Links!

• Governor Schwarzenegger signed the healthy Families legislation that the insurance companies had been dreaming of for so long.  Though they get a tax renewed, it is at a far lower rate and the insurance companies get to pull down some additional federal dollars. Must be nice…

• Well, if true, here’s an example of penny-wise, and pound extremely foolish. Sean McNeil, CoS to Sen. Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa), apparently had staff mine a legislative database for phone numbers.  Well, if this is true, it ain’t the smartest thing ever.  Such data, while not necessarily cheap, isn’t really that expensive.  Surely the Senator had enough money to buy a few phone numbers. But, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat never lets a chance to hit a progressive between the teeth, so expect to see this story a few times.

• OC Progressive hears rumors that Sharon Quirk (D), a Fullerton City Council member, may enter the special election race to replace Spanky Duvall in AD-72, which is set for a November 17 primary and January 12 special election.  John MacMurray, who ran against Duvall last year, is also likely to make a go.  With such a fractured Republican field and the Duvall scandal looming Quirk may have a shot, but since the top Republican and Democratic vote-getters will move to a general election, it would be unlikely for Quirk to sneak through after the Yacht Party regroups post-primary.  Still, always good to drain some GOP money in the OC.

• Amazing how the oil company donations to the Governor just followed his announced veto of renewable energy legislation so directly, isn’t it?

• John Myers points out that the issues for which he said he was going to veto all legislation that passes his desk , prisons and water, haven’t really been solved. So, the Healthy Families signing shows that the blockade is over, and it was just another empty Arnold threat.  That being said, there are still a slew of pretty good bills waiting for the Governor. How many he signs is anybody’s guess.

• PG&E quit the US Chamber of Commerce today, becoming the latest to fall out with the organization over their extremist, anti-science viewpoints on climate change.  This is part of a larger split among business that can be exploited on a variety of issues, as the downside of conservative dogma catches up to them.

• Spot.us has had a pretty good run in the SF Bay Area, and they’re bringing their citizen funded journalism to LA. You may want to consider helping out. While it may not be the optimal model for journalism in the future, it is a model. And that’s better than many of the big guys have.

• Sen. DeMint (R-South Carolina) decided that he needed to stick his rather ill-informed head into the California water debate.  It seems he’s gotten most of his information from Sean Hannity and his similarly ill-informed friends who haven’t bothered to check out the North Coast fisheries and the effect the Bush administration water policies have had on those communities. Sen. Feinstein essentially told the junior senator from South Carolina to mind his own beezwax.

• Did the latest conservative smirker to try and play gotcha with the Obama Administration violate California law by illegally recording an NEA conference call without notifying participants?