Tom Hayden will be speaking at Occidental College this Thursday on the topic, on “From the 1960s to Barack Obama: What Now?”
What Small Businesses Need
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Caitlin Vega: It’s time to stop using this economic downturn to take away workers’ rights, eviscerate environmental protections or slash our safety net. Let’s get real about what we need to move California forward. It’s all about the jobs.
California Legislature Passes Bill to Study State-Owned Bank
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Ellen Brown: California, like North Dakota, is resource-rich. A state-owned bank will allow it to capitalize on its resources to full advantage, by providing the credit needed to realize its potential.
Why People Hate Politics
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Gautam Dutta: Rather than engage in discussion and debate, many politicians find it easier to demonize their opponents, rather than debate the issues.
The California Democracy Act Tragedy
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Craig Williams: In a sense the Golden State is now a near corporate dictatorship, between an executive office that can be bought and usually is, minority rule in the legislature and underfunded local party organizations masquerading as party organizations, party organizations that don’t responsibly communicate and mobilize their members. Most registered Democrats are for all practical purposes ex-communicated from the party, except at election time.
Are We in America? Or Are We in a Jungle Where Only the Fittest Survive?
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This week, by a majority vote, the California Legislature voted to raise some very modest revenues that no one but the most rabid hater of his fellow man could object to. A $1.50 on a bottle of alcohol. $15 added to a vehicle license fee. Revenues that would make it possible for the most vulnerable [...]
Independence Day Edition!
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Evolutionary psychology teaches us that it may take as many as 1,000 generations for even an exceptionally beneficial genetic mutation to permeate an entire species. It is not surprising, then, that a mere ten generations after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, American human nature has (apparently) changed negligibly, if at all. This point [...]
Schwarzenegger’s Budget Battle II: Another Bad Sequel
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the test of our nation was “not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger might be married to a Kennedy but his governing philosophy is pure George W. Bush [...]
California Democrats: “Spreading the Pain” from Sacramento
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When his term mercifully expires next year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be leaving the Golden State in the worst condition than at any time its history. If Schwarzenegger and his right-wing Republican co-conspirators get their way (as they always seem to do), they’ll gut every social program and educational institution in the state in [...]
Arnold’s Legacy: Driving the State Towards Bankruptcy
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Governor Schwarzenegger’s May “budget revise” last week – which proposed more mass layoffs, more painful cuts and more reckless borrowing – had all the makings of the end of a Shakespearean tragedy, where the protagonist has run out of options due to troubles of his own making. One could also view it as the definition [...]
The Republican Contract on California
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We get to vote, again, on May 19. This time we have a bunch of ballot initiatives that the Republican Party demanded as a condition of reaching a budget “compromise” last winter. The commercial media tell us that most of these measures are failing in polling, but still have a chance at passage. Still have [...]
The Push to Do Away With State Boards
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Literally from the first moment I walked into the California Legislature, and, probably, for years before that, my colleagues “across the aisle” (that is, Republican colleagues) have unceasingly advocated for the elimination of any and all state oversight boards. Pressed to articulate their reasons, they cite the usual mantra of “waste”, and insist that it [...]
What Will It Take for Californians to Flood the Streets?
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What will it take for the people of California to rise up and flood into the streets to protest what the Republican legislators and Governor Schwarzenegger are doing to our state? When the first envelopes are opened — envelopes that should contain checks with state tax refunds, but have IOUs stuffed into them instead — [...]
Nuttin’ for Christmas
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by David L. Brewer III and Scott Folsom – A week ago Friday and again last Monday the Governor called for a state budget to be out of the legislature and on his desk by Christmas; Christmas was last Thursday. It is now almost New Years and no budget.
A Bad Time for Budget Cuts to California’s Aged, Disabled, Poor, and Uninsured
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The latest numbers are just in from the United States Census Bureau. According to analyses from the California Budget Project (CBP) they show that for low and middle income Californians there has been a decline in the real (inflation adjusted) household income. A separate analysis by Health Access California shows that more Californians are uninsured [...]
Schwarzenegger Acting the Tough Guy to Cover for His Weakness? Both Houses of California Legislature Meeting This Morning—But Don’t Hold Your Breath
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I was at the Governor’s press conference yesterday afternoon to see and hear directly his announcement that he would veto any bills sent to him before a state budget is passed. You can read his remarks in their entirety as dutifully transcribed by the Governor’s press office and published on these pages yesterday.
A Banner Year for California Democrats: Better Than the Post Watergate 1976 Election?
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Some astute political observers are seeing a parallel between this year’s general election in California and the elections of 1976 when the Republican Party cratered in the aftermath of Watergate. I remember 1976 very well. It was the year I graduated from law school, passed the bar, became an attorney, and began working for an [...]
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