All posts by Brian Leubitz
CA-Gov: What else is on those tapes?
As of this moment, Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to release the remainder of the tapes that he posted on the Internet. Schwarzenegger claims that he can hide the tapes becuase they are internal deliberations. So, basically, he’s arguing that he was deliberating whether Bonnie Garcia is hot. You know, because of the mix of the blood. But hey, Bonnie wouldn’t kick Arnold out of bed .
Phil’s lawyers gave us a brief glimpse of what is on those tapes:
Olson writes that the recordings “do not relate to anything ‘deliberative’ at all and are clearly unrelated to speech writing but, rather, discuss Republican Party politics, derogatory remarks about Mexican Americans and observations about legislators and other public figures.” (LAT 10/21/06)
But you know what, it seems the public is willing to forgive Arnold for anything he says. It really doesn’t matter. I mean, he can offend whatever minorities he wants at this point, huh? Hey, Governor, whatever happened to that report you were going to have commissione about your groping?
This Governor is a serial harrasser, and yet, people repeatedly choose to forgive him, because, you know, he’s the Terminator. It’s irresponsible and a bad precedent to send.
Calitics Endorsements on the State Propositions (and Judges)
(Bumped to the top. – promoted by SFBrianCL)
Well, several people had asked me to put out endorsements, so we agreed on some positions on the propositions. We are supporting all of the Dems for the statewide offices, but some we are supporting more than others. Namely, Debra Bowen will be a dynamic and effective Secretary of State. For another resource, check out the Speak Out California Progressive Voter Guide (ad to the right) Here we go:
Props:
1A: No, makes budgeting harder
1B-1E: yes, we need infrastructure improvements
83: Jessica’s Law: NO! A bad idea that moves sex offenders away from their families and support systems and into rural communities.
84: Water/Park Bonds: Yes. With the onset of global warming and pollution, we need to invest in our water.
85: Parental Notification: No, again. Didn’t we just say no last year?
86: Cigarrette Tax to fund health care: No position. It’s a tough call; there are many considerations including legal concerns. A yes on this will toss the state into litigation. If you are comfortable with that, then go with Yes.
87: Oil/Alternative Energy: Yes, California is an environmental leader, this is one more step of a leader to help fund alternative energy research.
88: Parcel Tax: No, but it’s a close one. I don’t like how the tax operates. I would prefer a one-time percentage rather than a flat $50.
89: Public Campaign Finance: Yes! It’s about time we bring some pressure to bear on the entrenched special interests.
90: Break the Government: No, don’t let them trick you with the eminent domain line. This one goes way, way too far.
Judges: Yes on all appellate judges, except William McGuiness, who wrote the decision in In Re Marriage Cases that denied marriage equality. He’s in the first district court of appeal, which is SF/San Mateo, Peninsula/ and Marin up the coast.
Odds and Ends 10/20/06
I’ve been putting all the Odds, and all the Ends, in the extended. But this one, this one, gets front page treatment: The Sacramento Bee has endorsed Jerry McNerney:
If you prefer the politics of extremes; if you’re OK with selling off national parks; if backroom deal-making and tainted money suit you; if you embrace out-of-balance budgets and the concentration of wealth — Pombo’s your man. But he is no longer representing the true interests of his district, state or nation. That’s ample reason for voters to send Jerry McNerney to Congress.
The Bee becomes just the latest in a string of endorsements of McNerney and fellow Dem Charlie Brown. Now, let’st get to the teasers of the stuff over the flip: Schwarzenegger drops another $3.5 mil, Garamendi cleared, Pooch’s frivilous lawsuit, Dick Mountjoy being…Dick Mountjoy, and more…
Jerry Lewis fires investigators…that were investigating him
The Congressional Quarterly (sub. req.) (via TPM Muckraker) is reporting that Jerry Lewis, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Cmte (for now) has fired almos all of the Cmte’s investigators. It seems that they were doing too good of a job. You know, and actually investigating…him.
House Appropriations chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is under federal investigation for possible improprieties in how he oversaw Congress’ spending of $900 billion annually. Yesterday, we reported that Lewis had dropped nearly $800,000 in legal fees to defend himself against the probe.
This evening, Congressional Quarterly reports (sub. req.) that in a round of calls Monday evening, Lewis fired 60 investigators who had worked for his committee rooting out fraud, waste and abuse, effective immediately. As in, don’t bother coming in on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, we do not have a serious challenger for that seat. We will not make that mistake again when 2008 rolls around.
Odds and Ends 10/19/06
As the election approaches, I understand that people are growing tired. But there are less than 3 weeks, and we need every ounce of effort. There are so many reasons to be excited. We have the opportunity to get rid of several corrupt Republicans that have grown to become national embarrassments. We have the opportunity to take back the Secretary of State’s office and really address the issues of voting. So with that, here’s some teasers: Arnold is desperate and has no coat tails. Ken Blackwell School of electioneering in Pooch’s bid for AG. Brown and McNerney. Jerry Lewis is corrupt, and LACCD goes solar.
- George Skelton thinks Arnold’s “Phil wants to raise your taxes by $18 Billion” line is “desperate”.
- The CapWeekly thinks Arnold’s coattails might be short, very short.
- Phil is going on the offensive (LAT). He is visibly questioning the Governor’s character. Well, it’s something that we’ve been doing here and at Tracking Arnold for quite some time. Arnold has a track record of sexual harassment and questionably (or not so questionably) racist statements. Rowdy movie set or not, some lines should not be crossed.
- Pooch and the CRP are getting a whiff of desperation of their own. The Contra Costa Cty. GOP is filing a suit stating that Jerry Brown is not eligible (SacBee) to be the AG b/c some of State Bar papers aren’t in order. Sounds like Ken Blackwell has been talking with Pooch.
- The CDP is excited about Brown and McNerney. (SF Chron)
- Shocker!!! Ring the Alarm!! Rep. Jerry Lewis has taken the most money of ANY Congressman from Lobbyists. (LAT)
- In some just all around pleasant news, the LA Community College System is planning an initiative to power their campuses via solar power. (LAT)
Modern Machine Politics, as practiced by Doolittle and Pombo
When you move away from the coast, and reach into the Republican areas of the state, you’ll find political machines to rival any of those found in the big coastal cities. Big City machines have to deal with powerful mayors (i.e. Newsom and Villaraigosa) and have a large number of Congressmen. Resentment of the mayors typically limits the actual amount of power that the mayors will have, and so you have kind of a crazy push and pull between different power sources.
But while less urban machines may not have as great of number of positions, they make up for it in authoritorianism. John Doolittle personally chooses who will run for each position, who gets what money, etc. There is nobody to compete with Doolittle. There are no mayors that have where near the authority to challenge him. See Auburn mayor John Michael Holmes about that one.
Pombo is no different, his shady dealings were detailed in the Tracy Press (I’m quite surprised too). He has vested interests in the district. Especially in Tracy. Especially in real estate. He was, shall we say, less than pleased in 2001 when Tracy passed a ballot initiative that limited the number of homes built per year. The current city council has already made deals with developers, including the family of big Phil Angelides supporter Angelo Tsakapalous. Long story short, the city council has accepted two deals. One would build $20 mil worth of sports parks, and the other would build a simiarly priced waterpark. The developers would then get the right to build a ton of homes once the slow growth initiative expired.
Sounds dirty, but where does Pombo come in you ask? Oh well, you see the land that the developers want to build on, yeah, it belongs to the Pombo family. So, Celeste Garamendi, who is running for mayor, wants to continue slow growth and plans on fighting those plans. So, what does Pombo do? He dumps $25,000 into her opponent’s campaign. That’s a lot of money for a position like mayor of Tracy.
Garamendi sees in the Pombo donation an effort by a corporate cabal to maintain power in Tracy.
“The money is being directed 100 percent at maintaining the special-interest control of the council,” said Garamendi, who is running on a slate with council candidates Carole Dominguez and Roger Adhikari. “Pombo has historically supported unrestrained development.
Yup, that sounds just like the Pombo we know and the Pombo we (don’t) love.
Why You Should Vote No on William McGuiness
On Monday, I posted about a new effort that I’m working on to vote no on William McGuiness. I’ve got a website up and going at NoMcGuiness.com. I must say that Blogger is quite convenient for these type of things. I wanted to cover some more on the subject, because this election, we have an opportunity to push back at the Right. In a very real way. Well, at least if you are in the First District.
But some background on William McGuiness. You can find a profile here. He was appointed to the Appellate Court in 1997 by Pete Wilson after serving in the Reagan Justice Dept. and a Superior Court Judge for a long time. Now, I don’t have any problems with his qualifications. I think he’s very qualified. That’s not the issue. William McGuiness made a terrible decision in In Re Marriage Cases, a decision that says that separate but equal is jolly ok with the California Constitution. A decision that denies equality for a substantial segment of Californians. That is not ok.
More in the extended…
Now, I would like to interject here that I believe the judiciary should be completely independent of the voters. The saga of Rose Bird should not be repeated. But that’s the problem. The only saga of Rose Bird is the saga of Rose Bird. Rose Bird, along with Justices Reynoso and Grodin, was attacked from the Right over her decisions on the Death Penalty. Rose Bird had a deeply held-conviction, a conviction that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. It’s clearly a defensible position, but the majority interfered with the judiciary. When these three Justices were booted, our Judiciary was thrown into a tailspin. George Deukmejian appointed three conservative Justices, including Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas, who steered the California Judiciary away from the powerful traditions of Justice Traynor.
And again the Right pushed back in 1998. Anti-choice forces decided to pick a fight with Justice Ming Chin and Chief Justice Ronald George, both Republicans. They were “disappointed” with them because both of them voted to strike down a law that required parental notification. They both remember that. They remember that the Right challenges them, but the Left doesn’t. And so, where the moderates would vote their conscience, vote for what they know is right, vote for equality, and vote for civl rights, they have to consider the reaction of the Right.
This is no way to run our Judiciary. John Marshall, our first, and some would say our greatest, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, envisioned a Judiciary that held a real check on the legislature. In Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton argued that Judges need to be independent in order to resist the oppression of the representative body:
According to the plan of the convention, all judges who may be appointed by the United States are to hold their offices DURING GOOD BEHAVIOR; which is conformable to the most approved of the State constitutions and among the rest, to that of this State. Its propriety having been drawn into question by the adversaries of that plan, is no light symptom of the rage for objection, which disorders their imaginations and judgments. The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy, is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government. In a monarchy it is an excellent barrier to the despotism of the prince; in a republic it is a no less excellent barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of the representative body. And it is the best expedient which can be devised in any government, to secure a steady, upright, and impartial administration of the laws.
Thus, Hamilton argued, the Judiciary should be independent in order to protect the rights of the minority. The power of judicial review is clearly countermajoratarian, but just as clearly, it is so for good reason. That the Constitution did not crumble at the time of Marbury is evidence enough that people understood that. And Alexis De Tocqueville clearly understood the oppressive power of the majority as well. In fact, De Tocqueville argued that the majority could be more oppressive than a monarchy because the authenticity of public opinion granted more moral power than a Crown could ever grant.
Our Judiciary needs to be independent of public opinion, free to make their own decisions. Unfortunately, this is not the way of the California judiciary. Here we have elections and judges are accountable to the majority, for better or worse. And, as discussed above, the Right has used this fact to dispose of Rose Bird, and to fire a warning shot across the bow of Justices in 1998. The Right attacks the Judiciary in whatever ways they find convenient. They have “Justice Sundays” in Washington, D.C. where they denounce “activist” judges who dare stand up for the rights of a minority, such as Justice Kennedy in Lawrence v. Texas. And all of this creates a Right-ward drift. We put our faith in the Judiciary system, The Right puts a Boot in its Ass.
Thus, we need to push back. If we continue to let the Right move the discourse, we will soon find ourselves in very uncomfortable waters. Justice William McGuiness is only marginally more culpable in the decision in In Re Marriage Cases than Justice Parrilli, who concurred with the opinion. McGuiness, however, actually claims authorship in this drivel(PDF). But in an independent Judiciary, that drivel would be beyond my protestations other than the appeal process.
However, fortunately for us, Justice William McGuiness is up for election on Nov. 7. This opportunity presents itself very rarely. By pushing this, we can send a message to all judges that they cannot sell out Equality, and the Constitution of the State of California, to appease the Right.
Odds and Ends 10/18/06
The SoS debate is today at 2PM (webcast here), we hope to live-blog it either here or at dKos. More details on that later. Teasers: David Roth (CA-45), Debra Bowen, Margaret “legend in her own mind” Fortune, GOP gay purge, trouble for the bonds.
- David Roth has a very impressive ad up on YouTube. I don’t know if this is on the air, but it’s a great ad. I don’t know why exactly the DCCC didn’t target this race. Mary Bono is, quite frankly, delusional on Iraq. The district has a fair amount of Dems and some money would have helped. Mary Bono pretends she’s a moderate, but she’s not.
- Debra Bowen has picked up a few more endorsements. Newspaper endorsements are tough to come by when you are running against a newspaper publisher (Bruce M.). However, she has so far been endorsed by the LA Daily News, the Monterrey County Weekly, and the San Jose Merc. The common theme: “McPherson is not Kevin Shelly, but if you want somebody who really knows the job, go with Bowen.” The endorsements that have gone for McPherson have all been essentially, he hasn’t totally screwed up and doesn’t seem to have given money to any friends. I’m sorry that’s not a good enough reason for me. I want a Secretary of State that understands the complexities of every issue of voting. That’s Debra.
- Margaret Fortune, she of the Prop 74 campaign and self-styled education guru…who really isn’t such a guru, is back. On Tuesday, she raved about her close ties to the Governor when she was meeting with some black religious leaders in Sacramento. Apparently, she wasn’t so well received:
When I leave this engagement in 22 days, I’m going back to the administration. And when you knock on the door, it’s going to be me who’s going to answer for the governor. The governor respects me.”
“That sounds like a threat,” someone says from the audience.
Fortune: “No, no, no. That is not a threat.” (LAT Pol. Muscle 10.18.06)Hmm…she is quite the legend in her own mind isn’t she? She goes to these leaders, insults them, cries to make them feel guilty, then flees away. No, Arnold deeply cares about the votes of everybody (wink-wink), just some matter more than others.
- The Republicans are preparing to purge their gays. It seems they have had enough of…well, gays. So, my feeling on this: the no self-respecting queer should be voting for Republicans anyway. And the problem with gay Republicans isn’t that they are gay, it’s that they are forced to be closeted. As John Cloud said in Time, the denial of self is enough to drive anybody crazy. The GOP of old was a party that was built on libretarian values. It is long since abandoned that in a quest for the Religious radical Right vote. Barry Goldwater would be ashamed of today’s GOP.
- The SF Chron thinks the bonds might be in trouble. Well, you heard it here for quite some time, at least 2 of them will fail.
- Oh how I love kos to death. Except when he talks about anything having to do with California. Good heavens.
I voted today. Feels good to vote against Ahnold. And the California initiative process needs desperate reform. As always, on principle, I voted “no” on every single one of them even though I was sympathetic to many of the initiatives.
Against Ahnold, not for Angelides, eh? sigh. (by CarlsbadDem)
CA-LtG: Garamendi nabs endorsements, and a strong ad
John Garamendi has picked up several endorsements. The list is quite long, but thankfully the campaign has compiled all the links: Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, Stockton Record, Merced Sun Star, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Monterey County Weekly, La Opinion and San Francisco Bay Guardian. Whew!
The LA Times said, “Garamendi should take that same creative and battling spirit and put it to work on public institutions … and McClintock’s positions on immigration, same-sex marriage and other social issues betray a cramped vision of the state’s future.”
After the flip, Garamendi has produced the obvious ad, McClintock is too extreme. He uses McClintock’s own words against him. It’s a perfect ad for this race.