McCain Comes to California

McCain's in California right now. And even though the state hasn't gone Republican in a long, long time and even though he's done with his primary and the stupid, stupid Democrats aren't, it's still going to be a rough little visit.

Because last week, he mixed up Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq. Oh, how could you?

In an interesting twist, the former CEO of eBay is joining the McCain team in an effort to gain some campaign experience for a Governor run in 2010.

Against Newsom?

Courage?

Last year Secretary of State, Debra Bowen decided to stop using those fancy electronic voting machines. It seems they're a little easy to tamper with. Hmmm.

And now, she's recieving a 'Profiles in Courage' award for the decision.

It was probably a good decision, but courageous? I think our standards may have gone down some.

Meet Mr. Recession and his friend Mr. Bush

Pawn shop business is up. The rest of the economy is down. Most people think the government doesn't care. They might think this because it might not care, in fact.

Those rate cuts aren't all good:

On the other hand, six-month CDs and money-market accounts are currently paying an annual rate of less than 3%. The cost of living, by contrast, was up 4% last month from a year earlier.

That doesn't bode well for savers like 19-year-old Brittany Green, who attends Pasadena City College while also raising an 8-month-old daughter. She told me she had about $1,500 in savings and wasn't sure what to do with it.

I told her that by slashing interest rates, the government basically wanted her to do one of two things: go out and spend it or invest it in the stock market. Either one would give the economy a little boost.

Green shook her head. "I'm not spending it," she said. "And I wouldn't put it in the stock market. That's like playing the lottery."

Yeah, that's a problem, isn't it. We're finally scared into saving money - something that we should've been encouraged to do (explicitly and implicitly, via policy) and all that saving will now accomplish is further economic decline and more fear and more saving and further . . . you see.

I don't feel like I should be spending the rebate check I should be getting from the government. And I LOVE spending.

The market is going to decline further, isn't it?

Dick Cheney, voice of peace

Or so he claims. Though I have a strong feeling that he probably thinks that with some peoples of the world, on the rod works. Our rod, of course. Other peoples' rods are wrong.

Spring Break! Whoo!

The Governator asked the legislature to please please fix the budget NOW.

He's not happy. He wants to know why they haven't come and talked to him.

"So it's still all the Kabuki. They're doing the song and dance."

"I've said I want every legislator for three days locked in a room so they cannot even go to the bathroom - and the smell of the room would drive them to a deal," he said.

But, the lawmakers escaped without doing their homework. And now are off on Spring Break. And many of them of heading overseas to 'study' other countries' high-speed rail lines. Right, and don't leave that budget assignment til the night before it's due.

Why are drugs in sports so important?

Seriously, why are we paying so much for doped up ball players, cyclists, runners, etc . . . I don't care what they do to themselves. Maybe that's because I don't follow sports. Maybe it's because I don't have kids in little league or Pop Warner or anything.

It just seems like we have so much more going on that people should be interested in investigating or trying. No? I know I'm hardly the first to complain about this stuff, but still, where's the answer?

Two states too much trouble

Obama wants to simply split the in-the-air delegates from Florida and Michigan. Then they get to go to the convention (can't piss 'em off, need 'em in November - especially damn Florida) but they don't really have a bearing on the outcome of the delegate race.

Hillary still has other ideas, of course, and isn't letting go of the hope of having a do-over that might get her more than a mathematically pointless half of what's there.

HMO or PPO? Or PHP, PDP, PSO?

A Santa Monica based group is pushing to get ballot initiative for 2010 that would regulate health insurance companies the same way as other insurance.

Some kind of reform is needed, but copying the regulations in Prop 103 may not be the answer.

It would order HMOs and others to get their rates approved in advance by the state and force them to justify those rates; rates judged to be “arbitrary or capricious” would be thrown out. Rescinding coverage after an illness sets in would be outlawed. Extra costs for special services, the so-called “outof- pocket maximums” — would be capped, as would prescription drug costs. Patients would not be penalized for changing doctors or care plans. The HMOs and others would be required to submit detailed financial information to state regulators, who would have the authority to penalize companies for violations and seize and operate companies whose fiscal condition was suspect. There would be language making it easier to sue HMOs and others, and those who bring lawsuits in furtherance of the initiative would be compensated for their time — as in Proposition 103.

Actually, all those things sound good to me.

Carol Liu

Carol Liu is running unopposed in the Senate primary. None of the people's whose names were tossed around ended up filing. Liu may be on the road back to the Capitol.

State Budget Hearing

A budget forum will be held on March 20 at 7pm McKinley School Auditorium, 325 S. Oak Knoll Ave. Superintendent will be there, so will Senator Jack Scott and Carol Liu.

Come, let them know how what you think.

Over and over again

Here's a good blog post from the LA Times about Michigan and Florida's second rush of the year: this time it isn't a rush to a primary, but a rush to a do over. It gives a nice recap of how Michigan and Florida got themselves into this mess and how much it might cost to get them out of it. Still no news on who will pay, except that Howard Dean has certainly indicated that the DNC has better things to spend money on - like beating John McCain later.

Here's A Sticker

Assemblywoman Betty Karnette is handing out stickers to lawmakers who are on time.

"Now it's gotten so that everybody wants a star," she said, laughing.

Ah, I always new the Capitol was like high school.

World's Richest People

Forbes' released it's list of the world's richest. Buffet now takes the top seat. Though Mexican telecom guy is close behind.

Shoot, I still haven't made it yet.

There are 42 California's though.

And check out the map feature. Which illustrates that there are almost no world's wealthiest in Africa or Antartica.

Texas = Wierd

What state looks at the whole primary and caucus system and says 'sure, we'll do both'? Texas.

Here are the results from last night.

Despite all the talk about Clinton winning Texas and Ohio, Obama won the caucus in Texas, which (from my understanding) actually awards the delegates. So, how does any of this make sense?

Only in Texas.

"We're Not Going Anywhere This Summer"

Is Don Perata's promise not to pass a budget that doesn't include tax increases.

Asked how Democrats propose to make up the difference, Perata said: "Raise taxes. That clear enough? Raise taxes."

Ah, we're going to miss The Don.

Don't you hate it when you can't tell who's actually doing what wrong?

I know I do.

So this came up over on Mayor Sam awhile back and through a technical glitch, apparently the first post I wrote about it was lost in the ether. Who knew. Damn technology. Anyway, so, you've heard of Laurette Healy, right? She was a Reep. Then and Indy. And now, presto!, a Democrat. She ran for LA City Controller as an independent, supported by Dick Riordan. That right there puts her in my "No" book, but whatever.

So now there's this web clip from an unknown source that I can't really track for background or truth.



Someone doesn't like Laurette Healy very much at all. Good production values. Ticks all the "political hit piece" boxes adequately. But what about the content?

I'm not entirely sure what they are accusing her of is either that bad or that uncommon. They charge that she's already "upside down" in her campaign - she owes more than she has. Well, aside from that making her like a large number of California homeowners, it also makes her like a lot of candidates. Debt now, debt retirement parties later. Time, tide, and the election calendar wait for no fundraiser.

The video also alleges that she is largely funded by loans she's made to herself and loans made by her family members. Shocking, isn't it, that she would be supporting herself or that, worse, her family would be supporting her. Now, candidates have the option of giving themselves money, but they can't later pay themselves back. By loaning the money, she can keep raising - or attempting to raise - funds until she pays herself back. Same for her family. The clips graphs show loans totaling about $118k. Okay, so what. If I'm Laurette, I'll be pointing out that at least she isn't beholden to any special interests (assuming her uncle's name isn't Philip Morris or anything). I suppose the politically nuanced bonus slap is that Laurette Healy can't be a viable candidate if all her cash comes from family and self loans and none (or little) from those willing to back her.

As for the "in-kind" contribution charges: um, I think that might be required if she's using stuff in her campaign. I'll look into it, but again, if I were her, I'd spin that as more of a credit than a criticism - she's being honest about all the resources her campaign is using up (again, though, temper that credit with the possibility that such reporting is required anyway).

What this clip definitely DOES show us, however, is that with the right graphics and right serious voiceover, anyone can be made to look like a jerk with any piece of information offered as evidence.

(There are plenty of comments in the Mayor Sam post, but, true to form, not much other than angry banter is offered.)

There may be 1000 oaks in the 4th district, but not THAT 1000 oaks

So Thousand Oaks State Senator Tom "I hate you and your liberal spending you Reep bastards" McClintock is expected to announce his candidacy for the 4th Congressional District seat. I suppose he's just following in Dan Lungren's footsteps, right?

Congressional seats, like all districts, are numbered from north to south, starting with "1" in the north. McClintock is currently the Senator from District 19. He's now running for CD 4. 19 vs. 4. And yet, not one word in the article about the geographic disparity.

There's no residency residency requirement, if memory serves, for congressional races. But shouldn't there be a logic requirement? Commenters to the news story linked above drop the word "carpetbagger" several times, yet the reporter never mentions it. How can you write a piece about a SoCal senator running for a NorCal seat without mentioning that he's a SoCal Senatory and this is a NorCal seat?

LA Marathon Yesterday

And some people did the marathon in wheelchairs.

I tried to do a marathon once. I almost finished. And I was able to run.