Ok, we’re going to try to get back into the habit of doing these.  Feel free to chat about whatever passes through your ears…

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* Republicans are looking to take away $2B of stimulus money intended for California HSR in the next session.  Look for more on this here tomorrow.

* Steve Cooley beat Meg Whitman in absolute votes.  This isn’t much consolation, as he is running over 40,000 votes behind Kamala Harris, but it has to be something.  Typically there is a big dropoff after the top of the ticket, and this year is no exception. But Whitman did that poorly.  Cooley spent about $1.55/vote, while Whitman spent about $36.63.  Wow. That’s going to leave a mark of Grif’s inheritance.

*  Former Dept. of Finance director Mike Genest’s firm picked up two new hires: two long-time (and influential) Assembly budget staffers.

* Peter Schrag has a great column on gridlock and the two santa clause theory.

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* A judge ruled that the Governor can’t unilaterally cancel holidays for state workers.

* Apparently Jerry Brown’s campaign knew a couple of weeks ago about “housekeeper” problems for Meg Whitman. So, that makes what kind of case exactly?

* Two very different polls. CNN shows the big lead for Dems, while PPIC shows a near dead heat.

* PPIC also showed 52% of likely voters support Prop 19 for controlling and taxing cannabis.

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* Beer brewers are going all in on the “wreck the state” initiatives. CalWatch has a report on their spending for the 2/3 fee measure (Prop 26) and against the majority vote budget (Prop 25).

* CalBuzz tears apart the GOP logic on the LA Times poll. Both Whitman and Fiorina didn’t like the way the results were, but pretty much ignored facts that they had in their spin releases.

* Treasurer Lockyer is seeking a bridge loan for $5 Billion for the period after the budget is enacted.

* The Governor delayed the first execution in years until after his appeals are exhausted on September 30.

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* Meg thinks Fresno is awful! Worse than Detroit apparently.  I’m sure when she’s running on Romney’s ticket, the people of Michigan are going to love that just as much as the people of Fresno liked it.

* CalBuzz analyzes just how wrong AP’s story on Jerry Brown and the death penalty really was.  And by wrong, they mean totally out of the ballpark, nowhere near the truth, zero research wrong.  AP edited and reissued the story, but they owe not only Brown, but the truth and the people of California, an apology.

* Stephen Colbert is going to testify on a UFW and Farm Bureau bill. He interviewed Zoe Lofgren about the bill for last night’s show.  For tonight, they’ll air a segment of Colbert working on a farm.

* Jerry Brown challenges Meg Whitman to support climate change regulation, and back off her pledge to suspend AB 32.

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* Meg Whitman dumped another $15 million into her campaign, breaking the all-time record in self-funding for a campaign, previously set by Michael Bloomberg in his 2009 reelection. She plans to spend $150 million.

* Meg also got an earful at Yelp while talking to their employees.

* And oh yeah, she is telling the cops what they want to hear. Apparently, cops and firefighters aren’t subject to her pension plans…just because. Teachers? Yup.

* Jerry Brown is investigating a legal consultant for taking big payouts from public coffers.

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* UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies is having a panel discussion on the governor’s race on Sept 20.

* Dr. Ami Bera is hitting Dan Lungren on his pension.  There’s a lot of grist with Lungren.  Hopefully we will see something that focuses on the pension rather than the ethics issues and Lungren’s poor positions on the issues.

* Lots of discussion about Jerry Brown’s apology to Bill Clinton. According to CalBuzz, Clinton was going to campaign for Jerry before the bad joke. Also, Clinton endorsed Brown later in the day.

* Speaker Pelosi’s GOP competitor has an ad up. Verrrry classy.

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* No preliminary injunction for the top-two primary.  The trial moves forward, however.

* Conservatives are going after St. Abel Maldonado to get him to appeal Judge Walker’s Prop 8 decision. Setting aside any feelings about prop 8, such a move would bring a gun to the relationship of the Governor and his legislative puppet.

* Speaking of the Governor, he delivered a speech in China that gave the Chinese a lot of credit for their work on green tech.

* The AP fact checks another misleading Whitman TV ad.  

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* Well, Arnold hasn’t lost his sense of humor. He made fun of Sarah Palin as he was flying over Anchorage.  He tweeted this photo to the right and said “Over Anchorage, AK. Looking everywhere but can’t see Russia from here. Will keep you updated as search continues.”  

* John Myers looks back at the first 8 years of Jerry Brown, Governor, and does a little fact-checking of recent ads.

* The ACLU of Southern California is suing school districts across the state for the fees they are charging as unconstituional. Under the California constitution, students haver the right to a free education.

* The supporters of Prop 23, decided that they are going to lose on the issues.  Well, that is basically the only possibility given their attacks on the 89-year old George Shultz, a co-chair for the No on 23 campaign.

* Robert was KALW’s Your Call Radio this week to talk about the California election. You can listen to the MP3 here.  

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* Carly Fiorina did so well the first time, she wants another debate! The two major party candidates for the Senate race have scheduled another debate on September 29.

* As China welcomes the Governor, there is a lot of unfinished business in Sacramento.

* Wow, that was short. We wrote about GenM, the Young Professionals twitter account for eMeg, and now they went and talked smack about Carly Fiorina’s HP.  Well, big surprise, the twitter account has now been deleted.

* Jerry Brown rolled out a new radio ad.

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* Carly. The Tea Party. Marin County.  Oh to be a fly on the wall, but no luck as it is closed to the press.

* It is a tough time for incumbents, especially Dan Lungren and Jerry McNerney. That being said, the Republican in McNerney’s district ran against Garamendi last year.  That has to have some negative repurcussions.

* More on the funders of Prop 23, the dirty energy prop.