( – 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?