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April 27 Open Thread

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Links from around the state:

• You can say a lot of things about Lynn Woolsey (D-Sonoma), but any description almost certainly includes the words “progressive” and “fighter.”  She proves she still embodies those words today, as she was arrested outside of the Sudanese embassy after refusing to move while protesting the situation in Darfur. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Jim McGovern (D-MA), and Keith Ellison (D-MN) were also arrested with her during the protest sponsored by the Save Darfur Coalition, the Enough Project and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Woolsey has a long record of fighting for progressive causes, and has fought for civil rights in and out of the US during her long career.

• We have not discussed the biggest political news of the weekend, the adoption by the California Air Resources Board of a low-carbon fuel standard.  This news reminds me of California’s adoption of the catalytic converter, which led to the rest of the nation following suit.  The same could happen here; but the key question is how the fuel producers will respond.  Adding ethanol to the mix would be the wrong road to go down, for example.

• Anthony Woods is getting some good press for his run at CA-10.

• Everybody panic! There have been seven reported cases of swine flu in California! Ok, maybe panicking isn’t the best approach, as all seven have fully recovered while only suffering mild flu symptoms. Swine flu is the new SARS.

• Well, Asm. Alberto Torrico’s anti-lobbying bill would surely piss off Jess Unruh. In a clear contradiction to his quote of “if you can’t take their money, drink their whiskey, [sleep with] their women and still look the bastards in the eye and vote against them, you don’t belong [in the legislature].”

• The Loma Prieta & SF Bay Chapters of the Sierra Club are trying to make fees for building permits for solar installations cheaper. Apparently there is a massive price difference across just three counties. For one system, it would cost over $11,000 in Cupertino, but less than $500 in Morgan Hill.

• Before the convention, a number of noble bills passed the State Senate, including protecting tenants when their landlords lose their buildings to foreclosure, and a bill first brought up by Fabian Nunez last year, that would be an Employee Free Choice Act for farmworkers.

• Yet more problems for the California budget – rich victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, who want refunds for state income tax on money they never received, and they have a pretty good point.  States – or more likely, the federal government – will probably lose billions on this deal.

• Joe Matthews thinks Assembly Leaders Bass and Villines might not survive a defeat of the special election.

7 thoughts on “April 27 Open Thread”

  2. Food issues aside, there are a lot of studies that show that corn based ethanol can use more energy per gallon than it actually produces.

    One of the biggest energy hogs in producing any kind of ethanol is tranportation.   Transporting the corn or whatever you are going to distill to the distilling plant, then transporting the ethanol to where you are going to pump it.

    So you don’t want big centralized ethanol plants, but smaller, distributed stills.   It would be great to have a still for organic waste at every county dump.  

    And then a tank and a gas pump to hold the resulting ethanol and dispense it.  

  3. The reason I say that is a lot of politicians do the phony arrest thing where they have a preexisting deal set up for the arrest to be expunged from their record, so it really means nothing except to create some phony publicity by looking like she was making a sacrifice.

    If she was willing to take the real hit in protest of what is going on over there (as many elected officials have done in the past for various causes including stopping wars, civil rights in the South and Womens reproductive rights) with the arrest carried on her record, then what she did should be commended by all true progressives.  But I do hope this wasn’t simply a stunt which cheapens the sacrifice others make when they really do engage in civil disobediance.

  4. I don’t know who Matthews is, much less be able to judge his credibility.  But one of his commentors thinks he may be better than cellulosic ethanol:

    Hogwash

    Joe, you need a pay a visit to Sacramento once in awhile so you understand what you are writing about. Bass and Villines will stay put for several reasons. In Villines case, Chuck DeVore already made a run from the right. It flopped. Villines is a smart leader who knows how to keep his caucus together and deal with the Governor. There isn’t a strong challenger among the small group of GOP’rs who could possibly oust him. Bass is even stronger. She’s ruled by consensus and they have all been in this together. They are not about to send a newbie back to the bargaining table. You also forget that Bass led the effort that padded the Democratic margin in the Assembly, and she has plenty of IOU’s to collect. In both cases, do you think a challenger actually would want to deal with the aftermath of what happens here? Inheriting the mess would be a disaster; they’d be much smarter to wait it out until both Bass and Villines step down from their leadership posts on schedule.

     

    I don’t have a lot of evidence to judge, but if I had to guess, I’m going with the Anonymous guy.

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