Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Pombo, Buck McKeon, CA-50, voting, Republican corruption, Proposition 88, prisons, immigration, global warming.

Governor’s Race

• From My Left Wing, occam’s hatchet systematically sets up and knocks down pretty much every Schwarzenegger move so far. o.h. says this is part 1 of 2, though I’m not sure what’s left for part 2.
• Schwarzenegger needs to make a call: either pander to his nativist base or do the right thing and reject their bigotry.
• Pandering to extremist Republican base, Schwarzenegger rewards extremist Republican with judgeship. Not all that surprising, except that this particular extremist Republican was one who used to make Arnold ashamed to be a Republican. Bet Arnold hoped this one would slide under the radar.
• Shorter Frank Russo: Schwarzenegger’s a greenhouse gasbag. That photo-op with Tony Blair generated yet another promise for Schwarzenegger to judiciously study a problem after he’s re-elected. If Schwarzenegger were serious, he’d throw his support behind AB 32 [Warning, PDF].
• PowerPAC points us to a profile of the Real Phil Angelides — not the straw man that the Republicans have been putting up. (Also from PowerPAC, a web ad from Phil.)
• Julia Rosen has some more detail on the money race. Schwarzenegger’s Bush/Cheney campaign team seem to be big spenders.
• Really big spenders: $16 Million in the first 6 months of the year, without a primary opponent.

Jerry McNerney / Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• Advisor to Paid-For Pombo suggests death for Connecticut residents who oppose drilling in ANWR. No, seriously.
• Paid-For Pombo is just another extremist Bush Republican, one of the Mayberry Machiavellis, with no policy, only politics.
• I don’t know how many times I can say this: Paid-For Pombo just flat out hates the planet. Where does he think his kids will live when he’s helped destroy their world?

CA-50

• Lots of people posting on the lawsuit demanding a hand recount in CA-50, but I’m going with Words Have Power for this topic WHP asks a good question: “Interestingly, since he has already been sworn into office, Brian Bilbray can not be removed from his position, even if a recount shows that he actually had fewer votes than Francine Busby. How would the Republican congress handle that little issue?” This way, I’m betting.
• In related news, Courage Campaign and Chris Bowers did an interesting post-mortem poll in CA-50.

Other Republican Paragons

• Wow. Great point-by-point indictment of Buck McKeon, selling out his district for campaign contributions.
• Ah, the Republicans… always willing to screw over working people (and their theoretical “principles”) just a little more than you thought they would. And don’t forget, they’re screwing the poor while helping poor little rich girl Paris Hilton.

Propositions

Educational Justice has an interesting take on Proposition 88. And please, EJ bloggers, for the love of all that’s holy, stop with the giant colored fonts.

The Rest

• Cubanos, si! Mexicanos, no! Whaaa?
• Clearly, this is a failure in perception that needs to be fixed.
• Uneasy Rhetoric continues to thrash out ideas for renewing Downtown Sacramento.
• Despite knowing the need, the Schwarzenegger Administration did not even seek funding for mental health workers for the prisons in the budget process. So the Federal Judge overseeing the CDP has ordered them to do so. I can hear the howls of “activist judges” rising from the Republicans. If the Republicans don’t like judges stepping in, maybe they could do what’s right for a change.
• SF blogger/journalist jailed by Feds for refusal to turn over unedited tape.
• Housing bubble ending. Bad news for a lot of Californians.
• WiFi on CalTrain — sweet!
• Also sweet — Devil’s Slide to reopen early. The mess created by that closure was simply unreal.
• The Disgruntled Chemist returns to beer blogging. May I suggest he try an Anderson Valley Cerveza Crema or Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout?