Over 2,000 students from UC, CSU, and community colleges gathered today for a protest march from Raley Field in West Sac to the State Capitol to denounce Arnold’s planned higher ed cuts, and 200 more gathered at Arnold’s LA office. The protest is getting big coverage – it’s the featured article at SFGate this evening:

“Kick us out, we will vote you out,” the crowd in Sacramento chanted as they walked along a bridge crossing Highway 99, through downtown and onto the Capital steps. The line of students, which included hundreds from the Bay Area, stretched six blocks, and dozens of motorists honked in support as they drove by.

The fears, voiced again and again, where that if Schwarzenegger’s proposed funding cuts go through, students will end up paying more to attend, while reduced services and a narrower selection of classes….

One student from San Jose State, 24-year-old Joel Bridgeman, said raising the money for college was so tough that he was homeless – couch surfing – for about a year as he went to school.

“Most of the people who work in this building probably either went to CSU, UC or (community college), but as the next generation comes up they are looking for the easy solution,” he said. “They are looking for what is going to get them re-elected. They say our voice doesn’t matter, but I have a message for them… we are here to demand our chance.”

I especially liked that framing – it’s worth noting that millions of Californians owe their current wealth and prosperity to investments in higher ed made in earlier decades. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, whose office helped organize the march, mentioned that both Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson increased taxes to prevent destructive education cuts.

Of course, Arnold has no interest in doing the same – he’s a true believer in Milton Friedman’s shock doctrine theories – but lying to the public seems right up his alley:

Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, said higher education continues to be high priority for the governor, but considering the scope of the budget deficit, it would be unfair to cut certain items in the state budget while leaving others untouched.

“The governor is as frustrated as the students are that he has to make these cuts. He doesn’t want to make these cuts,” McLear said.

Students weren’t buying it.

And they’re right to not buy it, because it’s a lie. Arnold doesn’t have to make these cuts at all. If he hadn’t cut the VLF and insisted on borrowing our way out of the last big deficit we’d have a much smaller hole now. And if he supported closing the tax loopholes he could potentially raise $12 billion, which would prevent budget cuts that would destroy California’s economic competitiveness.

Organizers of the protest tell me this is just the beginning of activism on the budget. This is the fight of this generation’s lives, and the longer the Yacht Party refuses to accept reality and the need to find new revenues, the more activism we’re going to be seeing from young Californians.

Oh Wait.
Maybe not so much.

Just in time for the upcoming holiday season comes another unsubstantiated report of possible terrorist activity in the Los Angeles area. Where you ask? The mall. Yup. The malls.
According to an declassified report that was distributed today, Al Qaeda has been planning for two years to attack malls in Los Angeles and Chicago during the holiday season to disrupt the economy.
Both the FBI and Los Angeles police are playing down the warning, saying that these were unsubstantiated threats.

But FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said today, “There is no information to state this is a credible threat.”
He said the warning was distributed to assure that state and local law enforcement officials were aware of it.
“Out of an abundance of caution, and for any number of other reasons, raw intelligence is regularly shared within the intelligence and law enforcement communities — even when the value of the information is unknown,” Kolko said, adding that information sharing has become a crucial component of national security efforts since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

So who else rolled their eyes when they saw that story in the news?

It’s over! It’s over! It’s finally over! The Liberal OC has the last word on the crazy rumor about the Nancy Pelosi fundraiser, and the Republican spinners at OC Blog have clearly failed in their attempt to create civil unrest among Orange County Democrats. Horray, the non-scandal has died! ; )

OK, and now for more scandaliciousness… Bill O’Reilly now claims that the liberals have declared war on the white, male Christians! Cheese louise, when will these crazy right-wing folks learn to stop stirring up s**t over non-scandals?!

So what “scandals” are happening in your neck of the woods? What non-issues are the Republicans trying to stir up in your area? And is Bill O’Reilly crazy, or is he just talking nonsense? Go ahead. Make my day. Fire away! : )

OK, so you’ve probably seen this by now. Or perhaps, you’ve seen this. Wherever you saw Matt Cunningham’s post about the cancelled Nancy Pelosi fundraiser in Orange County, don’t believe it.

Yes, the fundraiser was cancelled. But no, Loretta Sanchez didn’t “put the kibosh” on a chance to raise money for the Democratic Party of Orange County. No, Loretta Sanchez isn’t against a stronger, better-funded DPOC. No, the Democratic Party is not weak and incompetent.

Follow me after the flip to get to the truth of this matter…

Here’s what Matt Cunningham said on OC Blog and FlashReport…

… Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s ego got in the way.

Sanchez adopted a proprietary view of the dollars the Pelosi/DPOC event would raise. Rather than seeing a stronger, better-funded DPOC as a benefit to her continued representation of the 47th Congressional District, in Loretta’s view the fund raiser would take money away from her.

And here’s why this is completely wrong. The fundraiser actually was for the DCCC, not the DPOC. The fundraiser was on April 29 in Newport Beach, even though many OC Democrats were still in San Diego for the state Democratic Convention. And even though the individuals that scheduled the dinner promised that Loretta Sanchez was already on board with the fundraiser, they did NOT contact her to make sure that she was actually available for this fundraiser.

Basically, this fundraiser was just a disaster waiting to happen. So you don’t believe me? Believe Wylie Aitken. He knows what he’s talking about when he talks about Loretta. Wylie Aitken has been with her since the beginning as a campaign adviser to Loretta. But of course, he also knows what he’s talking about when he talks about the Democratic Party. He has always been a good friend of the DPOC. Read what he said to Total Buzz about that fundraiser.

The cancellation of the event had little or nothing to do with Loretta Sanchez.

The event would have been primarily for the DCCC. Well-intentioned individuals scheduled the evening without making sure Loretta would be available as well as many others within the Democratic donor community.

Loretta did what she should do — in addition to scheduling problems, to give her honest assessment to the Speaker, as to whether the event was properly planned and would be a success.

So there you have it! OK, so you’re still not believing me? Believe Mike Lawson at The Liberal OC. Here’s what he was told about that fundraiser:

The DPOC (with the help of “local Democratic insider”) solicited Pelosi for this dinner. One of the selling points was that Loretta was already onboard.

After Pelosi accepted the invitation she spoke with Sanchez, who hadn’t heard of the event. Once Loretta looked into the benefit, she noticed that there were some people (like the friend of “local Democratic insider”) that were angling to make some good money off of the event; Sanchez, who was never officially onboard with this benefit, backed out. And so did Pelosi.

Maybe Matt Cunningham was right when he said that “ego” stood in the way of this event, but it wasn’t Loretta’s this time. Perhaps the “local Democratic insider” shouldn’t have guaranteed Loretta’s attendance.

So do you believe us now? Oh yes, and look who’s supporting that fundraiser for Loretta this month. So, there! Loretta still cares about us in Orange County. The Democratic Party here is doing a great job in building the party in Orange County. Everyone is doing great, and we’re all looking forward to that fundraiser at Joe Dunn’s house on the 16th.

So much for that rumor! Cheese louise, the OC Republican insiders at OC Blog can’t even come up with a credible runor against us! I guess if this is the worst they can throw at us, then we’re doing a great job here! : )

(Some edits for space. “Democratic Voters Choice” has been one of the more egregious abusers of the slate mailer process. Come next December, it’s time to reform the slate mailer process. Thanks bolson! – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Here we have a big fat lie that came in the mail recently:

The actual candidates endorsed by the Democratic Party are Janet Wolf for Supervisor and Cynthia Brock and Margaret Connel for Goleta City Council.

Brian’s edits: Click the image for full size image. You’ll notice that this “team for Democratic voters” also supports Prop 90 and Rejects Prop 87, both positions are the exact opposite of the Official California Democratic Party’s actual positions

The small print at the bottom says:

Democratic Voters Choice, 601 S. Glenoaks, Burbank CA 91502. Ballot measures and non-partisan offices evaluated independent of party. Not paid for or authorized by candidates and ballot measures not marked by an *. Endorsements by elected officials and organizations apply to spefiied candidates and measures only.

Take out the double negative and we find that someone associated with the three local candidates and * marked initiatives paid for and/or authorized this mailer. It would seem that Secord, Onen and Bennet paid for and authorized this lie. I hope some clever lawyer can sue their fraudulent asses off – or if they somehow claim plausible deniability at least shut down “Democratic Voters Choice” which has run these shenanigans before. Another example over the flip.

Here’s another piece currently circulating from “Democratic Voters Choice”:

This one gets all the state wide candidates right, but lies about the ballot initiatives. The lies being paid for are: No on 1A-1C (CA Dems say yes), No on 87 (CA Dems say yes), Yes on 88 (CA Dems say no), Yes on 90 (CA Dems say no).

I have my own opinions on the ballot initiatives (yes on 87,89 and Santa Barbara D and P, no on the rest) but I really hate dirty tricks.

LA Times columnist George Skelton is too, um, demure to say it, but Arnold is LYING about Phil Angelides’ fiscal proposals. Here’s Skelton on The Panderer at last week’s California Republican convention (emphases added):

“Our opponent wants to raise your taxes by at least $18 billion. He wants to tax virtually everyone, everywhere. He wants to increase the car tax, the sales tax, the property tax, the farm equipment tax, the income tax, the alcohol tax, and he even wants to tax you when you go and get a tune-up for your car. Our opponent has never met a tax he doesn’t like or a tax he won’t hike.

“His message to us is more taxes. Well, here’s our message to him: We say no to more taxes. No to more government spending. No to more government control.“

Dissecting this political perjury: Angelides clearly is not advocating an increase in the car tax, the sales tax, the property tax or the liquor tax – or imposition of a new tune-up tax. He is leaving open the possibility of repealing the five-year-old sales tax exemption on farm equipment, depending on the recommendations of his loophole-closing commission. And his only income tax hike would be on the likes of himself and Schwarzenegger.

As for government spending, it has risen 26% under Schwarzenegger. And his pledge of no more government control? He’d better stop trying to negotiate legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Arnold, YOU ARE A LIAR. Since George Skelton won’t say it, I will.

And Phil Angelides needs to say it. Loud, and often. Angelides needs to call bullshit on Schwarzengger’s outright LIES, and draw a clear line connecting Schwarzenegger’s blatant, demonstrable lying in the course of a campaign, and the dishonest way he has run the state.

Schwarzenegger vowed to go to the people of the state to get his initiatives passed last November – and The People handed him his ass. So, now what does he try to do? He ignores the clearly stated Will of The People and tries another end run, by, among other things, supporting Proposition 85, a bastardized version of Proposition 73, a law which would limit access to abortion, that was soundly defeated last November. He’s pandering to the fundamentalist portion of his base with that.

Schwarzenegger won’t support Proposition 89 – gee, I wonder why?? – the campaign reform measure that would help clean up government and get rid of the pernicious effects of special interests in California politics – the same special interests that have plunked down big money to Schwarzenegger’s campaign, and from whom Schwarzenegger loftily declared he would not accept money during his 2003 campaign when he unseated then-Gov. Gray Davis.

He lied about that, too.

Note to Phil Angelides:

PLEASE CALL ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER A LIAR.

Because he is one. And voters will understand that.

Then, Phil, you can tell people about Schwarzenegger’s stances against alternative energy (Proposition 87), in favor of Big Tobacco (Proposition 86), and against abortion rights. And you can give them some more facts about your proposals, like:

“There are 46 profitable corporations doing business in California with $1 billion or more in revenues that pay no corporate income tax,” he said. “I don’t think that’s right.

“I don’t think it’s right that 18 corporations can set up phony mail boxes in Bermuda, the Bahama Islands or Cayman Islands and escape state taxes. But the tax code is like a Swiss cheese, a privilege for those who have lobbyists and accountants who crawl the halls of the Capitol.”

Facts work well against Republicans, Phil. Especially against world-class pandering liars like Schwarzenegger.

(Also available in Orange and at My Left Wing)