Your links, sir and madam.  I hope you enjoy them, if you need anything else, just holler:

• Appellate lawyer Tracy Emblem will challenge Brian Bilbray in CA-50.  My feeling is that CA-50 is a tease of a district where Democratic candidates always peter out at 45-46%, but Obama did beat McCain there, so theoretically a better candidate could yield results.  Emblem is focusing on, and this will floor you, health care, infrastructure and clean energy!  She also is calling for bankruptcy courts to be able to cram down loan modifications on the lenders.  Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you more from Tracy Emblem in the coming months.  The article announcing her candidacy is here and her website is here.

• Yacht Party members often bleat about all the surplus property owned by the state that could be the magic bullet to get us out of the budget mess.  I don’t know if they’ve checked the recent property prices or not, but a new report by the California State Auditor shows that substantial barriers exist to selling this land.  John Myers has more.

• Have I mentioned lately that Darrell Issa is a dick?  His latest move is to “regulate the first lady,” which has nothing to do with the public interest and everything to do with embarrassing the President.

• Maria Shriver was on Capitol Hill yesterday, pushing for increases in Alzheimer’s research.  The hearing was the result of a bipartisan study into the disease and the exorbitant cost of treating it currently.

• That Fran Pavley is back on greenhouse gas patrol working to reduce emissions should be a breath of fresh air, literally, for every Californian.  She’s currently digging into how the state will use the money likely to be gained by auctioning carbon credits under AB 32.