Tag Archives: Immigration

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, Health Care

California Blog Roundup, 6/26.06

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-04, CA-11, Richard Pombo, John Doolittle, Brian Bilbray, Ken Calvert, health care, corruption, immigration.

Governor’s Race

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

15% Doolittle / CA-04

Other Republican Paragons

Health Care

Immigration

Reform

Miscellany

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, Environment

California Blog Roundup, 6/24/06

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-04, CA-11, Richard Pombo, John Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, David Dreier, corruption, environment, immigration, minimum wage, reform. And now back to Mexico v. Argentina.

Governor’s Race

Jerry McNerney / CA-11

  • The DNC interviews Jerry McNerney. Funny, where’s the DCCC on this? Isn’t this supposed to be their beat? Rahm?

  • Check out Congressional Quarterly for some evolving conventional wisdom on Jerry McNerney and CA-11.

  • Pombowatch reflects on the Republican Primary in CA-11. Worth reading for anyone who actually cares about the country.

  • Paid-For Pombo is finally doing something for college students: he’s offering jobs in his campaign. This is how patronage works, folks: you collect money from powerful interests by virtue of your position, then you do them favors, and eventually some small amount of the money you collect (which is a small amount of the money you made for the the powerful interests) trickles down to people willing to work for you. Oh, and when you’re done doing legislative favors for powerful interests, you work for them directly as a lobbyist.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

Other Republican Paragons

  • Down With Tyranny follows up on the nasty push-poll that Dreier’s campaign was using in the Democratic Primary in CA-26. Seems like it’s a standard Republican tactic — Lee Atwater and Karl Rove between them pretty much destroyed any integrity that Republican campaigns might have had.

  • Jerry Lewis still a crook.

  • Bill Cavala gets to the core of the Republican corruption problem: when you don’t believe in government at all, why not strip-mine it for your personal benefit? Republican leaders aren’t corrupt by their own lights — they don’t think what they’re doing is wrong.

The World Around Us

Immigration

What Is Villaraigosa’s Deal?

Reform

  • Voting reform and privacy concerns: why have the Republicans turned these into partisan footballs? Don’t they want reliable vote counting and a zone of privacy for all citizens? No? Why not?

  • Randy Bayne, who has really ramped up the posting recently, writes on the legislature’s proposed linkage of term limit relaxation with redistricting reform. I’m not all that convinced that the two are or should be related (except as it might be necessary to get incumbents on side), but it’s an interesting read.

  • Hannah-Beth Jackson writes on a bipartisan effort in the legislature to better fund non-profits that help developmentally disabled adults work. Of interest is that all four legislators (including the single Republican) involved have personal experience with developmentally disabled children. While I’m encouraged by this effort, I’m saddened by the failure of imagination and empathy implied, and which is most evident in California’s Republican party.

  • Kvatch is tearing his hair out. Schwarzenegger administration officials get an 18% pay raise to keep up with inflation. And yet, Schwarzenegger and his team are resisting inflation indexing of the minimum wage. Huh. And let us not forget that the Republicans in Congress voted themselves a pay raise while rejecting any increase in the national minimum wage.

  • Journeys with Jood notes that the pay scale for the AG is below many first-year associates at large law firms (my personal benchmark for overpaid uselessness). Repeat after me until your brain stops hurting: “There is no class war. There is no class war. There is no class war.”

  • For those who might wonder how our representatives should behave, they should look to Russ Feingold. “Everybody does it” is not a defense — it’s just as much utter crap as it was when you tried it on your mom, and Russ proves it’s also false.

Miscellany

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold rejects Bush’s “request” for additional National Guard troops

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Arnold Schwarzenegger has rejected the Bush administration’s request for more troops along the border, but some Dems wonder if that’s the whole story. 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office said Friday that he turned down a White House request to more than double the number of California National Guard troops that will be deployed to the border, fearing the commitment could leave the state vulnerable if an earthquake or wildfire erupts.(LA Times 6/24/06)

More on the flip.

The Bush administration this week asked California to send an additional 1,500 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied the request, two California National Guard officials said Friday.

The National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, asked for the troops to fill recruiting shortfalls for the mission in New Mexico and Arizona. But Schwarzenegger said the request would stretch the California guard too thin if an emergency or disaster struck.

The overall deployment for the border mission would remain at 6,000, the guard officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.  Schwarzenegger’s communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, said the governor felt sending more troops was an inappropriate burden on the state and would disrupt the guard’s training schedule. (MSNBC 6/23/06)

Well, I thought this was the case with the first 1,000.  But I guess this was some sort of straw that broke the camel for Arnold I suppose.  My bigger problem with the National Guard on the border is the effectiveness issue.  Are they really doing anything that’s worthwhile of our resources?  Has anybody explained to the American people what the hell they are doing there?  Well, to my satisfaction, the answer is no.  Our National Guard is already overburdened with Bush’s War, we don’t need to have them down on the border with some vague non-strategy.

UPDATE: The LA Times  also has a story about this. (H/t to It’s My Right to Be Left )  Some Dems have an interesting, and not too unlikely, take on this.  This “request” was really just an opportunity to give Schwarzenegger some political cover for the first 1000 troops. It’s a little conspiratorial, but doesn’t it just sound like a Rove/Schmidt tactic?

Schwarzenegger is running for reelection this year — at a time when his support among Latino voters is sagging. Recent polls show Schwarzenegger has the support of 25% of Latino voters — 7 points below what he received in the 2003 recall election
***
Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-Southgate) said of Schwarzenegger, “This is a way of letting him have it both ways — having the National Guard there, but at the same time letting him be the bulwark against placing additional troops on the border.”
***
Bob Mulholland, an advisor to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, said: “This so-called request [from the White House] was a phony political request to try to give Schwarzenegger political cover: ‘Look it. I’m standing up to Bush.’ But last week Schwarzenegger was a French poodle in Bush’s lap — authorizing 1,000 stressed-out, overextended National Guard members to spend weeks and months at the border, even though many of them have done two tours in Iraq.”(LA Times 6/24/06)

Yeah, it’s a bit cynical, but isn’t that really the problem?  We’ve been forced to cynicysm by manipulative administrations, both in Sacramento and Washington.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup

California Blog Roundup, 6/21/06

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-04, CA-11, CA-50, Paid-For Pombo, 15% Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, David Dreier, Brian Bilbray, corruption, immigration, minimum wage, reform.

Governor’s Race

CA-50

  • CannonFire points us to a Flash movie questioning the integrity of the vote in CA-50.

  • Look, I know that parents are not entirely responsible for their children (though most Republicans differ), but when Republicans persist in using “family values” and other culture war code words to wedgify the American people,one has to ask: what about their kids? And BTW, if Brian Bilbray supports the invasion and occupation of Iraq, I wonder if he’s encouraged his kids serving? I hear the military is short a few folks.

  • Words Have Power adds a fun fact: Bilbray sued the state of California to get in-state tuition for his kids, even though they are residents of Virginia (like Bilbray). Bilbray, however, opposes in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants. It’s a Republican hypocrisy perfect storm: Bilbray engages in lawsuit abuse to change the rules in order to get a government handout of public education for his kids, even while denying the same thing to other children.

  • I’m not sure we want to get into a war of money attrition with the Republicans, but this post by Markos is interesting nonetheless.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

Other Republican Paragons

Immigration

Helping People

Reform / Miscellany

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, Health Care

California Blog Roundup, 6/18/06

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-11, CA-50, Richard Pombo, Jerry McNerney, John Doolittle, Buck McKeown, corruption, health care, immigration, reform.

Governor’s Race

CA-11

CA-50 / Voting Integrity

Other Electoral

Republican Paradigms

Immigration

  • Governor Schwarzenegger would like some reimbursement from the Feds for border security, etc. Right, just like with No Child Left Behind — the Republican-run federal government will get right on that.

  • No matter how much the Republicans try to dress it up as “rule of law”, using immigration as a wedge issue has a nasty undercurrent of nativism.

  • Randy Bayne notes that the Republicans in the State Legislature who refuse to fund healthcare that might go in some small part to undocumented children are just mean-spirited. That’s right… punish the children for the alleged sins of their parents. That’s the way of the Republican leadership.

  • Same topic, humorous take.

  • CannonFire on reverse wedgifying immigation: if the Republicans were serious about border security, why aren’t we spending some of the money wasted in Iraq on actual border security?

Reform / Miscellany

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, Prisons

California Blog Roundup 6/13/06

1 Comment

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-50, Richard Pombo, Jerry McNerney, John Doolittle, Marcy Winograd, prisons, immigration, biodiesel, redistricting, reform.

Governor

CA-50 (Finally, the end of the post-mortems)

Other Electoral

Miscellany

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, education

California Blog Roundup, 6/9/06

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Angelides, Schwarzenegger, CA-50 post-mortems (almost the last of those, I think), 15% Doolittle, freedom, facts, education, and marriage.

Governor

CA-50 (the likely end of the post-mortems)

Other Electoral

    Dump Doolittle on 15% Doolittle’s poor showing (despite outspending his opponent, the mayor of Auburn — really a city council member 13 to 1) and the poor showing of one of 15% Doolittle’s local minions proteges.

Miscellany

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, Economy

California Blog Roundup 6/5/06

1 Comment

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger, Paid-For Pombo, Francine Busby, Winograd v. Harman, new David Dreier blog, CA-42, Prop 82, Jerry Lewis / CA-41, immigration, minimum wage, and the economy.

Endorsements for Tuesday

State-Wide Races Generally

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

Other Electoral

Propositions

Reform

Immigration

Legislative Action

Miscellany & Economy

Uncategorized

A Pause from the Primary to Consider the GOP’s Nativism

It’s a nativists worst nightmare.  One temporary worker yields over thirty new citizens.  Most people would be appreciative of a Marine who is wounded for his new country wanting to become a citizen.  But not Rohrabacher:

In his recent address to the nation on immigration, President Bush highlighted the patriotism of Guadalupe Denogean, a Mexican-born man who joined the Marines more than a quarter-century ago and got his wish for U.S. citizenship in 2003 after being seriously wounded in Iraq.
***
But to the critics who say there already are too many immigrants here, the story of how the Denogean family settled in the United States is a different sort of parable — a cautionary tale about the true footprint of guest-worker programs billed as limited or temporary.

Three generations later, what began as one temporary guest worker slot for Denogean’s father has morphed into citizenship — by naturalization or birthright — for 32 immediate relatives and descendants.
***
“It’s not just the guest worker,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, one of the staunchest opponents of relaxing immigration policy. “Every person you permit in has brothers and sisters who are married to someone who has brothers and sisters who are married to someone. The figures are a bit mind-boggling if we don’t act responsibly now.”(SacBee 6/4/06)

I’m sorry, but I can’t find any other way to describe that sentiment but what is ultimately a form of racism: nativism.  What right does Dana Rohrabacher have to be here that exceeds Denogean’s right to be here? I assure you that Rohrabacher’s family were at one time immigrants.  Where would he have been had they been denied entry into the country? (Dear Reader: Insert obligatory nasty comment here.)  The only people who can legitimately use nativism are the Native Americans (proper noun).  Explain to me why the Rohrabacher family should be any more welcome in the United States than the Denogean family.  I looked it up on Ancestry.com, and it appears that there were no Rohrabachers in the United States until the 1870 Census.

We built a nation (after stealing land from the Native Americans) on bringing immigrants to our country.  Why is it up to our generation(s) to end that?  Immigrants should be accepted as a valuable asset, not a scourge to be snuffed out.  Our economy relies on infusions of labor to continue humming.  Frankly, if we did not have immigrants we would be a stagnant nation, with declining birth rates and a labor crunch (ie Japan).  So unless Rohrabacher wants to get serious and start deporting all but the REAL Native Americans, the GOP should consider its words for what they really are: racism.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup

California Blog Roundup, 6/2/06

1 Comment

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. I’m having a hard time keeping up: more people are writing as the election approaches. Teasers: Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger, Bowen, Paid-For Pombo, Francine Busby, Winograd v. Harman, Props 81 and 82, Jerry Lewis / CA-41, discussion of various reforms,immigration, and recent legislative actions.

Statewide Races

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

Busby / CA-50

Winograd / Harman / CA-36

  • This Paul Rosenberg diary at MyDD re Marcy Winograd’s endorsement by another Democratic Club and the ensuing discussion are interesting. I’ll keep pressing Paul to crosspost his stuff.

  • The BradBlog interviews Marcy Winograd. Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of stuff in there about election reform and voting machines, but also a lot of other topics, so don’t be afraid to go read it.

  • Alicia of Last Left Before Hooterville spent a night phone-banking for Marcy Winograd, and feels really good about it.

Other Electoral

Propositions

  • Tom Hilton of If I Ran the Zoo says yes to both Prop 81 and Prop 82.

  • Hannah-Beth Jackson at Speak Out CA runs through some of the groups opposing Prop 82. There are a startling number of pro-big-bidness groups involved. Why would they care? Prop 82 levies a tax on the personal income of very few people. Oh, wait. That’s right — those people are likely to be big-bidness executives. Funny that.

  • Beep takes the Next Ten state budget challenge and finds that she probably can’t support Prop 82, because she’d rather use the tax imposed for other things. Well, fair enough, but Beep, there is nothing else on offer today, nor is there likely to be in the foreseeable future. The anti-government groups who prevent any kind of sensible fiscal policy have seen to that.

Reform

Immigration

Legislative Action

Miscellany