Uncategorized

May 28 Open Thread

4 Comments

Links from around the state:

• While in LA for his $30K/plate dinner, President Obama took some time to be rather insensitive on the day after the Prop 8 ruling.  (From the comments, see this dKos diary that has a video of the incident, telling a different tale than Sullivan.) Meanwhile, the LA Gay & Lesbian Center wrote a powerful rebuke to the President for failing to live up to his rhetoric on LGBT issues.  This is going to fester unless the Administration does something about it.

• HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius did release $14 million dollars as part of the stimulus package to expand capacity for all 118 community health centers in California.  It’s a drop in the bucket, but still appreciated.

• Apparently Warehouse Workers United shut down an entire warehouse district in the Inland Empire today, protesting pitiful working conditions at warehouses that serve some of the largest corporations in America.

• Rush Limbaugh goes after Arnold for “ruining California” by going moderate.  Popcorn time!

• Barbara Boxer and Al Franken have teamed up their fundraising in what I consider a brilliant move.  Boxer helps out the man who will become the 60th Democrat in the Senate, while showing her commitment to the Democratic agenda and winning national praise.  Makes a ton of sense, great idea.

• The actual ad hitting vulnerable House Democrats for their ties to Nancy Pelosi and the CIA controversy is useless and not revelatory.  But interestingly enough, one seat is missing from the GOP’s targets – CA-11.  They seem to have given up on winning back Jerry McNerney’s district anytime soon.  That’s the only news here.

• More stupid cuts: CalWORKS. We lose $3.7 bln in federal dollars to save $1.8 Bln in state dollars.  Plus, we lose a $600 Million stimulus kicker. Hooray for short-sightedness! Who needs a safety net anyway? It’s not like people are struggling financially…oh…wait…

• Simon Johnson’s “Design A Country Rescue Contest” made me chuckle.

• State workers are far from overpaid. In fact, they earn far less than their private sector counterparts. Oh, and “California in 2007 had 103 full-time equivalent state employees for every 10,000 residents, second-lowest in the nation behind Illinois’ 97.”

• Watch out, America: apparently California has a laser fusion machine.  Give us our bailout or… oh, what, it’s not a weapon?  Never mind.  But actually, this is a significant development in terms of renewable energy.  This would be the first fusion machine to create more energy than it consumes, and could truly become a revolutionary, world-changing machine.  We need one of them.

4 thoughts on “May 28 Open Thread”

  1. A recommended diary on Daily Kos, Obama Doesn’t Mock Gay Rights Protestors at CA Fundraiser, contradicts Andrew Sullivan’s (non-eyewitness) account.  Key section:


    And before anyone says “but, but, but, it was a gay rights protest that he’s mocking,” it was also a Code Pink and ANSWER protest as well:

       

    …activists from CODEPINK and ANSWER LA will protest troops in Afghanistan and war funding outside the Beverly HIlton, where President Obama is attending a Democratic National Committee fundraiser.

    So there it is, clear as day.  Obama was responding to the myriad of different groups protesting for different causes.  And he’s happy to know people are pushing him to keep his promises.

    We try to be reality-based here, so let’s save our outrage for worthwhile causes instead of bullshit tomfoolery.

    I wasn’t anywhere near the demonstrations, so I can’t comment as to how visible the ANSWER crowd was.  But they tend to like to be pretty visible.  It’s what they’re about.

    It’s possible that Obama was focusing on different parts of the crowd, and came to a different conclusion as to what was going on.

Comments are closed.