Tag Archives: Meg Whitman

education

Friday Open Thread

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• Sen. Boxer released a statement on Sen. John W McCain’s speech:

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word “fight” more than 40 times in his speech. In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times. … [Litany of crazy right-wing McCain agenda items here] … And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 — that’s no maverick. We do have two real fighters for change in this election — their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

• Some fine folks are hosting a fundraiser for CA-03 Democratic nominee Dr. Bill Durston in Stanford on the afternoon of September 28. Full Details and RSVP here. Wouldn’t it be great if Dr. Bill could defeat the corrupt Abramoff-Republican Dan Lungren?

• The water situation could begin getting very ugly very fast.  After two of the driest winters on record, our reservoirs are dangerously low.  The state is now reviving a Water Bank to facilitate the buying and selling of water from across the water-rich North to the bone dry South.

So people, can I just say one thing? If I see people hosing down driveways, and well, having a lawn in the middle of the desert, make sure you want that more than you want, say, to drink a nice glass of water tonight. Priorities, people.

Also, I guess the movement to restore Hetch Hetchy won’t be heating any time soon. It stinks that we have to use our precious natural resources this way. The water from Hetch Hetchy is replaceable, but convincing people of that seems really tough right about now.

• In Orange County or thereabouts? Want to make sure Democrats take the White House?  Well, how about you hop aboard the CA4Obama bus to Nevada tomorrow morning. It’s leaving from Fountain Valley tomorrow bright and early (6:30am). Interested in joining them? Email ca4obama AT gmail dot com

UPDATE by Dave: A couple more:

• It’s a little-known side effect of the budget crisis, but funding for arts education, which is crucial to child development, is going down the toilet.  It’s fine to raise and educate a bunch of test-taking drones, but it doesn’t make this a well-rounded state.  No wonder so few of our schools fail to meet federal standards – they are not put in the position to do so.

• Meg Whitman for governor.  Yeah, that’s the big buzz out of St. Paul.  Bwahahahaha.  Interesting that the post says the Republicans expect her to face Jerry Brown.

• Another bill being sent to the governor’s desk is SB37, the national popular vote bill.  And today, DFA sent their California list an email urging the Governor to support it.

California is the largest state in the union, but when it comes to electing the president it can feel like the smallest.

California is ignored by presidential candidates because they believe the electoral vote is already locked up. And, with the Electoral College the way it is, they might even be right. But, if America chooses our president by the national popular vote, then suddenly California would rise to the top of every candidate’s priorities. The more Californians who vote for a candidate, the more that increases the popular count and the greater say you have in choosing a leader for the entire country. Since one out of every ten Americans live here, doesn’t that make sense?

The California Legislature has approved legislation that would award California’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The bill now goes to Governor Schwarzenegger and he will make his decision any time.  You must act today to let him know how you feel.

Contact Governor Schwarzenegger now and urge him to sign the National Popular Vote bill.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

Phone:  916-445-2841

E-mail at this link: http://gov.ca.gov/interact

CLICK HERE TO REPORT YOUR CALL

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Sunday Open Thread

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  • So, next week I’m headed to DC, in part to attend the Take Back America Convention. If you’re interested in making the trek out to DC, you can register here.
  • Congrats to Bill Foster, who claimed a pretty darn Republican seat in IL-14, Dennis Hastert’s old seat. Charlie Cook had it at R+5. For those keeping score, that’s the same as CA-50, Bilbray’s seat. And by the way, Foster, a physicist,  opposes telecom immunity. Barack Obama did an ad for Foster a few days ago, that seems to have moved a few people.
  • Here in SF, this weekend seems to be weekend of endorsements for the June primary. We always have competitive races for the county central committee. Well, this year it’s even more crazy with Supervisors Chris Daly and Aaron Peskin deciding to hang out with the farm team and throw the whole race into chaos. Fantastic. Freaking fantastic.

  • As a somewhat unrelated sidenote, it appears that Ross Mirkarimi just might become the most powerful Green Party politician in the country one of these days. Or, well, I guess we might actually need a ramp in the Board of Supervisors Chamber. I normally go for the Dem when given a choice, but Mirkarimi is a pretty darn good guy. He’d be successful and help the city in whatever capacity he serves.
  • And then there’s this: a front page story in the Sunday Chronicle about Gavin Newsom’s possible bid for Governor in 2010. Time flies when you’re having fun, and 2010 isn’t actually that far away now. It could be an interesting race for the Democratic nomination. Maybe the Republicans will throw up Tom McClintock for it. He runs for everything else, anyway. Or maybe they’ll draft some really, really rich person with no history in politics. Hey, it worked in 2003!

    • Anything else going on?

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    Auctioning Off The Governorship?

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    Because having a governor with no political experience whatsoever is working out so well, the Republicans, who have no bench to speak of, may be tapping another unconventional candidate to be their standard-bearer in 2010.

    As she prepares to depart from EBay after a decade at the helm, Chief Executive Meg Whitman appears to be investigating a new career — in politics.

    Whitman has talked with top Republicans about the possibility of a run for California governor in 2010, according to three operatives who have had discussions with her. Whitman is said to be asking detailed questions about the logistics of a run and the effect she could have as governor, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the conversations.

    Whitman did not make herself available for comment. A source close to her said she had been talking with Republicans around the state and had become “fascinated” by politics in her work as a fundraiser for GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and a former colleague of Whitman at the consulting firm Bain & Co.

    As tempting as anyone close to Mitt “Who let the dogs out” Romney is to me as a chief executive, I’m thinking no.

    But what’s interesting here is that Whitman is not driving the discussion as much as Republican party leaders, who see nobody on the horizon that would put up much of a fight.  There are a couple gazillionaires and Tom McClintock, who is more likely than any of them to win a primary.  Has McClintock ever even voted for a budget?  Have the others run a government bureaucracy?

    Thought it was an interesting tidbit, anyway.