The campaign to re-elect Assemblymember Betsy Butler to the California State Assembly today announced the support of Congresswoman Judy Chu and former Congresswoman Diane Watson.
Betsy currently is a board member of Equality California and previously served as President of the National Women's Political Caucus (LA Westside Chapter), and as the Director of Development for Consumer Attorneys of California. Assemblymember Butler also has served as an appointed member of the California Film Commission, where she worked to keep the film industry as a driver of the state's economy.
After the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, with its codification of imprisonment without charge or trial, I could no longer register voters for the Democratic Party - even with the hope of involving new registrants in the California Democratic Party's popular Progressive Caucus. If I could not ask someone to join the Democratic Party, I could not in good conscience stay in the party, even as an insurgent writing resolutions and platform planks to end our wars for oil.
Unfortunately, too many corporate Democrats, beholden to big-money donors or to a jobs sector dependent on militarism, vote for perpetual war and the surveillance state, replete with secret wiretaps, black hole prisons, and targeted assassinations. Far too many who are fearful or bought by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee vote for legislation that relegates Palestinians to second-class citizenship and threatens to take our country to the brink of an unthinkable war on Iran.
President Obama, despite his eloquence and initial popularity, has continued, and in some cases, expanded Republican Party policies under George Bush by escalating drone attacks on Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia; hiring deregulators from predatory banks to craft economic policy; repeatedly putting Social Security cuts on the table; lifting a 20-year moratorium on new nuclear power plants; signing NDAA legislation that eviscerates due process; increasing U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raids and arrests of undocumented workers.
As the US empire crashes on the shores of rapacious greed, as power shifts from the federal to the local level, the Green Party can play a crucial role in creating and promoting local economies, worker or consumer-owned cooperatives, model municipal policy and participatory democracy. The time is ripe for municipal federalism with its emphasis on cities sharing expertise, policies, and strategies for community building in a sustainable world.
I want to be part of that movement to create a post-empire future that rejects perpetual war, addictive consumerism and vulture capitalism to embrace a life-affirming vision of sustainability with measurable goals for energy, water and food independence.
As more people struggle financially and the cost of energy and optional travel increases, Americans will stay closer to home to invest and recreate more intensely in their communities and neighborhoods. Our challenge in the age of withering empire is to set a new economic course that helps us invest our resources in ourselves, rather than multinational companies that extract our wealth and labor for the 1%.
While running Greens for federal office may help to register new Greens, to attract young people to the Party, the Greens' resources - economic and grassroots - are best used at the local level where the Party has experienced the most success in the United States.
In 2011, 8 out of 12 California Green Party members running for local office got elected.
In Richmond, California, the working class city's Green Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, representing more than 100,000 residents, took on Chevron, resulting in a 115-million dollar pollution settlement, enacted a waiver on residential solar power fee installation; and spearheaded one of the nation's toughest anti-foreclosure ordinances that exacts a $1,000 a day fine on banks who fail to maintain foreclosed property. McLaughlin was one of several Green Mayors to publicly oppose the dirty tar sands project, signing on to a letter to President Obama urging him to reject, as he recently announced, the XL pipeline that would carry the dirtiest crude from Canada across the United States to the Gulf of Mexico.
In the city of Fairfax in Marin County, Green Mayor Pam Hartwell-Herrero and a majority Green city council has banned intrusive Smart Meters, and authored successful ballot initiatives to ban plastic bags and the cultivation of genetically modified organisms. Fairfax is the third California city to have a Green majority on its town council, joining Sebastopol in Sonoma County from 2000 to 2008 and Arcata in Humboldt County, which had the world's first Green majority on any legislative body between 1996 and 1998 and then again from 2000 to 2002.
While water board races are not often high-profile races, water board seats may be the front line defense against corporate privatization of our increasingly-scarce water supply. Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, President of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, understands this. The youngest Green elected to local office, Soppoci-Belknap is working to stop the sale of the county's watershed to keep water in the public domain.
In Los Angeles, LA Community College District (LACCD) trustee Nancy Pearlman, elected first as a Green before becoming a Democrat (something that happens too often to avoid Democratic Party rival candidates), advocated for tough sustainability standards which resulted in the LACCD becoming the first community college district in the nation to adopt a LEED environmental building certification standards. Under Pearlman's Green leadership, all nine LA community colleges developed green jobs training programs.
Nationally, Greens are leading the "Move to Amend" effort calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish "Corporate Personhood," or as former Green Presidential candidate David Cobb describes, "the legal doctrine that allows corporations to overturn democratically enacted laws seeking to protect citizens from corporate harm and abuse." Cobb is now the National Projects Director for Democracy Unlimited, a coalition of Greens, Progressive Democrats, libertarians, and Declined-to-States organizing forums and rallies to challenge unlimited independent political expenditures by corporations.
Greens are also spearheading efforts to pass city ordinances embracing a Sustainability Bill of Rights, which would set measurable goals for energy independence, local food production, and clean air, land, and water. While Pittsburgh became the first city in the nation to pass a law protecting the rights of nature against corporate exploitation, Santa Monica could be next in line, thanks to the work of a coalition called Santa Monica Neighbors Unite! led by urban gardener Cris Gutierrez and Green Party urban forest advocate Linda Piera-Avila. Greens in the city of Santa Monica, which previously elected one of the first Green mayors - Michael Feinstein, a co-founder of the Green Party in the U.S. - are in the forefront of this effort to pass a Sustainability Bill of Rights ordinance that would recognize "the fundament rights of natural communities and ecosystems to exist, thrive, and evolve" - and set a goal of 100% local water use by 2020.
Throughout the US, Greens and allies are at the fulcrum of the occupy movement, defending homeowners facing foreclosure, practicing participatory democracy in the street, and successfully altering the national discourse from deficits and taxes to wealth inequality and privilege. In Oakland, Green Samsarah Morgan helped start the Children's Village at Occupy Oakland, where children can play and protest peacefully. Former LA County Council Co-Chair of the Green Party Rachel Brunkhe mobilizes marches on Bank of America in San Pedro, home to the largest port in the country; former Green assembly candidate Peter Thottam organizes thousands at Occupy the Rose Parade, where Wells Fargo, one of the most notorious banks for robo-siging illegal foreclosures, was one of the parade's chief sponsors; Al Shantz, Green Vice President of Napa Valley College's Student Senate, launches Occupy rallies downtown and on the Napa Valley College campus; Harrison Wills, a Green President of the Santa Monica College Associated Student Body tells an Occupy crowd at his campus, "There's socialism for corporations and capitalism for the rest of us."
Rather than running candidates for every state and federal office, Greens can invest their energy in campaigning for local non-partisan offices, in electing Greens to neighborhood councils and city councils; union leadership positions, pension and credit union boards, associated student bodies - and to movement-building and media messaging that injects and accentuates a Green anti-consumerist pro-sustainability vision into the economic discourse.
Power to the cities!
Though our emphasis should be local, our scope global as we solidify relationships with Green Party members across the world. Let us hold the Greens from Europe to Africa close to our hearts as we reject nationalism - its attendant racism, xenophobia, and scapegoating - and embrace global citizenry and planetary-caretaking.
Let us look to the German Green Party, the first to enjoy national prominence and the catalyst behind Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Encouraged by the German Greens, we must challenge billions in U.S. federal subsidies for new nuclear power plants and demand plant closures from California to New York. With a void in leadership in the U.S. anti-nuclear movement, the Green Party can play a key role in re-invoking the moratorium lifted under the Obama administration.
Elsewhere in Europe, Greens have launched a Green New Deal (GND) aimed at "reducing inequalities within and between societies, and reconciling our lifestyles - the way we live, produce and consume - with the physical limits of our planet" through progressive taxation, tax incentives for green initiatives, and new economic indicators beyond the Gross Domestic Product. For example, in Vienna, Austria, a GND initiative built "bike city" - a housing project that includes bike rental and maintenance, a compressed air station, 300 bicycle parking spaces, and extra large elevators for bike transport.
Let us build a new American landscape of bike cities, urban gardens, municipal credit unions, barter economies, and city-owned utilities with Greens organizing a new power-sharing worker-member-owner paradigm a la the Mondragon Cooperatives Cooperation in northern Spain. Based in Basque region, the Mondragon is a federation of worker cooperatives employing 84,000 people in four critical sectors: finance; industry; retail; knowledge.
Electorally, I envision a fusion approach - whereby Greens support progressive Democrats, just as Los Angeles Green Party members recommended my candidacy when I challenged war profiteer Jane Harman for Congress, and just as Green Party activists in northern California support PDA's Norman Solmon to fill retiring Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey's seat. Endorsing progressive Democrats - a la Congress Members Kucinich, Lee, Grijalva - on the national level - and Assemblyman Bill Monning and Senator Fran Pavley on the California state legislative level - makes sense until the Green Party is ready and able to successfully elect statewide and federal candidates of its own, either because the Party has exponentially multiplied its current voter registration, estimated at 300,000 in the nation; 110,000 in California, or because enough cities like Oakland, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Portland have instituted instant run-off or ranked-choice voting to increase the likelihood that voters will not simply cast their ballots for pre-ordained winners or lessers-of-evil but instead choose a candidate who truly represents their vision of peace, social justice, and environmental sustainability.
Ranked choice voting must be a strategic priority for the Green Party in the U.S., with Greens in every leadership position - be it a partisan office or a non-partisan environmental organization - introducing ranked-choice voting into their respective organization. Strategically, Greens might organize a coalition of third parties - Greens, Peace and Freedom, Libertarians, and the well-funded centrist Americans Elect - to institute proportional representation through state ballot initiatives for ranked choice voting. Such initiatives would appeal to voters who want to save budget-starved states, counties or cities millions of dollars wasted on run-off elections.
In the meantime, until widespread adoption of ranked choice voting, the Green Party might leverage its power by becoming a fusion party, regardless of state laws like the one in California that prohibit candidates from becoming the nominee of more than one party. On the grassroots level, endorsing Democratic Party candidates active in Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) would address the "spoiler" charge and position Greens as a swing voting constituency, much as a swing state can decide a Presidential election. Let the Greens be wooed; let every candidate running for city, state, or federal office feel compelled to address the priorities of the Green Party, and let our party learn the lessons of the Swedes and Norwegians who successfully challenged the 1% by building strong coalition governments and coalition movements behind those coalition governments.
While it's true that California Democratic Party delegates can be stripped of their delegate status for endorsing Greens in elections, there is nothing stopping non-delegates active in PDA from participating in a blue-green coalition that endorses and works to elect local Greens. In fact, that should be the call to action, watering the Green seeds for the next generation.
In LA County, where there are 23,000 registered Greens, and over 900,000 Declined to States, the Party will participate in an aggressive voter registration campaign before the November 2012 election when a Green Party Presidential candidate, perhaps pioneering environmental health advocate Dr. Jill Stein, will likely enjoy ballot status in at least 17 states, including the largest state, California, with its 55 electoral votes, and swing states Ohio, Florida and Colorado. Other Green Party ballot access states or districts include Arkansas, Arizona, DC, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia. Though Green Party strengths lies in bottom-up organizing, running a Presidential candidate can provide a strategic stage for the left to critique and challenge the status quo, while attracting "millennials" or younger voters to a party platform that refuses all corporate contributions, supports single-payer health care, advocates zero-waste, calls for a tax on the rich, and opposes not only pre-emptive wars for empire, but weapons sales to other countries.
With strategic planning and a shift in focus, those newly registered Greens can rock the world of monopoly capitalism with a sturdy footing in city soil and municipal radicalism.
I will proudly stand with them.
## ##
Marcy Winograd, a former congressional peace candidate, mobilized 41% of the Democratic Party primary vote in her challenge to war profiteer Jane Harman. Presently, Winograd serves as as a board member of the Ocean Park Association in Santa Monica and is a member of Santa Monica Greens.Winograd, a public school English and history teacher, helped organize OccupyLAUSD to protest education cuts in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Email Marcy at Winogradteach@gmail.com
Follow Marcy on twitter: marcywinograd
Friend Marcy on fb: Marcy Winograd II
The LA Police Department, known for its brutality and corruption over the years, and the U.S. military conducted joint "tactical exercises" in downtown LA this week.
One Black Hawk, a helicopter that has served in combat in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan and other areas in the Middle East, and four OH-6 choppers - "Little Birds" - flew over the city during the exercise.
At one point they flew just above the US Bank building downtown and later flew over the Staples Center as the Los Angeles Lakers played against the Los Angeles Clippers inside (http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/01/25/lapd-and-special-forces-conduct-military-maneuvers-in-the-skies-above-downtown-la/).
According to a Department news release on January 23 (http://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/news_view/50045), "Multi-agency tactical exercises are to be conducted during evening hours around the downtown area January 22-26, 2012."
"The Los Angeles Police Department will be providing support for a joint military training exercise in and around the great Los Angeles area," the release stated. "This will be routine training conducted by military personnel, designed to ensure the military's ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements."
"This training has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites. The training sites have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routines," the Department claimed.
"Lastly, safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and the military personnel involved. As such, this training is not open to the public," the Department concluded.
Members of the Occupy movement were outraged by the joint exercises by the LA police and military, in light of the unprecedented campaign by the US government and local police agencies against the First Amendment, Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
"Open to the public?" the Occupy LA Morning Report blog responded (http://occupylosangeles.org/?q=node/5391) "You mean the deployment of military assets in an urban area is supposed to be inconspicuous? The video of these 'exercises' would be something to behold, probably much like what we saw in Iron-Curtain Eastern Europe and Tiananmen Square. But since the NDAA 2012 was passed nothing seems surprising any more."
"It appears America is preparing for war against its own citizens. I don't know how else to put it. If someone can make a suggestion for another way of interpreting this, please do," the blog stated.
Joint military training exercises have also been conducted in Boston, Massachusetts and Little Rock, Arkansas over the past six months.
These joint military training exercises become very ominous in the wake of the repression of the Occupy movement by police departments throughout the nation.The crackdown on the First Amendment by the cities of Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco and others across the country is apparently part of a nationally coordinated campaign by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies in collaboration with local police departments, as exposed by author Naomi Wolf in her November 25 article in the UK Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy).
"So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence," wrote Wolf. "It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent."
The exercises become even more ominous when you consider that President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on New Year's Eve, allowing indefinite detention to be codified into law.
Obama had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had "serious reservations" about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use it and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a statement.
"The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield," the ACLU said.
President Barack Obama brought us "Change," all right, "Change" for the worse!
The resolution was introduced last week by councilmembers Richard Alarcon and Bill Rosendahl. It seeks to address "the City's position to support the First Amendment Rights carried out by 'Occupy Los Angeles,'" according to the L.A. City Council Agenda.
The recommendation supports the continuation of peaceful protests and advises the city departments to bring the already-approved Responsible Banking measure up for a final vote before the council by the end of October.
The council members saidthe Responsible Banking measure will alleviate some of the concerns of the downtown demonstrators. The measure demands accountability and results from banks supported by taxpayer dollars.
The responsible banking ordinance will score banks based on the number of home loan modifications accommodated, the number and location of its branches and how they contribute to affordable housing.
This editorial in The Detroit News by Orjiakor N. Isiogu, chairman of the Michigan Public Service Commission, very nearly perfectly sums up our argument.
Like HDTV before it, 4G-LTE wireless holds incredible promise for consumers and device manufacturers alike. But today there is insufficient wireless capacity to support millions of 4G-LTE devices, and demand is rising ever faster. According to Cisco Systems, mobile traffic is expected to increase 26-fold by 2015. By 2015 the majority of Internet traffic will be via mobile devices - a reality unthinkable just two years ago.
That's why LightSquared's venture is significant. It would substantially increase America's broadband wireless capacity while providing next-generation high-speed wireless data and voice to areas previously underserved. In addition, the company plans to market its nationwide network on a wholesale model, allowing any number of new competitors to enter the market. Many observers have hailed this proposal as a key part of President Obama's plan to increase high-speed Internet adoption nationwide, while also increasing competition in a consolidating wireless industry, all at zero cost to taxpayers, thanks to a planned $25 billion investment by the company.
More competitors in the market will mean lower prices and better service for consumers, along with expanded wireless broadband options. Another key benefit will be the economic benefit associated with building out a national network, including the creation of an estimated 15,000 jobs per year. Public safety could be enhanced by this network as well.
Simply put, whether you're somewhere in urban Michigan or rural California, an expanded wireless network means more competition, lower prices, and better service. And we're doing it all at zero cost to taxpayers.
Few topics today are generating as much discussion as the seemingly insatiable demand for mobile data and how our country is going to keep pace with it. The United States has set a national goal to provide 98 percent of Americans with broadband access within the next five years. LightSquared is stepping up to help make this a reality. We are contributing $14 billion in private investment over the next eight years to build a nationwide wireless broadband network using 4G-LTE technology integrated with satellite coverage. This represents a $14 billion private sector-not government-investment in America's infrastructure.
The deployment and management of the LightSquared network will, in turn, create new jobs. We expect to generate more than 15,000 direct and indirect jobs in each of the next five years. And that's just the beginning of what the LightSquared network will help bring to California and across the country.
LightSquared will offer network capacity on a wholesale-only basis. This is a dramatic departure from the current vertically integrated model in the wireless industry, and it will open the broadband market to new players such as retailers, cable companies, and device manufacturers, to name a few. This means that end users - consumers like you - will enjoy the benefits of innovation, increased competition, and choice.
Statement of Warner Chabot, CEO, CA League of Conservation Voters
The California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV), rejects the latest round of the misleading campaign mail that questions Debra Bowen's integrity, her commitment to the environment and the public interest.
These attacks are unfair and unwarranted. Bowen has fought for the public interest, the public's full involvement in our democracy, and the environment her entire career. She's never given in to special interests of any kind, and has always stood up to big polluters like the oil industry.
That's why Debra Bowen is the only candidate to receive the endorsement of both the Sierra Club and CLCV.
Bowen earned a 96% lifetime score from CLCV's Environmental Scorecard on environmental issues while serving in the state legislature. Of all the candidates, Bowen brings the greatest depth of experience and achievement on a wider range of environmental issues. She fought for laws to oppose offshore drilling, fight climate change, promote alternative energy and to clean up the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach. With now-Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, she passed a landmark environmental justice bill to protect poor communities from becoming environmental dumping grounds.
We believe Debra Bowen's experience and integrity will make her a highly respected and effective environmental champion and leader in Congress.
In an interview with the LA Weekly, California League of Conservations Voter SoCal director, David Algood, expanded on his organization's decision to back Debra Bowen over her rival Janice Hahn.
"Debra has a much longer record on the environment," said David Allgood, CLCV's Southern California director. "We know her to be a leader that doesn't knuckle under to pressure from special interests."
Allgood said the League had taken note of Hahn's flip-flop-flip on the L.A. oil severance tax. She proposed the tax last fall, before changing her mind and trying to keep it off the ballot. When it went on the ballot anyway, she then supported it. (It narrowly failed.)
"One of the things we considered was the ability of somebody to put their finger in the wind and change positions that quickly," Allgood said. "For her to have one position one day and the opposite position the next -- that was a big concern."
We are in a painful recession. Too often it seems like DC hears more about the concern of billionaires who don't want to lose their tax cuts, and too little about the parent of two who works long hours and barely is getting by. And yet Congress votes on whether the billionaire will have more, and whether the working class parent will lose his or her job. These are the votes presently occurring, and which are being treated like a drawn out political game.
The proposed Federal budget cuts are turning into another political sideshow. The process of the budget is being treated as a chess game, a battle over politics and procedure, and one that may go on for a long time still, narrated by talking heads throughout.
If you are an American in need of a job, or one afraid that your job will be cut in the budget proposals, it isn't just a DC soap opera. The reverberations of the proposed cuts are drastic and personal. States and cities throughout the country feel the impact of the cuts through the stories of those waiting with every news cycle to hear whether their job, or hope of a job, will be slashed.
The City of Los Angeles is a perfect example of this harm. Los Angeles is already affected by the recession with a whopping 14.5% unemployment.
The proposed federal budget cuts are not abstract to Los Angeles. They would eliminate funding for job creation projects, projects needed to help Vets find work, and they could wipe out training services for youth hoping to find skills, or the homeless, hoping to break the cycle of poverty.
In Los Angeles, the community is not sitting back and letting these proposed cuts happen without a fight. Next Wednesday, March 23rd, Angelinos will rally at the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles to say no to such cuts. Cutting jobs is not the answer to recession budgeting. It's time that our government prioritized working people over billionaires.
If democracy is to work, we have to hope that Wisconsin and Los Angeles, and the other communities that have had enough, send messages strong enough to penetrate the walls of Capitol Hill. It's time our government support those struggling to get by, and not just those with the money to access power in private backrooms. It's time we make it know: budget cuts equal job cuts. And America simply can't afford to cut anymore jobs.
I'm going to do something I haven't done in a very long time. And actually, before I start, I should be clear that I am writing this on my own personal time and my own personal computer. The why will become evident soon.
This really only affects you if you live in the City of Los Angeles. Some things you should know about me. I'm a public librarian. I manage one of the 73 branches in the Los Angeles Public Library system. It's the largest public library system in the country.
It's also hurting greatly.
And that's why I'm writing this. On the ballot for next Tuesday's election, there is a measure up for vote. Measure L. You can find out the basic information about the measure here: Measure L Information
Basically Measure L will increase the portion of the City's budget that the Library receives from 1% to 3%. This will happen over a 4 year period. The funds will be used to restore the library hours, which were cut from 7 day service to 5 day service. It'll be used to restore some (not all) the staff that were laid off last year. Due to the massive shortfall of the City's budget last fiscal year, there were over 700 people laid off across the City. The Library system accounted for 1 in 7 over the layoff. L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti Claims Library Cuts Went 'Under the Radar' -- Despite 10,000 Postcards to His Office, Billboard in His District This is the first time in the history of the Library system that 7 day service is not available. Even during the Great Depression, LAPL offered 7 day service.
A few things you should know about Measure L:
1. It is not a new tax. That one's kind of important. You should know that what you pay in taxes will not at all be affected by this measure.
2. Last fiscal year the Mayor required 2 departments to take on all their operating costs. The Library Department was one of those 2 departments. That's about 20 million dollars. Yup. MILLION. It takes a lot to run 73 branches. So whether or not L passes, that's 20 million dollars we're going to have to pay. And if L fails, well, people are going to get laid off and branches are going to close.
3. The Police Union and The League of Women Voters are against L. The Police Union for a couple reasons. One, because they kind of hate Bernard Parks. And two because they say that public safety will lose money if L passes. I'd just like to point out that police and fire get approximately 70% of the entire City budget. And they're currently about 10 million dollars over in just their salary costs. 18 City Departments Could Be Combined $31.9M Over Salary Budgets (notice that the Library is not on that list? We're the ONLY department in the City that stays within it's budget every single year.) The Police Union claims that public safety will be adversely affected. But tell me, don't you think that having a safe place like, oh, I don't know, a library, increases public safely? Just a thought. The League of Women Voters calls it ballot box budgeting. Which it may be. But unfortunately, we really don't have much other choice. And it was the City Council who proposed the Measure.
Some of you are probably saying, yeah, well it's in your own self interest to push this. Yes. Of course it is. But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
So please, if you live in Los Angeles, I would really greatly appreciate it if you would please consider voting Yes on Measure L next Tuesday, March 8.
On March 8th, Los Angeles voters will have the opportunity to vote on a variety of ballot initiatives, everything from a proposal to tax medical marijuana dispensaries to a hike in property taxes to fund public libraries.
One of the most popular initiatives - Measure O, a proposal to impose an oil severance tax for oil extracted within the city limits of Los Angeles - was introduced by LA Councilwoman (and current candidate in the CA36 Congressional race) Janice Hahn. The measure is projected to bring in about $4 million in revenues annually. Neighboring cities of Beverly Hills, Inglewood, Long Beach, and Seal Beach already impose a similar tax.
Measure O is endorsed by the California Courage Campaign , the LA Conservation Corps, the Sierra Club, and other environmental organizations.
Yet a year after Hahn first proposed the idea, she now stands as the only LA City council member in opposition to the measure.
Hahn's turnabout shines a rare spotlight inside the world of LA City politics, where interest groups often create chaos with the legislative process.
We know the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision has unleashed a torrent of undisclosed corporate and union spending at the federal level. It overturned a century of laws and decades of legal precedent. Common Cause has decided to stand up and take action! Common Cause has joined forces with a number of other organizations to build awareness and educate citizens across the country about the amounts of money corporations are emptying out of their own pockets to to steal our democracy. The goal of this new coalition is to strengthen the voice of the people and prepare to battle these corporations to save our democracy.
So far, we have filed a complaint with the Department of Justice asking for an investigation of Justices Thomas and Scalia for attending a strategy session hosted by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch in Rancho Mirage, California, at the same time the Court was considering the case of Citizens United v. FEC in 2008.
On January 30, 2011, Common Cause, along with over 30 organizations including the California Nurses Association, Courage Campaign, California Labor Federation, Greenpeace, held a peaceful public demonstration to "Uncloak the Kochs" and turned out 1,500 protesters to Rancho Mirage, CA for the Koch Brothers annual meeting. This event in CA had legs - and people all over the country are starting to following the Koch Brothers money trail. From Wisconsin to Nebraska, people are starting to wake up to special interests stealing our elections.
In Los Angeles, we're preemptively stopping the Koch Brothers and other special interests from pushing money into our elections. We are working to strengthen campaign finance laws to keep special interest money at bay with our support of Measure H, which will do two things:
1. Lift the cap on the public finance trust to create a more robust public financing system.
2. Ban prospective private companies with pending bids on city contracts from making campaign contributions.
We are pleased to be standing with LA City Council President Eric Garcetti, City Council members Tom LaBonge, Paul Koretz, Paul Krekorian, Jose Huizar, Bill Rosendahl, the California Clean Money Campaign, the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, the William C. Velazquez Institute and others to pass Measure H on March 8.
All politics is local and we believe that! Ifnot, then when? When Los Angeles succeeds in passing Measure H, we will send an important message that we are taking back our democracy. It does not belong to We the special, well-financed interests. Our democracy belongs to We the People.
With the exception of Mary Bono Mack, California's House delegation voted down party lines last week to revoke all federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Nominally, the move was to prevent federal funding from supporting the full range of legal, reproductive choices to which women are entitled. But thanks to the long-standing Hyde Amendment compromise, federal funds cannot fund abortion services anyways. And so this move -- which will not reduce the deficit and will eliminate jobs rather than create any -- is simply a direct attack on basic primary and preventive health care.
Let's be clear. At best, the rhetoric about reproductive choice used by opponents of Planned Parenthood is an excuse; an attractive smokescreen. This is a fundamental attack on basic health services for underserved communities of all kinds throughout the country. It's a revocation of access to basic breast, cervical and other cancer screenings, basic health exams, HIV testing, contraception and birth control for many millions of Americans- including an estimated 1.4 million who would be cut off from their health care by the Pence amendment.
Well, it may not have the same national attention as the impending coronation election of Rahm Emmanuel as the next Mayor of Chicago, but Los Angeles has an election coming up in two weeks. There are many interesting races, including the fascinating races between Bernard Parks and Forescee Hogan-Rowles in CD8 and former reality TV host Rudy Martinez taking on incumbent Jose Huizar in CD14, but as is often the case, the ballot measures often get very little attention. Unfortunately, that's kind of the way it is with local elections.
So, what's a good progressive voter to do? Well, the Courage Campaign, in a project that I helped out with, has now released their March 8 LA Progressive Voter Guide. In it you'll find recommendations from the Courage Campaign, the LA Democratic Party, as well as other progressive organizations.
The turnout on this election is going to be simply abysmal, so it is imperative that progressive voters turn out. So, get informed, and be sure to vote on March 8.
NOTE: I'll admit it, I'm a local ballot measure nerd. So, in addition to helping out the Courage Campaign with this project, I also worked with Yes on Measure L on their online presence. Both projects were complementary, but were very independent of each other.
(I got to know Darren while on the Kamala Harris campaign, and now he's running against Sharon Runner for Senate. The Choice is Clear! - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Progressives: We are working the phones to make sure this seat flips into the "D" column. Registration's close, so turnout is the key! Come help us man the virtual phonebanks!
(Edit by Brian: Details for the phonebanks and the ad over the flip.)
After the preparations had been made, the tally sheets from our phone calls completed, the carpools worked out, and the volunteers scheduled, I headed to Los Angeles with the hope that after the weekend was complete, there would be no question in the minds of the CDP delegates that Gavin Newsom has the grassroots support necessary to win the Lt. Governor's race against whatever the GOP throws at us in November.
In the weeks prior to the convention, our team of students from all across the state had been talking to delegates, volunteers, and fellow young voters about Mayor Newsom's candidacy and about his bold, new ideas that will be required to dig California out of our seemingly never ending state of economic misery.
The pitch was not hard to make. Young people are drawn to Newsom's campaign. We see public higher education becoming unaffordable to more and more Californians. We fear that in five or ten years our state won't be able to compete in an evolving global economy, and we worry that the living wage jobs that we will need in order to support our families will be harder and harder to find. While we are confident that our state will come to its senses when it comes to Gay Marriage and LGBT rights, we are concerned that the relentless beat of the status quo won't provide the framework necessary to drastically change the way we look at issues like immigration, the environment, and budget & tax reform. We have watched the forces of regressiveness drag our state (and our futures) under the surface, and we are ready and eager to support Gavin Newsom, who has proven time and time again in San Francisco that tangible change is not only possible, but it is also necessary.
In the continuing fight between the City Council, the Department of Water and Power, and Mayor Villaraigosa, the latest salvo is a big one from the Mayor:
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for shutting down non-essential agencies two days a week Tuesday as he and City Council members remained locked in a standoff over the intertwined issues of electricity rates and the city's worsening budget shortfall.
Villaraigosa's action topped another day of threats and name-calling at City Hall.
During a morning news conference, the mayor said the council had caused the latest financial crisis by engaging in the "politics of 'no' " and accused it of "the kind of demagoguery you see in the Congress." (LA Times)
Ok, to boil this down as much as possible, the DWP wanted to increase electricity rates by about .6 cents/kWh. It looks small, but during the summer, that can end up costing some real money to operate A/c in the Valley. The Council rejected the increase, saying that it was too much money. In response, DWP moved to stop an expected payment of $73.5 million to the City. And if the City doesn't get that money, well, they can't pay the bills for the rest of the fiscal year. In other words, Sacramento style brinksmanship trickles down...
The political feud between Villaraigosa and the council -- and the threat to shut down services and stop paying employees -- flabbergasted some officials. Councilman Paul Koretz called the mayor's threat "bizarre" and warned that Villaraigosa and the council were engaging in "a crazier and crazier game of chicken."
"It's absolutely a manhood contest. That's what it's been from the very beginning," said Koretz, who represents much of the Westside.(LA Times)
The Mayor instructed his staff to prepare closures of parks, libraries, and other general fund agencies, keeping open public safety agencies. Seeing as this is brinskmanship, one of the parties is going to blink at some point. DWP could come to some sort of settlement for an amount less than the $73.5 million but enough to keep most services open. The Council could agree to some rate hike. The Mayor is jamming them together like something you'd expect at a particle collider. (sorry...i'm a nerd.)
Anyway, I'd expect to see some sort of movement from both sides over the coming week or two, the Mayor has forced both of their hands here. It's a bit extreme, and labor certainly won't appreciate their being tossed into the middle of a fight that is basically out of most of their control. (Save Brian D'Arcy and the IBEW local that represents the DWP employees.)
To take a quick detour into the politics of public power, it should be pointed out that if this were PG&E, the money wouldn't be going back to the ratepayers via the city. Instead, the money would end up in the pockets of Wall Street types. Ok, end detour.
For the past two weeks a pretty ugly picture of alleged goings on involving Lt. Governor Janice Hahn, the LA City Council and parties that do business in the Los Angeles Harbor (which is in Candidate Hahn's district) have been reported. What follow is just the latest in a series of news stories with the words: MONEY, BIAS, Campaign DONATIONS, ETHICS, and CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Certainly not words you want to read or hear about for a candidate for ANY Federal, State and local elected office. With the author's permission, this latest news story is presented in full, with some emphasis added.
Hahn How to Succeed in (City) Business Without Really Trying: Janice's Way By Ron Kaye
Janice Hahn's little conflict of interest problem in deciding to step in as the unbiased mediator of a dispute between Gambol Industries and LA Harbor officials over a $50 million shipbuilding project offers a window into the way City Hall so often does business.
It's not what you know but who you know.
In the Councilwoman's case, the person she knows and knows well is Gwen Butterfield, president and CEO of Butterfield Communication, a public relations firm. They have been friends a long time, good enough friends that acquaintances say Janice was maid-of-honor at Gwen's wedding.
When Hahn was sworn into office on July 1, 2001, at the same time her brother Jim was sworn in as Mayor, it was Butterfield who the LA Times found worthy as voice of the community to put the event into perspective.
"I think it is truly history in the making," said Gwen Butterfield, close friend and campaign +volunteer for Janice Hahn. "She's so excited . . . to have her brother swearing her in."
Butterfield's own life took a decided turn upwards with the arrival of Janice became chair of the powerful committee that oversees the Harbor Department.
She's doing a lot of business and has been a registered City Hall lobbyist for the last six years, with five clients showing up on her disclosure statement.
It should come as no surprise that are all about the Harbor: Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club, Pacific L.A. Marine Terminal, LLC, Wallenius Wilhelmsenn Logistics and most of all, Gambol Industries which port insiders say has made her a very well-to-do woman, turning a modest living as a community organizer and part-time advocate into a PR/lobbying business with a half-million-dollars in billings.
The friendship also has been good for the Hahn's fund-raising efforts.
In breaking the story on Hahn's conflict-of-interest, Art Marroquin of the Daily Breeze reported
Gambol's president, Robert Stein, contributed $6,500 to Hahn's lieutenant governor campaign account last October and $500 to her City Council officeholder's account last August.
"Additionally, the Los Angeles-based law firm of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler and Marmaro is representing Gambol Industries in the ongoing negotiations with the port and contributed $5,000 to Hahn's campaign for lieutenant governor last September."
"That's $!2,000 worth of conflict," the Daily Breeze editorialized after Hahn reluctantly backed out of serving a mediator for the Gambol proposal which Harbor officials opposed because it would seriously delay a critical dredging proposal.
(From our friends at the Union of Concerned Scientists - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
First of its kind economic analysis shows significant cuts in global warming pollution will cost small businesses only pennies
Los Angeles County - As international climate treaty negotiations begin in Copenhagen amid controversy over economic impacts, a new report shows that the costs for small business operating under California's landmark climate law (AB 32) can be measured in pennies. Conducted by leading economists and released by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today, the report finds that AB 32 policies will only increase the percent of small business revenue spent on energy by only 0.3 percentage points--from 1.4 to 1.7 percent--in 2020. In a case study which examines a real world small business--Border Grill restaurant--the report finds AB 32 will cost diners a mere 3 cents extra per $20 meal in 2020.
The analysis, The Economic Impact of AB 32 on California Small Businesses ( www.ucsusa.org/small_business ), a peer-reviewed first-of-its-kind analysis, uses empirical data on the cost characteristics of small businesses to estimate the economic impacts of AB 32 and was commissioned by UCS and conducted by The Brattle Group, an international economic consulting firm.
"Our report finds that the incremental cost impact of AB 32 on the average California small business will be relatively small and definitely manageable," said Jurgen Weiss of the Brattle Group, and co-author of the report. "The AB 32 cost impact pales in comparison to the effect of inflation over ten years, and falls well within the range of historic cost variation most small businesses face everyday regardless of climate policy."
The Brattle Group projected the likely changes in electricity, natural gas, and gasoline prices due to the major AB 32 policies: cap and trade (which puts a price on carbon), a 33% renewable energy standard, increased energy efficiency measures, and a low-carbon fuel standard.
On December 8th, voters in Los Angeles Council District 2, which encompasses a large swath of the San Fernando Valley from Studio City to Sunland, will get to make a choice on who they want to be their next Councilmember. It's not a choice they should take lightly, as whoever they choose will get to represent them on the Council for the next 14 years (three four-year terms, plus the ~2 years of the unexpired term for which this is a special election). The race has statewide implications, of course, because should Krekorian win, it will require a series of special elections to replace him in the Assembly, and that will be darned interesting.
First, a little background. This election is occurring because former Councilmember Wendy Greuel ran for City Controller and won, leaving the seat vacant. Out of a myriad of candidates, the top two finishers in the special primary were current Assemblymember from AD-43 Paul Krekorian, as well as Paramount studio executive turned community activist Chris Essel. Both candidates are very well funded, though Essel has a distinct cash advantage at the moment. Krekorian has the support of essentially the entire Democratic Party establishment and its affiliated groups, while Essel brings prominent personal endorsements to the table, as well as the LA Chamber of Commerce. At this point, the race is expected to be a toss-up, and hinges on whether supporters of other primary candidates, especially Tamar Galatzan and Mary Benson, will show up to vote and for whom they will vote. Turnout is expected to be primarily by absentee and really low.
So much for background. I'll introduce this by stating the obvious, as well as a fact. Paul Krekorian is of Armenian heritage--the district he currently represents in the Assembly has the highest concentration of Armenians anywhere outside Armenia, and Council District 2 has the highest concentration of Armenians in the City of Los Angeles. Ethnic politics being what it is--see Chu. vs. Cedillo in Congressional District 32--it goes without saying that Krekorian has basically the default backing of the Armenian community. Which is why, if you're the other candidate in an election that will have fantastically low turnout, you should go out of your way not to give your opponent's base any motivation to vote against you.
Enter Chris Essel, stepping in it by attending a "meet-and-greet" with contributions optional held by a boardmember of a Turkish organization that denies the Armenian genocide:
Essel's opponent in the Dec. 8 special election is an Armenian-American. And CD 2 has more Armenian-Americans than any other council district in Los Angeles.
On Saturday Oct. 17, Essel attended a Beverly Hills fundraiser hosted by a board member of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, a lobbying group that adamantly denies the Armenian genocide. Recognition of this genocide has been perhaps the single most important moral and political issue for Armenian-Americans, who are just as appalled by deniers as Jews are by those who refuse to acknowledge the horrors of Hitler's Holocaust.
Also attending Essel's fundraiser were Azerbaijani leaders, whose controversial campaign to get California lawmakers to condemn Armenia for past military actions was defeated by Krekorian earlier this year.
If you don't know what the Armenian genocide is, or what the longstanding tension between Turkey and Armenia is about, please look it up, as it's one of the most shameful episodes in human history that for some reason nobody ever discusses.
Now, I'm going to leave aside the obvious moral implications here and discuss the political aspects for a moment. What the hell, Chris? Seriously, I can't think of a worse political move than giving the Armenian community a reason to turn out in larger numbers than they otherwise would have. Because if the mere existence of the event itself weren't bad enough, apparently the communities of Armenia's political rivals felt like this event should become anti-Armenia open season day:
An article on the fundraiser was published two days ago in an Azerbaijani newspaper and appeared on a Turkish website that, among other things, also features videos about Armenia's "So-Called Genocide." The article on the fundraiser praises Essel and labels Krekorian's views "immoral" and his actions as anti-Turkey.
If you think I'm kidding, here's the website for the organization that the host is a prominent member of. And here's a scan of one of the invites to the event. I don't know who's advising Chris Essel politically, but I do know for certain that she has access to the same Political Data reports that I have access to. And those reports say that the Armenian vote on the September 22nd primary was around 11.7% of the general population. Now, that number is likely to be even higher during the special general, and if I were Chris Essel, I'd be spending a lot of my time making sure there aren't any excuses for that number to be driven further up. What I seriously want to know is who on Essel's campaign decided that attending this event would be a good idea--because if Essel's political team is that tone-deaf and inept, it makes me seriously question whether she would be capable of getting the advice and counsel that would be necessary to represent all of her constituents on the City Council.
