Progressive Media Advocates
Paul Hogarth: When it comes to crafting state budget policy, Sacramento’s leadership never bothers to consult the grass-roots – cutting deals with big business and a small handful of unions, and then expecting the rest of us to take our marching orders.
Jeanne Woodford: By replacing the death penalty, California will free up much-needed funds for DNA testing and other vital tools needed to tackle the shocking 46% of murder and 56% of reported rape cases that remain unsolved in our state every year, on average.
Dick Price: If a meeting this past weekend between representatives from a half dozen Occupy encampments in California and perhaps 200 members of the California Progressive Caucus is any guide, the Occupy Movement has already tapped into older generations of progressive activists who are eager to support, leverage, and amplify the Occupyers’ ground-breaking work.
Dan Bacher: The announcement of “improved” Delta smelt numbers was issued as one of the greatest fish kills in California history continues to take place in the state and federal Delta pumps.
Leonard Isenberg: The preconceived “dominant narrative” that mainstream media is programmed to spew out all over this country that vilifies and lays all blame for bad public education on teachers is allowed to trump reality of corruption and fraud from LAUSD.
Mark Dempsey: Besides the history of local development, recent lapses by our politicians, who regularly bow to speculation and greed, don’t exactly inspire confidence. Wall Street speculators absconded with 40% of the world’s wealth, and only Bernie Madoff is in jail.
Paul Hogarth: While some may see Jerry Brown’s proposal as a “power grab” by the state that tells local governments how to spend their money, the truth is that it can prevent some devastating budget cuts that have been afflicting localities for years.
Melissa can win this race, if she has progressive support in the next few weeks. And this is a campaign where your money won’t be wasted on Sacramento consultants doing ineffective TV spots or marking their mail up 100%. It’s a lean mean project run by local consultants who know how to win in Orange County.
The Mad As Hell Doctors (MAHD), a group of activist physicians, nurses and other health care providers who are fighting for a Single Payer National Health Insurance Program for all Americans, will tour California with 26 educational, entertaining events beginning September 23 in Arcata and ending in Sacramento on October 12.
Paul Hogarth: In Washington, the filibuster rules in the U.S. Senate have stalled our federal agenda. In Sacramento, the two-thirds vote requirement has given us a blue state with an Alabama budget.
Paul Hogarth: As Gavin Newsom runs for Lieutenant Governor, he would be wise to make the passage of Proposition 25 a central part of his campaign – which ends the “two-thirds rule” for passing a budget. Because there is no better poster child for how Sacramento’s dysfunction has thrown the state off a cliff than Abel Maldonado – Newsom’s Republican opponent.
Paul Hogarth: Proposition 25 was put on by labor unions and the Democratic Party, and political consultant Roger Salazar has been retained. Liberal bloggers and other progressives are skeptical, with some going so far as to claim it doesn’t make sense to get a majority for the budget – if raising taxes we need would still require a two-thirds vote.
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.
In a shocking display of yellow journalism that would make William Randolph Hearst blush, the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times both slapped on their front pages last Thursday a complete non-story in California tax law.
Just as many of the neo-cons seemingly cross their fingers hoping for a mass-casualty terrorist attack on U.S. soil because they see it as political gold for them, they’re also cheerleading for the economy to remain stagnant
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 [...]
In his most recent piece in the New York Times Paul Krugman asks: “Who would have thought that America’s largest state, a state whose economy is larger than that of all but a few nations, could so easily become a banana republic?” Here in Sacramento I’ve watched the disaster unfold before my eyes like a [...]
I am recommending California State Senator Fran Pavley, Member Senate Food & Agriculture committee, to head a new commission formed to promote urban farming in California. Please contact her District Office (310) 314-5214 so she can meet with to discuss the details of its implementation.
On Thursday, December 18, frustrated with their inability to attract any Republican votes through long negotiations, both the State Assembly and the State Senate decided on an entirely different tack. They would pass a series of majority-vote bills to cut and change the current, 2008-09 budget. Though such a move would not get the state [...]
by Frank D. Russo – For the past several years here in California about this time we begin to learn through leaks or otherwise what our dear Governor’s theme is for the upcoming year. Like the teasers you see sitting in the theater before the main show for a blockbuster movie about to be released, [...]
Budget Cuts Destroy Public Education. How can we make people understand that underfunding is destroying our public school systems? And that the children who suffer because of education cuts will also be hurt by proposed social services cuts — a cruel double whammy unbefitting a civilized society? I’m a second-grade teacher at Esperanza Elementary School, [...]
As a first-time elected official, Assemblymember Kevin de Leon stepped into a big job this year. Named Assistant Majority Floor Leader at the start of his first term, Kevin supported the Assembly Democratic leadership team of Speaker Fabian Nunez and Majority Floor Leader Karen Bass in dealing with over 1,000 bills in his first term [...]
Dana Lone Hill: It seems as if the ongoing battle within the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe over alcohol will still continue, but the biggest obstacle will be the battle will be with each other. The days of working together as a tribe seems to be a thing of the past…when there was no alcohol.
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer: As inequalities in wealth continue to create an ever-widening chasm between the rich and the rest of us, the concept of “shared sacrifice” is becoming increasingly ludicrous.
Lauren Steiner: So while America is supposedly coming out of the recession, many Americans are not experiencing any relief. 50 million Americans live in food insecure homes, including 17 million children.
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Recent Comments