{"id":8636,"date":"2009-04-24T04:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-04-24T00:45:11","modified_gmt":"2009-04-24T00:45:11","slug":"april-23-open-thread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/24\/april-23-open-thread\/","title":{"rendered":"April 23 Open Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To the links:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 A California investment firm <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/california-firm-split-fees-with-figure-in-ny-pension-scandal-422\">gave kickbacks to indicted political consultant Hank Morris<\/a> for help getting contracts with CalPERS and CalSTRS.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Ted Lieu <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/tedlieu\/status\/1596497496\">announced on Twitter<\/a> his first major endorsement in his campaign for Attorney General, garnering the support of LA County Sheriff Lee Baca. &nbsp;Earlier this week, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/static\/weblogs\/capitolalertlatest\/021698.html?mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert\">endorsed San Francisco DA Kamala Harris<\/a> in this seat.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 CA-04: Tom &#8220;Baghdad Bob&#8221; McClintock <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/homepage\/story\/66677.html\">doesn&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a water crisis<\/a> in the state, despite the, er, three-year drought and major loss of snowpack. &nbsp;Apparently there&#8217;s water everywhere but environmental regulations don&#8217;t let us touch it. &nbsp;Stupid regulations! &nbsp;And the Republicans retreat into a spider hole of denial yet again.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 We <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/c\/a\/2009\/04\/23\/MNHV1775LH.DTL\">sold more bonds<\/a>, yay! There are a slew of stories about this, but if you recall <a href=\"https:\/\/calitics.com\/diary\/8475\/all-sorts-of-bond-news\">the post about all sorts of bond news<\/a>, you&#8217;ll remember that these ones are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-california-bonds23-2009apr23,0,2377841.story?track=rss\">federally backed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 RNC member and former CRP chair Shawn Steel wants <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/static\/weblogs\/capitolalertlatest\/021742.html?mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert\">Mike Villines to resign<\/a>. Something about tax increases or other craziness.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/politics\/story\/1802580.html?mi_rss=State%2520Politics\">SEIU 1000 agreement is still in trouble<\/a>. No Republicans have joined the Democratic majority to get to 2\/3. This is nothing but political pettiness on the part of the minority.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Jerry Brown, still doing his current job as Attorney General, <a href=\"http:\/\/dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/04\/23\/california-sues-wells-fargo-over-securities-sales\/?partner=rss&#038;emc=rss\">sued Wells Fargo today<\/a> for $1.5 billion dollars over defrauding investors with bad advice on auction-rate securities. &nbsp;That&#8217;s one way to do an economic stimulus!<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Ooh, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contracostatimes.com\/news\/ci_12204033?source=rss\">Governator plants trees<\/a>! That&#8217;ll really drive his poll numbers up.<\/p>\n<p>* The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.couragecampaign.org\/page\/s\/EndorsementVote\">Courage Campaign is polling its members<\/a> on their May 19th endorsements. Their staff is recommending No on all, except for Prop 1B, where they are neutral. That is quite similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/calitics.com\/diary\/8532\/calitics-ed-board-says-no-on-special-election-initiatives\">Calitic&#8217;s own endorsements<\/a> of No on everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the links:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 A California investment firm <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/california-firm-split-fees-with-figure-in-ny-pension-scandal-422\">gave kickbacks to indicted political consultant Hank Morris<\/a> for help getting contracts with CalPERS and CalSTRS.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Ted Lieu <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/tedlieu\/status\/1596497496\">announced on Twitter<\/a> his first major endorsement in his campaign for Attorney General, garnering the support of LA County Sheriff Lee Baca. &nbsp;Earlier this week, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/static\/weblogs\/capitolalertlatest\/021698.html?mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert\">endorsed San Francisco DA Kamala Harris<\/a> in this seat.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 CA-04: Tom &#8220;Baghdad Bob&#8221; McClintock <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/homepage\/story\/66677.html\">doesn&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a water crisis<\/a> in the state, despite the, er, three-year drought and major loss of snowpack. &nbsp;Apparently there&#8217;s water everywhere but environmental regulations don&#8217;t let us touch it. &nbsp;Stupid regulations! &nbsp;And the Republicans retreat into a spider hole of denial yet again.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 We <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/c\/a\/2009\/04\/23\/MNHV1775LH.DTL\">sold more bonds<\/a>, yay! There are a slew of stories about this, but if you recall <a href=\"https:\/\/calitics.com\/diary\/8475\/all-sorts-of-bond-news\">the post about all sorts of bond news<\/a>, you&#8217;ll remember that these ones are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/la-fi-california-bonds23-2009apr23,0,2377841.story?track=rss\">federally backed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 RNC member and former CRP chair Shawn Steel wants <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/static\/weblogs\/capitolalertlatest\/021742.html?mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert\">Mike Villines to resign<\/a>. Something about tax increases or other craziness.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/politics\/story\/1802580.html?mi_rss=State%2520Politics\">SEIU 1000 agreement is still in trouble<\/a>. No Republicans have joined the Democratic majority to get to 2\/3. This is nothing but political pettiness on the part of the minority.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Jerry Brown, still doing his current job as Attorney General, <a href=\"http:\/\/dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com\/2009\/04\/23\/california-sues-wells-fargo-over-securities-sales\/?partner=rss&#038;emc=rss\">sued Wells Fargo today<\/a> for $1.5 billion dollars over defrauding investors with bad advice on auction-rate securities. &nbsp;That&#8217;s one way to do an economic stimulus!<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Ooh, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contracostatimes.com\/news\/ci_12204033?source=rss\">Governator plants trees<\/a>! That&#8217;ll really drive his poll numbers up.<\/p>\n<p>* The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.couragecampaign.org\/page\/s\/EndorsementVote\">Courage Campaign is polling its members<\/a> on their May 19th endorsements. Their staff is recommending No on all, except for Prop 1B, where they are neutral. That is quite similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/calitics.com\/diary\/8532\/calitics-ed-board-says-no-on-special-election-initiatives\">Calitic&#8217;s own endorsements<\/a> of No on everything.<\/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":[1153],"class_list":["post-8636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-1153"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2fi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8636","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=8636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}