Legislation would give flexibility to determine best outcome for children.
By Brian Leubitz
Sen. Mark Leno’s SB1476 recently passed out of the legislature, and has some relatively simple changes to law that could go a long way to ensuring children get the best possible outcomes during times of instability in their family lives.
Before the end of the month, California could join the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maine, Louisiana and Pennsylvania allowing more than two legal parents.
Governor Jerry Brown has until September 30 to decide whether to sign Senate Bill 1476 by San Francisco state senator Mark Leno. It permits a previous custodial or biological parent to have parental rights and take care of a child if the two current legal parents are no longer capable, as long as doing so is required to protect the child’s best interests. (WashTimes)
This bill will help not only many LGBT families, but is a step in the right direction for the modern general blended family. We should be welcoming of people who are willing to step up to be in the life of a child.
Just in time for November election, SOS allows online voter registration
by Brian Leubitz
It is a good day for democracy in California. Legislation that allowed for online registration was enacted last year and today online voter reg kicked off. The first Californians to register online did so even before the official announcement:
California’s new one-click, online voter registration went live early Wednesday, but before Secretary of State Debra Bowen could officially make that announcement at an 11:30 a.m. news conference, 3,000 new voters already had used the system to register.
That response, Bowen said, was triggered only by “a few tweets” from some county elections officials who spread the news via Twitter earlier in the morning. …
“This is great news for democracy,” she said. “One of the main reasons people don’t register to vote is because they are never asked to do so. Now, someone can ask them with an email that includes a link to online registration.”(VCStar)
Online registration requires that your signature be on file with the DMV, but is otherwise smooth sailing.
Register online today at RegistertoVote.ca.gov. The deadline to vote in the November 6 election is Oct. 22, so get those e-forms in right away.
Ad shows that funders of Prop 32 give themselves exemptions
Today, the NO on Proposition 32 campaign released its first TV advertisementof the campaign, highlighting the fact that the same powerful corporate special interests that are funding Proposition 32 are exempt from its carefully-crafted provisions. Watch the ad:
This is simple, Prop 32 claims it will stop campaign spending by special interests, but it exempts those who are funding the campaign. Those special interests will have free reign to give themselves more tax breaks, while the middle class pays the price. Prop 32 is just not what it seems.
But a quick breakdown on what Prop 32 would do. The supporters claim it will get corporate and labor money out of politics, but that isn’t even remotely close to being the case. With the rise of independent expenditures, huge amounts of money are tossed about without going to candidates. Yet, Prop 32 doesn’t even touch those.
But what it is really about is “paycheck deception.” Back in 1998 and 2005, Californians voted down similar measures, but here it is again. Prop 32 goes even further by completely banning paycheck deductions for political purposes, even with express permission. For corporations, that isn’t a big deal at all. After all, their money comes from their corporate treasury. For labor, while political paycheck deductions are already completely voluntary, they are very important. Long story short, Prop 32 is just another means to silence working Californians, while allowing the SuperPAC Billionaires free rein over our governance.
And the fact that the American Future Fund (AFF) a SuperPAC with ties to Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers contributed $4million to support Prop 32 makes this all the more clear. How can you argue that you are trying to create political reform when one of your largest donors is an anonymous SuperPAC?
Share the video with your networks and get the word out about the deceptive Proposition 32.
American Future Fund (AFF) creates $4Mil Yes on 32 Committee
by Brian Leubitz
While the Yes on 32 team would have Californians believe that Prop 32 is just a good ol’ political reform measure, any notion of that should go by the boards now:
Look what just arrived in the Friday-afternoon-news-dump: A $4 million contribution to Prop 32 … So what’s the connection between the donor – the Des Moines, Iowa-based American Future Fund – and the billionaire conservative financiers the Koch brothers? Because of opaque campaign finance laws, tracing the money is a challenge. Politico makes the case here. (SF Chronicle)
If you follow that Politico link you will see that AFF is connected to the Center to Protect Patient Rights, a Koch-funded “nonprofit” that gives out money to other groups that do much of the dirty work.
What we now have in Prop 32 is not only a deceptive measure, but one that is being supported by the very folks that want to obliterate all campaign finance regulations. This clearly puts the lie to this being about anything other than an anti-labor scheme. More than ever this is the time that we need to roll up our sleeves and make sure our neighbors understand what this tricky measure really is.
You can start today by sharing the Chronicle story with your friends on facebook and twitter. But more important is that direct communication with friends and co-workers that is the most persuasive. There are just over seven weeks remaining, and we need to make them count.
I’ve mentioned before that online purchases aren’t supposed to be tax-free. Purchasers are supposed to pay use tax, but it turns out that few people actually do that. After the big hubub last year with Amazon threatening California affiliates, they agreed to start collecting taxes in 2012. And guess what, that date is tomorrow, September 15.
A deal inked last year between Amazon and Sacramento means that, for most items shipped from the online retailer’s warehouses, sales tax will be collected at checkout starting tomorrow. But, as CNET reported earlier this week, that doesn’t apply to hundreds of thousands of items “fulfilled” by Amazon from its warehouses on behalf of other sellers.
That means a New York camera shop could have inventory located in an Amazon warehouse outside of San Francisco, and provide next-day — or even same-day — tax-free delivery to northern California customers.
“You can assume we’ll have ways of finding out who’s holding stocks of goods in California,” a representative of the State Board of Equalization, which collects California sales taxes, told CNET. “We have enforcement authority to obtain information in a variety of ways. We’ll be approaching them with respect to their tax obligations.” (CNET)
It won’t bring the deficit down overnight, but everything helps these days. The marketplace sellers, while substantial, are relatively small, but those too will also come in line.
Republican(ish) Senators endorse Howard Berman in race with Brad Sherman
by Brian Leubitz
I suppose this is a good thing for Howard Berman? Maybe?
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as well as Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have endorsed Berman, his campaign said Monday. …
“Howard Berman understands how to reach across the aisle to get things done on behalf of our nation,” Graham said in a statement released by the Berman campaign. “He works hard every day to advance America’s agenda and has been instrumental in passing laws to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, stop arms sales to nations that support terrorism, and keep our country safe.”
I guess this might net him a few votes, but I can’t imagine it is going to tip the scales in one way or another. Just seems kind of strange.
Back when he was running in the primary against Beth Gaines, Andy Pugno was very against a Republican on Republican race.
“If I came in behind Beth Gaines, I would honor the expression of Republican voters and endorse her campaign and not actively campaign myself,” Pugno said in an interview with The Bee today.(SacBee Capitol Alert)
Well, today, the tune has changed:
“As the only other candidate on the November ballot, stepping aside and simply handing the election to Beth Gaines would be fundamentally unfair to the voters in light of a primary election tainted by her blatant dishonesty,” Pugno said in the written statement. “Whether or not the incumbent should be re‐elected is a decision that belongs to the voters, not just to me.”(SacBee)
In this case, that blatant dishonesty is connecting Pugno to an extreme right-wing anti-gay group. No, not the many that he’s actually connected to, but the one where he just shared an address with, the Pacific Policy Research Foundation. This one also happened to run some skeezy legislative junkets, but really doesn’t differ all that much from the others. But, apparently, it was enough to set Pugno off.
With several Dem-on-Dem races, I suppose one can hope for some sort of expensive bloodbath that costs a ton of money that could have gone elsewhere. Pugno already picked up a check from Asm. Grove (R-Bakersfield), a check that might have gone elsewhere had Pugno stepped down. So, hooray for that I suppose.
Governor Brown was kind of busy last week. You know, with the whole budget thing. So today he spoke with Candy Crowley on CNN, who apparently hasn’t taken the time to figure out what is going on with the budget.
First on Obama, Brown said that the “contrast and the difference is reasonably clear. Romney almostreminds me of Thomas Dewey … who symbolizes the moneyed East. … Obama represents the common man.”
With taxes such an issue, especially for the wealthiest Americans, Brown makes a valuable point. Romney has argued for more and more tax cuts on the rich, despite the fact that the wealthiest in America have doubled their share of income. And Brown has a history with jobs, and recognizes that Obama’s plan for jobs is more substantive to “build the stuff that makes America.”
He also said that the “Republicans should get out of the way and let the stimulus work.”
Meanwhile, when the subject drifted to the budget, Crowley seemed completely at sea. She knew these facts: 1) Brown is asking for tax hikes and 2) California is in debt.
Brown responded to the first question (why is California, a relatively high tax state asking for more money) by noting some of California’s successes in venture capital and job creation and the vast cuts he has made. Crowley responded to that by asking the “then why are you in debt?” with a seemingly gotcha look.
Had she done a bit of research, she might have figured out that the previous governor rode into office on tax cuts and then never bothered to pay for them. Brown noted that fact, but Crowley was soon off following another dramatic story. That would be Brown’s challenge of Gov. Christie. I’ll let you watch the video for that. The whole video is pretty short and definitely worth the few minutes.
As an aside, what he didn’t mention and what is frequently ignored, especially by national commentary, is the two Californias. Coastal California is a wealthy area with relatively low unemployment. On the other hand, once you head east a bit, especially into the Central Valley, you find a very different community. Like the nation, the Coast subsidizes these poorer areas, tax money generally flows inland. And ironically enough, many of these areas vote heavily in favor of the devotees of Norquist. But we still have a lot to do to repair the economy of the agricultural heart of the state.
That being said, how much longer our schools can continue to absorb these cuts before they completely collapse is anybody’s guess. Per pupil spending is among the lowest in the nation while our prison spending continues to rise. But always the call is for more cuts…
American Future Fund (AFF) creates $4Mil Yes on 32 Committee