All posts by Open Thread

Uncategorized

June 3 Open Thread

9 Comments

And on to the links:

• Jerry Brown will have to explain the fact that he took a bunch of money from people now embroiled in the growing pension scandal. His office is now investigating the scandal. Personally, I’m really not all that worried that Brown will do anything but the right thing, but appearances matter in politics.

• Well, I still don’t think this is going to happen, but Santa Clara ok’d a plan to build a stadium for the San Francisco 49ers. The stadium will cost a total of $973 million, with about $79 million of that coming from public money in infrastructure funds. Another $35 million from a hotel tax, and the rest coming from private sources.

• Neil Sinhababu brings up an often-neglected part of our budget problems – the fact that California gets back only 78 cents in services for every dollar it pays in taxes.  California’s size has always made it underrepresented in the Senate in particular, and it will be difficult to ever close this gap, though the stimulus has improved the numbers somewhat.

• Even the folks at the U-T don’t think closing the parks is a good idea. Our parks are tourist attractions, so cutting them will hurt sales tax revenues, hotel tax revenues, etc. It’s just another poorly planned idea coming out of the WORST GOVERNOR EVER.

• The explosion in medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles has always been a puzzle to me, so this LA Times story helps me out.  Apparently, it’s a function of a phlegmatic city government – a moratorium on new dispensaries allowed for a hardship exemption, and 500 dispensaries have applied for it, and NOT ONE application has been acted upon by the relevant authority.  In the meantime, the pot stores keep opening.  The City Council is trying to close the loophole, but one might ask why?  Isn’t violent crime down in Los Angeles?  Has the proliferation of these dispensaries adversely affected the city in any way?  In a year, exactly two HUNDRED complaints have been filed across the city.  I think potholes get more complaints than pot.

• AD-15: Republican Abram Wilson will run again for state Assembly against Joan Buchanan, and obviously he hopes that he gets to run sooner rather than later, should Buchanan win Ellen Tauscher’s seat in Congress.  That makes Buchanan’s campaign dangerous, because of the threat to her Assembly seat.

• CalBuzz looks at the “lessons” learned from May 19. Or lack thereof.

• Sen. Pavley’s bill banning BPA moved out of the Senate. BPA has been linked to developmental problems in children and adolescents.

• Darrell Issa’s argument against paid family leave is that North Korea and Iran have it.  Really, that’s his argument.  Apparently he thinks that our laws should be MORE cruel than those countries.

• This is a fascinating case in Silicon Valley. The Justice Department is looking into anti-trust violations between tech companies on agreements not to poach each other’s employees.  It is a tool to artificially keep wages low.  Not cool techsters.

• Yay, the new Reagan statue is up in Statuary Hall (each state gets two in the Capitol), so now all Republicans can genuflect without having to go to church.

Uncategorized

June 2 Open Thread

6 Comments

A bit more news from around the state:

• More news from eMeg: She wants to axe the initiative system.  But Poizner disagrees, because, you know, “The people in California make better decisions than the Legislature.” Right, because Athenian direct democracy has been a real boon here.

• An accounting error may allow Arnold to cut even more from education without threatening stimulus funds.  Yay!

• Whoops, you win some, you lose some. Next time, perhaps CalPERS will think twice before investing with Lennar.

• What’s LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s deal with local news personalities? He’s now dating KTLA’s Lu Parker, after his marriage broke up with the news of his affair with a Telemundo anchor.

• Arnold will bring his stellar governing skills to help US Soccer get the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.  You can probably forget it for the rest of the century, given that.

• All that Twitter usage from Mayor Newsom has manifested itself into a citywide 311 system on CoTweet.  Sounds like a great idea, actually.

• Speaking of gubernatorial hopefuls, San Diego unions sure are pissed at Jerry Brown for speaking at a fundraising lunch for the far-right Lincoln Club.  Jeez…

• Vallejo’s bankruptcy is becoming a bigger mess than previously expected. Apparently, the fight has now become a question of the limits of bankruptcy law, specifically with the question of whether labor agreements can be broken.

• The California Supreme Court, moving away from social issues and on to corporate ass-covering, overturned a billion-dollar class-action lawsuit against Bank of America, now allowing banks to use Social Security and government assistance checks to claw back overdraft fees from the indigent.  I won’t speak to the legal issues, but how about a lawsuit against the usurious bank fees in general?  Exactly how are these poor customers racking up these fees?  There are a lot of issues that the Supremes preferred to ignore.

Uncategorized

June 1 Open Thread

2 Comments

Well, we turned the page to another month.  Not a really productive month on the California front. We spent a bunch of money to approve a worthless proposition (1F) and decided that separate but equal was cool for some. But on we go, so here are the links:

• Arnold will be presenting his budget to the Legislature tomorrow in what his people say will be a short speech.

• Governor Dean will be in SF on Thursday for a low-dollar fundraiser for DFA. Deets here.

• Sen. Obama officially honored LGBT Pride month. Sometimes the small, symbolic gestures are meaningful.  And this is one of those times, however it would be nice if Pres. Obama went ahead and followed up on his commitments to the LGBT community on policy goals. Oh, and Cheney supports marriage equality. Great, there’s an ally everybody loves.

• AD-10: Jack Sieglock will seek a rematch against Alyson Huber, who won by a scant 400 or so votes in 2008.  Huber’s district has actually grown slightly more blue since the election, Randy Bayne claims she’s winning the respect of her constituents, and she’ll have the incumbency advantage.  But more and more I’m thinking 2010 will be a crapshoot, so this race should be competitive.

• CA-10: In other news of 10th Districts, Ellen Tauscher will have her confirmation hearing for a State Department position next Tuesday.  They won’t set a date for the special election until she is confirmed, but the district will get the jump on that – the first candidate forum has already been scheduled.

• The Senate rejected SB 250, the pet sterilization bill. Sen. Florez had taken over the bill from Asm. Levine after he was termed out.

• Last I remember about Tucker Bounds, he was being slapped around by every anchor on cable news when he ran communications for the McCain campaign.  Now he’s going to fill the same role for Meg Whitman’s campaign.  Great hire!

• From Cal Budget Bites‘s reporting of testimony in the Joint Budget committee: Elimination of CalWORKS would lead to the “complete destitution” of 1 million California children.

• The California Progress Report has a post from Nevada City USD board member Paula Campbell calling the education cuts a “massacre.”

• SF DA Kamala Harris posted about Judge Sotomayor over on the Big Orange.

Uncategorized

Analyzing the May 19 Framing

You don’t typically see the media analyzing the spin and framing work done for their behalf. But Steven Harmon of MediaNews does just that today. And, to this point, the Governor is winning…

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first move after the May 19 special election was to immediately tamp down any thoughts of raising more taxes, claiming voters had sent a “clear message” against taxes in rejecting five of six ballot measures.

In striking quickly against the idea of more taxes, Schwarzenegger was trying to take ownership of the political landscape before opponents could craft their own response, political observers said – and he was laying the groundwork for upcoming negotiations as lawmakers seek to resolve a projected $24 billion deficit.

***

Democrats have countered with a muddled response. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, conceded immediately after the vote that she saw little chance of going back to Republicans for more tax hikes, saying, “It’s really going to be about devastating cuts.”

Since then, she has backpedaled some, saying that all options – including taxes – are on the table. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said that he is also bracing for “deep and painful cuts.” But, he added, “there is not $24 billion to cut in a way that would be acceptable to Californians. So, we’re going to begin with cuts, certainly. And we are going to look for every opportunity to use the crisis to fix the structure of government because it doesn’t work. (Media News 5/31/09)

Harmon goes on to talk about the yeoman’s effort put up by the coalition behind the No on 1A campaign (that I worked on), including SEIU and AFSCME.  In the Binder poll that has been discussed around here frequently, we saw strong evidence that Californians support paying for the services they value. Without rehashing all of the details from the poll, suffice it to say that we have the data on our side.

However, we don’t have the framing on our side. It has always been easy to cast the May 19 election as some sort of referendum on taxes. But the fact is that the special was far more than that, or far less depending on your point of view. It was about the failed communication between representatives and constituents. It was about voters growing weary of the constant hiding of the ball and failure to address our structural problems. Sure, it was about the spectre of Jarvis’ ghost, but just as much as the failure to have a consistent fiscal policy since 1978 as the tax aspects.

Yet, like Harmon points out, Democratic elected leaders are losing the framing battle to (faux Democrat) Susan Kennedy and her gang of merry thieves in the Horseshoe. In the short term, we need our current elected leaders to stand up for government and for our values.  In the long term, we need to work to ensure that those who are elected to Sacramento understand why we sent them there. When term limits create open seats, we need to put not just Democrats in those seats, but progressives.

Uncategorized

May 29 Weekend Open Thread

2 Comments

Should be a great weekend in Fresno for Meet in the Middle for Equality. Bring a hat and sunscreen, Fresno will be around 90 degrees.  Anyway, to the links:

• John McCain: “Meg Whitman is the future of the GOP.” Wow, I can’t wait for the GOP ads featuring slave labor, theft, maquiladoras and inequality. They will be fantastic!

• Anthony Portantino’s AB 53, which Brian has written about, was shelved by the Appropriations Cmte in the Senate.  Manuel Perez’s AB 1501, a bill to restructure payment for boards and commissions, went down as well in similar fashion.

• As for the rest, most bills which involved any amount of spending were not moved, as we face the budget crisis.  That includes SB 810, by the way, the single-payer bill, estimated at $210 billion annually (which seems very exorbitant, who scored that?).

• John Wildermuth lays out his take on the closing of the courts for one day each month. Basically, he doesn’t buy the arguments about delaying justice, seeing it instead as a money thing. Well…he’s kind of right, everything is about money these days. However, he is a bit too quick to cast aside the argument about speedy justice…it is in the Constitution and all. While his argument is a bit shaky, it is good to see that John will continue to monitor state politics. Hey, John, if you ever want to write something for Calitics, let us know!

• Jeff Denham has the same “close San Quentin” op-ed every week these days.  None of them bother to mention that cash collected by the sale of surplus property cannot be used to balance the budget.

• Bonnie Lowenthal’s AB 1340 passed out of the Assembly. The bill would make it easier for troops deployed overseas to vote by extending some deadlines.

• Oooh, video of Arnold making fun of Limbaugh, which was in yesterday’s open thread. “Some people say that Rush Limbaugh is the 800 pound gorilla in the Republican party. But I think that’s mean-spirited to say that, because I think he’s down to 650 pounds.” Aww, snap!  

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.

Uncategorized

May 27 Open Thread

15 Comments

To the news:

• Just because it’s cool: OC Progressive asks John Wesley Harding 5 questions.

• More celebrities: Pierce Brosnan is hosting a fundraiser for AD-35 candidate Susan Jordan. Jordan is an environmentalist, and is also married to the current Assembly member, Pedro Nava. There’s going to be an interesting primary in the race. The seat is a safe Dem seat.

• CalBuzz takes a look at the Prop 8 Ruling and the Guv race. Meg Whitman once again sounds ridiculous by hailing the decision in terms of grand freedoms. What a joke. Dan Walters kind of echoes eMeg. Walters completely fails to understand how completely flawed our initiative system is. It has never worked, and the system needs overhauling.

• Speaking of eMeg. She’s about to get McCain’s endorsement. Oooh, yippee. That’s sure to be worth a ton here.

• Former Assemblyman Paul Koretz has claimed victory in the 5th City Council District in Los Angeles over neighborhood activist David Vahedi.

• Sign of the times: Nearly 1 million Californians seek medical care in Mexico annually.  And of course, if we destroy the health care social safety net for low-income Californians and push 2 million more off of insurance, that number will rise.  Our health care system is completely broken.

• CalSTRS needs more money, lots of it.  They will be asking for several billion more. Teriffic, that’s what we need to hear right now.

• The pundit class, such as Tim Herdt is following the grassroots. They’re seeing the fact that the system is in need of reform.  

• As for the SF Bay Guardian, they’re looking into the background of the notion of splitting the state. While there would be some positives, notably that the Coastal, populous counties would produce some of the nation’s finest schools and services, it creates a whole slew of problems as well. Beyond the politics, it’s not clear if a Central Valley based state has the tax base to sustain itself. And there are the water issues, which would be massive.  

Uncategorized

Day of Decision Open Thread

1 Comment

Just to comment on some non-Prop 8 things (and a couple Prop. 8 things too) happening around the state:

• I’m very excited that Assemblymember Noreen Evans, chair of the Budget Committee, has started a Budget Blog to give her perspective on the process as it moves forward.  Evans put together and narrated the video detailing the nature of the crisis and slaying the myths about the budget.  She’ll be a welcome addition to the ‘sphere.

• Welcome to California, where migrant workers toil to cover watermelons from the heat without any cover for themselves.  Cal-OSHA shut down eight factory farms in a week for disgusting practices like this.

• Rep. Doris Matsui has a guest post up at the Center for American Progress’ The Wonk Room, talking about the importance of planting shade trees – not just for the shade (see above), but to save electricity and clean the air.

• Stories like these, about Meg Whitman accepting over 100 exclusive IPO offers, making her millions, from a firm that she picked to handle eBay’s IPO, reinforce my belief that she will be toast in a high-profile political campaign, no matter how much of her personal fortune she deploys.  Can you say Mitt Romney, Part II?

• John Aravosis has an interesting reaction to the Prop. 8 ruling, noting that the upholding of the 18,000 settled same-sex marriages will eventually lead to a forced reckoning on the protection of all gay couples, married or barred from marrying, under the law.  And he points to fascinating footnote #48 as well.

• I know you’ll be surprised by a national conservative publication getting the California crisis wrong, but Commentary Magazine provides another example.

Marriage Equality

Prop 8 Decision Web Address

40 Comments

In the spirit of helpfulness, here is a link to the Supreme Court’s Prop 8 High Profile Cases page. You’ll find the decision posted there in just under an hour.

IMAG0118

UPDATE by Dave…I guess we can all go home, because Tommy Christopher already posted his story on the ruling at 8am, two hours before the opinion is released. (h/t msblucow)

UPDATE by Dave: The egg stays off Tommy Christopher’s face, as the Court upholds Prop. 8 by a 6-1 count, with Judge Moreno the only dissenting vote.  The judges unanimously uphold the 18,000 existing marriages.

UPDATE by Robert: The decision is about as bad as it can get – the logic used to uphold Prop 8 is everything Ken Starr hoped it would be. Two key excerpts:

Contrary to petitioners’ assertion,

Proposition 8 does not entirely repeal or abrogate the aspect of a same-sex couple’s state constitutional right of privacy and due process that was analyzed in the majority opinion in the Marriage Cases – that is, the constitutional right of same-sex couples to “choose one’s life partner and enter with that person into a committed, officially recognized, and protected family relationship that enjoys all of the constitutionally based incidents of marriage”  (Marriage Cases, supra, 43 Cal.4th at p. 829).  Nor does Proposition 8 fundamentally alter the meaning and substance of state constitutional equal protection principles as articulated in that opinion.  Instead, the measure carves out a narrow and limited exception to these state constitutional rights, reserving the official designation of the term “marriage” for the union of opposite-sex couples as a matter of state constitutional law, but leaving undisturbed all of the other extremely significant substantive aspects of a same-sex couple’s state constitutional right to establish an officially recognized and protected family relationship and the guarantee of equal protection of the laws.

And the clear embrace of the Starr Doctrine:

Neither the language of the relevant constitutional provisions, nor our past cases, support the proposition that any of these rights is totally exempt from modification by a constitutional amendment adopted by a majority of the voters through the initiative process.

To the CA Supreme Court, voters can do whatever the fuck they want to via the initiative process.

CA is officially broken.

UPDATE by Dave: State Senator Mark Leno, who wrote the two gay marriage bills passed by the legislature and vetoed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, has released a statement.  So has Sen. Feinstein, CDP Chair John Burton, House Speaker Pelosi and Lt. Governor Garamendi.  I’ll catalog them on the flip:

UPDATE by Brian:I’ll post videos from SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s press conference as soon as I can upload them.

Sen. Leno:

“Today’s decision is extremely disappointing for California and hurts thousands of caring couples who wish to make lifelong commitments to one another through marriage. Let today’s decision be a rallying cry for all Californians who believe in equality and fairness, and encourage thousands more to stand up and fight the pervasive injustices LGBT people face in our community and our nation.”

“The issue before this court was much greater than marriage equality. The question asked of our justices goes to the core of our society. Can a majority vote undermine a foundation stone of our constitutional democracy, equal protection under the law? Today our highest court ruled that minorities do not matter.”

“Through our disappointment, we will still find hope and encouragement, including the 18,000 couples whose marriages in California remain secure and protected today. Through our sadness, our resolve to fight for justice and equality only grows stronger. Love is an unstoppable force, and equality is right around the corner.”

Speaker Pelosi:

Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court in support of Proposition 8 is deeply disappointing because this ballot initiative takes away individual rights.

I have long fought for equality for all of California’s families and will strongly support efforts to restore marriage equality in California, so it can join the ranks of states such as Iowa and Vermont.

Lt. Gov. Garamendi:

Today we lost an important battle, but on this disappointing day, it’s worth remembering that the final outcome of this struggle has already been determined. Time is on our side, and Californians will one day soon repeal Proposition 8. Patti and I have been married for 43 years, and we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the LGBT community and their allies as they work to convince the electorate that all Californians, regardless of sexual orientation, deserve access to marriage and equality. While we will always face roadblocks, our society journeys down a path of increased equality under the law.

Sen. Feinstein:

I know today’s decision is a tremendous disappointment for many people. But I also know that the opinions of Californians are changing on this issue, and I believe that equal marriage rights will one day be the law in this state. This is already the case in Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. So, I believe this issue will come before the voters again, and I am very hopeful that the result will be different next time.

Today’s State Supreme Court ruling also declares that the 18,000 same-sex marriages that have already taken place in California are valid, and I believe these marriages will allow people to see for themselves that marriage equality is a step forward for California and not a step back.

Chairman Burton:

Today’s decision, while heartbreaking, doesn’t end the historic struggle for marriage equality. It renews our dedication to making sure all California families can again enjoy the dignity, commitment and responsibility of marriage.

I commend the California Supreme Court for validating the rights of the 18,000 lesbian and gay couples who married last year before Proposition 8 passed.  These couples and their children will continue to enjoy the full security and legal protection of marriage.    

Within the next few years, I know California will restore legal, civil marriages for gay and lesbian couples.  The California Democratic Party will play a leading role in ending marriage discrimination in California and I look forward to the day when that happens.

Uncategorized

Memorial Day Weekend Open Thread

3 Comments

Enjoy the long weekend.  Here are some links…

• California’s unemployment rate fell last month. Real sign of recovery or a dead cat bounce?

• Seriously? DiFi denying a run for governor again? Wow, that’s about the 800th time that’s been written.

• Lockyer: What Arnold said.  This kind of stuff really makes me long for the days of wine and roses that were the Phil Angelides treasurership.

• The Transportation Secretary appropriated $48 million dollars this week for BART restoration, but like a lot of transportation funds in the stimulus, they provide funds for improvements to existing transit lines rather than build-outs of new lines.  Not that the funding isn’t needed to make infrastructure improvements, but this isn’t exactly an expansion.

• Pete Stark will be back at work shortly. He’s been in the hospital for pneumonia for a while, but all signs point to a full return to health shortly.

• Sadly, John Wildermuth took a buyout from the Chronicle. His reportage will be sorely missed in SF and around the state.

• The last race that was up in the air on May 5th is most likely no longer up in the air.  A large chunk of new votes were tallied in the Los Angeles City Council District 5 race, and Paul Koretz has expanded his lead over opponent David Vahedi to 551 votes (the previous margin was 335).  Barring a huge mistake in earlier vote-counting there simply aren’t enough outstanding votes for Vahedi to have a chance to make up the difference.