Crossposted from my new HSR blog

Those are the polling numbers CHSRA Board Chair Quentin Kopp cited in a Sacramento Bee article over the weekend:

Kopp said the bond measure enjoys public support for the landmark project. As the bond reads now, 58 percent of Californians favor the bond and 32 percent oppose it, he said.

Now, we don’t know any details of this poll other than what Kopp gave Judy Lin, the author of the Bee article. And those details matter. How many people were polled? What was the exact wording of the question asked of respondents? How many people said they were familiar with the high speed rail project? (If that number was above 40% I would be shocked.) All of that information is crucial to understanding this poll, and how seriously we ought to take it.

But for now, 58-32 is all we have to go on. And it is very encouraging. The rule of thumb for California ballot propositions is that the Yes position must be above 50% in the polls early on if it is to have a chance at passage. This is because most ballot props lose support as the election draws nearer. Negative campaigning is very effective, and as attacks on the proposition increase nearer the election, support ebbs. If you’re well above 50% before those attacks begin, though, the chances are typically good that the proposition will pass.

According to some critics, this is not a good year to take HSR to the polls. The usual argument is that given the state’s budget crisis, voters will not likely be willing to float $10 billion in bonds. I realize this is a valid concern, but I am confident we can pass this plan. Especially in November, when we are likely to see a very high turnout of progressive voters – the very folks who are most likely to get why HSR is such a good idea.

But to help ensure passage, the following points need to be driven home to California voters over the next 8 months:

• HSR is necessary to our economic survival, in both the short term and definitely in the long-term. Californians need to see this as a necessary project that, if they voted to kill it, would cost them more than they’d save.
• HSR is affordable – it won’t break our state’s debt ceiling, the system will likely generate a surplus as do all other HSR systems in the world, it’s cheaper than expanding airports and freeways, and it will spur a lot of economic growth.
• HSR is necessary for our transportation needs – this really depends on more people learning about peak oil, but perhaps $4 gas and fuel surcharges on flights will help get us part of the way there. Californians have to see that they cannot expect to drive and fly around the state for much longer. If they want to see mom and dad in Orange County at Christmas in 2020, they’re going to need a high speed train.
• HSR is necessary for our climate needs – it would eliminate 12.4 billion pounds per year of carbon emissions, equivalent to removing a million vehicles from the roads. If Californians really do take global warming seriously, they will see HSR as a compelling solution to the climate crisis.

Note the common theme: HSR is necessary. It isn’t, as the Contra Costa Times’ Capricious Commuter said, “an esoteric infrastructure project.” It is vital to this state’s future. If we are to win the vote this fall, we are going to have to make sure Californians understand that fact.

Note: Background information about this diary can be found at the new website www.seiufactchecker.org. Mary Kay Henry is International Executive Vice President for SEIU

I would like to thank Calitics for hosting this debate about the future of workers in this country.  

I have worked along side Sal Rosselli, the president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (UHW-W) for 25 years, starting when both of us worked on staff for SEIU Local 250 (which is now called UHW-W).  I was the organizing director and he worked in the East Bay as a union representative.

I also worked closely with him when I was in charge of SEIU’s hospital organizing campaign in Southern California from 1999 to 2004 that ultimately resulted in 26,000 workers becoming members of UHW and gaining major improvements in pay and benefits.

So I am surprised by his recent actions. He has been attacking the democratic decisions made jointly by the huge majority of SEIU local unions across the country. In fact, he recently resigned from the SEIU Executive Committee, saying he could no longer abide by decisions made by “simple majorities” of elected SEIU leaders.  

Sabotage in Ohio

For the past three years, SEIU has been working with hospital workers in Ohio to help them organize to win improvements for themselves and the patients they serve.

Like most workers in this country, they didn’t stand much of a chance as long as management was using its power to intimidate them and discourage support for a union. For three years, they waged a campaign with support from the community to persuade their employer to accept a fair vote where workers could freely choose without management interference.

But this month, just as the workers were about to vote to unite with SEIU, Rosselli went to San Diego and met with Rose Ann DeMoro, president of the California Nurses Association (CNA) at the executive council meeting of the AFL-CIO.

Two days later, CNA organizers showed up at the Ohio hospitals with flyers telling workers how bad SEIU is, parroting many of the arguments being put forth by Rosselli.

CNA’s materials referred workers to a website co-sponsored by leaders of UHW that has anti-SEIU propaganda.

It’s hard to imagine a more unconscionable act of sabotage against workers who were courageously standing up for their patients and themselves. Because of the confusion caused by a union putting out anti-union propaganda, the vote had to be called off and more than 8,000 Ohio healthcare workers were denied a chance to improve their lives.

Some California Organizing History

The idea that Rosselli could be connected in any way to the situation in Ohio is puzzling given the history of his local union. That history provides several lessons that Rosselli seems to have forgotten.

1. The road to winning better pay and benefits for workers and better communities depends on uniting many more workers with us.

2. With so many employers now regional, national, or global, it takes the combined strength of workers and their local unions from across the country to get management to respect workers’ rights.

3. With labor law so heavily stacked against workers, the first step in winning the right to form a union usually is to wage a community campaign to get management to agree not to intimidate workers in the process.

In the early 1990s, the only national chain where Southern California hospital workers had a union was Kaiser. Those members had good pay and benefits and thought they could never lose them. But Kaiser looked around, saw it was the only union company in the South, and started pushing wage cuts.

It was then that SEIU local unions and the national union made an historic decision to pool our resources and unite our strength to help workers organize the other big hospital chains in California – because we realized that uniting tens of thousands of other workers to win better lives was the only way to protect the pay and benefits of our existing members.

In this profound strategic shift, SEIU local unions from Ohio Florida, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Maryland, Washington, and Pennsylvania made the decision to send tens of millions of dollars, and top staff and members came from all over the country to help Local 250 (Rosselli’s local union at the time) and Local 399 in southern California to unite nonunion workers at major hospital chains in the state – Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), Tenet, and HCA.

The national union – which pooled the resources of our local unions — could bring resources to bear that no one local union could. At one point the national union had 150 organizers on the ground in Los Angeles.

Through our united action, we won agreements that limited the interference by these big chains in their employees’ right to organize a union. As a result, 26,000 hospital workers gained a union and became members of what is now UHW-W, added to California members’ strength, and helped all SEIU hospital workers to achieve and maintain better standards for pay, benefits, and working conditions.

These organizing wins led directly to dramatic changes in workers lives. In the first contract with CHW hospitals, healthcare workers won raises of 14-28% and full, employer-paid family healthcare. Better yet, the new union benefits became the industry standard: Within months after the CHW contract was ratified, the other large hospital chains began providing family healthcare as well, improving the lives of an additional tens of thousands of families.

By 2004, more than 50% of Southern California hospitals were union. Rosselli was strongly supportive of those efforts and provided resources because he knew that a stronger union presence in southern California would help his members at Local 250 in northern California improve and maintain their pay and benefits.

Rosselli’s local also benefited from another key strategy decision made jointly by SEIU local unions at our national convention in 2000. We all decided that workers could win more for their families and communities if members in the same industry and geographical area were united in the same local instead of being divided into multiple organizations.

Under that strategy, the hospital worker members of Local 399 in southern California voted to merge with their counterparts in Local 250 in the North to form UHW-W.

Between that merger and the California organizing led by the national union and supported by local unions from across the U.S., Rosselli’s local nearly tripled in size between 2000 and 2006– growing from about 50,000 to 140,000 members.

When the newly merged local was formed, it was SEIU President Andy Stern’s responsibility to appoint the local leader until elections were held. Stern appointed Rosselli in 2005 to be the leader of UHW-W, believing that his understanding of how California hospital workers had made gains would lead him to use his local’s strength to unite more workers in nonunion states where his local’s national employers operated.

Withdrawing from Democratic Decisionmaking

But over the last few years, I’ve watched Rosselli slowly withdraw from the democratic decisionmaking process of our union.

He has chosen not to attend a series of meetings of national healthcare leadership bodies when debates were taking place and recommendations were being made by local leaders about how to allocate union resources and unite workers’ strength. He chose to sit out key sessions at the January 2008 International Executive Board meeting, depriving his members of a voice in decisions that directly affect them. And most recently, Rosselli resigned from the SEIU Executive Committee – the committee of elected SEIU leaders that makes national decisions about union strategy. In resigning this post, a move that deprives 140,000 UHW members of representation at the highest levels of SEIU, Rosselli said he could no longer accept decisions made by “simple majorities” of the union’s elected leaders.

Rosselli’s actions reflect a decision on his part to put his own priorities above the lives of his own members and the lives of healthcare workers everywhere.

What Is at Risk

Rosselli through his efforts, is risking the pay and benefits of his own members: The massive resources and time he is putting into his divisive attacks is distracting his local union from focusing on the upcoming contract negotiations of more than 70,000 members – about half his membership.

His efforts risk the ability of nurses and hospital workers in the 33 states where there is no union to unite without interference from their employers. By criticizing the same employer neutrality agreements he once fought for alongside his members, he is giving employers ammunition to use against workers who dream of having what UHW members have.

Through his unwillingness to participate in the democratic process within SEIU, he is forgetting how his local union itself was built and is relegating nonunion workers in California and across the country to permanent second-tier status.

Last year UHW-W helped only 888 California healthcare workers organize, but the number of people working in the healthcare industry overall grew by a much greater number. As a result, healthcare workers in California have less strength this year than last.

As the industry grows and the number of workers who have a union does not, workers’ strength diminishes. The labor movement already has too many union leaders who have adopted the business model of unionism – focusing exclusively on their own members – only to see their failure to grow turn back on them and ultimately decimate the pay and benefits of those members in a constantly changing, globalizing economy.

I urge readers to go to the new SEIU website, SEIUFactChecker.org to learn the truth about SEIU’s record of uniting workers to raise their standards of living and our exciting plans for the coming years to build workers’ power and achieve the goals we all share in the progressive movement.

There is a legitimate, healthy debate to be had in the labor movement about our strategies and our shortcomings, but the lives of workers should always come first. I am afraid Sal Rosselli has lost sight of that.

Weaverville, CA, March 21, 2008 —

www.jeffmorrisforcongress.com

Trinity County Supervisor Jeff Morris announced today that his campaign to be the Democratic nominee in this fall's race for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's Second Congressional District has begun earning endorsements from northern California’s elected officials. Just four weeks after announcing his run, Morris has received endorsements from Democratic, Republican, and Independent officials at both the county and regional level, including California State Assemblymember Patty Berg.

Other endorsements from elected officials to date include:

– San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon (current president, California State Association of Counties)
– Butte County Supervisor Maureen Kirk
– Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan
– Trinity County Supervisor Roger Jaegel
– Trinity County Supervisor Wendy Reiss
– Trinity County Supervisor Judy Pflueger
– Trinity County Supervisor Howard Freeman
– Chico City Council Member Tom NickelTrinity County Supervisor
-Former Shasta County Supervisor and
CD2 1988 Democratic Nominee Steve Swindeman 

“I am honored to have the support of Assemblymember Patty Berg and of my elected colleagues in the second district,” said Morris. “Many of these officials have been instrumental in helping us achieve positive changes for Trinity County, and I look forward to working with them in the future, both here and in Washington, to address the challenges faced by all of the counties in the 2nd Congressional District.”

Jeff Morris is a Weaverville businessman and entrepreneur who has served Trinity County's Board of Supervisors for the past three years. A 6th-generation descendant of Northern California pioneers with a strong family history of public service, Morris has been a driving force behind Trinity's financial turnaround, helping put the county's only hospital on a new financial footing, spearheading an effort to revise outdated land-use and zoning rules, putting Trinity on a fast track for expansion of rural broadband Internet, and promoting establishment of the Weaverville Community Forest, a sustainable-forestry initiative managed with input from local, timber, and environmental constituencies.

In 2007, Jeff was appointed chairman of the California State Association of Counties' Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and co-chair of its Working Group on Climate Change, which produced a policy framework to guide counties in addressing greenhouse gas emissions while also discouraging a top-down, “one-size-fits-all” regulatory approach. Morris has also been unanimously elected by California’s rural county supervisors for 2 consecutive years to represent rural counties on CSAC’s executive committee. Jeff makes his home in Weaverville with his wife, Judy. More information about Morris and his campaign for California's 2nd Congressional District seat can be found on his campaign website. www.jeffmorrisforcongress.com

I have to run but there isn’t a lot that needs to be added here.  I want you to start by taking these two quotes from today from the Governor

“Now even though I was criticized by Sen. Perata, who said, ‘Boy, he should not mind our business. We know exactly what we are doing.’ Well, obviously they don’t know exactly what they are doing because otherwise we wouldn’t have a $14 billion deficit. If everyone knows exactly what they are doing, we wouldn’t have the budget mess in 2003 which created the recall election.”

and

“Sometimes you see schools protesting out there or sending me letters,” Schwarzenegger said. “I’m with them. I wish I could stand there protesting, too. Because we have to protest the budget system. Not this year’s budget. The budget system is the failure. That is what has to be corrected as quickly as possible.”

Now, try to pick just one direction to run with in those brief words.  Will you talk about the Governor throwing stones from his glass budgetary house?  Will you talk about how this is the perfect summation to your thesis on how the Governor talks like a moderate reformer but acts like a through-and-through (occasionally insane) fiscal conservative?  Will you talk about how productive it usually is when resolving disputes to point fingers and call people names?  Will you talk about the absurd, both-sides-of-the-mouth, ‘I support education above everything except that it’s the first to go’ rhetoric?

Those are just a few conversation starters for you.  Reflect on them, offer your own, whatever.

(Welcome Marta Jorgenson to Calitics. – promoted by David Dayen)

Hi, my name is Marta Jorgensen and I’m running…

Today, I am championing my candidacy for Congress to all of you here at Calitics, because it is time the citizens of California’s 24th Congressional District had someone to fight for them, not for lobbyists and special interests.  My opponent, Elton Gallegly – R, has a long history of ignoring the views and concerns of the people in our district, and I’ve decided that enough is enough.  

 

The theme of our campaign is, “It is the money, stupid.” Lobbyists for powerful corporations come to Congress to block progress of better legislation for the critical issues of our time.  It’s their money.

If elected, one thing I’d like to do is reinstitution the Golden Fleece Award that the former senator from Wisconsin, William Proxmire initiated. Remember that?

We must stop paying Global Warming lip service. I am making it the number #1 Issue.

Our campaign is planning town hall meetings to discuss issues that never get covered in the MSM. We are also hoping to have the Climate Project give a presentation.

As a nurse I’ll work for a Universal Single Payer Health System. We need health insurance for everyone, a program with quality and cost controls and an emphasis on prevention. Full Medicare for everyone will save thousands of lives a year while maintaining patient choice of doctors and hospitals within a competitive private health care delivery system.

I’ll advocate for Agricultural Reforms, regarding food safety, genetic engineering, and excessive food transportation, as in long distance hauls versus local production; work to promote Healthy School Lunches,  “No nation is healthier than its children”… Harry Truman.  Good nutrition plays a critical role in healthy child development. Many kids are deprived of good nutrition at home due to poor economic conditions. As a nurse working with inner city handicapped and chronically ill kids in Los Angeles, I have seen this first hand. Unitary Executive and Signing Statements – This is a dangerous trend that could be carried on by the next President. We need to elect someone we can trust who will put this Pandora back in the box. Electoral Reform – same day registration; a voter verified paper record for electronic voting; run-off voting to insure winners receive a majority vote; binding “none-of-the-above” on the ballot. Voter Participation – It is the duty of every elected official and those running for office to rekindle the love of the democratic process and engage all people to participate in it. And that’s not easy these days.  Internet Neutrality -We must work to protect our freedom of the Netroots Nation. I don’t care who invented it just happy it’s here.

Here’s what I think…the Republicans for many years have slapped Democrats in the face with the phrase, “Tax and spend.”

We can now return the favor. It is our turn to chastise, to reprobate, the Republicans. The history of this country that the Republicans have handed us, the laws they have created in the name of fighting terrorism, and the war that we have had to endure brought to us under false pretenses, has earned them a new phrase. Listen up. Your history has earned you a new mantra. Here it is. “War and waste.” This also gets back to the Money Stupid theme.

To the demand for more money for war, we answer, “War and waste.”

To the demand for more laws that monitor our lives with government intrusion and the cost of money for more bureaucracies, and at the cost of individual freedom, we answer, “War and waste.”

To the president who demands an imperial presence that negates Congress and violates human dignity, we answer, “War and waste.”

To the demand for more lives of our sons and daughter to fight a war that people, even veterans, want to end, we answer, “War and waste.”

“War and waste” has been the behavior of the Republican Party. We now throw this phrase in their face. To those who think we are too strong in our declaration, I say, “Offend the offensive.”

Let us not think that we can meet aggression in our lives or against our land with a prayer and a cupcake. But how strong can we be if the treasury is empty?

How can we negotiate from strength if the funding for this war comes from banks and countries across the sea?  How can we guarantee unbiased negotiations for the best interests of our workers and our economy if we sit across the table from the representatives of a country to whom we owe a great financial debt?

Our campaign at present is grassroots. Until the big Endorsement manifests, we need help financially in small donations, like at our ActBlue Account. Want to help in other ways, just go to our website and sign up. The Big Blue Thermometer must hit the $15,000 mark real soon!

Imagine… one more of your own in the House of Representatives, crashing the gate.

Jorgensen For Congress,

Bringing Representation To The People, Not The Powerful…

www.jorgensenforcongress.com

http://www.actblue.com/page/jo…