The Home of the Free and the Brave Turns 233 tomorrow! w00t! Let’s get to the links:

* The special election to replace Ellen Tauscher (CA-10) will be September 1. That will also be the day to replace former Asm., now Sen., Curren Price in AD-51 (PDF). (h/t to SoS Debra Bowen’s CASOSVote Twitter feed)

* Apparently the Governor’s latest bugaboo is his old bugaboo: waste, fraud and abuse. Arnold thinks it is time to bring that up, despite the fact that his own California Performance Review showed that there really isn’t that much waste, fraud and abuse. At a time when we need real action, Arnold is dithering around the edges.

* The annual summertime revenue anticipation notes will be even more complicated due to our budget crisis. Further complicating the issue is Arnold’s petulance by revoking Controller John Chiang’s ability to issue revenue anticipation warrants, which have a longer time horizon.

* Kamala Harris gets a good story in the LA Times, which some might consider a make-up for this story.

* For your consideration this weekend: The SF Mime Troupe kicks off their summer show “Too Big to Fail” tomorrow in Dolores Park in SF. I (Brian) saw the sneak preview today, and it was quite enjoyable.

Stay tuned for what could be another wild legislative session tonight.  Links:

• Interesting story on “Sale-in, Lease Out” deals for transit agency in StreetsblogLA. Apparently, these deals, which were outlawed in 2005, might be preventing transit agencies from replacing old cars.

• Another structural reform idea: vetting initiative ideas through the Legislature. Indirect initiatives are already used in eight states, and it would hopefully allow us to avoid some of the nasty drafting errors that usually come along with law by ballot box. There are currently three proposals in the Legislature that would have initiatives go through the Legislature in some form. One would allow the Legislature propose changes to the measure before it hits the ballot, two other bills would force the Legislature to act on an issue if a petition gathers a lower numbers of signatures than a new, higher initiative threshold.

• The Prop 8 case brought by Ted Olson and David Boies gets its first hearing on Thursday. Judge Vaughn Walker will rule on an injunction against Prop 8.  Given the legal standard necessary for an injunction, a victory seems unlikely. However, this is a very preliminary hearing, and there is a long way to go before any substantive decision.

• SoCal has had another bad rainfall year.

• There were hearings about the prison system’s execution process in Sacramento yesterday. There’s been a moratorium on executions for a few years due to questions surrounding the lethal injection process used. In addition to the moral aspects of the death penalty, a state Senate commission estimated that the death penalty costs us $137 million per year over what it would cost us for permanent incarceration.

• Two more school district parcel tax elections in Los Angeles County today: La Canada USD and Rowland USD.  These elections are vote-by-mail only, so if precedent holds, we should get semi-final results around 8:15, with the late drop-offs and mailed ballots counted in the final tally on Friday.  To see the election results in detail, you can go to the election results page, or to be the first to know, follow @lacountyrrcc on Twitter and turn on mobile updates to get the semi-final results in your SMS inbox.

To the links:

• GM is pulling out of NUMMI, its joint venture with Toyota. There had been rumors that Toyota might build some of the new Prius models there, but that was quashed. No word on what the job situation will be in the plant in Fremont.

• Those trees growing on the levees in the Central Valley have to go, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.  Hopefully they won’t replace them with newspaper, the way they did in New Orleans.

• Dan Walters seems moved by the PPIC report that the half-billion-dollar enterprise zone program has no effect on employment and instead constitutes a set of useless tax breaks.  Sadly, this program was not cut by Democrats or the Governor in their budget proposals.  At the very least, tax break programs like these should have a sunset so they can be assessed for effectiveness.

• The SEIU State Council endorsed LG John Garamendi in his bid for CA-10. In some respects, it seems the big labor endorsements are being split between Garamendi and DeSaulnier.  We should see how the money is flowing after the Q2 reports emerge.

• Pay as you drive auto insurance could be coming to California shortly, by the end of the year.  This could make sense for people who don’t use their car very much, although I doubt it will impact congestion.

• CREDO Mobile is encouraging public comment against the reinstatement of the death penalty, and they make a compelling case.  The deadline is tomorrow, so get your cracks in.  The ACLU, who argues that the death penalty will cost the state $1 billion over 5 years, is planning a statewide Day Of Action To End The Death Penalty tomorrow.  More info on that here.

• After bowing out of the governor’s race, Mayor Villaraigosa is now laying out his plans for Los Angeles for his second term.

• Oooh, jobs for Michigan. Apparently, Michigan Governor Granholm wrote a letter about sending prisoners to empty prisons there.  Wow, “empty prisons.” That’s not a phrase you hear around here very often.

• It’s about a week old, but Joe Matthews’ take on a “bailout” for California is worth reading.

To all my SF area compatriots, happy Pride weekend.  If you are up in SF, think about coming to the Alice Pride Breakfast on Sunday morning before the parade. Many of the local and statewide politicos will be in attendance, including both Democratic candidates for Governor. Get your tickets here or at the door on Sunday morning. Now to the links:

• {From Brian} Another event you might be interested in: a SF fundraiser for Anthony Woods featuring Lt. Dan Choi. Should be a good time.

• (From Dante) My brother David–a fellow author here on Calitics–hosts a weekly half-hour progressive radio show every Friday at 11:00am in Ventura on KVTA-1520, together with Brian Leshon, Communications Committee chair of the Ventura County Democratic Party.  I was an in-studio guest this week as we talked about Sen. Tony Strickland, local tax measures and what the May 19 special really meant.  check out the podcast here, and be sure to return every Friday afternoon for future shows.  It feels good to be bringing a progressive message to Ventura County.

• The Senate GOP Caucus rejected Arnold’s surcharge to fund CalFire as well as a Vehicle fee to fund parks.  At this point, I’m not sure if they know what that green button does.

• Ellen Tauscher was confirmed as Undersecretary for the Dept. of State.  Gov. Schwarzenegger now has to select a special election date, which, I believe has to be within 90 days from today. I’ll try to get confirmation on that last part.  Her final speech in the House in the video to the right.

• The ACLU and the National Center for Lesbian Rights hopped on board the federal challenge to Prop 8. In filings to the court, they said they supported the challenge.

• Deposed Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines is officially running for Insurance Commissioner.

A little bit late on this one, sorry about that. Now to the links.

• CalBuzz has a post on how California became ungovernable. It gets the biggies with 2/3, initiatives, Prop 13 and term limits. I would argue the point about gerrymandering, as it is more about the fact that we have self-organized into like-minded communities than the district lines.

• Capitol Weekly handicaps the Speaker’s Race. Karen Bass is termed out in 2010, so there will be another round.  CW likes Kevin De Leon, but there might be some pressure to pick a current freshman to get somebody who will be there for more than one term.

• Josh Richman makes a good catch from the campaign finance website: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison dropped $13K on Jerry Brown.

• As if there weren’t enough people running for Attorney General, Rocky Delgadillo is thinking about getting in the race again.

Links:

• Republicans are jumping the Poizner ship for Team Meg Whitman. Get used to talking about slave labor.

• Melissa Rodgers’ op-ed offering 10 lessons for health care reform based on California’s 2007 lesson is actually pretty decent, but there’s a difference between health care reform at the state level and the national level, and that’s the ability for the federal government to print money.  That additional constraint tied health care reform’s success in states to the national economy, and as we have seen, that’s an impossible constraint.

• (Dave wrote this one) The Very Serious Journalists at CalBuzz tell us that they did some actual reporting and discovered that the Bay Area Council may, contrary to a report here, may offer some steps to alter Prop. 13.  And that looks to be true, Prop. 13 has multiple elements to it.  But let me just suggest that the Bay Area Council may not actually be a completely reliable source on what the Bay Area Council wants to do, especially things that may put them in a negative light.  I’m no Serious and Important Journalist, but I hear that sometimes organizations spin the press in ways favorable to their agenda.  Stenographers of the world beware!  In addition, the BAC language that delegates to a Constitutional convention will be prohibited from changes to “Property taxes associated with Proposition 13” is certainly a problem to many people, including Phil Ting, and is absolutely worth debating, actual reporting or not.

• Jon Kyl (R-Ariz) put a hold on Ellen Tauscher’s nomination.  It’s not clear how long Kyl is prepared to let this go, but Tauscher has more than the traditional 60 votes.  Either way, this brings up the possibility of a delayed special in the CA-10.  Kyl, by the way, just loves building more nuclear weapons, and that’s the source of his “concern” about Tauscher.

• Sen. Wiggins turned in her state car, and then promptly bought it back from the dealership that the state had sold the hybrid Civic to.

• I see no reason why a years-long drought couldn’t trigger a federal declaration as a major disaster area, as is the case in Fresno County.  Actually, it’s an economic disaster area these days.

• If noted moderate California Blue Dog is pushing a single-payer system, you know that it’s absurd to have it walled off from the national debate.

• Timm Herdt ruminates on possible third candidates in the Dem. primary.

A quick reminder to sign the petition urging DiFi to stand with Americans on health care. It’s really one of the biggest issues of our time, and it needs to get done this year.  By the way, those of you in California on MoveOn’s list probably got the email about calling DiFi about her comments, as well as donating money for an ad they will be putting up challenging her on her remarks.  We have to keep up the pressure.  Now, to the links:

• Lots and Lots and Lots of stories about Villaraigosa not running for governor.  Calbuzz has the take from the other governor candidates.

• The federal government will lend California-based Tesla Motors $465 million dollars to help fund the building of electric vehicles.  It’s very good to see Tesla get a kick-start from the Feds, which they can hopefully leverage into another round of funding to increase their efforts.  This will help finance factories in Northern and Southern California, and it makes perfect sense to invest in alternative technologies in the auto industry to drive innovation throughout the sector.  Good stuff.

• Calitics mentioned previously that Ted Lieu’s bill puts a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures to allow lenders and borrowers to come to agreements on modifications that would keep people in their homes.  One problem with that: seven lenders have immunity from the ordinance, including Bank of America Home Loans, CitiMortgage and Carrington Mortgage Services.  And more lenders may follow with immunity provisions.  Suddenly this bill doesn’t seem so spectacular.

• A follow-up story about how Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is doing at her current job.

• A good story in the LA Times about the people who harvest our food. Things really haven’t gotten better for them; it has always been and will continue to be a hard life.

• LA County passed a temporary budget filling their huge deficit, but it doesn’t account for potential state budget cuts, which obviously are coming.  No wonder Antonio won’t be hitting the campaign trail.

Links from around the state

• A few events coming up that are worth noting: the New Leaders Council has events in the Bay Area and LA for their 40 under 40 List, Anthony Woods has an event next Monday in San Francisco.

• Steve Lopez has a great take on Antonio Villaraigosa’s demurral from a run for Governor.  It was essentially a self-inflicted wound.

• Wow, a tiff between Jeff Denham and Dean Florez. That sounds, well, completely unsurprising.

• CalBuzz has all your Tony V. horse race implications before the announcement today.

• Sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury’s new gig: fundraising for local libraries in Ventura.  Unfortunately, not every library in this state has a famous literary sponsor.

• The Wall Street Journal editorial page is positively giddy about the prospect of a flat tax in California.  You can pretty well figure out the relative benefits of a policy, for the super-rich as opposed to working people, by how it’s covered on the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

• Speaking of opinions you can’t trust, here’s Michael Savage on the California budget.

• BART’s contract expires at the end of the month, and there is a long way to go in negotiations.

• A vote on a proposed stadium for the A’s in San Jose has been delayed. Under Major League Baseball’s rules, the Giants have territorial restrictions over the South Bay, so the A’s would need to get a change in the rule before they could move.  The A’s management wants to avoid an unnecessary election.

• LAPD scored very well on the latest poll. A LA Times Poll shows the Department with a 77% approval rating, with strong approval from every demographic.

• The President made a funny at the Radio and TV Correspondent’s Dinner about Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying that they were building a new reality show around him and the troubles in Sacramento called “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.”  LOL.

• Yay! Something positive about the budget.  Well, sort of.  Corporate tax revenues are up. That’s good, but it is really only because a budget bill from last year SB 28 1X required corporations to frontload their annual tax payments in the first two quarters of the year.

• Following S&P’s watch report on California’s credit rating, Moody’s has done the same.

• Moody’s isn’t entirely sanguine about our budget mess either, joining Standard and Poor’s by placing California on a credit watch list.

• The California State Parks Foundation has had success with their recent action items. They’ve sent over 125,000 letters in support of the state parks. It really isn’t that surprising as state parks are commonly used by fairly politically aware people who were jolted into action by Arnold’s call to close most of the state parks. We mentioned it 3 weeks ago, but if you haven’t done so, how about taking some action for the parks?

• Shira Tarrant does not like the proposed cuts to the CSU. Under the budget committee’s plan, CSU and UC take equal cuts to their budget.

• John Myers has a good wrap-up of some loose ends about the Dems’ budget deal.  Meanwhile, the California Budget Project did a side-by-side comparison of the Dems’ budget and the Governor’s.  Check it out.

• One area of success in the Prop 8 campaign? Asian-American votes swung in favor of marriage equality rapidly. Asian-Americans supported the ban in Prop 22 in 2000 by a 36 point margin. In 2008, it was only a 6 point margin.  There is a lot more work to be done in this community, but hopefully next time we’ll win this demographic.

• Is Placer County the new Orange County?

• California leads the way in the edible garden movement.