( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

The story of Santos Reyes is a bizarre one.  Reyes was thrown into prison under the 3 Strikes for CHEATING ON A DMV TEST.  Yes, I meant to Yell that.  That, my friends, is a travesty of justice of the worst kind.  The case is currently being reviewed by the courts as to whether this sentence violates the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of Cruel and Unusual Punishment.

Now, I’m no lawyer (oh, wait, yes I am), but this is not a tough question.  But, you see, it’s a struggle for Arnold.  Should he involve himself? Would that piss off his base?

Could the governor’s loose lips spring a man from prison? The National Latino Congreso held in Los Angeles last week may have laid out a blueprint for how Arnold Schwarzenegger could recoup some of his lost ground with Latino voters. On Thursday, the day before the Los Angeles Times reported racially questionable comments by the governor, Congreso participants unanimously approved a resolution calling on Schwarzenegger to free a Latino prisoner imprisoned under California’s three-strikes law for cheating on a Department of Motor Vehicles exam.

The Reyes’ case has drawn the attention of anti-three-strikes activists because his supporters say it is a prime example of the law being used to give long sentences to offenders who pose no public threat.

Reyes first strike consisted of stealing a boom box out of a house in 1981 when he was 17. His second strike came five years later when he was convicted of robbery. Prosecutors said Reyes threatened someone with a roofing knife during that crime, something Reyes has denied. He then had no offenses for the next 11 years, a period in which he worked steadily, got married and fathered two children. At no time, his supporters note, did he ever actually attack anyone. (CapWeekly 9/14/2006)

For a moment, ignoring the overcrowding problem, 3 strikes is just a simple violation of human rights.  Reyes is something of a modern-day Jean Valjean with supporters such as his legal counsel Matt Gonzales, the former SF Supervisor. 

3 Strikes is just plain wrong.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Rasmussen has another poll out (wow, that was quick!).  As always, this will be added to the Poll HQ shortly.

In California’s competitive gubernatorial race, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger now leads Democratic challenger Phil Angelides 47% to 39% (see crosstabs). He has thus added a couple points to what had been a six-point lead in August.(Rasmussen Reports 9/12/06)

On the plus side, Arnold did lose a point from 48 to 47.  Of course, that’s all within the margin, but, well, you take positives where you can get them, right?

I now offer my most sincere apologies to Jude Barry.  He was right, I was wrong.  Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joe Lieberman are in fact the Real Twins.  Now, I still disagree about the polling data from the CT-Sen race.  No, I’m talking about the sheer incompetence of the IT staff of both candidates.  We all know about the extended outage of joe2006.com, but we are now slowly learning about the incompetence of Arnold’s web people.

The wheels are constantly moving on this story about how the LA Times got Arnold’s “Latinas are HOT” frat-boy tape, but one thing is clear.  No matter how this tape was originally attained by the Times, there was some incompetence involved.  According to the California Majority Report the tape was available on a public server through the search function on the governor’s web site.  To be clear, the speech appears not to be linked from the “speech” section, but rather it was found through searches using the site search tool provided on gov.ca.gov.

As previously reported by CMR, the information was obtained on Governor Schwarzenegger’s public website. While the Governor’s page no longer allows this, users could previously search a backend directory listing that showed every file on the public server, even files not linked to the main page. The tape could have been obtained in this way, and it required neither access to “a password protected area” nor an “illegal hack.” CMR does not know who initially found the tape, but we are confident that the tape could have been acquired without breaking any laws.(CMR 9/12/06)

My first question would not be how did the Times get the tapes, but WHY DID HE SAY THESE THINGS?  Behind closed doors or not, it’s just stupid.  What value could those remarks have offered him?  But more relevant to the current discussion, is Why were these tapes posted to the internet at all, secure on not secure?  Again, what value would that tape carry to his staff.  And if his speechwriters really needed to know that he was a bigoted frat boy, which I imagine they already knew, why didn’t they just listen to the tapes offline.  Or, sent the tape through email or shared it via a flash disk.  Like the Beautiful South says, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb. So, if the governor’s staff can’t hide his bigoted tapes, that’s incompetence, not illegality.

And that’s something JoeMentum knows all about.

The September Zogby/WSJ Poll is now available.  It has Arnold ahead by 3.5 points. 

Schwarzenegger (R) 43.5%
Angelides(D) 40%

A quick caveat, this poll has a bit of a problem with its method of acquiring a random sample.  It typically tends to favor Dems.  However, looking at the trends, the race has tightened up, in at least a minor way, since the previous poll a month ago.  Also, Arnold is still hovering below the 50% line, dangerous territory for incumbents.

Arnold rode in on a horse of reform.  He’s riding to re-election on a horse of special interest cash.  He’s raised nearly $100 Million dollars of special interest cash to date, and now Former Gov. George Deukmejian is chastising him for taking money during the bill signing/veto period.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was not inspecting the orange crop when he slipped out of the state for a quick trip to Florida, and he wasn’t eyeing a new set of wheels when he visited with car dealers.

Nor was he parched when he bellied up to liquor dealers in Lake Tahoe, or craving a burger when he chatted with Jack-in-the-Box owners. Rather, he was gobbling up campaign money at each stop.

As legislators were approving more than 1,000 bills in August, Schwarzenegger was crossing the state, and the country, soliciting campaign cash. Now, as he decides whether to sign those bills into law or nix them with a veto, he will be cashing checks from scores of contributors whose interests intersect with legislation.
{snip}
Former Gov. George Deukmejian, a Republican and a Schwarzenegger backer who chastised Davis for raising money during bill signings, similarly criticized the current governor in an interview last week.

“Personally, I think that should be avoided because it a very sensitive time,” Deukmejian said. (LA Times 9/11/06)

Does he need the money so badly that he can’t wait until the veto period expires?  I guess so.  He just can’t resist a few special interest dollars.  So much for reforming Sacramento, huh?