California Blog Roundup for August 7, 2006

by: jsw

Mon Aug 07, 2006 at 14:03:40 PM PDT

Today's California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry McNerney, Charlie Brown, John Doolittle, Brent Wilkes, Republican corruption, Proposition 89, minimum wage, prisons, environment, redistricting reform.

Governor's Race

• Phil comes out in favor of the redistricting reform embodied in SCA 3 [Warning, PDF]. Combine that with his support for Prop 89, and we're looking at a real reform candidate.


• Phil steps up to support working Californians -- backs a hike in the minimum wage and periodic increases to keep up with inflation. Schwarzenegger, on the other hand... tried to slide the question through the Industrial Welfare Commission he controls, but even that dodge didn't really work.


• Berkeley Bubble likes Phil's energy plan.


• Schwarzenegger's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, tries to pull the same thing he did as a part of Bush/Cheney '04, and dump facts down the memory hole. Steve Maviglio steps up to refute Schmidt's lies.


• Maybe not everyone likes Schwarzenegger as much as he thinks they do.

Jerry McNerney / Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

Randy Bayne attended the opening of Jerry McNerney's Stockton office and reports back.

Charlie Brown / 15% Doolittle / CA-04

• firedoglake has a great post up by Howie Klein making the case for Charlie Brown (honestly, it's not that hard, but Howie really sells it), and CB answers questions in the comments.


• 15% Doolittle apparently senses an opportunity to funnel government cash to his cronies and pick up his 15% of the campaign contribution kickbacks -- concrete pays, canyons don't.


• Here's another view of this 15% Doolittle photo-op, with some background on the Auburn Dam. Also, video.


• If anyone is curious about what kind of world 15% Doolittle wants, it's a world where poor women are exploited and abused, and the rich pay off politicians like Doolittle to keep it that way.


• The Left Coaster points us to a SacBee Page One article on 15% Doolittle's corruption.

Other Republican Paragons (Brent Wilkes Edition)

• California Republican taught Brent Wilkes how to bribe. Awwww... isn't that sweet?


• Ah, the top tier of Wilkes "transactional lobbying" recipients (purty euphemism for "bribery", ain't it -- lots of California Republicans. Makes one proud.


• Down With Tyranny: You simply can't walk away from the [article] without wondering why Randy "Duke" Cunningham is the only Republican in prison for the widespread corruption that virtually defines the GOP political culture of the last half dozen years in Washington, from lowlife slimeball congressmen to a lowlife slimeball president and vice president (yes, Wilkes gave BushCheney hundreds of thousands of dollars in quasi-legal bribes too).


• Apparently, corruption is what you get when you put Republicans in positions of power. Of course, since they don't believe in government, they probably don't think they did anything wrong.

Propositions

• The CDP Executive Board votes to remain neutral on Prop 89, defying its rank and file.


• Why this is a bad decision.

Prisons

• Politics in the Zeros: Take control of the prisons away from the Schwarzeneggers and prison guards, and force reform.


• Don Perata: what we're doing with the prisons isn't working. Time to try some actual rehabilitation.


• Schwarzenegger's last-minute election year stunt, calling a special session to deal with the prison crisis he's known about for years, is pretty much guaranteed to fail. No matter what the Bush Republicans say, you don't just whip up a solution to problems of this size, just in time for an election.

The Rest

• Alicia of last left turn before Hooterville explains how she became politicized, and what she wants to do with that energy.


• We at Calitics are not huge fans of Diane Feinstein, but we recommend you give her a call and thank her for this:

  Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) called the [Republican] proposal [to legalize Bush's domestic spying] "worse than no bill at all," arguing that it would weaken current surveillance law and would "allow the president to exercise unchecked authority."

  Her office #'s are here.


• Classic Republican move: pull money out of public schools, complain about their failings, respond by pulling more money out with vouchers for religious schools.


• Debra Bowen presses onward, trying to make sure Californians' votes matter. We are huge fans.


• Howard Smith of the Ojai Post gets involved locally, and his side makes some progress.


• The feedback spiral of rising foreclosures and falling housing prices may have started in CA.


• Politics in the Zeros has links to the LAT's five part series on our oceans. It's not cheerful reading, so be warned.