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.
Last week I took a look at the growing Bushville on the American River in Sacramento, which has been garnering national attention as a powerful symbol for these troubled economic times. It was clear at that time that the city government led by Mayor Kevin Johnson needed to do something to ameliorate the situation. The decision has been made.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson promised to first make alternative shelter space available for the estimated 150 men and women who inhabit the squalid encampment near the American River, at the edge of the city's downtown.
Johnson, who toured the area with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a day earlier, said he hoped to have the ramshackle settlement cleared of tents and debris in the next two to three weeks.
"We want to move as quickly as we can," he told a news conference, insisting the city was determined to treat the tent dwellers with compassion.
"They are people out there. We have to do whatever we can do," he said. "We as a city are not going to shy away from it. We're going to tackle it head-on."
Advocates for the homeless applauded the mayor's action. Municipal authorities in Sacramento have been debating the fate of the tent city for weeks.
150 seems like a very low number, when news outlets have reported as many as 1,200 homeless staying in the encampment. Of course, that could simply be a matter of media overhype (local shelter organizers apparently fed this as well). However, even if the numbers are correct, finding shelter space for 150 deals with those made homeless as of today. With unemployment skyrocketing, there will be more left homeless tomorrow. And next week. And next month. While most in the encampment did not fit the profile of the "recession homeless" (a closer look reveals that the tent city grew out of multiple closures of other shelters, which is probably because of the recession anyway, so we can go around and around on this), such a group does exist and will need help over the next year as the state struggles. The fact that so many homes lie vacant and are owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, i.e. the US taxpayer, suggests there are solutions to this problem beyond the short term if creative solutions are made.
I was in Sacramento for some meetings this week, and have a few thoughts and observations.
The first is the most important. The people in and around our government are good, dedicated people who are doing those jobs because they care and want to do the right thing. You don't make big money in public service. In the last few decades a government job meant less pay than a comparable "private" sector job and a number of working-environment hassles, like the extra procedures (paperwork and bureaucracy) that are required in public positions to involve transparency and accountability. And, of course, they have to put up with the Republican-inspired abuse of people who work for the government. So give these people a break and assume good faith.
I first wrote about an Ontario-area Bushville, a tent city of foreclosed Americans, almost a year ago. At that time, it became too big to sustain itself, as people from across the country moved to the tent city to live. The city required that only residents of Ontario be allowed to stay.
A tent city is burgeoning in Sacramento, Calif., prompting local officials to consider whether such an encampment should be made permanent, with plumbing and all.
The primitive settlement sits in the shadow of the state capitol and is home to about 300 people who have no toilets or running water, creating unsanitary conditions that advocacy groups worry could promote diseases like cholera. With the downturn in the economy and more working-class people losing their jobs and their homes, the tent city is expanding [...]
This tent city is in a place of great natural beauty, between two rivers, with birds and open sky and a relatively mild climate. Homeless people have lived there for years, largely unseen, but as more working class people move in, the tents are multiplying and becoming harder to ignore.
The official count of homeless people in Sacramento is 1,226 people, and they are spilling out to the tent city because the housing shelters are full; one of the shelters is turning away more than 200 women and children a day.
Perhaps the most unbelievable part of this is that 10% of rental housing units in Sacramento, and almost 5% of owned units, are VACANT. We have nobody in the houses and people living in the tents by the river. And yet the housing owned by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is maxed out. It's very upside-down.
I agree with Charles Lemos that this is a test of our humanity and values as a people. Fortunately, the generosity of ordinary people is extending beyond the policymakers. Since a story on the tent city appeared on Oprah and the Today show, donations have been pouring in. Portable toilets and a dumpster have been installed.
But that's a temporary solution. While $2.3 million is coming into Sacramento to deal with homelessness through the federal stimulus package, that's not going to be enough if foreclosures continue to rise. In February, the number of homes threatened went up 30% year-over-year and up 6% since January, despite several large banks agreeing to a temporary moratorium. Five of the top seven areas for foreclosures are in California - Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Riverside-San Bernardino and Bakersfield. While the first wave of subprime failures has already occurred, with unemployment still soaring we are starting to see unemployment-based foreclosures as a second wave. So I don't see any letup anytime soon, and Sacramento is going to have to meet this challenge of dealing with the wreckage of the Bush regime.
I just got back from attending the Eve of Justice in Sacramento, CA. As you probably know the California Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the validity of Prop 8 starting tomorrow. They must issue a ruling within 90 days. There were several hundred people at the rally. I was very excited to be part of this march and wanted to share some pictures.
At the risk of oversimplification, I think that the national problems we have now are a manifestation of Republican excesses in the White House and Congress for WAY too long. The cumulative effect of destroying regulatory oversight, budget deficits, foreign policy blunders, anti-science policy and the general lawlessness within the Bush Administration has brought us this horrible situation. I worked hard for Obama since February 2007 and have great faith in his ability to lead us out of this mess. I have hope for us nationally.
California's problems are certainly related, but generally the budget problems in Sacramento are a manifestation of Democratic excesses for WAY too long. The unions played a major role in electing many of the key political figures and they expected (and received) a good return on their investment. It is unfair to call this a complete manifestation of Democratic excesses because Republicans fed liberally at the CCPOA and PORAC trough and delivered for law enforcement. When it comes to SEIU, the Democrats delivered.
While Arnold is trying to slowly deconstruct California's environmental regulations, there is still progress in the right direction. In fact, just last week, I was reminded of the changes to come.
Locally here in California, all sides came to an agreement via a court settlement on how to handle the widening of Highway 50 near Sacramento. The widening will be used to add an HOV lane, but the settlement provides what should be a model for moving forward on road projects. Namely, it includes a provision requiring CalTrans to help fund the building of an additional light rail line between Sacramento and Folsom along Highway 50.
The project would increase the availability of green transit options and is expected to significantly increase ridership, and improve pedestrian and bicycle access to the light rail system. Not a bad start for a local change.
But California leads on big ideas as well, and Rep. Pete Stark is nothing if not a bold thinker. Last week he introduced the Save Our Climate Act, a carbon tax bill. The bill focuses on high carbon emitting fuels. A quick synopsis of the bill:
The Save Our Climate Act imposes an initial tax of $10 per ton of carbon content on fossil fuels when they are initially removed from the ground or imported into the United States, resulting in approximately a 2 cents per gallon increase. The tax will increase by $10 each year, freezing when a mandated report by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Energy determines that carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by 80 percent from 1990 levels. The 80 percent level is the reduction estimated by the International Panel on Climate Change to be necessary to prevent the catastrophic consequences anticipated from rapid climate change.
While some speak of being green, and are transformed by the media into some sort of green icon, others are actually working towards making change happen. California is looking into the barrel of the gun on climate change. We already face the specter of mass water rationing unless we get a great deal of snow in the Sierras, and there is no silver bullet to our water issues.
Increased public transit and carbon taxes are both important solutions for climate change. Hopefully both of these plans will be acted upon soon.
"What do we want?" "Equality!" "When do we want it?" "Now!"
That has been the rallying cry the past few weeks as thousands have gathered in Sacramento, out in the streets, in the public square and in front of the State Capitol. Today we gathered in Cesar Chavez square right in front of the Sacramento City Hall. The police I talked to estimated the crowd between 1,000-2,000 people. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside with our community, in joint action, to speak out against the rights that were taken away from so many Californians on election day.
The rally was one of hundreds of Join the Impact protests planned for today in small towns and big cities across the country. It was the brainchild of an ordinary activist who thought big, built a platform and watched it explode.
The main organizer of this event was a new local group called Equality Action Now. They have put together a website and an email list, were selling t-shirts, gathering donations, got the permits and loudspeakers, and coordinated a list of speakers to address the thousands of gay people and their allies. It is truly incredible to see the work people are putting into organizing in their own communities. They are not the traditional standard bearers of the equality movement or the large organizations. These are few people who stood up and decided to be leaders. They are the strength of this new movement for equality.
These local, impassioned and empowered new organizers and leaders are the reason why the next time marriage equality is on the ballot we will win. We have all felt the taste of defeat and the pain of having our rights taken away. All of us can and must do more than we did this past time.
For those who haven't been to one of these rallies, I will try and explain the emotions being there, especially as a gay woman. At first it is a thrill to see so many people, people you didn't know existed, gathering today for the same purpose. Then you feel a sense of power being amongst the crowds, the unity of purpose, the strength in numbers. But then sadness starts to creep in and the pain of realizing what transpired to make this happen. It is emotional and tough to stand there and chant for rights you once had and chant against your fellow Californians who voted to take away those rights from you.
Today, I ended up leaving before the march around the Capitol, because it was too hard on my girlfriend to be there, sharing an intimate pain in such a public manner. This is still raw, still painful. It will always be emotional, but the anguish should fade. Hopefully, the energy will not. We need all of the people rallying together across the state and country to put in the hard work to repeal Prop 8.
More about the rally on the flip, including pictures...
(Another great progressive Democrat is Dr. Bill Durston in CA-03. Help him out, and then give to our Calitics Match. We're over halfway to our goal! - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
There are now two Durston for Congress (CA-03) ads that are running on both cable and network TV. They have been very effective and we need to keep them running in order to reach the nearly 400,000 voters in Bill's district!!
You can make a contribution on the secure Act Blue pages (click on the pics). Your contribution of any amount will help the voters of Congressional District 3 see that we have an excellent alternative to the carpetbagging, Bush/Cheney supporting, career politician who currently represents this district (That's Dan Lungren for those of you lucky enough to live outside the district - we'd love to send him back to Long Beach with your help! - sorry LB folks ;o)).
We are also phonebanking and walking precincts 7 days a week from our Fair Oaks office. We even have a virtual phone bank option for those outside our district that would like to make calls from the comfort of their homes. Send us an email if you'd like to help us put Bill over the top!
Please join Bill Durston supporters from all over California as we send Lungren packing his bags and put a true Progressive in Congress!!
That one liner pretty much sums up the sentiment at the 2008 ASPO-USA Conference in Sacramento.
ASPO, for those who don't know, is the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas. Once on the fringes, Peak Oil has shed much of its tin-foil-hat reputation, as T. Boone Pickens and Shell Oil have jumped on the bandwagon, and as world events, rising oil prices and the panic at the pump have focused more attention on the world's growing energy crisis.
Peak Oil simply: there is a finite amount of oil in the ground and our capacity to produce it has peaked, leaving us with a declining supply of oil, while world demand becomes greater.
Still there are many who don't acknowledge the reality of Peak Oil and what it means for our society and the world. Politicians fear the discussion because it means being visionary and most of them cannot see beyond the next election. Neither Presidential candidates' energy plans address growing supply shortages.
That's part of the reason why Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook is one of the best candidates Democrats have for Congress anywhere. She is willing to say what many won't and she's willing to lead where others fear to tread. Cook, the Democratic nominee for Congress(CA-46) is playing a leading role at the ASPO-USA conference, which began yesterday in Sacramento.
Cook, a member of the ASPO board of directors, was instrumental in bringing the annual conference to California for the first time, which brings together scientists, educators, and policy makers from around the world to plan for future energy constraints.
"Energy affects every aspect of our lives: food production, transportation, land use patterns, and our economy. Governments at all levels haven't done enough to plan for an energy constrained world," said Cook. "This conference is a chance to hear current energy data and trends from experts in government, industry, and research."
• Sacramento Mayoral Candidate Kevin Johnson opposes Prop 8. Johnson takes the Obama-squishy approach of saying he opposes writing it into the state constitution, but personally prefers marriage as a man-woman thing. Incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo, for her part, is a supporter of same-sex marriage, saying of Johnson, that he "made "a good move to oppose Prop. 8. Now we just need to convince him that marriage between gay people is in fact a good thing."
Zing. This race appears to be quite tight, but a large Obama-friendly turnout in Sacramento would seem to make the former NBA All-Star Point Guard Johnson something of a favorite right now.
• This is fantastic. Yolo County residents are fighting the construction of a new prison. It's as damaging to build as a new coal-fired power plant for a local community. No city should be turned into another Prison Town, USA. There's a little NIMBYism here, but the truth is that we cannot build our way out of the prison crisis - it begins with saner sentencing and a return to the traditional role of rehabilitation.
• Meanwhile, in a rare bit of good news from the insurance industry, HealthNet will reinstate the nearly 1,000 dropped policyholders whose coverage was nixed after they got sick and tried to use it. They're also paying millions in fines and reimbursements.
• Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas on the subprime crisis and its effect on the state.
In today's Sacramento Bee newspaper Dr. Bill Durston finally got some press coverage about his race against one of the most well-known California Republicans, Dan Lungren. You can decide whether it was a positive article or not, but one thing is for sure: Bill Durston is putting up a fight for this seat.
Part of Durston's fight to "take back our government from the special interests that control it, and to restore government of, by, and for the people" is online. He has recently created a video that pieces together clips from a debate he had with Lungren in 2006 about corruption and a more recent ABC News segment in which Lungren is found to be taking luxury vacations paid for by special interests, despite House ethics laws which prohibit such trips. If that video gets you riled up about Lungren, please consider sending Durston some love on his ActBlue page.
Speaking of ethics issues and abuse of power, one of the reasons Durston is having to fight such an uphill battle against Lungren, who refuses to debate him this year, is the fact that Lungren is paying for much of his campaigning with taxpayer money. Lungren has three "town hall meetings" coming up in the district next week and he is promoting them with color advertisements in the Sacramento Bee (a quarter-page full-color ad appeared Aug. 4), automated mass phone calls, and a fancy color mailer touting his "energy plan" that went out to residents of the 3rd congressional district. In tiny text on the mailer is: "This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense." These town hall meetings are nothing more than campaign stops. It's outrageous that Lungren's campaign for re-election is being funded by taxpayers like you, me, and Bill Durston himself.
It sounds like one of those stories that conservatives often use to make government look bad - the city of Sacramento is fining a household $746 for letting their lawn die to save water. But the real issue here isn't government - it's whether California will abandon wasteful and even elitist 20th century values to meet the needs of the 21st century.
The basic tension:
"In order to make the lawn go, I would have had to keep watering it intensely, and since the drought was declared, I decided that wasn't a good idea," said Hartridge. "Honestly, I think there's a disconnect within the city about priorities."
Two weeks ago, The Bee reported that Sacramento's per capita water use is among the greatest in the world....
The city's landscaping rule is intended to maintain neighborhood visual standards to prevent one neighbor's tastes from harming another's property values.
The rule was the subject of much conflict last year when amended to provide gardeners leeway to grow more than grass. Sacramentans can now grow large trees, shrubs and, yes, even food in their front yards without fear of reprisal.
But the rules still require front landscaping to be irrigated, which means scores of homeowners could be penalized for growing cacti or other drought-tolerant vegetation.
The problem here isn't bad bureaucrats - it's bad policy. Like so many other California cities, Sacramento maintains absurd codes that mandate green lawns and other wasteful practices simply to perpetuate a failed 20th century urban design model. The belief is that property values will be hurt if people have anything other but green lawns and shrubbery. We have to ensure our neighborhoods look exactly as they did in 1965, never mind the cost to our water supplies.
But it goes deeper than just water conservation - important though that is. As noted in the blockquote, Sacramento only recently allowed residents to grow their own food in their yards. Urban food production, and home gardening, is an essential step in healthier eating and energy conservation. Many cities still have bans on using a clothesline to dry your laundry, even though it saves a lot of energy (and is usually easier on your clothes!).
Residents ought to be encouraged to live sustainably, and use their home as it ought to be used - to produce self-sufficiency. We can and do discuss density and mass transit as part of urban design needs, but the micro-level issues such as brown lawns and clotheslines matter too.
When I lived in Seattle from 2001 to 2007 I saw a different and better way to live. Residents there let their lawns die over the summer. Many grew food in their yards. I learned to use a clothesline there (because it wasn't kosher to use them in Orange County, sensible as it'd have been). My neighbors had chickens, who laid delicious eggs - most summers we never had to buy eggs from a store.
Many California cities have outlawed some or all of those practices since the 1950s or earlier. It was a class-based move - middle-class homeowners saw clotheslines and chicken coops as signs of poverty and low-class behavior, which would invariably drive down property values. To a homeowner, government merely exists to protect property values, even at the expense of sustainable practices that help the environment and the infrastructure.
These practices will also help preserve the middle-class. California's 20th century middle class was a product of cheap oil, which made it affordable to live in a suburban home and get your food from a supermarket. With the end of cheap oil, food inflation is going to destroy the living standards of working Californians. It just makes sense to encourage sustainable living.
CALIFORNIA TAKES ANOTHER GIANT LEAP ON GLOBAL WARMING POLICY AIR BOARD RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO CUT POLLUTION
SACRAMENTO (June 26, 2008) - The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the nation's most comprehensive plan to date for reducing the pollution that causes global warming. While the plan is still a proposal, it represents the furthest step forward any state has taken in the fight against global warming, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
Patricia Monahan, the director of UCS's California office, said CARB's plan would add more momentum to the fight against global warming. "California is showing the rest of the country how we can build a clean energy economy," she said. "There's no drilling our way out of energy problems. As energy prices skyrocket, consumers need real alternatives that sip rather than guzzle, and that are homegrown instead of imported."
The 75+ page plan includes a range of policy recommendations. Chief among them is increasing the state's renewable electricity standard. The plan also contains provisions for a regional cap-and-trade program that could work in harmony with other more specific policies to reduce pollution economywide. The plan also says CARB will consider a vehicle "feebate" program that would provide incentives to consumers to buy cleaner cars.
In addition, the proposal includes plans to reduce emissions from heavy-duty trucks with hybrid engine technology and better fuel economy. Like many of CARB's proposals, the heavy-duty truck provisions would improve public health by also reducing smog-forming pollution. The plan also advocates for a high-speed train system in California.
Christopher Busch, a UCS climate economist, pointed out that many of the draft plan's policies would save consumers money and yield economic benefits, while the overall cost of implementing the plan would likely be negligible. "Fundamentally, we're talking about making our economy more efficient, which will give us energy savings," he said. "And investing in clean, renewable energy will make our electricity and fuel supplies more diverse, and insulate us from price swings in the fossil fuel market."
Busch added that global warming pollution reduction strategies also would provide public health benefits by cleaning up the air as well as support the state's growing clean technology industries. "California has proven time and again that we can clean our air and grow our economy," he said. "Now the state is going to prove the same thing with global warming."
The renewable electricity standard in the plan would require utilities to generate 33 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, by 2020. Such a standard would reduce global warming pollution by an amount equivalent to avoiding the construction of 10 new large fossil fuel power plants or removing nearly 3 million cars from the road. And such a standard could save residents money on their electricity bills by displacing natural gas. Additionally, it would reduce smog-forming pollution, create new green-collar jobs in the state, and bolster California's growing clean technology sector.
"California has a wealth of renewable electricity potential we aren't tapping into yet," said Dan Kalb, UCS's California policy coordinator. "Shifting to clean, safe sources of carbon-free electricity in a smart and well-planned manner is a win for the environment, the economy and consumers."
The CA High-speed rail authority has some cool new ways to make you really, really wish we had HSR. First, we have the video to the right. They've also done a rather cool little Flash "simulator" for the proposed route from San Francisco and Sacramento in the North all the way down to San Diego in the South. It has a series of animated pictures showing the proposed development along the route, some wind farms, some new big buildings.
They still have the Gallery of images and video if you want something a bit more detailed. They have a specific "Bay Area" video as well.
Greg Pettis, in his 14th year as Cathedral City Councilman, former-Mayor Pro-Tem of Cathedral City, and Candidate for the CA 80th Assembly District, has now received the endorsements from every member of the California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus in Sacramento. Pettis has widespread support in the LGBT community Nationally, State-wide, and locally because of his progressive stands on issues important to the LGBT communities: Pettis fully supports the HIV/AIDS communities, universal healthcare, a strong local economy, good local schools and responsible academic oversight, a healthy environment, equality and justice for all Californians, and mentoring other members of the LGBT community.
Today I have on my Music for America shirt that reads "Voters Make Better Lovers" and an "I Voted" sticker proudly on it.
I just got back from driving around to 5 polling locations with a friend. Before I headed out to vote I decided to drop by the Obama office. I picked up my precinct to go door hang when they got an urgent call. The campaign had been getting reports across the state from Decline-to-State voters who were being told by poll workers that they could not vote for president. They grabbed a random sample of precincts and sent volunteers out to check on them.
We were given a precinct at a church in Rancho Cordova, a short drive East on 50. We saw another polling location within a couple blocks and stopped in there. Then we hit up a mega church that was two polling locations in one. At all of them, the poll workers knew the drill. The only thing troubling was one poll worker who told us adamantly that a voter could switch party registration on the spot to pull a different ballot.
When I was waiting in line at my polling place, a church just a few blocks away from my apartment a young guy walked back up to the desk with his ballot in his hand and said "I wanted to vote for president, but it is not on here." The poll worker then asked if he wanted a Democratic ballot. He said yes and they destroyed the non-partisan ballot he started to fill out. The guy has to be one of many, who despite our best efforts, didn't know he had to ask first. Good thing he didn't just fill out the vote, turn it in and then ask and also that the poll workers knew the drill. After he was handed the Democratic ballot one of the other poll workers lamented that they were explicitly instructed not to automatically ask DTS voters if they wanted a Democratic or American Independent ballot. That is something that really needs to change. I don't understand why they don't do that in the first place.
This is a thread for anybody who wants to talk about their voting experiences, especially folks in Sacto.
I should add that I asked the poll workers in all of the locations about turnout. Nothing remarkable. Turnout was neither low, nor really heavy. About 120 people had already voted at my precinct, a Democratic neighborhood in Midtown.
(AB 493 is an interesting idea. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
The Clean Car Discount bill -- AB 493 (Ruskin) -- is alive, and will be up for a vote in the State Assembly at the end of this month.
This global warming solutions bill would create an incentive program of clean vehicle rebates and emissions surcharges on the purchase of new vehicles sold in the state. Cleaner vehicles that have fewer emissions of global warming pollution would earn a rebate--the cleaner the car, the higher the rebate. These rebates would be funded by one-time surcharges on new dirtier, gas-guzzler vehicles. The worse the vehicle, the higher the surcharge. A bunch of vehicles--including several mini-vans--would fall roughly in the middle and receive neither a rebate nor a surcharge.
With the Bush Administration continuing to block California's efforts to implement global warming vehicle regulations, this bill becomes that much more important.
Several Legislators who are on the fence need to hear from activists and constituents THIS month!
In a rare moment of unusual candor, a wanton display of unrestrained recklessness, an attempt to wag his "strong-on-Terra" manhood (or a combination of some or all of the foregoing), the absentee chickenhawk congressman of the 3rd congressional district of California reached into the darkest crevices of his soulless being and bravely declared as follows:
I cannot say, per se, that waterboarding is torture.
