Arnold Schwarzenegger has okayed the deployment of California National Guard Troops.  Under the rights bestowed upon him by Darrel Issa the state and federal Constitutions, Schwarzenegger had the authority to approve the deployment within the state.  (Note that the states do not have authority to block deployment overseas due to the Montgomery Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1987.  See “PERPICH v. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 496 U.S. 334 (1990)”.)

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has scheduled a press conference for 2 p.m. to announce that he has reached an agreement with the federal government to deploy California National Guard troops on the Mexican border, according to a source in the administration.

Details of the agreement were not available. But at a state Senate hearing on Wednesday, the guard’s Major Gen. William Wade said up to 1,000 state troops would be deployed in a plan that would take effect in the middle of July and run through 2008.
Bush said he wants the troops to provide construction, surveillance and intelligence support until the federal government can fund, hire and train 6,000 additional Border Patrol agents. (SacBee 6/1/06)

So, the Governor has a chance to buck the President, but chooses not to.  This National Guard at the border is quite simply a bad idea, and it’s a bad idea on many levels.  First of all, the National Guard is already over stretched.  These people signed up for “One weekend a month, and two weeks per year.”  Instead they are getting “24 months on, followed by 24 months off.”  Um, well, that’s terrific.  We are abusing the National Guard and some of the governors should stand up to this.  If Bush wants to have his wars he needs regular Army, not National Guard.  If he wants to have a draft, let’s see him get that through the Congress, rather than bypassing any real decisionmaking.  All of America should be sacrificing equally for the War, not just the poor.  The children of the rich and the poor should be serving in this War equally. 

The National Guard does not even get the same benefits as the regular Army:

JUDY WOODRUFF: Currently, there are more than 440,000 civilian soldiers serving part-time in the Army and Air National Guard.

Guardsmen and women usually drill one weekend a month and two weeks a year under the command of state governors.  But during war or emergencies, the president can press them into federal service. Most deployments are limited to 24 months.

When on active duty, Guard members get paid the same as regular forces and are eligible for pensions, but only receive limited benefits. The Pentagon has resisted efforts by Guard leaders and governors to include a Guard general as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (NewsHour with Jim Lehrer 5/17/06)

So, they don’t even get typical benefits, and are forced away from their civilian jobs for two years.  It’s hard on the economy because employers are legally bound to maintain a job for them while they are out.  It’s hard on the families, as they weren’t expecting to be gone for two years at a time. 
And then we also must bring up the question of who will be our emergency force?  You know, when a real emergency hits?  Like…say…a earthquake?  Will we be fully equipped to respond to such a natural disaster?

In addition to overseas combat assignments, the National Guard is often called to respond to natural disasters at home. This week, the Massachusetts and New Hampshire governors dispatched their National Guards to help respond to record flooding.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 50,000 Guard troops from across the nation were deployed to the ravaged Gulf Coast, while portions of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard were on duty in Iraq. (NewsHour with Jim Lehrer 5/17/06)

And finally, we have to consider whether we think it’s a particularly good idea to be stationing military personnel within our state.  It’s just one more step to the police state that the Bush Administration has been building towards.  Clearly Schwarzenegger is acting as an enabler.  We need a Governor who will truly consider the costs of these actions with a critical eye for the state. 

(If you’re in SoCal, go GOTV in CA-50 – promoted by SFBrianCL)

California Women Vote are looking for people to help get the vote out on the days leading up to the Tuesday, June 6th election.  This race between Democrat Francine Busby and Republican Brian Bilbray is going to be extremely close and every vote that we help to turn out to the polls will make a difference in the final result. This is the first time in a long while that a Democrat could win this district and could be the beginning of a larger change in Congressional leadership across the country.
We are meeting each day, June 3rd through June 6th at:

San Diego Marriott Del Mar
11966 El Camino Real
San Diego, CA 92130

We will have signs and greeters at each entrance.More details in the extended.

You can just show up at the above location at the beginning of each shift:

Saturday, June 3 – 9:00 AM or 1:00 PM
Sunday, June 4th – Noon or 4:00 PM
Monday, June 5th – Noon or 4:00 PM
Tuesday, June 6th – 6:30 AM or 10:45 AM or 4:00 PM

Please visit www.californiawomenvote.org for more information. 

( – promoted by jsw)

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: The Enron convictions, Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown, Paid-For Pombo, 15% Doolittle, the CAHSEE and California’s rankings, immmigration, several interesting think posts, and more.

The One To Read

Lest we forget, Robert Silvey reminds us that the conviction of Ken Lay (devoted Bush supporter) is related to their company’s predation on California, abetted by Dick Cheney and the Republican Administration, which led in turn to the recall election of Grey Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, this stuff is all connected. No, that’s not a conspiracy theory.

Statewide Races

• Marc Cooper plugs his own LA Weekly article on the Dem gubernatorial primary. Go read it: it goes well beyond the ordinary “how much money” and “how many ads” coverage that seems to dominate political reporting.
• To paraphrase both loosely and badly from Shakespeare, Governor Schwarzenegger learns the hard way that he who pisses away his money loses only his money, while he who pisses away his reputation loses everything.
• Julia Rosen from ABC posts on the amount of money the Dem candidates have put into the primary (too much, frankly). She also quotes Bill Bradley opining that without the IE campaign run by his friends, Angelides would not be doing as well as he is. I find this puzzling. By this logic, Arnold Schwarzenegger would not do well without his personal fortune or his contacts. Westly would not do well without his personal fortune or his contacts. I see no distinction.
• Randy Bayne comes out for Angelides. Oh, and Garamendi.
• Julia Rosen of ABC on indecision and turnout.
• Bill Cavala thinks we’re nostalgic for Jerry Brown. Could be.
• In addition to Brian’s great response to Kos’ frustration with the Dem candidates for governor, you should also read Delta’s take on the atmosphere created by the negative campaigning.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

• I think a “Heh, indeed” is appropriate here.
• The more I read about the Republican involvement in protecting the people who were exploiting women in the Marianas (sweatshops, forced prostitution, forced abortions, rape), the more I wonder how people like 15% Doolittle can sleep at night. Family values, indeed.
• Good news for the 15% Doolittle family! They’ve made up to $150,000 from their campaign contributors this election cycle!

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• McNerney and McCloskey both want to know what Paid-For Pombo knew about the exploitation of women in the Marianas by Jack Abramoff’s clients, and when he knew it.
• Paid-For Pombo: Objectively pro-global-warming.
• This is disappointing. Progressive 11th reports that Filson’s FEC report suggests he’s paying for astroturf slate mailers. (More about why this is so disappointing below.)
• Say No To Pombo has an interesting post about the shibboleths of “centrism” and “electability”.

Education

• The Educational Justice Blog reports that the Cal Supremes have reinstated the California High School Exit Exam. They’re not pleased.
• The Citizens are happier with the reinstatement of the CAHSEE.
• The Capitol Observer reports on the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress state rankings: we’ve beaten Mississippi, and only Mississippi. No-one should be happy at that.

Immigration

• D-Day thinks that the recent Senate compromise on immigration doesn’t suck all that much, though he doubts that anything good will come out of the conference committee. Tex Sensenbrenner provides support for that hypothesis.
• Marc Cooper comes down in roughly the same place as D-Day.
• Politics in the Zeros doesn’t like it.
• The Talent Show is not thrilled with the Senate’s immigration bill, and gets its flaws (in the real world) just about right. The comments are worth reading, as they descend into nativist nuttery pretty fast. More from the real world here.

Other Electoral

• Remember, it’s not just Republicans who are a wee bit too friendly to corporate interests. It’s certain Democrats as well. In a lot of races. The difference is that we expect better from Democrats.
• Shane Goldmacher of the California Observer crossposts a Capitol Weekly piece on the nastiness of some campaign direct mail. It is useful to read this piece in conjunction with the descriptions of Gary South and Tom Mulholland in Marc Cooper’s LA Weekly piece.
• Assembly Member Tim Leslie (R – 15% Doolittle) shows why he needs to be termed out, even if nobody else does.
• Keeping one’s eyes on the prize in CA-50.
• If you want to know what a male feminist Christian professor is voting for this June, here’s your answer.
• Here are Progressive 11th’s picks.
• The SCCDP blog has been following the dustup over the Silicon Valley CofC’s false attacks on Cindy Chavez, San Jose mayoral candidate. The chair of the SVCOC has resigned, and a former chair has made public his resignation from the SVCOC. Still no apology for the lie, though.

Think Pieces

• Bill Cavala has a short piece at California Progress Report that nonetheless manages to be a glorious mess. He seems to be advocating public financing, redistricting reform, and the elimination of term limits as a unified platform, even while admitting that the public only supports the first of those.
• Joe Dunn explains the oligopoly problem in California’s gasoline supply.
• janinsanfran thinks that Mi Familia Vota is looking to go national from Florida and has some thoughts on the matter. The piece is worth reading, and not just because I agree wholeheartedly with big chunks of it.
• Howie Klein on the bogus slate mailer problem. Man, I hate these things — first up against the wall when the revolution comes. I think the slimiest version I have personally seen was put out by the pharmaceutical industry last year, which recommended progressive positions on every Proposition except Props 78 and 79. Here’s a good one, though.
• Incidentally, the California Club For Growth is sending out its slate mailer with the discount for “non-profit philanthropic organizations”. Related, did you know that AEI and the Heritage Institute are officially 501(c)(3) non-profits, so contributions to them are tax-deductible. Couldn’t make that up if I tried.

Other

• Randy Bayne explains exactly why indexing the minimum wage to inflation is important.
• Kvatch, from Blognonymous (and a few others) have been pursuing an interesting anti-war campaign.
• We bloggers is journamalists. Is that a step up, or down?

UPDATE: The Senate just passed the Immigration bill.  That should make things around Sacto a little more exciting. 

Vicente Fox is in Sacramento this afternoon and evening.  He will give a speech to a joint session of the legislature, which will appear on the CalChannel.  He will also meet with legislative leaders and the governor.  During yesterday’s press conference that I attended, Speaker Nunez stressed the economic connections between California and Mexico.  The Speaker seemed genuinely excited about continuing the dialog between California and Mexico.

Nunez called immigration the “800 pound gorilla in the room” but stressed that he would not “challenge” the President directly, at least in public.  He suggested that he would pressure Fox to put his money where his mouth is: economic reform.  Nunez stressed that most of the people who illegaly enter the U.S. don’t do it out of choice, but out of necessity.  They can’t afford to feed themselves.  Schwarzenegger, for his part, has been brushing off suggestions that he should “stand up” to Pres. Fox about the immigration issue.  I’m not really sure what the wingnuts want Fox to do.  Do they want him to station his own troops at his Northern border?  Would we tolerate that if the situation was reversed?  I think not.  What Fox can do is concentrate on improving the economic situation in Mexico such that the citizens won’t have a reason to make a run for the border.

For more on the run-up to the visit, check out John Myers’ post at Capitol Notes.

The text of the speech can be found at the California Progress Report.  As for what the President actually said, well it’s unsuprisingly banal.  But, he congratulates the Senate for passing a reasonable bill, and commits his country to four points:

Today historic vote is a monumental step forward but we recognize that there is more debate ahead, so I want to reiterate the commitment of my government:

1. To respect the sovereign right of the United States to enforce its laws and protect its border and its citizens.

2. To continue to expand jobs, economic growth and social opportunities so migration is no longer a necessity.

3. To develop and enforce migration laws and policy with full respect for human rights and the safety of citizens on both sides of the border and to fighting all forms of human smuggling and trafficking.

4. To adjust Mexico’s migration policy to safeguard our borders under the principle of shared responsibility.

It’s a start.  And hopefully a reasonable bill will come out of the conference committee so that we can assure that North America’s immigration issues will not harm our overall relationship.  Mexico is the largest trading partner of our state, and it is in our own best interest to ensure that we have solid relations with Mexico City.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers:Angelides, Westly and Schwarzenegger of course, Debra Bowen, Doolittle, Pombo, Filson, Harman, Winograd, immigration, a long list of other interesting items.

Statewide Races

• From ABC: Rasmussen shows Angelides & Westly each tie with Schwarzenegger, blame Schwarzenegger immigration waffling.
• Down With Tyranny writes a nice long piece on the Governor’s race, explaining both why Schwarzenegger is bad news and why he likes Angelides. He’s also got an interesting anecdote in the middle about his experience with Westly.
• Kos handicaps Governor’s races: not incredibly optimistic about the Dems’ chances in CA. Amusing side note: Bill Bradley calls Kos “hyperliberal” in referring to that post. Leaving aside the agenda that shows, calling Markos hyperliberal indicates a certain lack of familiarity with Markos and smacks of uncritical acceptance of Republican spin. Markos is hyperpartisan, but not so much hyperliberal. In fact, that is a point on which he’s taken a lot of grief.
• Down With Tyranny endorses Deborah Bowen in the Secretary of State Dem primary and the General. He’s also got a good explanation of why the Secretary of State is an important position.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

• 15% Doolittle is going to be championing single payer health insurance, including vision and dental coverage. No, I’m just kidding; that would reward the undeserving poor. He thinks that’s the sort of thing all of us already have.
• So of course, 15% Doolittle wants even more. See also Down With Tyranny for a bit more on 15% Doolittle’s sense of entitlement to his lobbyist lunches.
• Dump Doolittle has an awesome LTE up from the Auburn Journal. This guy’s cranky, and it’s excellent.
• Dump Doolittle reports that another CA-04 newspaper has endorsed Mike Holmes in the Republican Primary — this time it’s Gold Country Media, which runs several newspapers in 15% Doolittle’s District.

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• The CA-11 Blog (a For-Filson production) has an interview with Steve Filson about Iraq. As before, I expect that Say No To Pombo will probably ask Jerry McNerney the same questions and will post the answers.
• Paid-For Pombo invites big oil into the people’s house. Not just metaphorically this time.
• Paid-For Pombo is also on the subpoena list in the investigation into Jack Abramoff’s lobbying bribery for favors for various wealthy investors in the Marianas. Pombo Watch has a press release from Pete McCloskey that outlines the issues pretty well.
• The list of contributors to Paid-For Pombo is astonishing: oil, pesticide, whalers, the trapping and fur industry. Has Pombo ever seen a wild thing he didn’t want plowed under, chopped down, shot dead, or paved over? Seriously, it’s as if he’s trying to get even with the whole planet for something he thinks it did to him.
• And in that vein, the SCCDP lets us know that Paid-For Pombo wants to drill in ANWR. Screw you Planet! Pombo’s going to get you for that hay fever!

Harman v. Winograd / CA-36

• Journeys with Jood is not stoked about Jane Harman. She is stoked about Marcy Winograd.
• So is Hoffmania, with a bonus of a commenter who reports (second-hand) about Jane Harman’s picture of herself with George W. Bush. Hoffmania also runs down (by way of the LA Times) the issues at stake between the two candidates.
• Last, skippy has several people’s experiences with Rep. Harman.

Immigration

• Ellen Dana Nagler on the immigration stories of two different families.
• janinsanfran points out that we’ve been down this silly English-only road before.

And…

• Terry Preston suggests that California apportion electoral votes by House district. It’s interesting, but kind of a crappy idea (sorry, Terry), because it requires that some other states which vote Republican and have a total of 57 electoral votes do the same thing. Ain’t gonna happen.
• The Exec Direc of the California League of Conservation Voters, guest-posting at California Progress Report, points out that some consistent supporters of conservation in the State Legislature are termed out, while others are running in the primaries. Their endorsements here.
• Spocko’s Brain thinks it got push-polled by Fiona Ma or an IE committee supporting her.
• Terry Preston notes that Prop 73 is rolling around again, as we’ve mentioned before. Yes, well, the singlemindedness of the wealthy men bankrolling the anti-choice movement in California is notable, isn’t it.
• Uneasy Rhetoric suggests that Sacramento should establish a local business incubator to encourage a unique local flavor and assist small business owners.
• Guest post at California Progress Report advocating the passage of AB 651, the Compassionate Choices Act. I’m wholeheartedly in favor of people being able to choose the time and means of their passing, having had to deal with this kind of thing myself.
• Randy Bayne: Fair Share Health Care rhymes, and may lead to universal health care, if played well.
• One voter at a time.
• Greg Dewar has the initial version of the his campaign mailer archive up and running.
• Pax Nortona has an interesting post up about the effect of hardship on character and by extension, politics. Turns out (as is often true) the reality is not the myth.
• Construction employment is down in absolute terms. Not so good, that.

The National Guard as border enforcement presents a very difficult issue for Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Does he play to the Right and send them down there?  Or does he play to the Left and reject the President’s request. Schwarzenegger is attempting to play to some sort of middle ground.  Of course, he is being helped a bit by the fact that the actual mission of the Guardsmen is totally unclear.  They won’t act as border patrol people, so what exactly are they going to do?  It at least gives him some room to wiggle for the time being.  Added to that is the fact that the federal government has yet to appropriate any money to pay for this guard service.  But ultimately, there will be some sort of reckoning here.  Either he sends them or he doesn’t.

But the governor continues to refuse embracing either side’s all-or-nothing approach. He has said he does not like the idea of sending Guard troops to the border, but he has also said he would consider doing so, if it were a temporary solution.

And therein lies his problem. The governor is getting toasted as a waffler who is either pandering to both conservatives and liberals, especially Latinos — or scared to rile either in an election year.(CC Times 5/21/06)

Immigration is such a challenging issue, for both Dems and Reps.  I’m not sure how a Democratic governor would deal with this issue either.  Would  it be a natural for Gray Davis to just reject it out of hand?  I doubt it.  But, Schwarzenegger’s waffling and lack of decisiveness is a problem.  He has yet to say anything of substance on the immigration issues of the day.  California’s governor should have some sort of position on these issues and provide leadership.  Shwarzenegger has not.

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.

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.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers:Infrastructure Bonds, Governor’s Race, Immigration, 15% Doolittle, Paid-For Pombo, LA-area Assembly Races, some cynicism, Latinos as a power, labor, and some pictures.

Infrastructure Bonds

• Bonds during the day yesterday.
• Bonds today from ABC.
• Bonds today from California Progress Report.
• Bonds today from Bill Bradley.
• Bonds tomorrow from Randy Bayne.

Governor’s Race

• Julia Rosen from ABC sends us to the Washington Post for an outside perspective on the Governor’s race. Shortest: California is big, nasty, and expensive. See also, this ABC post, which suggests that the race is also largely unpredictable.
• Angelides’ new ad. Not bad, IMO, but relying very heavily on the endorsement proxy-race.

Immigration

• Demosthenes at BTC News wraps some historical and personal context around the immigration issue. Terry Preston suggests that history repeats itself regularly on this issue.
• Cab Drollery has some brief thoughts on why federalism is not a good answer to concerns about immigration.

CA-4 and CA-11

• 15% Doolittle likes things just as they are. No ethics, no change. Inertia is profitable.
• Oh, and SNTP also points us to CREW ethics and IRS complaints against Richard Pombo. It’s all about the Benjamins with him, apparently.
• Say No To Pombo has a good post and really dense discussion thread concerning the DCCC’s involvement in CA-11 and other primaries.

Everything Else

• The Mad Professah adds some context to an LA Times piece on the AD-45 primary.
• Mayor Sam’s Sister City has a couple endorsement updates in AD-42 and AD-44.
• Rising Q1 foreclosure rates in California part of a longer trend.
• Guest-posting at California Progress Report, the President of PowerPAC argues that Latinos are the slumbering electoral giant in California.
• Final CDP convention post by Greg Dewar. He’s not even a little bit cynical.
• Marc Cooper lets us know about the California Legislature’s golf fundraiser with AT&T. He’s maybe a little bit cynical. Public financing, people.
• Randy Bayne attended the California Labor Federation Legislative right after the CDP Convention and gives us his impressions. See also Randy on small businesses and the minimum wage.
• Tom Hilton has two last posts with Mendocino picture sets: one and two.