California
updated
6:49 a.m.
The blue bars are the share of national income earned by the population segments listed at the bottom; the magenta bars are the share those population segments pay of all taxes collected. This actually seems more than equitable, until you remember that the groups on the right enjoy about the highest standard of living of any people who ever lived. From Citizens for Tax Justice via Jonathan Ch...
Happening-Here - 3:01 a.m.
by Sarah Little As a relatively new Obecian I've been reticent to chime in on this discussion but here goes... A couple of years ago my world turned upside down and I landed at the foot of Niagara Avenue in my shiny new truck with my flush-with-cash checkbook, a cheap brown metal cane and a really bad need to throw a never-ending pity party for myself. I came, I saw, I laughed, I stayed. I staye...
OB Rag - Mon 8:11 p.m.
Links: Patty Berg is officially out of the Insurance Commissioner Race. She hadn't been really campaigning, and her campaign account shows less than $3,000 . Her listed consultants are now informing reporters that she is officially out of the race. CalBuzz suggests Steve Poizner go blue-collar populist against MoneyBags Whitman. CaliforniaWatch tells us that Meg Whitman dumpe...
Calitics - Mon 7:46 p.m. - 2 clicks 
I need to say something: I <3 John Laird. There, I said it. Former Asm. John Laird is neither flashy nor overly charismatic. But when it comes to quietly doing the work of the people, nobody works harder, knows his stuff better, or really understands the budget better than John Laird. And honestly, we really need him in the Senate. So, as the Calitics editorial board has pointed out before ,...
Calitics - Mon 6:07 p.m.
Republican Assemblymember/U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore today became the first Assembly GOP member to say he'll vote against State Sen. Abel Maldonado as LG. No surprise: if the Flash Report says jump, DeVore says how high. ...
California Majority Report - Mon 4:41 p.m.
By Tim Redmond Willie Brown thinks it's a good idea . And you can tell Newsom wants to consider it , since he knows there's nothing else obvious for him to do once his term as mayor is up -- and there are going to be a lot of options not too far down the road. Sen. Dianne Feinstein isn't getting any younger, and at some point she'll retire. If Jerry Brown doesn't get elected governor, the ...
SFBG Politics Blog - Mon 4:10 p.m.
I'm no fan of the current con-con initiative that's being circulated, but if this is true, it is deeply troubling: Repair California, the Bay Area-based business group behind two initiatives that would convene a Constitutional Convention, has accused five firms of blacklisting their petitions, shouting down their volunteers, destroying valid signatures and intentionally submitting fake signature...
Calitics - Mon 3:33 p.m. - 4 clicks
A conservative Democrat from an increasingly Republican corner of Pennsylvania who nevertheless would become a hero on the Left for his criticism of George W. Bush’s Iraq war, Rep. John Murtha has died. He was 77. At his death serving in his 19th term, Murtha became an influential lawmaker on defense issues and a close confidant [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Mon 3:24 p.m.
Editor: This is a response by Seth Connolly to Danny Morales' "Ragster Rant: the OB Planning Board In Crisis". Seth currently sits on the Board representing District 4. by Seth Connolly Danny Morales, I noticed that you were able to portray the Board as a bunch of 420-unfriendly, anti-environmentalist, corrupt, anti-local business yet somehow still rubber-stamping folks who frequent Starbucks. ...
OB Rag - Mon 2:55 p.m. - 3 clicks
The last week or so has been an incredibly busy time here on the OB Rag, due in part to Obecians’ emotional attachment to some very deep seated issues – namely, the police and the young transient/homeless population. We have now seen what seemed like an unnecessary police response to a skinny dipper on a Saturday afternoon culminate with a number of young transients being the target of a crackdow...
OB Rag - Mon 2:25 p.m.
Text, videos and photos by Sarah Phelan Destined to Dance enlivens the corridors of power at San Francisco's City Hall. By the time I made it to the 2010 Black History Month kickoff ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, on Friday, Feb. 5, California Public Utilities Commissioner Tim Simon was talking about how the African American community can make sure it doesn’t ge...
SFBG Politics Blog - Mon 2:09 p.m. - 4 clicks
By Tim Redmond I guess the San Francisco Chronicle's big Sunday story on the backlog in police discipline cases was one of the paper's new "print-only" exclusives, because I can't find it on the web. So I can't link to it, and you have to take my word for what it says, which is: Chief Gascon wants to take authority away from the Police Commission and give himself the ability to fire bad c...
SFBG Politics Blog - Mon 1:11 p.m. - 4 clicks
Editors Note: And now for some real nostalgia. The following article appeared in the Sept-Oct 1953 issue of San Diego Magazine. Thanks go to Larry OB for retyping it and sending it to the OB Rag. Larry kept in the original typos. by Lois Schustra Hundreds of cars go roaring down West Point Loma Boulevard everyday, blissfully unaware that behind a certain high hedge, there nestles a little sp...
OB Rag - Mon 11:46 a.m. - 2 clicks
On GreenGov2010.org we are checking in with influential folks from around the state for their take on the 2010 governor's race, which is just starting to heat up. Watch our short interview with outgoing Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and share your thoughts....
California League of Conservation Voters - Mon 11:46 a.m.
By Peter Schrag The California Republican Party is still dominated by white males, both in its leadership and in its rank and file. But when it comes to political eye-gouging and no-holds-barred knees-to-the-groin campaign combat, there’s little glass ceiling left. Whatever shards Sarah Palin had missed, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina took care of them last week. Both are also showing...
California Progress Report - Mon 9:02 a.m. - 4 clicks
By Kevin Stein California Reinvestment Coalition After saturating neighborhoods of predominantly black and Latino residents with high-cost, often predatory lending throughout the subprime boom, banks have failed at preventing foreclosures while returning to high and disparate rates of loan denial for applicants of color, according to a new report by the California Reinvestment Coaliti...
California Progress Report - Mon 9:02 a.m. - 3 clicks
By Brian Leubitz Some Republicans, including some legislators, are doing their best to repeal one of California's landmark pieces of legislation: AB 32. The climate change bill is now finally being put into action. Arnold, while getting off to a rough start with the implementation, has allowed Mary Nichols and the team at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to do their jobs. But, bu...
California Progress Report - Mon 9:02 a.m. - 3 clicks
Every once in a while I write a screed against "instant run-off voting" (or as "ranked choice voting") as we call it in San Francisco. Here's a sample from 2007 that gets to the guts of my abhorrence of this voting method: Ranked choice voting has appealed to progressives as somehow "cleaner" or "nicer" than good old, ordinary, messy ugly politics. But it is just a gimmick -- we'll get ...
Happening-Here - Mon 9:01 a.m. - 6 clicks
The San Francisco Chronicle has published a story revealing to the general public an open secret that many of us have already known: Vaughn Walker, the federal judge conducting the federal trial into the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8 known as Perry v. Schwarznegger , is gay: The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco i...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Mon 8:26 a.m. - 3 clicks
There may be no better illustration of how corrupt our politics have become than the efforts of the Mercury Insurance Group to change a landmark consumer protection law that they are apparently violating on a regular basis. In 1988, California voters passed Proposition 103, a sweeping reform of the state's auto insurance industry. 22 years later, as insurance companies have become one of the natio...
Calitics - Mon 8:26 a.m. - 4 clicks
According to the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder: About 80 percent of the world's telecom traffic was handled by routers based in the United States before 2001. After the [illegal National Security Agency listening] program was revealed by the New York Times in 2005 and the government tacitly acknowledged that it had set up special technology to monitor the routers, the percentage of worl...
Happening-Here - Mon 3:09 a.m.
Speaker Pelosi's office clearly has a fine statistical display artist. Check out this chart: Readable version here. Though this is designed to score political points, that doesn't make it false. We'll see. Meanwhile I went in to see my barber Friday. She's a sole proprietor, the very essence of a small business person. And she was mad. She had just read in the newspaper that "that guy Scot...
Happening-Here - Sun 3:10 p.m.
Fernando Verdasco is part of the advertising campaign for the new Calvin Klein Underwea r X Collection , as was previously featured here at MadProfessah.com . However, a friend recently sent me the above pictures that also feature the left-handed, professional tennis player from Spain in his skivvies and all I could say was ¡Muy Guapo ! ...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Sun 2:30 p.m. - 2 clicks
If you’re not a big fan of online news media, you probably haven’t heard that our own Voice of San Diego just turned five years old. In an age where we read about the dinosaurs of the old media dying daily, our home town of San Diego hosts one of the bright shining lights of what many consider the future of news reportage. The Voice is a non-profit organization, meaning that, like National Public...
OB Rag - Sun 1:11 p.m. - 5 clicks
Dear Chief Lansdowne: I awoke this morning(Saturday Feb. 6th) and began doing what I do every morning- reading the news and drinking my coffee. A signonsandiego article regarding the police investigation of a murder-suicide in City Heights caught my eye I could not help reading it as a disturbing counterpoint to a OB Rag blog posting about the police crackdown on homeless youth in Ocean Beach. ...
OB Rag - Sun 12:43 p.m.
by Danny Morales Anyway that's the impression another Ragster and myself got when we went to the February meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board. What we found was a collection of individuals who twisted logic, changed board protocols, broke the board's bylaws and violated the board's policy guidelines to advance their own personal agendas. But don't hit us, gentle reader. We're just giving a ...
OB Rag - Sun 12:43 p.m.
By Traci Sheehan Planning and Conservation League Last Friday, Senator Fran Pavley introduced SB 918 which is currently co-sponsored by the Planning and Conservation League and Water Reuse California . This bill would help improve the availability of safe recycled drinking water by requiring the Department of Public Health to develop and adopt uniform health standards. If passed, the b...
California Progress Report - Sun 12:07 p.m. - 2 clicks
The financial news in recent weeks has been dominated by concerns about the possibility of "sovereign default" in several key Eurozone countries. Often known as the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, sometimes called PIIGS when you throw Italy into the mix), their high levels of unemployment and debt are claimed to be a ticking time bomb for the euro currency and the European Union as a w...
Calitics - Sun 11:50 a.m. - 5 clicks
Journalists and government normally are seen as antagonists, but in reality the news business very much has relied financially on public support. Government at all levels — federal, state and local — spent more than $1 billion last to support commercial news publishers, according to a recent report the University of Southern California’s Center on [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Sun 10:21 a.m. - 5 clicks
Republicans have long howled that use of a Senate procedure known as reconciliation to approve healthcare reform would be out-of-bounds and amounts to a political act of war. An independent think tank, however, finds that use of reconciliation “would be fully consistent with past practice.” Reconciliation becomes important because bills considered under the procedure cannot be [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Sun 7:02 a.m.
Fresno Judge Halts Protection Plan For Winter Run Chinook by Dan Bacher (Fresno) Federal Judge Oliver Wanger on Friday afternoon put a temporary hold on a federal plan (biological opinion) protecting salmon from the fish-killing California Delta pumps that deliver water to corporate agribusiness and southern California. The ruling, in place for 14 days, allows for unlimited pumping, at l...
Sacramento For Democracy - Sat 5:06 p.m. - 10 clicks
That's the report coming out of a meeting yesterday in Southern California with Diane Watson, who currently represents the 33rd District in Congress. A Swing State Project user diary from someone who attended the meeting, augmented by our own BruinKid who also was at the meeting and wrote about it in the comments to yesterday's open thread , explains the story: Just left a CA delegation mee...
Calitics - Sat 5:06 p.m. - 7 clicks
A reported Republican initiative to seek campaign contributions among bankers and financial industry moneymen in exchange for a promise to block financial reforms puts the GOP squarely on the side of Wall Street over Main Street, according to the chairman of the Democratic Party. Republicans are making their case among financial industry executives that they represent [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Sat 2:05 p.m.
If all goes right, this video window will allow you to watch the California Young Democrats Bay Area Regional Statewide Candidate Forum that's starting at 1 pm today. I'm tweeting at http://twitter.com/Brian_Leubitz Enjoy, press release over the flip... Watch live streaming video from vidsf at livestream.com CALIFORNIA YOUNG DEMOCRATS (BAY AREA REGION) HOST NEARLY EVERY STAT...
Calitics - Sat 12:44 p.m. - 8 clicks
By Assemblymember Marty Block One of my top priorities when I came to the Assembly was to eliminate corporate tax loopholes. With a grim economy and no-win budget choices, it’s clear that making big business pay their fair share of state tax is more important than ever. To do this I’ve introduced the Cayman Islands Tax Loophole Bill, AB 1178. You might have heard about a single build...
California Progress Report - Sat 11:49 a.m.
Due to some complaints by OB residents, channeled by 10NEWS, San Diego Police have begun to crack down on wayward youth, rampaging across our community. Here, four officers, two on bikes, are seen handing out citations to a half-dozen young people on the seawall. Is this the response the community wants? ...
OB Rag - Sat 11:02 a.m. - 7 clicks
Two decades ago, he played a funny character named Stuart Smalley on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Today, he’s a U.S. senator and Al Franken sees nothing to laugh about his former employer’s plan to merge with Comcast. The Senate Judiciary Committee this week began looking into the announced plan of cable titan Comcast’s plan to merge with [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Sat 9:25 a.m.
comes the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC in mid-February. As per usual, the host city wishes its poor citizens would disappear for the duration. Some locals don't want Vancouver to get away with this ... ...
Happening-Here - Sat 6:03 a.m.
I'm still, after about 40 years, enough of an east coast transplant to think Spring ought not to show up on the first day of February. But it sure was happening on San Bruno mountain just south of San Francisco. I offer these cellphone photos of flowers (and one hazard) as evidence of the local oddness. If the slideshow doesn't work, the set is here . ...
Happening-Here - Sat 3:02 a.m. - 9 clicks
By Anna Widdowson The reelection of Milton Marks III as President of the City College of San Francisco’s Board of Trustees ruffled some feathers during last week’s board meeting, but it signals a real shift in the balance of power in the governance of this troubled district. Dissent came primarily from longtime board member Natalie Berg, a fairly conservative and consistent (and crabby)...
SFBG Politics Blog - Fri 5:42 p.m. - 11 clicks
Most of the statewide Candidates will be coming to the California Young Democrats Bay Area candidate forum on Saturday at 1PM in SF. Here's the Facebook event . If you can't make it in person, you can watch it online on VidSF or right here at Calitics. Pretty sweet. Anyway, I (Brian) will be there, so it's sure to be a blast. Here are some links for your weekend: Jerry Bro...
Calitics - Fri 5:15 p.m. - 8 clicks
From today's Sacramento Bee: Controversy erupts over California GOP chairman's private life By Charles Piller cpiller@sacbee.com Published Friday, Feb. 05, 2010 A long-simmering controversy about the private life of California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring has erupted into a divisive conflict within the party. This week the San Diego Republican Party executive committee, led by Tony K...
San Diego Politico - Fri 3:27 p.m. - 19 clicks
Rapper-activist Chuck D: Challenge authority, consumer culture By Carla Meyer Published: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 3B In the two decades Public Enemy frontman Chuck D has rapped and lectured about fighting the power, rap music has been swallowed by the mainstream, record companies have lost ground to the Internet, and the United States has elected an African American pr...
Sacramento For Democracy - Fri 3:27 p.m.
No, it's not Rex, the Coelurosauravus in the youtube above, it's an Anchiornis huxleyi as you'll read about below Fossil Feather Colors Really ARE Written In Stone read more ...
Sacramento For Democracy - Fri 3:27 p.m.
An interesting scandal is unfolding over in the California Republican Party, involving its chair, Ron Nehring. As the SacBee reports , a San Diego Republican official is the target of a removal effort for asking questions about charges Nehring was "brutalizing a former romantic partner": This week the San Diego Republican Party executive committee, led by Tony Krvaric, chair of the San Diego pa...
Calitics - Fri 3:26 p.m. - 7 clicks
At the National Prayer Breakfast this week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President B arack Obama both mentioned and condemned pending legislation in Uganda's Parliament which could lead to state executions of LGBT people for "aggravated homosexuality." Hat/tip to Rod 2.0. The reaction in Uganda was not very positive : [Uganda minister of ethics and integrity J...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Fri 2:34 p.m. - 11 clicks
By Steven T. Jones Amid all the political acrimony that divides San Franciscans, the Board of Supervisors has finally found something that it can unanimously and enthusiastically support: fundraising for relief to earthquake-ravaged Haiti. All 11 supervisors are listed on the Facebook invitation as planning to attend a Haiti relief fundraiser at the Rickshaw Stop from 5-7 p.m. today (a...
SFBG Politics Blog - Fri 12:44 p.m.
By Steven T. Jones Listening to members of the Tea Party movement on KQED’s Forum this morning, I and many callers to the show were struck by the basic inaccuracy of their core beliefs, these revanchist delusions about what’s in the U.S. Constitution and how this country really operates. There’s a lot of justifiable anxiety out there over the state of the country, and the Tea Party m...
SFBG Politics Blog - Fri 12:27 p.m.
by Doug Porter I am a product of the public school system. I graduated from Point Loma High many moons ago after transferring from another public high school, far, far away. That’s part of being a Navy brat—you get to see the world, two or three years at a time. And you get to try and integrate yourself into the complex social systems that evolve amidst the hormonal surges and angst of being a te...
OB Rag - Fri 12:27 p.m.
by John Williams Burkas: Just like Ford’s Model T, you can get a burka in any color you like as long as you like black. Men’s attire ranges from white, through grays, to black, plus shades of brown. None of this traditional attire is patterned; all solid colors. Lefthandedness: Though statistics would say a certain percentage of people will be lefthanded, I haven’t met a single one here. And, if...
OB Rag - Fri 11:45 a.m.
You know how the Republicans are all super excited to block "ObamaCare"? Which, to be honest, more resembles McCain's plan during the election than Obama's own plan. Well, this is what the tea partiers are fighting to preserve here in California: Anthem Blue Cross is telling many of its approximately 800,000 customers who buy individual coverage -- people not covered by group rates -- that...
Calitics - Fri 11:05 a.m. - 3 clicks
Dave Johnson, Speak Out California . Remember last year when the Republicans laid out the price of a budget deal and it was a giant tax cut for the biggest corporations ? So in the middle of a revenue crisis they forced ... less revenue. Well, imagine that you are a struggling small or medium business in California, and the Republicans gave your nemesis even more power to crush yo...
Calitics - Fri 9:45 a.m. - 13 clicks
I don't normally post vague, unsourced rumors, but I think this is a general sense of those around the Capitol. Specifically, the rumors of Dianne Feinstein entering the governor's race are heating up once again. It's hard to keep genuine interest, especially from somebody as noticeable as DiFi quiet very long. However, as Robert noticed , DiFi does seem to want people to keep noticing her. I'm ...
Calitics - Fri 9:45 a.m. - 8 clicks
Billie won't mind at all that the Sunday afternoon thing the humans do with all the yelling and drinking is almost over for another year. Not that he'd allow himself to be scared off his perch. But you have to be wary. The humans meanwhile prepare to experience football withdrawal. Or maybe Olympics. Skating anyone? ...
Happening-Here - Fri 5:24 a.m.
One of the two pillars that make deficit reduction and responsible governance that "promotes the general welfare" (that's from the Constitution in case you've forgotten) so very difficult is the refusal of rich people to pay taxes. More taxes to do anything useful will have to come from rich people: they are the ones with the money. But the conservative polling outfit Rasmussen has documente...
Happening-Here - Fri 3:02 a.m.
By Noreen Evans, State Assembly IHSS Community: Protect Your Rights, Protect Yourselves Nancy Riley is the long-time in-home care provider for Michael Condon, a Vietnam veteran who was recently interrogated and threatened at his home by an armed state investigator questioning his IHSS benefits. This alarming incident demands a thorough investigation and I encourage anyone with a similar ex...
California Progress Report - Fri 1:50 a.m. - 39 clicks
By Duane Campbell Majority Rule Campaign The organization Repair California is circulating an initiative 09-0067, for the fall 2010 ballot calling for a California constitutional convention. They have paid staff and signature gatherers. The volunteer organization Californians for Democracy is circulating an initiative 09-0037, calling for a change in the current constitution The...
California Progress Report - Fri 1:50 a.m. - 6 clicks
By Anthony Wright Health Access ASSEMBLY BUDGET COMMITTEE REVIEWS THE BIG PICTURE: Budget Chair Noreen Evans (D) led committee members Wednesday in a sharply focused Q-and-A with State Controller John Chiang, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor and representatives with the state Department of Finance. Not since July 12, 2007, has California actually had cash on hand, Chiang said. Since that d...
California Progress Report - Fri 1:50 a.m. - 7 clicks
Spanish tennis player ( currently ranked at #13 in the world) Fernando Verdasco is one of the hotties who are serving as the bulge face of the new Calvin Klein underwear called X. MadProfessah fave ( True Blood Season 1 and 2 star) Mehcad Brooks is another person in the campaign, as are Japanese soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata and Twilight star Kellan Lutz . You can see Kellan and ...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Fri 1:24 a.m.
I knew it was coming. After ten years of district-elected supervisors promoting progressive policies (minimum wage and sick day laws, universal health care, tenant protections, public power, development limits, affordable housing etc.) downtown has finally figured out how to launch a counter-attack. It was announced this morning in the pages of the Chronicle The idea is to replace some of th...
SFBG Politics Blog - Thu 9:04 p.m.
Links: Arnold talks up the state by calling Florida for "old people" and saying nobody wants to visit Iowa. Capitol Weekly has a profile of J. Clark Kelso, the prison receiver . Sen. Ron Calderon wants to start cracking down on the marijuana dispensaries . Ted Lieu is going anti-Toyota and buy-American after Toyota's recent troubles. He wants legislators to buy Ame...
Calitics - Thu 7:55 p.m. - 2 clicks
By Steven T. Jones CPMC has long sought to build this Cathedral Hill hospital at the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Geary Boulevard. Against the backdrop of plans by Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center to build a new hospital on Cathedral Hill and rebuild its seismically vulnerable St. Luke’s Hospital , CPMC has been at a contract- negotiating impasse with its nurses...
SFBG Politics Blog - Thu 6:14 p.m. - 5 clicks
Mokelumne River Steelhead Run Increases In Recent Years by Dan Bacher The numbers of steelhead returning to the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery in recent years don’t compare to those at Nimbus, Feather and Coleman fish hatcheries, but they are a vast improvement over many years when no adult steelhead returned to the facility. No steelhead came back to the hatchery, located on the river righ...
Sacramento For Democracy - Thu 6:01 p.m. - 2 clicks
Appeals court rejects move to keep Sacramento strong-mayor proposal on June 8 ballot Published Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010 http://www.sacbee.com/latest/story/2514372.html A request to delay a Sacramento judge's decision to block Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong-mayor initiative from the ballot has been denied, effectively ensuring the initiative will not appear before the voters in Jun...
Sacramento For Democracy - Thu 6:01 p.m. - 6 clicks
It would be greatly exaggerating to call what Obama did in front of some Organizing for America (OFA) folks in Virginia this afternoon a conversation. More like a stump speech from a guy on the verge of exhaustion. The Prez had none of the animation he showed last Friday with the Republicans. Wonder what's going on that left him looking so deflated? Though he repeated the mantra "I am not go...
Happening-Here - Thu 4:50 p.m.
Text by Sarah Phelan The San Francisco Elections Department is reporting that the petition to recall Sup. Sophie Maxwell has failed. "The Department of Elections verified the validity of a randomly selected sample of 500 signatures from the 8,008 signatures submitted," a Dept. of Elections press release stated. "This statistical sampling shows the petition to have a valid total of 3,026 s...
SFBG Politics Blog - Thu 4:33 p.m. - 9 clicks
By Tim Redmond So Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier wants credit for the really dumb idea of extending the payroll tax waiver for biotech companies. I guess she'd rather look like an idiot than let Newsom grab that dubious spotlight. Because as I pointed out in a column this week, the biotech tax break won't create a single private-sector job in San Francisco, not one -- and because it will re...
SFBG Politics Blog - Thu 3:04 p.m. - 5 clicks
Some Republicans, including some legislators, are doing their best to repeal one of California's landmark pieces of legislation: AB 32. The climate change bill is now finally being put into action. Arnold, while getting off to a rough start with the implementation, has allowed Mary Nichols and the team at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to do their jobs. But, businesses and the right, w...
Calitics - Thu 2:25 p.m. - 6 clicks
The first item here is serious -- the others just diverting, but nonetheless interesting. What's one of the most useful relief supplies brought into Haiti after the earthquake? Tim Lange, admittedly praising his employer's offering, writes Just two days after the quake, a team from Thomson Reuters Foundation’s AlertNet humanitarian news service touched down in a twin-prop plane at P...
Happening-Here - Thu 12:45 p.m. - 2 clicks
Iain M. Banks has been on my list of science fiction authors to try for quite awhile since his name is often mentioned in the same breath as my favorite, British master of space opera Peter F. Hamilton . I actually tried to read Banks a few years ago when his The Algebraist came out. It got excellent reviews and was nominated for big awards soI picked it up from the library and hated it...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Thu 10:40 a.m. - 6 clicks
After his outrageous opinion in Citizens United, freeing corporations to spend willy-nilly on politics, Justice Anthony Kennedy wasn't my favorite Justice. (Justice Breyer currently holds that title for his dissent in the Prop 8 trial youtube decision.) But, give the man credit for some honest talk at a forum at Pepperdine Law School. While Republicans in the state are, shall we say, going i...
Calitics - Thu 10:22 a.m.
Dear Friends, In 1979, a woman named in Lilly Ledbetter, the wife of an Army veteran and the mother of two daughters began work at a tire manufacturing plant in Alabama. She worked on the night shift from 7 p.m.......
Jerry McNerney for Congress Blog - Thu 9:47 a.m. - 2 clicks
You don't have to believe me. Here's Jon Taplin, a Professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, suggesting there could be Life After Empire. He presents this chart: Then he asks In what way does this have to be the world's reality? Who named us the unpaid cop of the planet? ... We need to put all of this on the table politically. Just who in Congress has the guts to...
Happening-Here - Thu 3:02 a.m. - 5 clicks
By David Maurier Planning and Conservation League HR 4225, introduced by Jim Costa (D-CA), would allow federal stimulus money to pay the non-Federal shares of the costs of water projects in California’s Central Valley. The bill marks a departure from decades of water planning in California in which private beneficiaries have been required to pay for their share of public works projects. ...
California Progress Report - Thu 2:19 a.m. - 5 clicks
By Robert Cruickshank Yesterday the Senate Rules Committee held its first hearing on the confirmation of Abel Maldonado as Lieutenant Governor, and as of Tuesday already some Democrats were trying to block it, making the rather strange claim that somehow the "lite gov" office is more important than a 2/3rds majority in the Senate. One of those arguments comes from CDP Vice-Chair Alex Gallar...
California Progress Report - Thu 2:19 a.m.
I'm glad someone finally put this up on youtube. Tell it like it is Mr. West... Cornel West's note to Obama Cornel West's note to Obama, BBC News, January 20, 2010. read more ...
Sacramento For Democracy - Thu 1:25 a.m. - 2 clicks
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) say they intend this week to introduce legislation that would extend by six months the extra financial help states are receiving to help cover the costs of their Medicaid programs. The legislation would extend by six months the increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Wed 6:59 p.m. - 2 clicks
Text by Adrian Castañeda and Sarah Phelan Does it make sense to try and recall termed-out D. 10 Sup. Sophie Maxwell? A group of District 10 residents has turned in 8,008 signatures in an effort to recall Sup. Sophie Maxwell. Election department staff says that 7,529 signatures must be verified for the recall attempt to go forward. ‘We think it’s going to be a little tight,” said ...
SFBG Politics Blog - Wed 5:51 p.m. - 2 clicks
By Tim Redmond There's lots of commentary on my latest post on the proposed sit-lie law. In one of his numerous comments, Arthur Evans argues that We, the residents, also believe that a sit-lie law would help make things uncomfortable for the thugs. It's always tricky to say that "we, the residents" of the Haight, or any other neighborhood, are in unanimous agreement about anything....
SFBG Politics Blog - Wed 4:24 p.m. - 3 clicks
According to the Los Angeles Times and Capitol Weekly, leaders of our state Democratic Party are “putting pressure” on our legislative leaders to reject Abel Maldonado’s nomination for LG. First of all, I hold Chairman Burton, Alex Rooker and the entire CDP team in the highest personal regard. Under their field-and-finance-focused leadership, the CDP is in extremely a...
California Majority Report - Wed 4:24 p.m. - 7 clicks
By Tim Redmond This is one of the strangest things I've seen in politics in a while. Check out the ad, attacking Tom Campbell for not being anti-tax enough. You got sheep falling off a pedestal, sheep with weird glowing red eyes, sheep crawling around with a man's legs .... who makes this stuff? ...
SFBG Politics Blog - Wed 3:54 p.m. - 8 clicks
By Rebecca Bowe Repair California, a nonprofit organization leading the charge for a California constitutional convention, is preparing a lawsuit against signature gathering firms that it claims are illegally boycotting the campaign. The nonprofit hasn't divulged exactly which firms it is going after. In a letter sent yesterday to a signature-gathering company whose name was redacted, an...
SFBG Politics Blog - Wed 2:30 p.m. - 12 clicks
This is a big deal ! The person who is single-handedly most responsible for the imposition of the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, then-Joint Chiefs of Staff head Colin Powell , has come out in favor of the approach favored by the current head of the military, Admiral Mike Mullen : In the almost seventeen years since the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" legislation was passed, attitudes an...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Wed 1:30 p.m. - 4 clicks
Here's a good one from the California Democratic Party. The CDP today launched a website to introduce U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina to California voters. The site, www.carlyfailorina.com <http://www.carlyfailorina.com>, highlights the worst business failures of the candidate that Portfolio Magazine named the “19th Worst CEO of All Time” after a disastrous run at Silicon Val...
California Majority Report - Wed 12:44 p.m. - 8 clicks
The members of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) were announced by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius today: Humberto Cruz ; Director, AIDS Institute, New York State Department of Health; New York , NY . In his current position, Mr. Cruz provides oversight for the development, evaluation, and delivery of prevention programs; health c...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Wed 9:40 a.m. - 2 clicks
For Immediate Release Tuesday, February 2, 2010 This extortion attempt is only the latest display of arrogance and lack of character on candidate Whitman’s part. This is clearly someone who is used to having things her own way and has come to rely on her vast wealth to buy off any and all opposition. The Craigslist trial documents opened a window into how Meg Whitman operates. Then as now, a s...
San Diego Politico - Wed 9:23 a.m. - 3 clicks
In an op-ed on the San Francisco Chronicle's website, former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is urging legislative Democrats to support the Governor's nomination of Abel Maldonado for the LG spot. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/opinionshop/detail?& ...
California Majority Report - Wed 9:23 a.m. - 10 clicks
.Thanks to Jack and Jill Politics , I found out about this heart-warming story about a 13-year-old Black male college student: At thirteen years of age, Stephen Stafford is causing quite a stir at Morehouse College. Stafford has a triple major in pre-med, math and computer science. Though he loves playing video games and playing his drum set, he is no typical teenager. "I've never taug...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Wed 7:41 a.m. - 3 clicks
When democracies elect progressive politicians, we hope to see public campaigns like this poster in contemporary Chile. Maybe our Democratic administration could try to emulate some other moderate progressives who took office under far more difficult conditions than they face. Chile grew at an average of 5.1 percent per annum during those twenty years. The proportion of the popula...
Happening-Here - Wed 3:09 a.m. - 3 clicks
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2010/0120_p On Page 75 is the profile of Sacramento. There are a handful of good statistics including how much the poverty rate has increased in the suburbs. The profile is pasted below. Shamus The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000–2008 Metro Area Profile for Sacramento-Rosevil...
Sacramento For Democracy - Wed 12:21 a.m. - 11 clicks
Drawing a sharp distinction between the role they played as the opposition following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that of the Republicans today, Democrats are punching back against what they see as political gamesmanship on the part of the GOP. In an angry floor speech Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sharply criticized Republican [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Tue 7:02 p.m. - 3 clicks
By Steven T. Jones Harper’s Magazine’s website has posted a disturbing expose that raises serious doubts about what the federal government claims were the simultaneous suicides of three Guantanamo Bay detainees in 2006, indicating that they may actually have been tortured to death at a secret interrogation facility known as Camp No. Even worse, writer Scott Horton details how four pris...
SFBG Politics Blog - Tue 5:04 p.m. - 3 clicks
Today at a hearing in the United States Senate, the two top military officials in the United States, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff head Admiral Mike Mullen endorsed ending the military's proscription on openly gay individuals serving in the armed forces : ...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Tue 4:27 p.m. - 3 clicks
By Rebecca Bowe Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s statewide ballot initiative, which the utility calls The Taxpayer’s Right to Vote Act, has attracted criticism in a few editorials since the company sank millions into gathering enough signatures to qualify it for the ballot. The proposed initiative would change the state constitution to require a two-thirds majority of voters to approv...
SFBG Politics Blog - Tue 3:28 p.m. - 3 clicks
[Poster's note: Wow! Go Humberto!] humberto Peraza Raises More Than $45,000 for council race O utraises all other candidates combined Chula VISTA -- H umberto Peraza’s campaign for Chula Vista City Council has reported raising $45,595 in contributions in 2009, according to the semi-annual campaign finance report filed yesterday. Peraza rais...
San Diego Politico - Tue 2:43 p.m. - 14 clicks
By Tim Redmond If I owned a bicycle shop in San Francisco, I'd be putting a big poster in my window right now saying something like: $840 a year to ride Muni? Save your cash -- buy a bike! Seriously -- you can get a decent new bicycle for $350, a good used one for half of that. Which means if you switch from riding Muni to riding your bike, you pay for your new ride in about six mont...
SFBG Politics Blog - Tue 2:27 p.m. - 6 clicks
By Steven T. Jones Anyone who still thinks that Mayor Gavin Newsom is a liberal who has been unfairly maligned by the Bay Guardian and other wild-eyed San Francisco lefties should watch his appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show last night, in which Newsom praises O’Reilly (a right-wing reactionary if there ever was one) as a political moderate, correctly calls himself an econ...
SFBG Politics Blog - Tue 1:41 p.m. - 4 clicks
By Tim Redmond The drumbeat for a law against sitting on the sidewalk continues. (And I still don't get the point -- if a cop comes up to a thuggish punk who's sitting down, the perp is just going to stand up. Most aggressive panhandlers are standing, not sitting. The ones who will get hit by this are the old, the disabled and the homeless trying to get some sleep.) Oh, and it's suppos...
SFBG Politics Blog - Tue 12:29 p.m. - 3 clicks
The 2010 Oscar Nominations were announced this morning and MadProfessah did pretty well in predicting the Top 8 categories . I got 4 categories (Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor) completely correct and overall,out of 45 possible nominations, I predicted 37 correctly, or an 82%accuracy rate . Interesting notes: Lee Daniels becomes the first openly gay and...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Tue 11:45 a.m. - 5 clicks
Hiker waste deep in the willows. Not my pic; from here. I can feel the resistance in me rising again. I'm about to plunge into another set of what trail guidebooks about the Colorado Rockies call "willows." I once read that, imagined graceful hanging greenery and wondered "what are they talking about?" that I should worry about the effort of getting through them? Turned out to a brush-fi...
Happening-Here - Tue 10:47 a.m.
The Karuk Tribal Council on January 28 voted unanimously to sign the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. Karuk Tribe P R E S S R E L E A S E For Immediate Release: January 28, 2010 For more information: Craig Tucker, Klamath Coordinator, Karuk Tribe, cell 916-207-8294 read more ...
Sacramento For Democracy - Tue 8:02 a.m. - 7 clicks
The Obama Administration has released its proposed budget for FY 2011. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s portion of the budget, which accounts for $78.8 billion, mostly perpetuates the status quo approach to transportation spending. In particular, it includes requests for FHWA ($42.1 billion), FAA ($16.5 billion), FTA ($10.8 billion), the National Infrastructure Innovation and Financ...
Transbay Blog - Feb 2 - 5 clicks
February 2, 2010, LOS ANGELES — As the Senate Armed Services Committee hears testimony on Tuesday regarding the possible repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the Courage Campaign and Lt. Dan Choi have now collected 458,039 letters of support from Americans calling for an immediate end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” ...
The Courage Campaign - Feb 2
Yesterday, President Obama released his first real federal budget. Although the FY 2010 budget was released after President Obama took office, it as largely just an edited version of what the Bush Office of Management and Budget prepared. One early issue of note to California is that President Obama requested $330 million for SCAAP funding. SCAAP reimburses states and localiti...
California Majority Report - Feb 1 - 7 clicks
As Americans seek to help, and connect with, the massive humanitarian crisis in Haiti, a new fact sheet has been posted online promising to provide seemingly helpful “information about the Haitian community in the United States.” The reality is the document was released by a Washington policy organization using the intense interest in the aftermath of [...]...
The Democratic Daily - Feb 1 - 5 clicks
By Tim Redmond And lord knows, he needs it. Jerry's campaign is nowhere, his message is muddled, he's got no connection at all to young voters and unless he takes steps to define himself pretty darn soon, he's going to be chopped up into yesterday's hash by the Republican hit squads. But here's a glimmer of hope: The last two GOP candidates are at war. Really. Steve Poizner has even cal...
SFBG Politics Blog - Feb 1 - 3 clicks
Westlands Water District, the "Darth Vader of California water politics, is requesting a federal judge to order lifting restrictions on the operation of huge delta water pumps and canals from February through May, according to a news release from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Water4Fish. The move takes place as Westlands Water District, southern Calfornia water a...
Sacramento For Democracy - Feb 1 - 16 clicks
By Just A Guy Editors note: Just A Guy was recently released from a California prison, where he wrote regular reports for us. He continues to comment on prison and criminal-justice issues. You can read his most recent post here. So it’s finally happening: The early releases are to begin very soon, and the furor of public officials trying to protect their collective asses by decrying ...
SFBG Politics Blog - Feb 1 - 5 clicks
By Nima Maghame As supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage await closing arguments and a verdict in the federal lawsui t challenging Prop. 8’s legality, California State Senator Mark Leno has introduced a new bill that protects clergy who don’t want to perform marriage ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs. “We so often heard from members of clergy that if Prop. 8 doesn't pas...
SFBG Politics Blog - Feb 1 - 9 clicks
By Steven T. Jones Critical Mass photo by Tim Daw . San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón said Friday that he has ordered a review of policies related to Critical Mass, offering veiled threats of an impending crackdown to the unpermitted monthly mass bike ride. As SFPD learned from a 1997 crackdown, that won’t work, and will more likely make the event even more popular and provocat...
SFBG Politics Blog - Feb 1 - 3 clicks
Text by Sarah Phelan Will journalists be forced to include a "tip jar" logo next to their online work? Or is there some other way to save an industry in crisis? Alan Mutter has a cool post on his 'Reflections of a Newsosaur' blog today: he advocates that we stop the exploitation of journalists. And he includes a handy way to calculate your own worth as a reporter, including the notion...
SFBG Politics Blog - Feb 1 - 3 clicks
In December 2009, the San Francisco MTA implemented sweeping changes to Muni service that affected more than half of the routes in the system. The changes redrew routes, renumbered routes, eliminated a few routes, eliminated some route segments, and even added some service. While those changes have not been completely successful in all aspects, we [...] ...
Transbay Blog - Feb 1 - 9 clicks
So the Obama Justice Department, acting just like the last guys, is about to issue a report finding that the intellectual authors of national disgrace, the political lawyers who cooked up a half-assed rationale for torture, didn't do anything really wrong. They meant well, so the crimes committed following their logic don't count. This reminds me of students who figure they deserve an A for eff...
Happening-Here - Feb 1 - 3 clicks
Tomorrow morning at 5:30am PST (Tuesday February 2) the 82nd Academy Award nominations will be announced for films released in 2009 (Review my Top 10 movies of 2009 list here). After seeing the actual nominations on Tuesday I will post a more extensive post with my predictions for the winners of the Top 8 awards. In previous years , Mad Professah has done pretty well in predicting both nom...
The Mad Professah Lectures - Feb 1 - 5 clicks
