(Bawk…bawk – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Steve Schmidt likes to create buzz.  It’s his thing.  He’ll make it anyway he can…even resorting to half-truths and outright fabrications:

But those critiques really fry former State Senator John Burton — who can get very expressive when he’s angry. The past State Senate Pro Tem, who is Angelides’ chief debate negotiator, says that he’s made it clear that Angelides will debate anytime, anyplace, and as soon as possible.

In a phone call this morning, he says he’s been in contact by phone and by letter to Schwarzenegger debate negotiators — former GOP State Senator Jim Brulte, and attorney Steve Merksamer and has “gotten no response from them whatsoever.”

“If I thought it would have been like this, I would have sent registered mail, return receipt requested,” fumed Burton. “I sent them each separate letters with a separate address, and I said the following groups have invited us to debate — and we will accept every debate.”

“And they’ve have never called back. We’re waiting for them to talk to us.”

Burton says the suggestion that the Angelides side has dropped the ball is hogwash — well, he used a more colorful term. “Jimmie called me as soon as he heard (I was the negotiator),” he said. “He knows how to reach me.” (SF Chron Politics Blog 8/15/06)

Is Arnold upset that he won’t have Arianna to insult this time?  Or is he insulted that he has to be on a stage with somebody opposed to him at all?  We all recall how he “debated” during the recall.  You know, he made Don Perata go on the stage before him.  We wouldn’t want anybody to challenge his distortions and lies.

No, this time Arnold is going to have to stop ducking the debates and actually face Phil head on.  I like Phil’s chance in a battle of wits with Arnold.

Kate Folmar of the Merc has interesting article in this morning’s paper about the role the propositions will play in the CA-Gov race.

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has his druthers, Californians will vote in November to crack down on sex offenders, reject several taxes and authorize a raft of new borrowing for public works.

If Treasurer Phil Angelides gets his way, voters will force oil companies to fund research into alternative energy, create a new system to publicly finance political campaigns and reject a new limit on abortion. (S.J. Merc 8/14/06)

Personally, I think that propositions are highly overused.  Because anybody with a million bucks can get a prop on the ballot, we end up with this never-ending growth of propositions.  Some of this is cyclical, as voters tend to get very fatigued with the propositions and just end up voting no for anything. Another good idea is the Courage Campaign’s Truth in Initiatives Act, which would require the disclosure of who is putting the money up for the signature gathering.

But back to the impact of the props on the race.  Arnold is trying to use them in both ways, to shore up his base and get some independent voters.  Trouble is, he isn’t moderate, and his views on the props indicate that.

The various initiatives “force a candidate to take a side and they will help crystallize the differences between the two candidates,” said Democratic strategist Steve Maviglio, who has advised Angelides. “In our case, they help motivate environmentalists, women and educators, who are all our natural constituencies.”

Conscious of the risks entailed in opposing potentially popular initiatives, the governor’s team has offered nuanced reasons for some of his choices.

For example, Schwarzenegger opposes the oil extraction tax, Proposition 87, but supports the goals of promoting green energy sources. Aides say the governor fears that the public financing measure could get tied up in the courts and “short-circuit efforts for meaningful campaign finance reform in our state.”

The “oil tax” doesn’t do anything that Texas doesn’t do.  Texas requires a cut of the pie when oil is extracted from the state.  The University system is principally funded in this manner.  However, Arnold can’t piss off his Big Oil friends, so he can’t support a sensible reform.

THe big one that Arnold isn’t talking about is Prop 85, the Prop 73 Anti-Choice Redux.  You see at least 2/3 of the state is pro-choice, but Arnold endorsed Prop 73 in last year’s special election.  He’s been noticeably silent.  One more flip-flop from Arnold.  If he supported a slightly more extremist measure last year, you’d figure he’d be all over this like flies on shit.  Well, Arnold’s trying to play the nice soft moderate this year.

He wants it both ways, but he can’t have it.  Arnold is against sensible reforms such as Prop 87 and for dangerous restrictions on personal liberty.  He’s an actor playing a role of “moderate”, and not all that convincingly.

It looks we have more confirmation of what we already knew: You have to pay to play with Arnold Schwarzenegger.  This from today’s SacBee:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called off a fundraiser scheduled for Monday after his campaign found out about an e-mail in which a participant told potential contributors they would have a chance to talk to the governor about a bill that may come across his desk.
***
Allison Neves, executive director of the California Society of Facial Plastic Surgery, sent an e-mail to the society’s members inviting them to attend the event, saying it would give them a chance to talk to Schwarzenegger about a bill they oppose.

“This event will provide us with a very important opportunity to discuss our opinions about Senate Bill 438 with the governor,” Neves wrote in the e-mail obtained by The Bee. (SacBee 8/12/06)

Poor Arnold had to cancel the event, costing him $500K from this particular special interest.  It’s getting harder and harder to find special interests in Sacramento now that Arnold has renamed the ones that he likes as “hard-working Californians”, but I guess you get put on the back of the bus if you get busted trying to buy influence.  But don’t worry, Arnold will still take your money…he’ll always take your money.  You plastic surgeons are still ahead of the teachers and nurses, those are the special interests who Arnold really had in mind when he said he would go to Sacramento and “terminate the special interests.”

Yup, to Arnold, teachers and nurses are the special interests, multi-millionare plastic surgeons…they are hard working Californians.  For more information on a better alternative, see GovernorPhil.

(Hey all you Calitics readers…can you do us a favor and recommend neutron’s dKos x-post of this diary.. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

I am very, very pleased to announce the launch of the website GovernorPhil.com. Inspired by Raising Kaine in Virginia, that helped elect Tim Kaine governor of Virginia (and soon, Jim Webb), and Lamont blog which recently helped win the nomination for Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Democratic primary.

GovernorPhil.com is another in a series of people powered grassroots websites. In this case put together by a dedicated group of blogosphere types, (aka: myself, Conan Newton, ex-director of Bands Against Bush, long time poster to dkos, mydd, and others, Brian Leubitz (aka: utbriancl) of Calitics, Jenifer Fernandez Ancona (aka: jra) of Power PAC, Dan Ancona (aka: da)of SpeakOutCalifornia.org, Frank D. Russo of The California Progress Report and many more.

Quite simply, this election is not just about the current California recall governor. Certainly that guy is odious, in the pocket of big business and the extreme right wing, all the while acting the part of a moderate. However, while pointing out the current govenor’s lies, misdirections, and dangerous policis, this site is designing to be about helping present the vision and character of California’s next Governor, Philip Nicholas Angelides. Or as we hope to call him soon. Governor Phil

More behind the cut.

The idea behind Governor Phil is two fold, first we want to fill in the gaps from the campaign site, and provide information, commentary and news that might otherwise be lost in the shuffle. Many in the lap dog are so enraptured by the Actor/Recall Governor that they will simply print his press releases as fact. GovernorPhil is designed to be more then just a cheerleading site, we are here for one of the things the blogosphere does best, rapid response as well.

We’re not under the impression we’re reinventing the wheel here, we just want to take what we’ve learned in Virginia and Connecticut and use it here in blue California.

The fact of the matter is that Phil Angelides is the man with the plan, he is a real reformer, his policies are excellent, and he will be the best governor this state has seen in quite some time, he is in it, to win it, but he needs our muscle to  help get there.

  Phil envisions a California:

  * Where people are always given more chances to climb the ladder of opportunity.
  * Where we truly support hard-working families rather than lavish more on those who have the most.
  * Where education is truly our first priority, so all of our kids have the best teachers, the best textbooks, the best technology, the smallest class sizes, and all the help they need to feed their hungry young minds.
  * Where higher education is truly affordable to everyone, so all of our young people can compete for and win the high-wage jobs of the future.
  * Where we expand health care for working Californians and their children, and then move on to universal health care — making our state a model for the nation.
  * Where we lead the fight against global warming, becoming a national leader in clean, alternative energy.
  * Where we have the courage and vision to achieve these goals by making sure that everyone contributes their fair share to our state.

That is the California we can build together.

It will not be easy. But Phil has the strength of conviction to lead this difficult task. In his own words, this is how he describes his motivation:

“My father always told me: for every advantage you have been given, remember, there are people who work fifteen hours a day just to survive, people who never get a break from anyone. He told me: don’t ever, ever forget them.

If you elect me as your Governor, I won’t forget. I will give everything I have to make this state the home to your hopes, your own California dream.”

Now, we of GovernorPhil.com understand that there are many Californians out there who are upset about how the primary played out. We also understand that there are many of you out there with strong opinions on how the campaign is being run, some of us share your concerns, but we are here to help fill in the gaps with a little elbow grease and people power.

In most situations, you will find there are three choices, you can be part of the solution, part of the problem, or part of the scenery. As far as this election goes, we of the Governor Phil group are determined to be part of the solution, and would love it if you all would come along.

You’ll notice a lot of answers to popular questions at the PhAQ.

And we have links to ways you can get involved.

So please check out and bookmark GovernorPhil.com, spread the word to whoever you know.

Together we can make Governor Phil a reality, and take back California.

-C.

Julia points out that Arnold Schwarzenegger is flip=flopping again, this time attempting to gut AB 32, the greenhouse emissions plan.  You see, AB 32 is the bill that resulted from Schwarzenegger’s Climate Action Team Report.  He initially supported the bill, but it seems that his Big Business special interest backers didn’t really appreciate that so much.  So, Arnold does the flip, and then the flop when the special interests come running:

  But now he finds himself in a bind over how to achieve those reductions. The governor is at odds with a Democratic plan in the Legislature that would give the state Air Resources Board broad authority to enforce the legislation, and with the business lobby, which believes the bill is misguided on its face and will send companies — along with jobs and state revenue — packing to other states.
***
  Schwarzenegger recently proposed creating a board made up of his own political appointees to enforce the legislation. That panel could also ease the emissions deadlines if it determines that compliance would be “detrimental to the California economy.” (SJ Merc 8/10/06)

I could add a whole bunch more, but Julia has pretty well summed it up:

He does not want to have to choose between the green [paint] of his bus and the green cash the industry fuels it with.

Angelides, on the other hand, realizes the importance of reducing global warming emissions. He is encouraging the passage of AB 32.  We don’t have any more time for some race to the bottom on emissions.  California has the ability to challenge the rest of the nation, and the world, to clean up their own emissions.  Schwarzenegger wants to abidcate that role, Phil will lead on environmental issues