Today’s California Blog Roundup on the flip.  Teasers:  Schwarzenegger’s steadfast commitment to saying whatever he thinks people want to hear, Westly & Angelides, immigration / mother tongues / National Guard, CA-04, CA-11, CA-50, other fun stuff.

Race for Governor

• At Alliance for a Better California, Juila was whacking Schwarzeneger like a piñata over the weekend. First, she notes that Arnold seems to be trying to buy off the voters with his sudden leftward shift. Then, Arnold abandons George Bush for the election, at least. Last, Arnold’s consistent first person singular followed by excuses.
• Bill Cavala (guest-post, CPR) thinks that the way the Democratic gov’s primary is being fought won’t really make a difference in the November general.
• Scott Clayton of Get Your Blog Up is not so optimistic. He thinks that Californians (especially the SoCalis) are pretty much “and a pony” thinkers, and worries about the tax-and-spend attacks from Schwarzenegger.
• Dan Ancona at Speak Out California responds (implicitly) to Scott. Did you know that California’s tax system is regressive overall? Also, Angelides’ people respond to the Westly “$10 Billion” ad at Speak Out CA.
• The Mad Professah endorses Angelides.
• The Pragmatic Progressive semi-endorses Westly (and makes some endorsements in other races as well).

Immigration Issues

• Ariel doesn’t like the Senate’s recent vote to make English the official US language. Nope, not one bit.
• Martini Republic thinks that we should purge the Spanish place names. I agree, and since the Catholic Church is immigrant-friendly, let’s get rid of the Catholicism as well. I, for one, want to live in Frank, California.
• And a post you really should read on this language issue: “ The Language Policy Debate” By US West (a Citizen).
• Marc Cooper reprints a NYT Editorial on the immigration mishigas (that last is a foreign word). It’s shockingly sensible.
• Frank Russo collects a variety of source materials on the issue of deploying the California National Guard at the Mexican border.

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• CQ Politics gives us their view of the CA-11 race. The anger at Paid-For Pombo’s reflexive hatred of the planet is center-stage.
• In that vein, it appears that Paid-For Pombo is feeling the heat. He’s started to be for destroying the environment in committee, but against destroying the environment on the floor of the House. Come on, Paid-For! Be a man! Destroy the environment all the time or not at all. And don’t forget to lie about how much the environment hates America.
• Down With Tyranny on the importance of the CA-11 primary for grassroots politics.
• Jonathan Singer of MyDD interviewed Jerry McNerney.
• The CA-11 Blog tells us that the Cook Report has moved CA-11 into “Lean Republican” from “Likely Republican”.

15% Doolittle / CA-50

• It’s possible that the Auburn Journal (15% Doolittle’s hometown paper) has endorsed Mike Holmes in the Republican primary. And this sort of thing may be why.
• Words Have Power reminds us that 15% Doolittle has already pocketed $37,500 of the $250,000 that Dick Cheney has raised for him. I wasn’t aware that it was possible for money to be tainted in that many ways.
• One more time: 15% Doolittle is corrupt.

CA-50, Miscellany

• Down With Tyranny on the importance of the CA-50 special election runoff for grassroots politics. Yes, it’s the same post.
• Dogged Blog asks the question nobody dares to ask: “ Is Gavin Newsom pretty enough to be President?”
• Robert Haaland of Left in SF takes Debra Saunders to task for her attacks on the LGBT community. Frankly, Saunders’ work is barely worth the pixels it takes to display her name, but I can understand why Robert was ticked.
• Loni Hancock, guest posting at California Progress Report, explains that the high school exit exam is not a best practice.
• The Santa Clara County Dems blog finds the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commmerce crossing the line in their recent mailer for the San Jose mayor’s race.
• Good gravy, mandated term limits are stupid.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. I’m pressed for time, so it ain’t as pretty as it normally is, but I’ve tried to sort things properly. No teasers, sorry.

• Hey, folks. Remember how much of CA’s recent good economy is built on building? Home sales are starting to tank, both north and south.
• Speaking of homes, see this guest piece from California Progress Report on some sensible measures for preventing and paying for floods.
• It’s going to be slow trains in California for the forseeable future, voter wishes be damned.
• Remember, it were a Democrat who wanted the infrastructure bond, and it were Democrats who delivered it.
• Julia on the negative air war in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Dan Ancona on the better world he wishes we lived in.
• Julia again on Schwarzenegger’s fundraising. Sure, those aren’t special interests. Sure, there’s no strings on that money. Public financing, people.
• Greg Dewar doesn’t think much of the Westly campaign.
• Arnold says, “Please stop me. I can’t control myself.“
• D-Day ain’t optimistic, given Arnold’s current “reasonable moderate” shtick. Schwarzenegger is betting the public will forget his alliance with the extremist Republicans and the expensive special election power grab of 2005 long enough for him to get a chance to do it again.
• Randy Bayne catches Schwarzenegger resurrecting a defunct agency by packing it with his cronies, just to undercut the Democrats drive for increasing the minimum wage and adding cost of living adjustments.
• For them as care, Left in SF has the SF Guardian’s endorsements for the June election (state and local).
• There are a lot of immigration thoughts this week. First, Life Goes Off.
• Next, Marc Cooper, with the “My Granny Was Legal” myth.
• Robert Silvey of Rubicon, on the Bush Border Speech. Silvey’s writing is great; I wish he wrote more about CA politics.
• The Blue Voice rounds up reactions to the Bush Border Speech.
• Brad Plumer, on the assimilation of Latino immigrants (they do, and do well).
• Remember, there’s a whole country on the other side of the proposed border wall, with its own domestic politics. Well, at least someone will make money.
• The Blue Voice rounds up reactions to the Bush Border Speech.
• Ouch, just ouch.
• Last, the Talent Show, displaying common sense and fairness.
• The Party Line has a series of reports on the 50 State Canvas: Hollywood, SoCal, Central Valley, NorCal.
• Pombo Watch on the May 16 Tracy Republican CA-11 Candidates’ Forum. Say No To Pombo was there as well, and they were not impressed with Paid-For Pombo’s performance.
• Progressive 11th notices that Paid-For Pombo isn’t keeping his term-limit promise. Big Shock. He also can’t tell the difference between “legal” and “right”. Seriously, modern Republicans simply have no moral compass.
• The Senate Elections Committee punts on AB 583, the Clean Money Bill. (More here.)
• Common Cause Comments on Clean Money. As do these two gentlemen. Last, goatchowder, posting at Daily Kos, gives the common citizen’s impressions.
• Martini Republic interviews Brad Friedman of the BradBlog voting machine police.

(Bumped for visibility over my long front-pager(s) – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: November initiative preview, the race for governor (money and TV ads, same as always), the budget process, education stuff, reform stuff, 15% Doolitle, Paid-For Pombo, immigration, typical Republicans, CA-50, CA-45, urban living.

Initiative Preview

John Myers runs down the likely November ballot initiatives, which apparently don’t include the initiative to constitutionalize religious opposition to homosexuality. We’ll be writing more about these as the summer wears on.

Governor’s Race

• More money for Schwarzenegger from the usual suspects.
• More money for Westly from the usual suspect.
• New ad from Phil Angelides, and a promised new pro-Anglides IE ad from the unions. And one more new ad each from both the Angelides and Westly campaigns.
• Greg Dewar wants you to tell him about the campaign mailers you get.

Education

• Assembly Democrats lay out their differences with Governor Schwarzenegger with respect to, vis-a-vis, and regarding the new budget. Alberto Torrico (AD-20), chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee thinks that Schwarzenegger is shorting transportation costs.
• Educational Justice Blog reminds us that the big chunk of education funding in Schwarzenegger’s budget is only there because ABC and the CTA browbeat the Governor into actually keeping his promise. Why is it that Schwarzenegger needed to be pursued by the very people he attacked last year in order to keep a promise he made to the children of California?
• California Progress Report has a guest piece expressing concerns about the high school exit exam.
• The Mad Professah has written a thoughtful (and brief) post on the high school exit exam.
• Randy Bayne is not so impressed with Sheila Kuhl’s proposal to call out the contributions of GLBT folks in California textbooks, arguing that it perpetuates labelling. I would have agreed with Randy once, but the problem is that almost everyone assumes that people (historical or otherwise) straight unless it’s pointed out that they’re not. Not mentioning a difference like that continues the assumption that GLBT folks haven’t contributed.

Reform & Reformers

• Californians are interested in non-partisan redistricting: SCA 3, Common Cause, and the League of Women Voters.
• Debra Bowen would like $25K from the grassroots (which one has to assume includes the netroots). If you give, throw on a penny so they know where it comes from.

Immigration

• Marc Cooper reacts to Bush’s immigration speech: tried to steer a middle course without offending anyone, and in the process, offended his base. The discussion in comments is worth reading as well.
• Tom Hilton points us to a story in which an undocumented immigrant is paid below minimum wage, fights her employer on it, and then, surprise surprise surprise, is “anonymously” reported to INS. To the extend that undocumented immigration may depress wages in certain sectors, that would be why.
• Ms. Geek has Round 2 of an immigration discussion she’s been hosting / having.
• Old Hickory’s Weblog is talking sense, and so is sure to be ignored.
• David Neiwert is not in California, but this post is worth a glance.
• Does anyone remember Cheech Marin in “Born in East LA”? The Republicans do. Papers, please.
• Ooooh, shiny!

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• Apparently, Paid-For Pombo is feeling the pinch on his sacrifice of the California salmon fisheries. So, the correct response is? You guessed it: destroy marine sancturies. The guy is a one man cascade failure.
• Paid-For Pombo is all about stifling dissent, both in committee and in his campaign.
• It seems that the Pombo-McCloskey debate was a slugfest. Good.
• If I lived in CA-11, I would not vote for Pete McCloskey in the general, although I don’t think he’s a bad guy. I think a Republican majority in the House is a bad thing. The Republican Party is just too corrupt and too destructive for the few remaining honest Republicans to try to rein in. Pete McCloskey is not really a modern Republican, a charge also made by Pombo’s people. McCloskey takes umbrage and responds, proving that he’s not a modern Republican.
• Jerry McNerney on renewable energy, at Daily Kos.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

• Courtesy of Down With Doolittle, this SacBee graphic showing the CA-04 candidates.
• It’s GOOD to be on the Appropriations Committee!
• 15% Doolittle hearts sweatshops. And sweatshops heart 15% Doolittle.
• 15% Doolittle also hearts his kids, so much so that he pays for their child care out of his campaign funds. Y’know, if 15% Doolittle’s wife didn’t work outside the home collecting the family kickbacks, if they had a more traditional marriage and better family values, maybe 15% Doolittle wouldn’t have to rely on his campaign donors to take care of his children.

General Purpose Republican Corruption

• Just so we’re all clear about Paid-For Pombo and 15% Doolittle, VP Dick Cheney is coming to California to raise funds for them. Three of a kind: self-dealing extremists with nothing but contempt for democracy and civil liberties.
• Still more corruption from California Republicans. This time it’s Ken Calvert (CA-44), with a classic scam: buy some land, legislate to increase the land value, sell some land, repeat until wealthier.
• Down With Tyranny continues to do yeomans’s work on the avatar of Republican corruption that is Jerry Lewis (CA-41). See also this from Pacific Views. California Republicans must be so shameless proud.

The Rest

• Now Bill Hauf is in the CA-50 primary race. Jon Fleischman must be very happy.

Also, AnthonyLA at DailyKos documents the Republican lies in CA-50 and asks, inter alia: “This is the guy that isn’t conservative enough for the California Republicans?”

• Uneasy Rhetoric puts up a good discussion of the perceived costs and benefits of living in a far-flung suburb vs. living in a city center.
• That Mad Professah is talking about AD-45 again. This time it’s about LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s endorsement.
• California Republicans at their finest.

[Originally posted by Generik on NorCal Politics, December 13, 2005]

Is anyone surprised that Governor Arnold decided not to grant clemency to Tookie Williams? I’m not. I would have been much more surprised had he done so. Faced with a chance to do the morally right thing — indeed, to open up the question of capital punishment itself, the way the former governor of Illinois did when he declared a moratorium on the death penalty in that state — Arnold caved to the prevailing winds. He saw his popularity take a massive hit in the past year with his special election initiatives being unceremoniously kicked to the curb last November, saw his support drop precipitously among his base with his appointment of alleged Democrat Susan Kennedy as his Chief of Staff and naming of moderate justice Carol Corrigan to the State Supreme Court, and probably decided to take a pass on doing anything bold and/or controversial in this matter. That a two-thirds majority of Americans still back the death penalty — even if that number has come down significantly in the past ten years or so — made his decision a pretty safe bet.

So now California has one more state-sponsored death on its hands, the subject of whether the death penalty is fair or moral or not is swept aside for another day and Arnold gets to bask in the approval of those folks out there who have no qualms about this country continuing the barbaric practice of executing its citizens. What’s even sadder is the thought that former Governor Gray Davis would probaby have done the exact same thing under the circumstances.

"I will no longer tinker with the machinery of death." Where is Justice Harry Blackman when we need him?

It’s big, it’s belated, it’s bloggy. Today’s California blog roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Republican corruption, Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger, 15% Doolittle, Paid-For Pombo (and CA-11 generally), CA-50, immigration, net neutrality, voting machines, auto insurance.

Republican Corruption

• Now-classic Republican corruption from Jerry Lewis (CA-41). Bottom line: if you elect people who say they don’t believe in government, you shouldn’t be surprised when they steal from the taxpayers.
• Down With Tyranny has more … lots more … on Jerry Lewis’s corruption.
• Even more interesting: Schwarzenegger has taken over $87K from Brent Wilkes and associates. Seriously, pretty much every dollar Wilkes gives is tainted. It’s all gotten through bribery of politicians, and generally intended to be bribery OF the recipient politician.
• Pombo corrupt? CREW (and pretty much every vertebrate on the planet) believes that to be the case. Now if only a congresscritter would file CREW’s ethics complaint…
• Let’s see… 15% Doolittle took $82,000 in “campaign contributions” from Brent Wilkes (favorite bribery partner of many Republicans) which nets out to… $12,300 for Doolittle personally. I’m told that every man has his price, but it’s interesting that Doolittle’s is so very low.
• Wow, just wow. The House Republicans actually demanded that Nancy Pelosi remove Mollohan from the Appropriations Committee. I think that may be the paradigmatic example of gall.

Governor’s Race + A Little About Bonds

• Schwarzenegger continues to run away from his party in the hopes that everyone will forget his 2005 power grab. Today’s issue: offshore drilling. I wonder how he feels about the intentional throttling of refinery capacity to increase oil company profits?
• Run away, Arnold, run away. Maybe we’ll forget.
• This is interesting. Schwarzenegger ensures light regulation of levees to ease the way for developers to make money building behind them. No concern for the people who buy the houses, though. The developers will have already made their cash.
• Julia Rosen on the air war in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
• Randy Bayne on the bonds in the race for governor. Frank Russo on the same topic.
• Frank Russo on the divisions on the Republican side over the bonds. Also, Frank thinks that the bonds were the right thing to do for the state, regardless of the fallout. Me too.
• The Mad Professah is happy that both Westly and Angelides are supportive of equal rights for GLBT Californians. He promises an endorsement next week.
• California Observer has a rundown of the consultant situation for the three major candidates for governor. In exponentially increasing order of consultant-richness: Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger.

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• Richard Pombo’s hometown newspaper comes out for McCloskey in the Republican primary in CA-11. So does the Sacramento Bee (and they endorse Filson in the Democratic primary). The Merc endorsed McCloskey and McNerney.
• The League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Pete McCloskey, as has the California Teachers’ Association.
• The Progressive 11th has a summary of McNerney & Pombo news.
• Down With Tyranny endorses McNerney… again. No, seriously, it’s worth a read.

CA-50

• SD Politics has Busby tied with Bilbray on June 6 in a SurveyUSA poll. Could be an outlier, though. SD Politics also asks a good question: if Bilbray can’t get his party to line up behind him, can he get voters to do so?
• Speaking of that, apparently another extremist Republican is considering running against Bilbray.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

Dump Doolittle has one of the best letters to the editor that I think I’ve seen. Also, they’ve got the SacBee’s endorsement of Mike Holmes in the CA-04 Republican primary.

Immigration

• Ms. Geek walks through some of the issues that should be considered in thinking about immigration policy.
• So does janinsanfran.
• It’s not from California, but let’s be clear: Nativism has a long history in the US and it almost always sounds exactly the same.

Net Neutrality

• Nancy Pelosi comes out for net neutrality. We are pleased.
• Greg Dewar has a long piece on why net neutrality is important, given that individuals have very little choice about their internet provider. Actually, it’s an extended rant on how his ISP has failed him, but it amounts to the same thing.

Other

• Someone explain to me again exactly why electronic voting machines are a good idea. I’m just not seeing it.
• I’m stoked. Dave Johnson at Seeing The Forest has a rare post on California politics, and it’s even on auto insurance. Specifically, it’s on the auto insurance companies’ anti-Garamendi IE campaign.
• The Educational Justice Blog posts on Governor Schwarzenegger finally starting to keep his word on repaying the money borrowed from school funding. (A word to the wise: Just because you can do all kinds of fun things with font size and color, doesn’t mean you should.)
• John Drzal rips into Wally Herger for the classic bait-and-switch Republican tax tactic.