California Politics 53 items | updated Mar 24 2012

My favorite part of the article: "Rose Riggs, a neighbor of Giusti in a public housing complex in the city's Tenderloin district, said she saw two plainclothes and two uniformed officers take him away in zip-tie cuffs. Riggs, 62, said Giusti was known for engaging in heated political debates with others in the building."

Please, oh, please let this guy be living on the taxpayers dime.

WASHINGTON — California has taken a major step toward creating a broad-based trading system to limit emissions of pollutants blamed for harmful climate change.

The California Air Resources Board, often a trailblazer in environmental regulation, released a draft rule on Tuesday establishing a cap-and-trade program that sets a declining ceiling on emissions of greenhouse gases and allows companies to buy and sell permits to meet it.

California’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The proposed system would begin in 2012 with 600 major sources of global warming pollutants, including power plants, refineries and concrete factories.

Similar proposals to reduce emissions are stalled in Congress with little hope of moving through this year. And next month, world governments will assemble in Copenhagen to discuss the issue but are not expected to produce any binding agreements on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the new rules would help California address a serious environmental problem, while giving companies flexibility in meeting clean-air goals.

The proposed rule also includes reductions in emissions from industrial and transportation fuels beginning in 2015.

California joins a number of other states and regions, including the 10 states of the Northeast, in moving ahead with programs to address global warming as Congress debates a nationwide program. One point of dispute in the legislation is whether the federal government will pre-empt these local and regional efforts and create a single national cap-and-trade program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/science/earth/25climate.html?hpw

Congressional Democrats and mainstream media have heaped high praise on Speaker Pelosi for finally delivering the House health care reform bill, all 2000+ pages of it. In the aftermath of a liberal love fest that focused more on Pelosi’s historical win than on how close the vote actually was, the question is, will Majority Leader Harry Reid be able to duplicate Pelosi's success in the Senate?
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-28761-Reno-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m11d10-...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The organizer of a "Tea Party" protest in Virginia says he intends to move forward with plans to burn House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Tom Perriello in effigy next weekend at a rally to protest Democratic health care legislation.

The event is scheduled for next Saturday in Danville, which borders North Carolina and sits at the southern end of Perriello's congressional district. Perriello, a Democrat, narrowly won his House seat in 2008 and is considered a top target of Congressional Republicans in next year's midterm elections.

When news of the rally surfaced Friday, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen condemned the plans as "shocking and despicable."

But Nigel Coleman, the organizer of the Tea Party, told CNN he doesn't see what all the fuss is about. The attention, he said, should be on the Democratic plans to overhaul the health care system.

"We're not going to actually set Perriello on fire or Mrs. Pelosi on fire," Coleman said. "But we have been trying to months to get our point across just how vehemently we are opposed to this health care legislation. For the House vote to come so close and to know that Mr. Perriello is on the other side, it's a kick in the stomach that a lot of people couldn't take."

Coleman said none of Perriello's potential Republican challengers have been invited to the event, which he expects will draw about 100 people.

"Something shocking and despicable is how they've handled this health care legislation," Coleman said, responding to Van Hollen's statement. "Going behind closed doors, writing a bill that is going to fundamentally change what America is. More people are going to be killed by this health care legislation than this bonfire."

This essay is not exactly new - it was published earlier this year - but it's a great read. Some excerpts, though I encourage you to skip these bits and read them along with the rest of the piece at the link:

California, it turns out, is ungovernable. Its public schools, once the nation’s best, are now among the worst. Its transportation and water systems are deteriorating. Its prisons are so overcrowded that it has to turn tens of thousands of felons loose. And its legislature has spent most of the year in a farcical effort to pass the annual budget, leaving little or no time for other matters, such as—well, schools, transportation, water, and prisons. This is “normal”: the same thing has happened in eighteen of the past twenty-two years. But the addition of economic disaster to legislative paralysis may have brought California to a tipping point.

California’s constitution, with its five hundred or so amendments, is so long that its full text would occupy every line of the magazine you are holding. Thanks largely to initiatives, many of them well intentioned, it is also wildly at odds with itself. It contains so many set-asides and mandates that the legislature can control only about seven per cent of the state budget even when it deigns to pass one. But California’s nemesis could soon become its salvation. Something remarkable is beginning to happen.

It started almost exactly one year ago, modestly enough, with an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle. Echoing Jefferson, the author, Jim Wunderman, wrote, “It is our duty to declare that our California government is not only broken, it has become destructive to our future. Therefore, are we not obligated to nullify our government and institute a new one?” He then called for a “citizens’ constitutional convention” to do the nullifying and the instituting. Wunderman heads the Bay Area Council, a business group not normally considered part of the vanguard of the revolution. (Its board consists of C.E.O.s and other executives from companies like Bank of America, McKinsey & Company, Chevron, Google, United Airlines, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.) But Wunderman’s op-ed manifesto engendered a broad response, and the response has engendered something like a movement.

Read the full piece: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/08/24/090824taco_talk_hertzberg#ixzz0...

(11-10) 20:36 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday was successful in overriding Mayor Gavin Newsom's veto of legislation changing the sanctuary city ordinance.

Newsom, who said the ordinance conflicts with federal law, said through his spokesman that he would ignore the legislation - prompting the legislation's author to threaten a legal challenge to the mayor. The new law takes effect in 30 days, and Supervisor David Campos said the board may fight the mayor in court if no compromise can be struck.

Campos' ordinance - which garnered eight votes Tuesday - requires that undocumented juveniles be turned over to federal authorities for possible deportation only after they're convicted of a felony. Currently, under a policy enacted by Newsom last year, youth are turned over upon arrest.

"The law is pretty clear that when you have legislation that is duly enacted, the job of the executive is to implement and enforce that legislation unless there is a finding by the court the legislation is illegal," Campos said. "In this case, there isn't."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/10/BAO41AI8CG.DTL#ixzz0WZrDA58f

Carly Fiorina is already elevating the political discourse in California: The former Hewlett Packard CEO is emailing ads about that one time her opponent politely asked a general to call her "senator" instead of "m'aam," like an arrogant bitch.

In an email to potential donors (below) first discussed by The Frisky's Jessica Wakeman, Fiorina's campaign manager touts a video (above) of her opponent Sen. Barbara Boxer talking to a general during congressional testimony. The brief conversation seems to have offended no one who was actually involved in it, but Fiorina's campaign calls the video "shocking" and said Boxer "disrespectfully demanded" to be called "senator." Her exact words:

Do me a favor, could you say 'senator' instead of 'm'aam?' It's just a thing. (Laughter.) I worked so hard to get that title. Thank you.

This "shocking" moment of terrible rudeness is obviously the most important issue in California right now. It's a good thing voters have a tough businesswoman like Fiorina to help them identify women who espouse feminist ideals only when it advances their own ego and political interests.

http://gawker.com/5401635/carly-fiorina-bravely-attacks-uppity-woman-senator

One of Congress's foremost champions of abortion rights said on Monday that the Senate did not have the votes to add a more restrictive anti-abortion amendment to health care reform legislation.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that 60 votes would be needed to strip the current health care bill of its abortion-related language and replace it with a version resembling that passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday. And, in an interview with the Huffington Post, the California Democrat predicted that pro-choice forces in the Senate would keep that from happening.

"If someone wants to offer this very radical amendment, which would really tear apart [a decades-long] compromise, then I think at that point they would need to have 60 votes to do it," Boxer said. "And I believe in our Senate we can hold it."

"It is a much more pro-choice Senate than it has been in a long time," she added. "And it is much more pro-choice than the House."

Boxer's reading of the political landscape might seem like the hopeful spin of an abortion-rights defender. But it was seconded by a another lawmaker, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

More at the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/boxer-senate-has-votes-to_n_352064.html

IGCC plants have been deployed worldwide and have demonstrated the capability to significantly reduce emissions. The technology converts solid fuels, such as coal, into a cleaner burning hydrogen-rich fuel, which then is used by a gas turbine combined-cycle system to generate electricity, providing a cleaner, economical coal-to-power option. IGCC also significantly reduces criteria emissions—sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, mercury and particulate matter, and decreases water consumption by up to 30 percent (as compared to a conventional coal plant).

http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/GE-Technology-Selected-IGCC-Project-Southern-Cali...

Call me crazy, but after watching her talk about her principles, successes and goals, I really like this woman. Go Nancy!

If you don't like her, know why. I find her discussion of the health care debate months before it happened is exceptionally interesting.

Former Hewlett-Packard Co chief and Silicon Valley star Carly Fiorina said on Wednesday that she would run as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from California, taking on liberal Democrat Barbara Boxer.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5A33YI20091104

A traffic stop involving a young officer and the son of a small-town mayor has the whole town talking. The mayor of Stockton tried to fire the officer for issuing his son a ticket.

Cpl. Joshua Rowell told KSL News he was just doing his job. He said he acted professionally when he wrote the driver a ticket and was shocked when he was suddenly asked to hand over his badge.

Rowell is a new member of the five-man Stockton police force. So, last Tuesday he didn't think twice about pulling over a driver in a small white car for avoiding a DUI stop.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8471349

As of 2006, there were over 21 million marijuana plants harvested in California. That's a lot of unregulated, potentially destructive farming. If buying, selling, and growing marijuana were legalized, then a whole new set of regulations could be imposed to monitor the grow centers and ensure they observed California agriculture laws. Pesticide use could be controlled, errant trash disposal could minimized, and public lands would be better protected—it would erase the need for reckless guerilla farming. Farmers would be able to plant in areas better suited for agriculture, and would disrupt fewer forest habitats as a result.

It's still a deeply hypothetical scenario—the legalization bill is still a long shot—but making marijuana legal could very well be better for the environment.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/legalize-marijuana-california-environmen...

Working Link: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-state-tax31-2009oct31,0,2028140.story

Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change.

Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You'll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less.

Cleantech Society:
Largely ignored by the national media, California passed the first statewide Smart Grid bill in the U.S. earlier this month, amid the flurry of renewable energy and efficiency legislation Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also signed.
READ MORE> http://tinyurl.com/ybl5huf

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has dropped out of the California Gubernatorial race, citing an inability to keep up with the work load.

"With a young family and responsibilities at City Hall, I have found it impossible to commit the time required to complete this effort the way it needs to - and should be - done,"said Newsom in a statement from his campaign office late Friday afternoon.

This leaves the Democratic ticket wide open.

God help us if we end up with that ebay woman (ed.)

- Via Vince for Change Blog
http://www.veniceforchange.com/2009/10/breaking-gavin-newsom-drops-out-of-ca.htm...

- Full statement from Newsom campaign office
http://www.gavinnewsom.com/releases/statement_by_mayor_gavin_newsom

If you liked what Montana Senator health care reform, you'll love his plans for cap and trade.


http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/10/dont-forget-max-factor

Vetoing a unanimous vote is one way of sending a message, here's another...

"With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense. This legislation would generate much needed revenue for the state, restrict access to only those over 21, end the environmental damage to our public lands from illicit crops, and improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes", said San Francisco Assemblymember Tom Ammiano in a press conference today, which SFist described as a "media circus."

Ammiano continued to say "California has the opportunity to be the first state in the nation to enact a smart, responsible public policy for the control and regulation of marijuana."

The drug would still be illegal under federal law, but if passed, the Marijuana Control Regulation and Education Act would tax $50 per ounce. You would also need to be over the age of 21. Full presser is below.

AMMIANO PROPOSES BILL TO TAX AND REGULATE MARIJUANA Legislation Would Generate $1 Billion in New Revenue for CA
San Francisco, CA - Today Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco)
announced the introduction of groundbreaking legislation that would
tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. The
Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education act (AB 390) would create
a regulatory structure similar to that used for beer, wine and liquor,
permitting taxed sales to adults while barring sales to or possession
by those under 21.

"With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move
towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense. This
legislation would generate much needed revenue for the state, restrict
access to only those over 21, end the environmental damage to our
public lands from illicit crops, and improve public safety by
redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes", said
Ammiano. "California has the opportunity to be the first state in the
nation to enact a smart, responsible public policy for the control and
regulation of marijuana."

Having just closed a $42 billion budget deficit, generating new
revenue is crucial to the state's long term fiscal health. Board of
Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee said, "This common sense measure
effectively prioritizes state resources during these times of fiscal
constraint. Prioritizing law enforcement to control the most serious
drugs while raising new revenues from casual marijuana use directed to
treating serious drug addiction is a prudent use of limited
resources."

"I support this legislation because I feel this issue should be the
subject of legislative and public debate," said current San Francisco
Sheriff Mike Hennessey. Orange County Superior Court Judge (retired)
James P. Gray added, "Assemblymember Ammiano is to be applauded in
addressing this critical issue honestly and directly."

"Marijuana already plays a huge role in the California economy. It's a
revenue opportunity we quite simply can't afford to ignore any
longer," said Stephen Gutwillig, California state director for the
Drug Policy Alliance. "It's time to end the charade of marijuana
prohibition, regulate the $14 billion market, and redirect law
enforcement resources to more important matters. Assemblymember
Ammiano has done the state an enormous service by breaking the silence
on this commonsense solution."

"It is simply nonsensical that California's largest agricultural
industry is completely unregulated and untaxed," said Marijuana Policy
Project California policy director Aaron Smith. "With our state in an
ongoing fiscal crisis -- and no one believes the new budget is the end
of California's financial woes -- it's time to bring this major piece
of our economy into the light of day."
http://laist.com/2009/02/23/will_taxing_marijuana_fix_the_state.php