{"id":8600,"date":"2009-04-21T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-04-21T06:57:49","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T06:57:49","slug":"monday-open-thread-april-20-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/21\/monday-open-thread-april-20-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Open Thread, April 20, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>D-Day here. &nbsp;It happens to be my <a href=\"http:\/\/d-day.blogspot.com\/2009\/04\/happy-blogiversary-to-me.html\">blogiversary<\/a> today, and I&#8217;m running a little fundraiser this week. &nbsp;So come by and drop a few coins in the bucket if you can. &nbsp;OK, on to the links&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <b>UPDATE by Brian<\/b>: I&#8217;m going to be appearing on the <a href=http:\/\/yourcallradio.org\/>Your Call Radio Show<\/a> Tomorrow at 11 AM on <a href=http:\/\/kalw.org>KALW 91.7 in SF<\/a> to talk about the special election and the budget. &nbsp;You can <a href=http:\/\/www.kalw.org\/listen.html>listen online here<\/a> or <a href=http:\/\/yourcallradio.blogspot.com\/>download it later here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 I don&#8217;t think I can do better than this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-week19-2009apr19,0,3137533.story?track=rss\">headline<\/a>: &#8220;Georges Marciano is rich, so of course he wants to be Governor.&#8221; &nbsp;It gets better from there, actually; he hasn&#8217;t voted in a decade, has no position on the special election, and thinks &#8220;A political independent untethered to the usual party schisms is, he argued, the solution to the state&#8217;s perennial financial mess,&#8221; which is what we&#8217;re told we have now. &nbsp;I think Alan Keyes could beat this guy.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 One bright spot in our fiscal disaster is that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-schools18-2009apr18,0,6394914.story?track=rss\">economic stimulus funds continue to roll into the state<\/a>. &nbsp;The latest consists of $3.1 billion in school funding, which State Superintendent Jack O&#8217;Connell says will go to save teachers from layoffs but also toward &#8220;education reform.&#8221; &nbsp;I&#8217;d certainly like to see that defined more, but clearly the Obama Administration falls on the reform end of the schism inside the party. &nbsp;From this article I&#8217;d say that O&#8217;Connell is trying to straddle the divide.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The Fresno Bee <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/opinion\/story\/1335623.html\">thinks Obama is being stingy<\/a> when it comes to water funding for the Central Valley. &nbsp;They make a compelling argument.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Following in the footsteps of fellow losing candidate John McCain, Chuck DeVore <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2009\/SHOWBIZ\/Music\/04\/18\/henley.lawsuit\/index.html?eref=rss_topstories\">has been sued by a musician<\/a> for using his songs without authorization. &nbsp;Personally I come down more on the side of openness in this debate, as long as the artists are rewarded materially. &nbsp;But picking an irrelevant fight with Don Henley isn&#8217;t a road to victory, either.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 More fallout from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibabuzz.com\/politics\/2009\/04\/20\/california-gop-slaps-san-mateo-tea-party-organizers\/\">teabagging hate rallies<\/a> &#8211; a San Mateo group used a Star of David with the caption, &#8220;Uncle Sam Reminds You: KEEP PAYING TAXES. The ongoing extermination of Palestinian Children Can&#8217;t be Done Without Your Help.&#8221; &nbsp;It&#8217;s a class message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>D-Day here. &nbsp;It happens to be my <a href=\"http:\/\/d-day.blogspot.com\/2009\/04\/happy-blogiversary-to-me.html\">blogiversary<\/a> today, and I&#8217;m running a little fundraiser this week. &nbsp;So come by and drop a few coins in the bucket if you can. &nbsp;OK, on to the links&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 <b>UPDATE by Brian<\/b>: I&#8217;m going to be appearing on the <a href=http:\/\/yourcallradio.org\/>Your Call Radio Show<\/a> Tomorrow at 11 AM on <a href=http:\/\/kalw.org>KALW 91.7 in SF<\/a> to talk about the special election and the budget. &nbsp;You can <a href=http:\/\/www.kalw.org\/listen.html>listen online here<\/a> or <a href=http:\/\/yourcallradio.blogspot.com\/>download it later here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 I don&#8217;t think I can do better than this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-week19-2009apr19,0,3137533.story?track=rss\">headline<\/a>: &#8220;Georges Marciano is rich, so of course he wants to be Governor.&#8221; &nbsp;It gets better from there, actually; he hasn&#8217;t voted in a decade, has no position on the special election, and thinks &#8220;A political independent untethered to the usual party schisms is, he argued, the solution to the state&#8217;s perennial financial mess,&#8221; which is what we&#8217;re told we have now. &nbsp;I think Alan Keyes could beat this guy.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 One bright spot in our fiscal disaster is that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-schools18-2009apr18,0,6394914.story?track=rss\">economic stimulus funds continue to roll into the state<\/a>. &nbsp;The latest consists of $3.1 billion in school funding, which State Superintendent Jack O&#8217;Connell says will go to save teachers from layoffs but also toward &#8220;education reform.&#8221; &nbsp;I&#8217;d certainly like to see that defined more, but clearly the Obama Administration falls on the reform end of the schism inside the party. &nbsp;From this article I&#8217;d say that O&#8217;Connell is trying to straddle the divide.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The Fresno Bee <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/opinion\/story\/1335623.html\">thinks Obama is being stingy<\/a> when it comes to water funding for the Central Valley. &nbsp;They make a compelling argument.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Following in the footsteps of fellow losing candidate John McCain, Chuck DeVore <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2009\/SHOWBIZ\/Music\/04\/18\/henley.lawsuit\/index.html?eref=rss_topstories\">has been sued by a musician<\/a> for using his songs without authorization. &nbsp;Personally I come down more on the side of openness in this debate, as long as the artists are rewarded materially. &nbsp;But picking an irrelevant fight with Don Henley isn&#8217;t a road to victory, either.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 More fallout from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibabuzz.com\/politics\/2009\/04\/20\/california-gop-slaps-san-mateo-tea-party-organizers\/\">teabagging hate rallies<\/a> &#8211; a San Mateo group used a Star of David with the caption, &#8220;Uncle Sam Reminds You: KEEP PAYING TAXES. The ongoing extermination of Palestinian Children Can&#8217;t be Done Without Your Help.&#8221; &nbsp;It&#8217;s a class message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2450,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2eI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2450"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}