In Canada, the only way to see a doctor is to call one up and make an appointment. Or walk in to their office. In Britain, the only way you'll get surgery is if you actually need it. And yet State Senator Mark Leno and 44 co-sponsors want to bring this kind of healthcare system to everyone in California! Imagine.
In fact, the California legislature twice approved such a system, in which private providers carry on as independently as always but the public pays their bills directly (rather than indirectly as it does now, through a patchwork quilt of emergency care, programs to bring healthcare to the poorest and the elderly, and subsidies for insurance premiums.) Both times Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. But Senator Leno, a longtime campaigner for single-payer -- a.k.a. "Medicare-for-All" -- has brought the bill back again as SB 810. Last week, the bill fell just two votes shy of passage with a tally of 19-15 in favor. (It needs 21 to pass because it requires more than a simple majority.) Sen. Leno plans to push for another vote under Reconsideration, because several Democratic state senators abstained, but the deadline to win their support is today.
Grassroots activists in Assembly District 50 received a hard lesson in "Incumbent-Protection 101" this weekend. Despite losing every Democratic Club endorsement in the district, candidate (and current 53rd AD Assembly member) Betsy Butler managed to get 57% of the vote at yesterday's California Democratic Party "pre-endorsement" caucus, beating her opponent, Torie Osborn, who had won the support of every local club who voted to endorse, often by overwhelming margins.
Every year, CDP delegates meet a few weeks before their yearly state convention to "pre-endorse" (aka recommend) Democratic candidates they believe are worthy of their party's institutional support.
Candidates who received between 50% and 70% of the votes at their local weekend meeting are now eligible for, but not guaranteed of, the state Democratic party's seal of approval at the February convention. And if no one received at least 50% of the votes, Dems won't offer any endorsement in that legislative or congressional primary.
(And don't even ask me the rules for how Democrats in these local party meetings gained eligibility to vote. Instructions from IKEA make more sense.)
Again, these meetings and subsequent endorsements are notable because of the brave new world of party primaries, ushered in by 2010's Proposition 14 top-two system. It's a world unsettled, too, by new district maps that have left more open seats than at any time in recent history.
As such, a number of Democratic candidates are scrambling for an advantage. And the gold standard is thought (by many) to be the official "Democratic Party candidate" come June.
Theoretically at least, the delegates voting in these caucuses are supposed to be from the home district of the candidate they're voting to endorse. And actually, the delegates themselves are. However, the politicians who "own" these delegates don't have to be.
Only about a third of CDP delegates are elected by popular vote. The other two-thirds are appointed by politicians or elected by Central Committees. And in contested races like the one for the 50th Assembly District, delegates can be traded amongst politicians like playing cards.
That's exactly what happened yesterday in the AD50 pre-endorsement caucus.
Of the 64 votes Butler received, 5 of those came from delegates she herself appointed. Forty-two delegates were assigned by Assembly Speaker John Perez, who pulled them from assembly members in districts as far away as San Francisco and Riverside.
Torie Osborn, on the other hand, not being an elected official, could not assign herself delegates. The numerous Democratic club endorsements she secured weren't particularly helpful either, since party rules severely limited the number of delegates they're allotted. Some endorsing clubs weren't eligible to send delegates at all.
Dorothy Reik, President of the Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains - one of the clubs endorsing Osborn - attended the pre-endorsement caucus.
"John Heaner, the chair of the 13th District who was running the meeting, tried to claim that other electeds had a stong interest in our district and had sent the delegates on their own." said Reik,"That is ridiculous. Those delegates were not even in the room for the most part. What should have been an example of local democracy in action turned into a farce."
Butler failed to get the 70% needed for unanimous consent at the CDP convention, so she'll have to wait until February for another endorsement vote at the convention to seal the deal. It's entirely possible grassroots activists won't let this go without a fight, and could organize to block Butler's endorsement.
But such moves are rare, success rarer still. The grassroots are woefully underrepresented at the State Convention, the delegation an almost perfect microcosm of Sacramento itself - insular, inclined to protect the status quo and resistant to overcoming institutional inertia.
But in the age of "occupy", grassroots activists seem less willing than ever to put up with the status quo. As one young Osborn supporter put it, "Folks in Sacramento should take note that AD50 supports Torie Osborn without a doubt,and will fight to make her voice heard"
Fasten your seat belts, kids, this could be a bumpy ride.
The clock ticking down on the last night in the California statehouse is always a lot like waiting for last call at a rowdy bar around 2 AM -- you wonder how much damage will done before the last shot.
BERKELEY (March 29, 2011) - In a bold move to bolster one of the few bright spots in California's economy and set a precedent for strong renewable electricity standards nationwide, the California Legislature today approved a bill that would require utilities in the state to obtain at least 33 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources, such as the wind and sun, by 2020.
Promoted by the governor and legislative leaders in both houses as part of a green jobs stimulus package, the bill would create the most aggressive renewable energy requirement in the country and position California as a national leader in clean energy investments.
Corporate agribusiness "Astroturf" groups over the past two years waged a campaign claiming that that ammonia discharges, not water exports from the Delta, were causing the collapse of Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other pelagic (open water) species.
This campaign was orchestrated not to save imperiled fish, but to exonerate the Westlands Water District, Stewart Resnick's Paramount Farms, Southern California water agencies and water exporters from any responsibility in the collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations.
However, the fact is that both water exports and bad water quality, including ammonia discharges, are key factors in fish declines. When more water is diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, there is less dilution of toxic chemicals discharged by agribusiness and sewage discharged by cities.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) has played a key leadership role in in the campaign to curtail exports and improve water quality in California water by filing hundreds of protests against the State Water Resources Control Board and hundreds of lawsuits against diverters and polluters since it was founded in 1983.
In its latest action to defend the public trust on December 29, CSPA gave formal notice, pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), of its intent to sue the City of Sacramento, Sacramento Area Sewer District and Sacramento County (Sacramento) for illegal sewage spills, overflows and discharges to various waterways that drain into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Bill Jennings, CSPA chairman/executive director, documented the huge number of sewage spills by city and county of Sacramento in two letters sent to the city and county.
"Since December 2005, the Sacramento County/Sacramento Area Sewer District collection system has experienced at least 6,119 raw sewage spills or 28.05 spills per 100 miles of sewer pipes per year," said Jennings. "During the same period, the City of Sacramento collection system had at least 364 sewage spills, or 12.5 spills per 100 miles of sewer pipe per year."
By comparison, Jennings said a well-run collection system experiences 0 to 3 spills per 100 miles per year and California's median spill rate is about 4 spills per 100 miles.
The sewage collection systems serve a population of more that 1.3 million people and collect and convey sewage from within Sacramento County and the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, and Citrus Heights to the sewage collection system owned and operated by the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District, where it is subsequently delivered to the Sacramento Regional County Wastewater Treatment Plant, explained Jennings.
"Sewage spills and overflows are serious public health and environmental hazards," emphasized Jennings. "They evidence a failure to provide adequate facilities and acceptable levels of maintenance, reflect poor environmental management, indicate an outrageous disregard for the health of Sacramento area residents and pose a clear threat to the integrity and survival of the Delta's fish and wildlife resources."
Because local business and industry discharge into the sewage system, sewage can contain numerous dangerous chemical solvents, heavy metals like lead and mercury and wastes that can cause toxicity and impair immune and reproductive systems of fish and wildlife.
"Pathogens in untreated sewage can cause a multitude of illnesses in humans," said Jennings. "Sacramento residents may be exposed to these pathogens when swimming, waterskiing, wading, fishing or boating in local waterways and the Delta, as well as when sewage spills into homes, streets, parks, schools and businesses."
Jennings said waterways in and around Sacramento and the Delta are identified as "impaired" under the CWA and are among the most polluted waters in the state.
"Numerous fish species that reside in the Delta or use the Delta as a migratory corridor are protected under state and federal endangered species acts," Jennings continued. "Pollution has been identified as one of the three principle causes of the present catastrophic crash of pelagic species in the Delta and declining salmonid populations in the Central Valley."
The CWA requires that citizens enforcing the Act must provide a discharger 60 days notice prior to filing the lawsuit. The CSPA letters put Sacramento on notice that its municipal sanitary sewer collection and treatment systems have illegally allowed egregious quantities of raw sewage to overflow into city streets and storm water collection systems.
"CSPA will seek injunctive and declaratory relief, to the extent provide by law, as well as civil penalties," said Jennings. "The CWA provides for civil penalties of up to $32,500 per day for each violation occurring before 12 January 2009 and up to $37,500 per day for each violation occurring after that date."
Layne Friedrich and Drevet Hunt of Lawyers for Clean Water, Inc., and Michael Lozeau of Lozeau/Drury LLP are representing CSPA in this matter.
For more information about CSPA, contact: Bill Jennings, Chairman/Executive Director
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
3536 Rainier Avenue
Stockton, CA 95204
p: 209-464-5067
c: 209-938-9053
f: 209-464-1028
e: deltakeep@aol.com
www.calsport.org
Corporate agribusiness "Astroturf" groups over the past two years waged a campaign claiming that that ammonia discharges, not water exports from the Delta, were causing the collapse of Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other pelagic (open water) species.
This campaign was orchestrated not to save imperiled fish, but to exonerate the Westlands Water District, Stewart Resnick's Paramount Farms, Southern California water agencies and water exporters from any responsibility in the collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations.
However, the fact is that both water exports and bad water quality, including ammonia discharges, are key factors in fish declines. When more water is diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, there is less dilution of toxic chemicals discharged by agribusiness and sewage discharged by cities.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) has played a key leadership role in in the campaign to curtail exports and improve water quality in California water by filing hundreds of protests against the State Water Resources Control Board and hundreds of lawsuits against diverters and polluters since it was founded in 1983.
In its latest action to defend the public trust on December 29, CSPA gave formal notice, pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), of its intent to sue the City of Sacramento, Sacramento Area Sewer District and Sacramento County (Sacramento) for illegal sewage spills, overflows and discharges to various waterways that drain into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Bill Jennings, CSPA chairman/executive director, documented the huge number of sewage spills by city and county of Sacramento in two letters sent to the city and county.
"Since December 2005, the Sacramento County/Sacramento Area Sewer District collection system has experienced at least 6,119 raw sewage spills or 28.05 spills per 100 miles of sewer pipes per year," said Jennings. "During the same period, the City of Sacramento collection system had at least 364 sewage spills, or 12.5 spills per 100 miles of sewer pipe per year."
By comparison, Jennings said a well-run collection system experiences 0 to 3 spills per 100 miles per year and California's median spill rate is about 4 spills per 100 miles.
The sewage collection systems serve a population of more that 1.3 million people and collect and convey sewage from within Sacramento County and the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, and Citrus Heights to the sewage collection system owned and operated by the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District, where it is subsequently delivered to the Sacramento Regional County Wastewater Treatment Plant, explained Jennings.
"Sewage spills and overflows are serious public health and environmental hazards," emphasized Jennings. "They evidence a failure to provide adequate facilities and acceptable levels of maintenance, reflect poor environmental management, indicate an outrageous disregard for the health of Sacramento area residents and pose a clear threat to the integrity and survival of the Delta's fish and wildlife resources."
Because local business and industry discharge into the sewage system, sewage can contain numerous dangerous chemical solvents, heavy metals like lead and mercury and wastes that can cause toxicity and impair immune and reproductive systems of fish and wildlife.
"Pathogens in untreated sewage can cause a multitude of illnesses in humans," said Jennings. "Sacramento residents may be exposed to these pathogens when swimming, waterskiing, wading, fishing or boating in local waterways and the Delta, as well as when sewage spills into homes, streets, parks, schools and businesses."
Jennings said waterways in and around Sacramento and the Delta are identified as "impaired" under the CWA and are among the most polluted waters in the state.
"Numerous fish species that reside in the Delta or use the Delta as a migratory corridor are protected under state and federal endangered species acts," Jennings continued. "Pollution has been identified as one of the three principle causes of the present catastrophic crash of pelagic species in the Delta and declining salmonid populations in the Central Valley."
The CWA requires that citizens enforcing the Act must provide a discharger 60 days notice prior to filing the lawsuit. The CSPA letters put Sacramento on notice that its municipal sanitary sewer collection and treatment systems have illegally allowed egregious quantities of raw sewage to overflow into city streets and storm water collection systems.
"CSPA will seek injunctive and declaratory relief, to the extent provide by law, as well as civil penalties," said Jennings. "The CWA provides for civil penalties of up to $32,500 per day for each violation occurring before 12 January 2009 and up to $37,500 per day for each violation occurring after that date."
Layne Friedrich and Drevet Hunt of Lawyers for Clean Water, Inc., and Michael Lozeau of Lozeau/Drury LLP are representing CSPA in this matter.
For more information about CSPA, contact: Bill Jennings, Chairman/Executive Director
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
3536 Rainier Avenue
Stockton, CA 95204
p: 209-464-5067
c: 209-938-9053
f: 209-464-1028
e: deltakeep@aol.com
www.calsport.org
Elrick "Rick" Caughey, a well known Sacramento human rights activist, passed away September 30 at age 90 surrounded by loving friends as he was in life. He will be remembered for his many volunteer activities and his leadership at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento.
At age 70, Rick learned Spanish and made many trips to Mexico, Spain, Peru, Cuba and Central America. His keen mind and lively interest in other cultures made him a sought-after traveling companion. He enjoyed all kinds of music, dance, and good food.
Rick believed in human rights for all, a belief he said came from watching his family feed "hobos" during the Depression and from serving in Europe in World War II. He worked such that people everywhere would have their basic needs met.
He participated in many historical events, including the WTO (World Trade Organization) protests in Seattle in 1999 and the Zapatista march on Mexico City in 2001. He was also a survivor of the Battle of the Bulge when he was in the military. He was an absolutely fearless individual that stood up against war, racism and violations of human rights wherever he went.
He was one of the key activists with the Central America Action Committee, Sacramento Area Peace Action, Zapatista Solidarity Coalition and numerous other peace and justice organizations. He was a regular participant in and organizer of protests, rallies, speaking engagements and other events regarding a variety of progressive issues. Everybody who knew and worked with Caughey over the years will miss him greatly.
Caughey was a member of the "Greatest Generation" who helped defeat the Nazis and Hitler's war machine in Europe. After the war, he married, raised a family and became an activist for peace and justice. If only there were more people who treated others like Caughey did and shared his commitment to human rights and social justice, this would be a much better world.
Rick is survived by his sister Mary and his beloved son, Clark with his wife and family. For more information about his memorial service on October 17 at 3 pm, please contact the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento, 2425 Sierra Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95825-4803, (916) 483-9283. Honor Rick through donations to the Caughey Fund he set up for youth work at UUSS.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received a gift of nine works of art by local school children yesterday. The artwork was created "to save public education" by children and their parents at the Davis farmer's market and third-graders at Dry Creek elementary in Roseville and included a piece titled, "Evil Money-Grubbing Robot Seeking to Destroy Public School."
Twenty students participated in the presentation and asked for the governor's help to get the framed paintings put on display in the Capitol.
The California Secretary of State's Office has assigned numbers to all the November ballot measures, so now we know that passing Proposition 25 and defeating Proposition 26 are absolutely essential. The two-thirds requirement for passing a budget has paralyzed our state every year, and Prop 25 would end the extortion by a vocal minority of right-wing Republicans. The only question is whether Democrats and progressives will run the kind of smart campaign that makes voters want to pass Prop 25, building a statewide coalition that rounds up more than just the usual suspects. While some are upset that Prop 25 keeps the two-thirds rule for tax increases, it is imperative for progressives to make its passage a #1 priority - as it would at least allow the state to pass a budget, and the legislature could still raise revenue thru fees. But Prop 26, also on the November ballot, would make an untenable problem worse - by counting fees as "taxes." While we pass Prop 25, every effort must be made to defeat Prop 26.
As Sacramento is once again mired in an intractable budget crisis, the culprit is by now well known. California is one of only three states in the country to require a two-thirds super-majority to pass the budget - and with Republicans stuck in a permanent minority, their only resort is to obstruct. Moreover, every one of them signed a pact in blood never to vote for a single tax increase whatsoever.
But even when Democrats take taxes off the table, they refuse - GOP State Senator Abel Maldonado only voted for last year's budget after the legislature agreed to put a couple irrelevant propositions on the state ballot, and in years past Republicans have demanded offshore oil drilling and repealing labor laws.
American campaigns, whether it is for city council or President of the United States, are the product of four ingredients: candidate, message, money, and organization. Since the election of Kevin Johnson as Mayor of Sacramento there has been a lot of attention focused on the upcoming city council races and the outcomes of these elections. Johnson has been at the losing end of several crucial council votes and many city hall watchers have wondered if Johnson would use the upcoming election as an opportunity to support those who have supported him, replace those who have opposed him, and send a message to the other council members of what happens to those who stand in his way.
Well its that time of year, taxes r us or should I say taxes are paid out. I think I should be on a permanent payment plan with the Franchise Tax Board and IRS. Every year I owe money, every month I pay money so I wait until April 14th to file buying myself some precious time.
What can I say, I fear no human more then the Tax people, I guess that would be debatable are they human? maybe they are, I guess I should demonize the legislator who thinks nothing of taxing me into oblivion but they do a good job of doing that on there own. You would think these people beamed on this planet because they are so out of touch with how hard it is in the real world. I am in one of those catch 22 tax brackets where I make too much money so they take it but I make to little money to barely make it. That sounds like that could be a line in a song. I would write it but then they would tax that to. Well the Governor is going up against the unions now, which he should of done years ago but whatever, he will fold as soon as they start calling him names. What is the answer? Not sure? Have to try and hang on and carve out a living while supporting every program Sacramento can dream up for the people who don't give a damn about doing something for themselves. In the end April 14th will come around, I will file my taxes without sending them money and then wait for the letter saying you owe us. Then once again I will set up a payment plan.
First, Wi-Fi on a plane is the best thing since the flash drive. I am currently cruising at about 20,000 feet over Salt Lake on my way to Orlando, Florida for the 2009 Young Democrats of America Fall conference (apparently Chicago seemed like a logical connection point for the airplane to go first...this is the type of logic that is probably at the root of the airline industry's financial problems, but I digress).
For those who missed it, earlier this year Crystal Strait, the past California Young Democrats President and former Political Director for the California Democratic Party, was elected as the first Californian to become President of the Young Democrats of America (amusingly at the YDA convention in Chicago). Taking the reins of YDA is at best going to be a challenge for Crystal and this conference will be the first public view of her leadership.
She is going to need to balance the needs of a country trying to defend the blue wave of 2008 as well as the needs of her home state which has historically received significant financial support from YDA and will be looking for help in the upcoming election. It is yet to be seen how a Californian at the helm of YDA will impact the California Young Democrats fundraising.
The state declared five new enterprise zones today. The big news was that Sacramento has been declared an enterprise zone, but Hesperia, Tulare, Pittsburg and Taft were also on the list. Good thing for all the folks out of work, right?
Well, not so much. To put it simply, enterprise zones don't work. They never have, and won't start now. And we have some good data on that from right here in California from the PPIC. A snip from the accompanying press release:
The PPIC report contrasts employment growth in enterprise zones with comparison areas and concludes that the program, on average, has no effect on job or business creation. The report recommends a re-examination of the program, which offers tax credits and incentives to businesses in 42 designated zones throughout the state. The program's cost in the next fiscal year is estimated at nearly half a billion dollars.
We're handing out half a billion dollars and getting what in return? A good feeling and a hope that some jobs will show up? The data shows that it doesn't work yet we keep pouring money down this rabbit hole. Why?
The cynical answer would be to say because these things sound good. Conservatives love it because they include a bunch of tax breaks. Progressives usually tolerate them because they are focused on disadvantaged communities. But in the end, the money gets pocketed without actually doing anything to accomplish the stated goal: increasing employment.
It is well past time, considering all the cuts we've made, to reconsider the enterprise zones and whether they are worth retaining at all. Policy experiments are good, but we must understand when we need to kill them.
UPDATE: To emphasize how big this is, and how much of a waste it is, take this for scale. If the state eliminated it, there'd be enough money to restore all the cuts to the Healthy Families program and the recent budget's 2009-10 cuts to the CSU. Glad we have our priorities straight.
It's funny that the story I'll be referring to comes from AP seeing that they were an important cog in the propaganda machine that catapulted the state back into the eighteenth century. Oh well... even the most corporate of corporate propaganda machines hits on the truth now and then.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Against a backdrop of deep fiscal distress, several California lawmakers rewarded their employees with pay hikes during the first half of the year, an Associated Press review of legislative pay records showed.
At least 87 California Assembly staff members received raises totaling more than $430,000 on an annualized basis, even as the state faced a growing budget deficit that led to furloughs and pay cuts for many other government workers and steep reductions in core services.
I've seen this happen at all levels of government in California over the past 6-8 months. Elected officials from special tax districts, city councils and county supervisors all the way to the fairly useless slugs that inhabit Sacramento today made all these damned speeches about how we needed to buckle down and make sacrifices and lower our expectations yaydayadayada.
We stood and watched them once again sell out the kids, the elderly and the disabled, the poor, the unemployed. Sell out the state park system to allow private (corporate) development of the properties, refuse to tax the Yacht Party members at rates commensurate with what they took from the the rest of the public... the list or ways in which the "upper class" padded their positions at the expense of the rest of us is endless.
The Legislative Open Records Act allows the Legislature to be far more restrictive in its release of information than other state agencies, which are covered under a separate law, the California Public Records Act.
Both houses of the Legislature refused the AP's request to make the payroll records available electronically. Details of their spending are not listed in the annual budget the governor signs, as they are for other state agencies and departments, meaning there is no way to cross-check the information the Legislature provides.
And you simply have to assume that there's some reason for them to hide what they're doing from the public and it logically follows that the majority of the public would not approve of the goings on. Otherwise, why would they write a separate law, designed solely to keep the public in the dark about their macninations?
At the same time the Legislature was awarding pay increases, some 200,000 state government employees had been furloughed two days a month, equivalent to a 9 percent pay cut. That has since been increased to three days, or a nearly 15 percent pay cut.
They've cut state government to the bone at the actual interface between the state and the people needing services most and then hacked the incomes of those employees left by as much as fifteen percent in a blatant attack on the working class and labor unions.
And all the while they spewed their bullcrap and tried to claim that it was all necessary for the very survival of the state and that we all had to "play a part" and "put another notch in our belts" or "play the hand we'd been dealt". Turns out, playing the hand you're dealt is a whole lot easier for the ones doing the dealing.
While they were all talking the talk, few of them were even bothering to pretend to walk the walk. Many if not most of them were quietly either granting themselves raises and/or taking advantage of some corporate style language in their charters or state laws or regulations that provides them with automatic "cost of living" increases no matter how poorly they serve the people.
Others, as in this case, were granting their own staffs and various appointed department heads and administrators ginormous raises, increases in perks and taxpayer paid junkets to count the fish being caught at some fancy resort or lobby for money to buy million dollar toy train sets.
For any public official to either seek or accept any kind of increase in remuneration during a time when they have brought whatever entity they "serve"... and you have to use that word loosely... to the brink of bankruptcy should be grounds for immediate dismissal or recall, not the same damned reward they would have gotten had they actually DONE the job they're being paid for.
Of course, they're simply taking their cue from the private sector which seems to value incompetence, mediocrity and downright graft above all else as long as the margin and the stock price go up. In that, they're only exercising the same sense of entitlement their role models and corporate masters in the private sector do.
But we'd better be asking ourselves if we... as a society... can continue to pay these people to do the dirty work for those who are... no matter how many corporate lackeys will deride the term... waging class warfare against us. If we're going to continue to blindly go along with whatever the national version of the Yacht Party decides to do to us as a people, we might as well give up the pretense that we have anything to say at all. Save a few bucks by eliminating the middle man, do away with government altogether and just admit the one percenters are in charge and let them run the country directly.
Today, for the first time ever, Californians will have the chance to weigh in on the state’s broken death penalty system. Victims, clergy, legal experts, wrongfully convicted individuals and concerned taxpayers from around the state will converge on Sacramento for a public hearing of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to give their comments on new regulations for lethal injections.
The hearing comes after three years of legal challenges and three years without executions in California. If the rules are adopted and more pending legal challenges are resolved quickly, executions could resume as soon as 2010. But only four people have exhausted all of their appeals and would even be eligible for execution. Meanwhile in the last three years, 16 people on death row have died of natural causes or suicide. California has only managed to carry out 13 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.
Yet despite having no official method of execution for the last three years, California has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on the death penalty system, and stands poised to waste another $1 billion over the next five years. So after voicing their opinion on executions today, concerned taxpayers will also have their chance to voice their opinion on wasteful spending, calling on the Governor to end the death penalty altogether and save the state millions.
(Welcome Sen. DeSaulnier - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
At the Contra Costa County United Democratic Campaign CD 10 candidates' forum last week, the candidates were asked to list examples of when they had defied Democratic party leadership in order to stand up for progressive values and make real change. I told the audience of Contra Costa Democratic activists that I had a history of doing so, and in fact might have to do so if the leadership put an all-cuts budget up for a vote this week in the Senate. Yesterday, I kept my promise and did not vote for the all-cuts budget that was brought to the floor.
Progressive values and commonsense dictate that we have a budget that combines cuts with increases in revenue. A cuts-only budget is a recipe for disaster in California and severely hurts the most vulnerable of our fellow Californians. In an era of "yes we can," the Governor and Republican legislators are telling Californians "no they can't" have sensible solutions to California's budget crisis. They have pushed Democrats into a "through the looking glass" scenario where Democrats are on the record voting for $11 billion in cuts and Republicans are on the record voting against them, but there is no record that in fact the Republicans want even deeper cuts and refuse to support any tax increases whatsoever. Only in Sacramento could such an Alice in Wonderland scenario unfold.
The truth is that standing up for progressive values sometimes dictates that we go against the decisions of our leadership. I cannot in good conscience vote for a budget that does not include significant revenue increases. In the next few days, we will have votes on raising revenue through an oil severance tax and an increase in the tobacco tax. I will vote for those because proposals to increase revenue to the state must be part of any solution to California's deficit.
In addition, I joined with Senator Lois Wolk in writing the Legislative Analyst's Office seeking advice on the most efficient way to close corporate tax loopholes in California. There are approximately $50 billion - $50 billion! - in tax loopholes that exist right now.
It's time to push back hard against the ideological inflexibility of the Governor and the Republicans in the legislature and make them take responsibility in front of the voters for their efforts to drive California over a fiscal cliff. There is no proposal that will create a budget that is pain free. But an all-cuts budget is the most painful for the people who are the most vulnerable.
We can do better for California. Yes, as progressives, we can stand up to make a bad budget better. That was my promise to the Contra Costa Democrats last Friday and it's my promise to you today.
"If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him. Because you know what? Boys don't wear high heels. And in my house, they definitely don't wear high heels."
"You know, my favorite part about hearing these stories about the kids in high school, who the entire high school caters around, lets the boy wear the dress. I look forward to when they go out into society and society beats them down. And they end up in therapy."
We don't have a lot of local media in California, and increasingly, a substantial segment of the population gets their ideas from talk radio outlets like this. And here's what they're hearing.
If Rob, Arnie, & Dawn in the Morning on KRXQ have one advertiser left within a week, something's wrong. GLAAD has an action item for this. According to the comments in this Huffington Post piece, Chipotle and Snapple have already dropped their ad support for the show. Contact the station's general manager here:
John Geary
Vice President & General Manager
KRXQ-FM
(916) 339-4209
jgeary@entercom.com
I wasn't going for the alliteration, but it just worked. Unfortunately, media coverage of Sacramento is not working. Not because the reporters aren't doing their jobs, but because the money just isn't there. In the open thread yesterday, we noted a couple of former California reporters moving into government/political jobs.
Well, we've lost another member of the press corps. This time it's a direct blow to coverage of the capitol right now. From today's CapAlert AM Alert:
Now, you can add the Mercury News' Edwin Garcia to the list. His last day -- after spending the last three and a half years in Sacramento -- will be May 1.
I actually got to know Edwin Garcia a few years back when he did a story on some stuff I was doing on YouTube and around the tubes. He is a gifted writer and a generally fair reporter. I won't say that I always agreed with his take, but it was always reasonable.
As much respect I have for this medium, blogs and such, this model is not one that can necessarily be plopped down to take up the slack for the loss of reporters. We have seen public interest journalism growing recently, and other states have good models for that. Take a look at Colorado Independent and Michigan Messenger for examples.
In California, we have the California Progress Report. Frank Russo built a source of news and opinion that was enormously valuable. Since he left to be Asm. Nancy Skinner's (D-Berkeley) Chief of Staff, the Consumer Federation's Foundation has worked to build the site. They are having a fundraiser for the site on April 20 in Sacramento. I'm hoping to attend the event myself after coming back from Coachella.
Unfortunately, we have to help fund a future journalism structure in California. It is just to important to let coverage of the Capitol wither away and die. We need more than just the SacBee Dans and the George Skeltons of the world to make Sacto transparent. We need real media. We need them poking around in the legislature and the administration. I'm optomistic that we will figure out some sustainable business model for journalism in the long-term. But we are going to go through a short-term period of news darkness.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received a gift of nine works of art by local school children yesterday. The artwork was created "to save public education" by children and their parents at the Davis farmer's market and third-graders at Dry Creek elementary in Roseville and included a piece titled, "Evil Money-Grubbing Robot Seeking to Destroy Public School."