• Sen. Obama isn’t spending a ton of money on billboards across California, but he is spending money on billboards in Burnout Paradise, a racing game produced by California gaming firm ElectronicArts. The comments on the link are interesting, with several self-described Republicans lauding the Obama campaign.
• You can follow along with every independent expenditure filing, on a daily basis, at the California Fair Political Practices Commission site. It’s good to check this and see who’s dumping money where.
• The Guardian (UK) has actually been doing excellent work on the economic crisis in Southern California. Earlier this year they uncovered the “Bushville” tent cities popping up in the region in the wake of the foreclosure mess. Now they travel to Riverside to see how the credit crunch is impacting the people there.
For years, Bob taught adult education. Last spring, because of state budget cuts, his hours were reduced: over the summer, he got only two weeks pay, and in September he got no paycheck at all. He’s now back at work, but is apprehensive about more budget cuts. Short-term credit has dried up in California, and the state is asking for emergency federal loans. Any way you look at it, reasons Bob, programmes like his are going to get cut.
Read the whole thing, it’s harrowing.
• The Yes on Prop 2 Campaign released some nasty video of cruelty to chickens. We’ll have a discussion of Prop 2 with the Campaign Manager on our revived podcast on Friday at 1 pm.
• Same-sex weddings are spiking with just a few weeks remaining before the election. Hopefully that isn’t necessary, but this just re-emphasizes how important it is to defeat Prop 8.
• An interesting story in the Chronicle about an Oakland City Council race: Rebecca Kaplan vs. Kerry Hamill. Kaplan is the progressive in the race, and as out lesbian, is endorsed by Victory Fund. She’s also got the endorsements of the SF Bay Guardian, the Alameda County Democratic Party, SEIU locals (UHW and 1021), East Bay Young Dems, Van Jones, Asm. Sandre Swanson, and well, Brian Leubitz (if that means anything).
• In SF, District 3 Board of Supervisors candidate David Chiu is going to file a ethics commission complaint against the San Francisco Association of Realtors for ads claiming that he supported Prop K, a measure to decriminalize prostitution. The position doesn’t really bother me, it’s more the pure sloppiness of it. While I have heard Chiu was a little slow to oppose K, a simple fact check of the No on K website would disabuse them of the notion that he supports K. By the by, Brian Leubitz supports another candidate in the race, Denise McCarthy.