I’m sure you watched at least a little coverage of Pennsylvania yesterday, and while it seems this primary is destined to extend into June, that does not mean that there is not work to be done here and now. We have a June election, and we seemed to have dodged the major bullet with only one putrid initiative on the ballot. Prop 98 is truly bad, but we could have seen a wave of bad propositions. But the Dirty Trick is dead, and we only have the one stinker.

But, November is really, really important. Already, the Humane Society’s initiative for humane treatment of food animals will be on the ballot.  The anti-marriage gangs at “ProtectMarriage” have turned in their signatures, according to Equality For All. Signature gatherers are getting big bucks for several measures, particularly the Schwarzenegger redistricting measure. Parental notification will likely be on the ballot.

Toss in what might be one of those “turning point” elections for the presidency, and you’ll see a very large turnout.  And to those concerned that supporters of the losing Democrat will stay home, I say, “Supreme Court.”  Really, those people want John McCain to replace at least Stevens and Ginsburg? I doubt it.

But more important, hopefully, this will be one of the most progressive turnouts in our history. We’ll need every last bit of it to win, to save marriage equality that we will, hopefully, have won by that point.  To save the safety of California’s teens. To end the war in Iraq, to end torture, and to restore the tarnished “America” brand.

So, yup, Nov. 4, 2008. It’s really THAT important.

Post-Pennsylvania and… well, nothing much different actually.  But next time, for sure!  Meanwhile, here are some California-centric notes:

• The California School Employees Association made their endorsements for the June primary.  In addition to Migden, they strike of an aversion to go out on a limb.  They only endorsed one Congressional candidate in a Republican-held seat (Charlie Brown), and they opted out of a lot of contested primaries in the legislative seats as well.  Manuel Perez did get the endorsement in the 80th AD, however (he is a school board member, so not a big shock).

• We don’t get into a lot of rural issues on the site, probably because of the bias toward writers here in urban environments.  But this salmon fishing ban is a big deal along the Mendocino coast.  This actually goes back to the Klamath fish kill in the beginning of the decade and Darth Cheney’s efforts to ensure that.  I think there are going to be a lot of angry fishermen wanting answers this fall.

• I keep forgetting to write about the State Senate primary in my own backyard of SD-23, between Fran Pavley  and Lloyd Levine.  Here’s some background on the race to succeed Sheila Kuehl.  I actually attended an environmental forum with these two last week and found them both to be really solid, with different strengths.  While Pavley is an astonishingly effective lawmaker – she probably has her name on more far-reaching climate change legislation than anyone in the entire country – Levine really seems to understand the nature of the fight in Sacramento and how best to bring about sweeping change.  I’m not going to be disappointed on June 3, regardless of the winner.  We’re hoping to get both Pavley and Levine on a future Calitics Radio show.

• Here’s a user-created video of our debate protest at ABC last week.  We have our own video set for release as well.

• Adam Liptak in The New York Times today: “The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.”

Yet we must remain “tough on crime,” even though rises and falls in the crime rate are not correlative to imprisoning people (Canada’s rate goes up and down roughly at the same time ours does, without a corresponding increase in the prison population).

• John Yoo won’t talk to the House Judiciary Committee but it’s really not his fault, you see:

In a letter, Yoo’s lawyer told Conyers he was “not authorized” by DOJ to discuss internal deliberations.

“We have been expressly advised by the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice that Professor Yoo is not authorized to discuss before your Committee any specific deliberative communications, including the substance of comments on opinions or policy questions, or the confidential predecisional advice, recommendations or other positions taken by individuals or entities of the Executive Branch,” Yoo’s lawyer, John C. Millian, wrote in a letter to Conyers.

As we all know, the executive branch can ignore subpoenas and prevent Congressional oversight.  Why, Yoo wrote it in a memo!  But he can’t discuss it.  Because the executive branch follows the law.  That he wrote.

Round and round we go…

Yesterday morning NPR ran this report on housing prices:

Economists say home prices are nowhere near hitting bottom. But even in regions that have taken a beating, some neighborhoods remain practically unscathed. And a pattern is emerging as to which neighborhoods those are.

The ones with short commutes are faring better than places with long drives into the city. Some analysts see a pause in what has long been inexorable – urban sprawl.

This is a predictable fact of soaring gas prices. Older city centers have more commute options, and usually shorter commutes period, meaning less gas consumption. This eliminates a key source of pressure on household incomes.

In fact, we can see a similar pattern here in California. The areas hardest hit by foreclosures are those places with the longest commutes – Stockton, Modesto, the SoCal Inland Empire. And when did the housing bubble begin to burst? Late 2006 and early 2007, as gas prices broke through the $3 barrier for good.

This view is bolstered by a new study and widget from the Center for Neighborhood Technology. It shows that once you factor in transportation costs, living in a city center is just as, if not more affordable, for a middle-class family than a suburb – at least in Seattle (a typical West Coast city with sky-high rents and home prices in the city center).

All of this reinforces the point I made last August in Redefining the California Dream, where I argued that the only way lower- and middle-income Californians will have economic security and be able to afford the cost of living is if we abandon the obsolete 20th century model of sprawl and embrace the 21st century model of elegant density.

It would help, of course, if folks like Zev Yaroslavsky would stop spending their time trying to prevent this necessary shift in living patterns. We need to bolster affordable housing policies, provide mass transit alternative, and zone for walkable communities if we are to avoid a situation where we merely exchange the inner city slum for a suburban slum.

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

Cross posted at the Courage Campaign blog

Just when we thought we had won, Blackwater snuck in the back door and set up shop in San Diego with hardly anyone noticing.  Citizen Oversight Projects started spreading the word today that Blackwater will be opening a 61,600 square foot training facility in Otay Mesa, just a block from the U.S./Mexico border.  It’s also about 4 miles from the Otay Mesa border crossing and about 6.5 miles from the San Ysidro border crossing.  This is an indoor facility and obviously much smaller than the 824-acre project Blackwater had pursued in Potrero, but no less nefarious.

This comes at a time when national legislation to block Blackwater and other mercenaries is gaining steam.  And perhaps this incident demonstrates that without a major shift at the federal level, we’ll just be chasing Blackwater around in macabre version of whack-a-mole into eternity.

Ray Lutz, one of the key figures in the defeat of Blackwater in Potrero, visited the new site and reported back with pictures, impressions and particular points of concern.  He notes 20 truck bays and its position not only near two major border crossings but also the Tijuana International Airport.  And if there’s any doubt about the facility being used to train more mercenaries (and pretty clearly in the art of desert AND border tactics), note the word from Kelly Broughton, director of the city of San Diego’s development services department:

Broughton said the building was already permitted for use as a vocational trade school, and Blackwater’s training activities would fall within that category.

Vocational trade school. That’s what we’re calling it. If ITT Tech and a career in medical transcription isn’t for you, check out Blackwater West. However, I don’t think I’d have the same concerns about a bunch of crazy dental-assistants-in-training being planted within four miles of five schools (including three elementary schools) as I do about mercenaries.

The new facility is within the City of San Diego proper, which means that city regulations- not just county regulations- are potentially at play.  And that, of course, brings into the mix a number of political figures who might actually be moved on this issue.  The site of the facility is in the 8th District represented by Councilmember Ben Hueso. The City Council President is Scott Peters who is termed out and in the middle of a contentious race for City Attorney.  Councilmember Brian Maienschein is also termed out and running for City Attorney.  Mayor Jerry Sanders has a heckuva battle brewing for re-election against Steve Francis [name corrected], a Republican dressing himself in progressive clothing to run from both directions.  And that’s before we (potentially) get Donna Frye agitated.

At this point though, the permit has already been applied for and granted (more than a month ago).  Which means that opportunities for local recourse is likely limited unless and until something can be placed on the ballot.  That is, what worked last time (wildly successful recall) is unlikely to be at play this time.  What’s particularly interesting about this process though is that Blackwater submitted its application for this Otay Mesa facility in February but didn’t pull out of Potrero until March 9.  So, at least in principle, it was after both spots at the same time.  Or, more likely, it knew that the ship had sailed on Potrero weeks before actually pulling out, and dragged the process along in order to distract from its move on Otay Mesa.

The history of Blackwater and government-funded mercenaries doesn’t need a full rehash here, we know the score.  What we’re getting here are better trained, federally funded Minutemen living in the shadow of the border fence and a couple minutes from the busiest land border crossing in the world. They’re here to operate with impunity outside of the government doing the things this administration wishes it could be doing itself.  And it won’t stop unless and until we get the sort of systemic changes that can only come from the federal level.  This battle of local citizens vs. the mercenaries funded by our own tax dollars isn’t sustainable. Local action won in Potrero but here we are again.  We’ll mount up and take the fight to them again, but real change won’t happen until this country dumps Blackwater and those like it once and for all.