All Posts Tagged With: "California"
Schwarzenegger Joins Long List of California Recall Targets
Fiduciary fornication and $10,000 a month prison guard demands puts stumbling Schwarzenegger on recall hot seat.
In 2003 Californian’s recalled Democratic Governor Gray Davis and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Other California governors, including Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan, Jerry Brown, and Pete Wilson, had all faced recall attempts, but none of those attempts were successful. Until Darrel Issa anted $2 million the Davis recall was foundering too. It was the first successful recall in California history and only the second in American history.
Now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) faces his own recall effort backed by the politically powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) that filing the recall petition last Wednesday, citing “catastrophic leadership failings and inept management.” It says he has left the state in worse fiscal shape than when Davis was recalled five years ago. Union leaders specifically cited the state’s $17 billion budget gap (some say counting the fiduciary fornication it is really well over $25 billion) as a prime reason why the governor should be recalled. The CCPOA has the money and horsepower to collect the million voter signatures needed to put it on a special election ballot. CCPOA has plenty of money to fund the recall.
The trigger in the Davis recall was his predicted $35 billion deficit that eventually was estimated could exceed $38.2 billion more than the total deficits of the other 49 states. Schwarzenegger initially pooh-poohed the recall threat but is taking it much more seriously as the CCPOA is girding to collect the million voter’s signatures to put the issue before voters in a special election like 2003.
Gray Davis’ was viewed badly across the state and parties with miserable 24% approval and 65% disapproval ratings. Schwarzenegger’s job approval ratings have plummeted into the 30% range from an initial 70%. Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are deadlocked in a budget impasse and its job approval rating is just 15% positive.
The core of the CCPOA’s complaint against Schwarzenegger is his opposition to a new contract with large pay and benefit increases that would put prison guards into the low six-figure range. Most Californian’s express shock at paying a prison guard more than $10,000 a month to keep crooks locked up while they watch cable TV and gamble. It will go away when Schwarzenegger HYPOCRITICALLY finds a way to flim-flam voters that CCPOA demands are in their own best interest.
San Jose State University political science professor Larry Gerston said a recall would be a “long shot” even if Schwarzenegger’s standing with voters continues to fall. “People are frustrated, that’s for sure. But I’m not sure the frustration manifests itself enough with the governor,” said Gerston.
As a reminder in what was then described as a “gross ballot” there were 11 dozen candidates on the ballot. Among the top candidates were: Schwarzenegger, Arianna Huffington, Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Green Party candidate the late Peter Camejo, Republican State Senator Tom McClintock, and former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth.
(This story includes parts from FIELD POLL, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, LOS ANGELES TIMES, SACRAMENTO BEE, ASSOCIATED PRESS, CAPITOL WEEKLY [SACRAMENTO] and other research and recollections.
New Arctic Ice Would Cover Texas and California.
When nature doesn’t behave as the political agenda would prefer.
In the testament to Junk Science the Washington Post headlines “Scientists Report Further Shrinking of Arctic Ice,” then notes that NOAA has mapped over 400,000 square miles more Arctic ice today than a year ago. By the way that is about the combined land area of Texas, 268601 square miles and California, 163707.
So, obviously some spinning is in order, and WaPo is up to the task. They couch this the same way the press have been treating the recent, ongoing cooling trend: compare things today to a historical average, and then our temperatures are no longer dropping but “above the long-term average.”
So even though Arctic ice is gaining mass over last year, the fact that it is below the long-term average means that it is on the verge of disappearing. Funny how one year, five years, and so on are very, very meaningful when warm, dry, or not so icy, but long-term averages are the only useful metric when nature doesn’t behave as the political agenda would prefer.
Horace Greeley Nothwithstanding Bloom Is Off California Rose
Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 - November 29, 1872) was editor (
1840-1870) of the New York Tribune then America’s most influential newspaper and is improperly credited with the famous phrase “Go west young man.”
Actually it was uttered by an Indiana newspaper man John B. L. Soule in 1865 and the full quote was “Go west young man and grow with the country.” Americans have followed that advice for over one hundred and fifty years, and it has generally been good - until now.
Today white flight is accelerating in California, and most observers expect a decline in the State’s legal population and a loss of Congressional seats from its delegation of 53 seats after the 2010 census for the first time in California’s history. Of course that will also proportionately reduce its Electoral College impact in 2012.
California is staggering under high home prices, crippling personal and business taxes, while Sacramento is paralyzed by inept political leadership
An immediate consequence is a darkening jobs market. In July Los Angeles County’s jobless rate jumping to eight-point-one percent up a full percentage point from June. Orange County’s relatively mild unemployment rate rose half a-point to five-point-seven-percent. In the Inland Empire, the jobless rate in Riverside County hit a Depression Era-like nine point three topping nine-percent for the first time in eleven years. San Bernardino County was close behind at eight-point-nine-percent and so-on-and-so forth. The state’s construction industry lost the most jobs statewide and tradesmen are leading the outmigration followed closely by all-sorts of high skill workers.
The State’s deficit continues out of control demanding deep cuts in health care and education just as those costs, driven in part by a flood of illegal’s, are climbing relentlessly to the stratosphere. But, rather than face the music elected officials, at all levels are proposing increased taxes, and borrowing.
If as conventional wisdom proposes trends begin on the West coast and spread east this is forbidding.
Alphabet Soup of Activist Hypocrites Try to Block Wind and Wave Energy Projects In California.
Hypocrisy of obstructionist minority, egotists and “nimbyism” harming everyone else.
Fifty-one percent of Californians support drilling off its coast bringing to 49 states that do support it. Some want to pursue only alternatives and most say do it all.
The Electric Power Research Institute estimates enough wave power can be extracted from coastal waters to account for about 15 percent of California’s electricity production. Wind could provide up to 110 percent, according to a Stanford University study published last year. Wind and Wave generated electricity could replace 125% of California’s electricity.
Offshore wind and wave technologies are promising, but untried. But, current wave technology is mature enough for demonstration testing.
Even before there are concrete plans to do either obstructionist are swarming all over the idea. Speculating about potential damage to the coast’s prized vistas and fish industry.
Northern California’s biggest utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., would connect such wind and wave produced electricity to the power grid.
The Recreational Fishing Alliance is skeptical. concerned wave power may interfere with fisheries as the buoys bob up and down in the waves. Their biggest complaint right now, however, is that local fishermen and residents have had no say in the planning. Fishermen Interested in Safe Hydrokinetics, or FISH is battling for a role in the planning.
Both group frittered for months and missed a federal deadline has passed for gaining an official voice in the legal planning for the wave projects, alongside PG&E and federal energy regulators.
Ban On Homosexual Marriages Trails In California
Money Flowing Into Californ
ia on Both Sides
The constitutional amendment to ban homosexual marriage in California is drawing large contributions from both sides. The amendment which will appear on the November ballot, was introduced following the California Supreme Court’s May 15 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. The amendment states: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
The homosexual rights group Equity for All and a related organization raised about $2.6 million in the first half of 2008 to fight Proposition 8, according to the San Jose Mercury-News. That’s about $300,000 more than the amount raised by the major backers of the amendment, Protect Marriage and the National Organization for Marriage-California.
James Dobson’s Focus on the Family organization, gave $250,000 to Protect Marriage that supports the ban. Focus on the Family told the Mercury-News that Dobson’s organization believes the outcome of the vote on Proposition 8 will affect the rest of the country as well. California does not require couples to be residents to marry there.
Donations have continued to pour in since the end of June, and much of the money has been coming from outside California. The Mississippi-based American Family Association gave Protect Marriage $500,000 on July 21.
Equality for All recently received $1.05 million from a political action committee of the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, and $250,000 from the Gill Action Fund, a gay rights foundation in Denver.
Both sides believe they can raise between $10 million and $15 million by Election Day.
Back in 2000, a proposition declaring that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” passed with 61 percent of the vote.
The Supreme Court ruling struck down that statue, meaning the constitutional amendment is needed to ban same-sex marriage.
Barack Obama opposes the initiative, calling it “divisive and discriminatory,” but he remains opposed to same-sex marriage and supports civil unions and domestic partnerships. His presidential rival John McCain announced his support for the amendment in June.
The debate has even generated controversy over the veracity of the California based Field Poll. During the Proposition 22 debate the Field poll, as it does now claimed support for homosexual marriage was 50% but it passed by over 60%.
A July 15, 2008 Field Poll says 51% will vote “no” and 42% will vote “yes.” The major parts split while non-partisan voters overwhelmingly oppose it 66-27%.
Last Month The US Navy Helped Put Out Over 1,000 Wildfires Then Blazing Across California
NAVY GLOBAL HAWK PILOTLESS UAVs GAVE DETAILED REALTIME PICTURES OF FIRES TO FIREFIGHTERS.
The U.S. Navy lent their RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV to the state of California last month, for use in monitoring the progress of massive forest and brush fires in the northern part of the state. The RQ-4 stayed in the air for nearly 24 hours, using its powerful sensors to send detailed images to those managing the effort to fight the fires.
It’s not unusual for the military to contribute personnel or other resources to civilian disasters, including forest fires. But the RQ-4 was unique in that the navy is still testing this version of Global Hawk, which is equipped for maritime patrol. The RQ-4 is a long range UAV, that can reach any place in the world in 24 hours. Earlier this year, an RQ-4A made the first non-stop crossing of the Pacific, flying 12,000 kilometers, from California to Australia, in 23 hours. The Global Hawk has previously crossed the Pacific in several hops, but it always had the endurance to do it non-stop.
The U.S. Navy has found that engaging in this kind of disaster relief effort is very beneficial. First, the people being helped appreciate it, and this is good in the PR department. But the sailors and marines involved get useful experience operating in intense, and often extreme, circumstances.
A strategic reconnaissance UAV like the RQ-4, which can intensely scan land and water surfaces, is particularly useful for disaster relief. The video and still images an RQ-4 generates are transmitted via satellite to the ground, and can easily be put onto an Internet connection. This makes it easy to get the images to the people running the disaster relief. In effect, the RQ-4 is like having a photo-satellite overhead all the time.
In the last seven years, RQ-4s have flown over 20,000 hours, most of that combat missions, and many of them from Persian Gulf bases. The latest models have been able to fly 20 hour missions, land for refueling and maintenance, and be off in four hours for another twenty hours in the sky. The RQ-4 has been very reliable, with aircraft being ready for action 95 percent of the time. The U.S. Air Force has been buying them at the rate of five a year, at a cost of $58 million each.
The new B version is larger (wingspan is 15 feet larger, at 131 feet, and it’s four feet longer at 48 feet) than the A model, and can carry an additional two tons of equipment. To support that, there’s a new generator that produces 150 percent more electrical power. The B version is a lot more reliable. Early A models tended to fail and crash at the rate of once every thousand flight hours, mostly because of design flaws.
The first three RQ-4Bs entered service in 2006. At 13 tons, the Global Hawk is the size of a commuter airliner (like the Embraer ERJ 145), but costs nearly twice as much. Global Hawk can be equipped with much more powerful, and expensive, sensors. These more the double the cost of the aircraft. These spy satellite quality sensors (especially AESA radar) are usually worth the expense, because they enable the UAV, flying at over 60,000 feet, to get a sharp picture of all the territory it can see from that altitude.
The U.S. Air Force is stationing a squadron of seven Global Hawks on the island of Guam. These UAVs will begin arriving there next year, and undertake recon missions throughout the western Pacific. The U.S. Navy is also planning to buy Global Hawks, 44 of them, to perform maritime reconnaissance. As a result of that decision, Australia is likely to buy some as well, to monitor the vast stretches of ocean that surround the island continent. The navy RQ-4 used in northern California is the test aircraft the navy is using to see how effective the Global Hawk would be on maritime patrol missions.
Cal Senate Boss Heads Herd of Hypocrites
Perata , family and friends face fines and decades in prison if convicted.
According to an article on the EASTBAYEXPRESS website the feds likely will file charges against the California state Senate boss Don Perata (D). The FBI, the US Attorney’s Office, and a federal grand jury have been investigating whether the senator took bribes or kickbacks in exchange for providing official government favors to close friends, business associates, and major campaign donors. Others could also be indicted.
Using the age-old formula Perata has denied everything; admitted nothing, and blames the probe on others. Public records show that he is taking the investigation very seriously. Through May 17, the last state filing deadline, his legal defense had racked up $1,921,779 in expenses since the probe began. In the first four-and-a-half months of this year alone, his expenses totaled $445,925. However, Perata still has plenty of money at his disposal. According to state records, he’s sitting on $1.97 million in four campaign accounts. In addition, the state Democratic Party just donated $250,000 to Perata’s legal defense fund on July 1.
Based on interviews and subpoenas obtained by newspapers, the investigation has included: An examination of the Ron Cowan Parkway, a $40 million publically funded road between Oakland airport and an Alameda business park. As the Express first reported in March 2006 (see “Road to Nowhere,” 3/1/06), Perata strongly urged the Port of Oakland and the city of Alameda to hire a lobbyist to help obtain federal approval of the road even though the lobbyist’s assistance was unnecessary.
Lily Hu’s role in a 2002 BART seismic retrofit bond. As first reported in the Oakland Tribune in November 2004, BART paid Hu $112,000 from June 2001 to December 2003. BART also employed Polka as a consultant.
And the hiring of Staples by several card clubs in an attempt to stop an Indian tribe from opening Casino San Pablo, which was to be the first full-fledged casino in the Bay Area. As first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in April 2005, Perata had strongly urged the clubs to hire Staples at a time when Staples also was paying Perata to stay in office. The scam was soundly rejected by California voters.
California Burning Update -Tuesday
Foggy and cool with no overnight winds has slowed the Gap wildfire to a crawl, and may have bought time to defeat the 10,000 acre fire burning near the crest of the mountains behind Goleta 10-12 miles Northwest of Santa Barbara. Power outages have become a daily occurance as ash settles on transmission lines where the carbon archs and blows out circuits. The fire is a third contained.
The Big Sur wildfire appears to have been beat to a standstill.
Perhaps the greatest danger is the forecast for triple digit temperatures through midweek.
California Burning Sunday Evening
About 10,000 acres have burned. At 2PM local time officials said 2,500 firefighters were battling the blaze including a STRIKE TEAM FROM MONTANA has assumed leadership. No homes have been lost although flames got close enough to melt irrigation systems. The winds have stayed down today, and unless something bad happens this evening it looks like the fire will be contained by midweek. Helicopters and aircraft amd buzzing around like moths to a flame. Nevertheless white legged tourist in outragous shirts showed up in Santa Barbara in droves this weekend as usual to gasp at $5.15 gasoline prices.
California Burning Report #2.
“Firefighters are stretched thin, they are exhausted,” and some have gone days without sleep, said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who visited a command post in Santa Barbara County. The “Gap” fire topped 8,000 acres and is reportedly 24% contained. Some people have been allowwed to return to their homes, and no additional homes have been destroyed.
A bit ago I saw an ENGINE COMPANY FROM LONG BEACH100 miles away parked on a Santa Barbara City street. It doesn’t seem to have stopped July 4th tourist from prowling Santa Barbara streets, nor politicians from posturing, preening, and acting like they are doing something. Otherwise folks are non-plus.
Otherwise the firefighters are doing their jobs. and m,y sense is unless the winds kickup we’ll be out of this mess in a couple days.
California Burning
REPORT FROM THE WILDFIRE ZONE. Except for losing power periodically and a salting of ash the Goleta Fire has not effected me. Fireworks went off with out a hitch last night over the harbor in Santa Barbara but were cancelled in next door Goleta. Emergency cell phone broadcasts arrive regularly as t seems the “Gap” fire burning on the mountain “behind” Goleta is now more than 6,000 acres The smoke and ash is blowing away.
It doesn’t usually affect me except for sneezing but some folks are having a tough time. They have handed out 10-20,000 breathing mask so the place looks a little like an epidemic zone. Winds are dead calm this morning. The sky above Santa Barbara is blue but over Goleta 8 mles away is smokey. Some evacuees apparently move in with a neighbor. But, except for fire crews rushing around and a squadron of aircraft dive bombing the fire including one DC10 yesterday it is surprising quiet.
Supreme Court Decisions Split Nations Opinions
Supreme Court Decisions Don’t Change Presidential Polls Though Most agree With Handgun Decision.
Following several key decisions just 26% gave the U. S. Supreme Court Justices good or excellent marks for their work. down from 31% two weeks ago and 41% a month ago. Voters overwhelmingly agreed with the decision overturning a Washington, DC ban on handguns. Most voters think there’s a chance gas prices will top $5 a gallon this year Only about a third believe prices will top $6 a gallon or fall below $4 again. Most reject the notion that conservation alone will bring prices down and are evenly divided about whether new energy sources can accomplish that goal. All the posturing on energy issues and the Supreme Court had little short-term impact on the Presidential race with Obama sticking in the high 40s and McCain 4-5% behind. The benchmark is July 4th with many believing If Obama is 10% ahead then McCain can not overcome it.
McCain’s call for offshore oil drilling has helped him in Florida and hurt in California where he trails 58-30% Obama leads 84-6% among Democrats, and only gets 67% of Republicans. Just 46% of Californians favor offshore drilling while 57% do nationwide.
Campaign To End Homosexual Marriages In California Day They Begin.
County clerks in Butte and Kern Counties stopped performing marriage ceremonies altogether so they could not marry homosexual couples.
Focus on the Family, a conservative group, reported donating $250,000 Friday to support passage of a Constitutional Amendment to once again ban homosexual marriages in California.
On March 7, 2000 61.4% voted in favor of 14 word so-called Knight Initiative, named for its initiator William J. “Pete” Knight (1929-2004) prohibiting marriage between homosexual individuals. On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court struck down this initiative and related California law in a 4-3 decision, giving same-sex couples the right to marry and unleasing the controversy anew.
Ten States petitioned the California Supreme Court to stay its decision until after the November vote citing the great expense and civil upset setup by the possible 6 month effect of its decision. The court refused and California is once again in turmoil.
A Field Poll shows 51% of Californians support the ban- private polls show much greater support for banning same-sex marriages.
California Expects Big Bucks From Homosexual Weddings
Is this a jobs and revenue program the voters do not want?
More than half of CALIFORNIA’s estimated 100,000 same-sex couples are expected to apply for marriage licenses when the new Homosexual marriage law goes into effect this week says a UCLA study.
The study also estimates that as many as 68,000 out-of-state couples could travel to CALIFORNIA to take advantage of the new law. All of which, the UCLA study says, could generate as much as $684 million for the CALIFORNIA economy over the next three years, creating 2,200 jobs along the way.
More than $70 million of that amount would go directly to state and local government coffers, with $64 million in additional tax revenue for the state and another $9 million in marriage-license fees for counties. The bulk of the spending is expected to be on the usual wedding accoutrements, including cakes, decorations, clothing, jewelry, etc, but the benefits could also spread out to other industries as well.
For instance, some Southern California wedding planners say that in the weeks right after the court decision, same-sex customers who were planning civil union ceremonies immediately switched to wedding plans instead.
The impact’s going to be in the millions, “easily.” Marketing experts also cite the gay community’s comparatively high earning power. PlanetOut, a media and entertainment company that conducts surveys about gay and lesbian consumers, says gay consumers earn 20 percent more than their straight counterparts, on average, and spend about 10 percent more on civil union and other commitment ceremonies.
Others question this disparity citing biases in Media and entertainment that have large homosexual populations. In Los Angeles it is referred to as the Lavendar Mafia, and companies such as Disney are often cited as being run by a homosexual majority.
A Constitutional amendment is headed for the November 2008 ballot that would ban marriages between homosexual couples. The State’s voter passed a similar ban but the State Supreme Court action overrode the majority of the voters.
California GOP Breaking Reagan “Commandment”
Ronald Reagan’s hard-and-fast rule was ‘thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican,’” Now former California Governor Pete Wilson has broken that 11th Commandment ripping into Senator Tom McClintock and picking scabs off of some of the very worst scandals in recent political history. Wilson says in a letter mailed on behalf of GOP player Doug Ose, McClintock’s rival “As governor, I could never count on Tom McClintock.”… “He was always first to criticize, but the last to help the team. His record doesn’t match his rhetoric.”
Term limited uber conservative California Senator McClintock ran for Governor among over 130 others during the circus-like recall elections of then Governor Gray Davis and placed right behind winner Arnold Schwarzenegger but, also permanently bumped himself out of any serious run for higher office in California. So, McClintock - whose current seat is in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties - is “carpet bagging” to the far north to run for Congress in the north east corner of the state in what has turned into a real dust-up as Wilson’s letter reflects.
The 4th District is one of the most conservative in all of ultra liberal California with Republicans holding a 5 to 3 margin in registered voters. The seat was help by Republican John Doolittle since 1991. He was Doolittle was a member of the group known as the Gang of Seven, which had a role in exposing the House banking scandal. Mormon Doolittle became entangled in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and his wife’s commissioned fund raising involvement and various lobbying issues. brought him down and he is not running for reelection opening the seat and current brouhaha.
The California Supreme Court got it right!
We’ve got them surrounded. Same-sex marriage is now legal on both the right and left coasts (Massachusetts and now California). Chief Justice Ronald George authored the landmark 4-3 ruling that was handed down today in San Francisco. “The California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples,” stated the court in a 121-page ruling. As with Massachusetts, the California Supreme Court got it right when it referred to marriage as a ‘basic civil right.’
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Contrary to what the right-wingers and the Christian Evangelicals would have you believe, we’re not looking for ‘special’ rights. We misguided gay folk are simply looking for the same rights afforded to our supposedly correct-thinking counterparts (read: heterosexuals). This is a topic I can write on extemporaneously because I’ve lived it every day for just about 54 years.
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My wife and I are in our sixteenth year together. We were legally married in Massachusetts on May 4, 2006 in a private ceremony in the office of the head of the Unitarian Church in Newburyport. The only other people at the ceremony were our children, now eleven and seven years old. Our children were not the product of a failed heterosexual marriage brought into a lesbian relationship. We had intended to have children from the beginning and our family was carefully planned. After the children were born, I adopted them so that my name could appear on their birth certificates.
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When we met, same-sex marriage was barely on the radar. In what was undoubtedly a symbolic event, we had a commitment ceremony in December 1992; we registered as a couple in Provincetown, Massachusetts the same year. We were married in a civil union in a gazebo in Brattleboro, Vermont, in 2002 (civil unions were recognized there in 2000). As a family, we have been through incredibly good and incredibly bad times together. Ultimately, that’s what same-sex couples are fighting for: The right to legitimately go through life’s ups and downs together.
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Now that this decision has gone in favor of same-sex marriage, those opposed to it will argue that this issue belongs on the ballot, not in the courts. They are wrong. It is not up to the public to arbitrarily vote whether or not to extend the basic civil rights guaranteed in each state constitution. On the other hand, however, it is the job of the court to interpret such laws should a challenge arise.
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