findings
in today's web trawler
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
Wall Street Journal
Junk-Bond
State?
[Kathleen Connell and Matt Fong] 8/1/03 | Headlines
across the country announce that California's historic recall election of Gov.
Gray Davis, set for Oct. 7, has saddled the state with yet another "crisis" in
government -- following failed attempts to deregulate the energy industry, a
$38-billion budget deficit, and gridlock of the state legislature. Unfortunately,
by focusing exclusively on the recall's political machinations, we are missing
the real, and deeper, crisis -- a growing financial catastrophe that the state
can ill afford to postpone until the dust from the recall has settled. | Californians
will start to feel the impact of these deteriorating state finances when the
first wave of notices are sent this week announcing a tripling of vehicle license
fees, which will cost the average car owner about $158 per year. Steep hikes
in tuition at community colleges and state universities will quickly follow. | Just
last week, Standard and Poor's added to California's travails by downgrading
the state's general obligation debt by a massive three levels -- from "A" to "BBB." In
the history of this country, only Massachusetts has ever suffered the ignominy
of such a low rating. This decline in California's creditworthiness, skimmed
over by taxpayers and the media, should have received top billing for weeks because
of its massive impact upon the state, its municipalities, and, ultimately, its
citizens. The downgrade will result in hundreds of millions of dollars of increased
interest costs for the outstanding bonds California is going to issue and will
also significantly affect the pool of investors who choose to hold California
securities in their portfolios. And when totaled up, the higher interest costs
that the state will pay far exceed by multiples any cost associated with the
recall election, an argument frequently levied by the anti-recall supporters
as a reason for voting against the recall. [more
at Wall
Street Journal] - subscription required
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Town Hall
California
Dreamin'
"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing." -- Thomas
Jefferson
[Oliver North] 8/1/03 | This California Circus
is drawing all the clowns. Democrat operator Bob Mulholland -- a vast right-wing
conspiracy theorist -- is vowing "no surrender" to the "Taliban
element." Pro-abortionist Kate Michelman claims that "anti-choice
activists have bought this election." Arianna Huffington, who can't decide
on her party affiliation, thinks there is a constituency to ban SUVs and may
run if she doesn't have to ride in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine. | Now
the Beverly Hillbillies -- Bill and Hillary -- have announced their intentions
to campaign against the recall. As of this writing, none of the Knucklehead
Nine presidential candidates have figured out that strategically, they might
be better off scoring points with the liberal Democrat establishment in the
delegate-rich state instead of criticizing the American military in the heartland
of the U.S.A. | Public outrage with Gray Davis
is palpable. He is despised for his relentless fund raising and self-promotion.
[more at Town
Hall]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
Sacramento Bee
Locals
Tired Of Wearing 'Kick Me' Signs In State Budget Travails
[Dan Walters] 8/1/03 | When California voters
enacted Proposition 13 in 1978, slashing property taxes by billions of dollars,
they probably didn't intend to convert local governments into stepchildren
of the state government. | Nevertheless, when
the Legislature extended state financial aid to keep thousands of local governmental
agencies in business, it centralized authority for major budgetary decision
making in Sacramento. And the strings on state aid became very apparent in
the early 1990s when California was buffeted by a severe recession and the
state lost billions of dollars in sales and income tax revenues. [more at Sacramento
Bee]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
OC Register
Tax,
Spend And Defend The Status Quo
Even as evidence of mismanagement builds, schools chief sticks to his
script
[Lance T. Izumi] 8/1/03 | In his brief tenure
as California superintendent of public instruction, Jack O'Connell has shown
that his top priorities are taxing, spending and defending the status quo.
The paint had barely dried on the nameplate on his new office door when he
came out for increasing taxes for education spending. And last month, when
the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that taxes could be raised by a majority vote
of that state's legislature despite a state constitutional provision requiring
a two-thirds vote, O'Connell's knee jerked so quickly it's a wonder he didn't
suffer an immediate dislocation. | The Nevada
decision was an egregious example of legislating from the bench. Nevada Gov.
Kenny Guinn had proposed a huge tax increase to fund more government education
spending, but he didn't have the two-thirds majority in his legislature to
approve his proposal. Guinn took the issue to Nevada's high court which, despite
the clear language of the state Constitution, ruled that the "substantive" need
for more government education funding trumped the "procedural" requirement
that all taxes be approved by a two-thirds vote of lawmakers. This irresponsible
reasoning was music to O'Connell's ears. [more at OC
Register]
HOLLYWOOD
RIGHT/ From
Front Page
Woods
on Fire
[Amy Reiter] 8/1/03 | James Woods has frequently
played manic characters, men with so much information clicking around their
synapses it sometimes seems to blast from their mouths in fast, staccato streaks. | Woods
the man doesn't seem altogether different. During an interview with Salon,
to talk about his new movie "Northfork," Woods discussed his admiration
for George Bush and his intense dislike for the president's critics, as well
as Bill Clinton and the particularly dumb breed of Hollywood liberal he seems
to run into a lot. | Woods insists he'd prefer
not to talk about politics -- "Do you think I want to be the one lone
voice against the Hollywood liberal establishment? It's not going to do me
any good" -- and that he's much happier discussing his work. But for nearly
an hour and a half he gamely talked politics with us over the phone on a recent
afternoon, in hopes, he said, of getting "Northfork" a little more
attention -- even though he was certain it would lead him to "be humiliated
and degraded" in what could only turn out to be another "slash piece." Did
it? [more at Front
Page]
JURISIMPRUDENCE/From
SD Union Tribune
System
Collapsed
Immigration and law failures, and a dead cop
[the Editors] 8/1/03 | Whether Adrian Camacho
murdered Oceanside Police Officer Tony Zeppetella, a jury will decide. What's
already certain is that Camacho should not have been sharing the streets with
Zeppetella. How he came to be there that day is a story – one of many – of
a litany of problems with federal immigration policy and law. | As
outlined by Union-Tribune reporter Marisa Taylor, Camacho by the age of 28
had been deported four times. Four times he made his way back across the border
illegally, among many crimes he committed here. | At
age 19, Camacho was picked up for deportation because of crimes he had committed
as a legal immigrant. The immigration judge set his bail at $2,500, which can
be borrowed for $250. Camacho made bail, was released and disappeared. The
judge ordered him deported in absentia. [more at SD
Union Tribune]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
Front Page
Radio
Intifada
Your tax dollars at work
[Greg Yardley] 8/1/03 | In June, Pacifica Radio's
Los Angeles station, KPFK-FM, hosted a thirty-hour marathon of Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn's
anti-Semitic "Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekend." It was the
first time this once-annual program appeared for almost a decade. It had been
banned by station management in 1993, after a long, hard-fought pressure campaign
to remove it. Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekend typically includes claims
that the Jews disproportionately participated in the slave trade and persecuted
blacks; in the past, he responded to criticism by calling the regional director
of the Anti-Defamation League a "psychotic, idiotic, European Jew." [more
at Front
Page]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Opinion Journal
Gov.
Toast
Democrats consider entering the California governor's race.
[John Fund] 7/31/03 | The speculation about which
Republican candidates will enter the race to succeed Gov. Gray Davis--up for
recall Oct. 7--continues. But for the first time Democrats are now openly talking
about allowing someone in their party to appear on the recall ballot to offer
an alternative for the party faithful. It's looking increasingly likely that
Gov. Davis will have to fight a two-front war, in which he will have to beat
both Republicans and factions within his own party. If that happens, he'll be
unlikely to survive. | The first crack in the Democrats'
united front likely came last week. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reportedly
called Mr. Davis "toast" in a private meeting of her California congressional
colleagues. She later denied making the remark, but her statement has been widely
reported and the media's sources have stood by their account of her comments.
A few days later, Al Checchi, a wealthy businessman whom Mr. Davis defeated in
the 1998 Democratic primary for governor, openly called on Sen. Dianne Feinstein
to run and indicated he would be available if she didn't. Then state Sen. Dean
Florez declared it would be "suicidal" for the party not to have a
candidate on a ballot that would select a Davis successor. Mr. Florez said "voters
are going to be shocked when they flip the card and see there is no viable Democrat
in the race." If no other major Democrats put their name on the ballot,
Mr. Florez said, he would. | That early sign of
mutiny was followed on Wednesday by a San Francisco Chronicle
headline: "Democratic Unity on Recall Shatters." [more at Opinion
Journal]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From American Spectator
Bringing
Up the Riordan
[George Neumayr] 7/31/03 | "Riordan May Be
GOP's Best Chance to Replace Davis." This appears not in the commentary
section of Tuesday's Los Angeles Times but in its front news pages.
As usual, the Times is urging the Republicans to run a de facto Democrat. As
usual, the Times equates the political welfare of the GOP with its
editors' liberal preferences. | What is the point
of a recall that would replace a tax-and-spend Democrat with a tax-and-spend
Republican? Or, even more absurdly, a recall that would replace Davis with
one of his more generous donors? Riordan, it bears repeating, played a role
in foisting Davis on the state. He donated $20,000 to Davis's runs, kicking
in $12,500 as recently as March of 2000. | As
former Davis adviser Garry South crowed in 2001, "Dick Riordan is one
of our major donors. We've enjoyed his money over the years. I only hope that
if he runs for governor he doesn't stop giving us money." | The
recall is a response to a state budget crisis created by Democrats that Riordan
worked to elect. [more
at American
Spectator]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Sacramento Bee
Riordan
Run Would Be Justice, But Can He Do It?
[Daniel Weintraub] 7/31/03 | If Richard Riordan
runs for governor, he would do so with at least a slight karmic advantage.
Gov. Gray Davis feared him so much a year ago that the Democratic incumbent
intervened in the Republican primary, buying up air time to blast Riordan from
the right, the left and every other direction he could think of. | Initially
conceived as a way to wound Riordan's campaign, the Davis barrage instead delivered
a fatal blow, and Bill Simon went on to win the Republican nomination. Simon's
error-prone general election campaign proved why the governor picked him as
his favorite candidate to run against. | But Riordan
had more than Gray Davis to blame for his defeat. Riordan ran last year as
the candidate of leadership and vision while offering little of either. His
campaign was so sloppy it left close observers questioning whether the former
two-term mayor of Los Angeles had what it took to be governor. | Now,
with his friend Arnold Schwarzenegger pulling back, Riordan might step forward
as a candidate to replace Davis should the attempt to recall the governor succeed.
But Riordan will surely fail again if he doesn't learn the right lessons from
his disastrous run a year ago. [more
at Sacramento
Bee]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Sacramento Bee
Election
Chaos Looms
Will California be another Florida?
[the Editors] 7/31/03 | Pity the poor registrars.
In the midst of an on-again, off-again, once-in-a-century change in voting
technology, an unprecedented hurry-up recall of a governor that could attract
a record number of candidates has been thrust upon them. Except for the fact
that the leadership of the free world is not up for grabs -- a piece of very
good news -- a Florida-size debacle looms. [more at Sacramento
Bee]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Jewish World Review
Gray
Skies Just Got Darker
[Laura Ingraham] 7/30/03 | For California Democrats
desperate to defeat the effort to recall Governor Gray "Skies" Davis,
the strategy is summed up this way--ABGD. | That
stands for: Anything But Gray Davis. | "The
governor's advisers say they intend to shift the focus away from Mr. Davis's
personality and his record to what they characterize as the 'right wing' agenda
of the recall proponents," reported the New York Times. The ABGD fight
is being led by by DNC attack dog Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who told the Times: "This
is about more than Gray Davis. It's about an attempt to undo an election, like
Florida." (When all else fails, go back to the recount!) One senior campaign
aide of Davis candidly remarked, "If it's Davis versus Davis, he loses." | This
anonymous Davis staffer revealed more than he should have about his boss: "He
has spent millions trashing other people and has never spent any time, effort
or money telling people why he was a decent guy. How can you rehabilitate the
guy at this point? You have to move him off the scene and make this about something
bigger." | The nauseating truth about Gray
Skies is that he represents the absolute worst in American politics today:
the politician's love affair with power over the what's best for the people.
[go to Jewish
World Review]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
LA Times
Morning
Becomes Apoplectic
[Rob Long] 7/31/03 | I don't have an out-box on
my desk, but I do have one of those toast-rack-looking things. And each slot
is crammed with to-do items: receipts, bills to pay, orphan phone numbers,
that sort of thing. Right now, the first slot is occupied by two pieces of
mail: a notice from KCRW, Los Angeles' most prominent NPR radio station, reminding
me to renew my membership and a note from the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign, reminding
me to send in the maximum allowable individual contribution. | The
Bush check is an easy one to write. He's a good president, and I want him around
for another four years. The KCRW check, though, is a tricky one. I like the
music programming, but the rest of its NPR schedule drives me up a tree: the
squeaky-voiced commentators oozing smug self-satisfaction, the unfunniness
of its "funny" pieces and, of course, its ludicrous and geriatric
liberal bias. [more at LA
Times]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
LA Times
Colorblind
Versus Blindfolded
[James Q. Wilson] 7/31/03 | It's easy to condemn
discrimination, segregation and racism. It's harder to agree on what practical
steps are needed to combat them. | We all believe
that everybody should be judged on his or her own merits, but many people,
including a majority of Supreme Court justices, say race should be used as
a "plus factor" in admitting students to public universities. And
though everybody says we should strive for a colorblind society, some people
still use racial and ethnic categories to describe why some people are different
from others. | One way to end the problem, in
the opinion of University of California Regent Ward Connerly, is to abolish
the use of race and ethnicity as identifying factors. His Racial Privacy Initiative,
slated to be voted on in October, would prohibit any government agency in California
from collecting data on race, ethnicity, color or national origin and using
it to classify those involved in public education, public contracting or public
employment. [more at LA
Times]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Jewish World Review
Gray
Skies Just Got Darker
[Laura Ingraham] 7/30/03 | For California Democrats
desperate to defeat the effort to recall Governor Gray "Skies" Davis,
the strategy is summed up this way--ABGD. | That
stands for: Anything But Gray Davis. | "The
governor's advisers say they intend to shift the focus away from Mr. Davis's
personality and his record to what they characterize as the 'right wing' agenda
of the recall proponents," reported the New York Times. The ABGD fight is
being led by by DNC attack dog Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who told the Times: "This
is about more than Gray Davis. It's about an attempt to undo an election, like
Florida." (When all else fails, go back to the recount!) One senior campaign
aide of Davis candidly remarked, "If it's Davis versus Davis, he loses." | This
anonymous Davis staffer revealed more than he should have about his boss: "He
has spent millions trashing other people and has never spent any time, effort
or money telling people why he was a decent guy. How can you rehabilitate the
guy at this point? You have to move him off the scene and make this about something
bigger." | The nauseating truth about Gray
Skies is that he represents the absolute worst in American politics today: the
politician's love affair with power over the what's best for the people. [go
to Jewish
World Review]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Weekly Standard
The
Governor Strikes Back
As challengers line up for the California recall election, one small fact is
getting overlooked: Gray Davis isn't dead yet.
[Nicole Topham] 7/30/03 | While news about California's
recall election is changing as fast as tickers on Wall Street, two things are
certain: there will be a recall election October 7, and it will be a vicious
campaign: Gray Davis has vowed to fight like a Bengal tiger--which both Democrats
and Republicans will tell you is no idle threat. | The
most pronounced attacks in this instance have been against Rep. Darrell Issa,
who was the first officially declared candidate against Davis. During an appearance
on CNN's "Late Edition," Davis accused Issa of being a "right-winger" and
went through the usual litany of "right-wing" offenses: "He's
against gun control. He won't support a moratorium on offshore drilling. And
he's not for a woman's right to choose." | And
yet Davis (whose approval rating is 22 percent) is not fighting by himself.
Bill Clinton has been invited to California to help the anti-recall movement.
[more at Weekly
Standard]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Town Hall
California: Be Careful What You Wish For
[Linda Chavez] 7/30/03 | Be careful what you wish
for; you just might get it. Republicans would do well to remember this old
adage as they face the prospect of a successful effort to recall California
Democrat Gov. Gray Davis in a special election on Oct. 7. | There's
no question that Davis has been a dreadful governor, amassing a $38-billion
deficit on a state budget of $100 billion. But Californians had the chance
to throw the bum out last year. Instead, they re-elected him, albeit with only
47 percent of the vote. Now, a recall effort, led by Republican Congressman
Darrell Issa, will give Californians the chance to change their minds. But
is that necessarily a good thing? | California,
like 17 other states, can recall politicians; but the only successful recall
of a governor occurred in North Dakota in 1921. What's more, California's rules
governing recalls leave much to be desired. Instead of allowing voters to recall
the incumbent -- setting up a separate, special election to replace him --
California state law combines the process into one election. The rules make
it difficult for Democrats to field their own candidate without appearing to
be disloyal to their previous standard-bearer. But this may not help the Republican
Party -- or indeed the democratic process itself. [more
at Town
Hall]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
Sacramento Bee
Winners
And Losers Toted Up As Year's Budget Imbroglio Ends
[Dan Walters] 7/30/03 | There was a tinge of pride
in Herb Wesson's voice Tuesday afternoon when he announced that a marathon,
all-night session of the state Assembly to hammer out a final agreement on
the overdue state budget had surpassed the infamous 1963 "lock-up" of
Republicans by legendary Speaker Jesse Unruh. | It
was a bit odd that Wesson, the current speaker of the Assembly, was so proud
of keeping his flock in session longer than Unruh's 26 hours and 28 minutes,
because the incident proved to be the latter's political undoing, cementing
the image of a dictatorial "Big Daddy" and dooming his ambitions
to become governor. "It has been all downhill for me since that night," an
Unruh lieutenant, James Mills, later quoted him in a book Mills wrote about
the Unruh speakership. | Wesson's in no danger
of being branded a tyrant; rather, he saw keeping the Assembly in session from
noon on Monday until late afternoon on Tuesday as the key to settling the partisan
budget dispute, thus polishing his somewhat tarnished leadership credentials.
It illustrates, however, that beyond the billions of dollars in the budget
and the months-long partisan squabbling over deficits, loans, taxes and spending,
there were some personal and political stakes. [more
at Sacramento
Bee]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
OC Register
Budget
Postpones Day Of Reckoning
[the
Editors] 7/30/03 | California
has a budget, finally. It only awaits the governor's expected
signature.| The Assembly passed
a budget Tuesday afternoon, following the Senate's vote
on Sunday. | The $70.8 billion
general fund budget closes the $38 billion deficit calculated
by Gov. Davis, at least on paper. Its passage removes no
small amount of economic uncertainty, even though its remedies
for the deficit, most of them debt-related, will have negative
economic effects for some time to come. | The
good news for every Californian is that there are no new
taxes in the budget, except for a tripling of the car tax,
which had already been set in motion by the Davis administration
through legal, not legislative, means and is already being
challenged in court. | The
Republicans stood firm on the tax issue and won. By staying
united, they prevented a proposed half-cent increase in
the sales tax and/or a boost in the top state income tax
rate to 10 percent from 9.3 percent. This will have a positive
benefit for consumers, businesses, growth and jobs. [more
at OC
Register]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
National Review
A
Mixed Verdict
There’s peace in L.A., but was there justice?
[Jack Dunphy] 7/30/03 | Well, I got it half-right,
but at least I didn't have to spend the night chasing looters up and down Avalon
Boulevard like I did in '92. | I
wrote two weeks ago that the prosecution's case was coming off the rails
in the trial of two Inglewood, Calif. police officers charged in the videotaped
arrest of 16-year-old Donavan Jackson. I predicted acquittals for both, but
only one defendant walked out of court Tuesday with a unanimous not-guilty
verdict to show for his troubles. Bijan Darvish, the officer accused of filing
a false police report of the incident, was cleared by the jury after three
days of deliberations. The jury was deadlocked, 7-5 for conviction, on the
assault charge against former officer Jeremy Morse, and the jury foreman reported
there was no hope of reaching a unanimous verdict on that count. Judge William
Hollingsworth declared a mistrial and dismissed the jury, thereby handing a
big problem back to Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who
must now decide whether or not to send Morse to a second trial. | It
won't be an easy call for Cooley. [more at National
Review]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
OC Register
It's
Simple, Simon: Stay Out
[the Editors] 7/29/03 | A historic event is in the
making. It's not every day - once or twice a century, perhaps - that a state's
citizens get so frustrated by their current governor's mismanagement that they
decide to subject him to an embarrassing recall election. | Gov.
Gray Davis hasn't inspired loyalty, not even among his liberal political base,
because he has demonstrated few leadership qualities. But if there's anything
that can save him it will be his Republican opponents, who seem as bereft at
politicking as Davis is at governing. | If too many
poor or marginal candidates clutter the ballot, voters might wonder if it's even
worth recalling the governor. Republicans clearly need a big-name leader with
some substance to turn this recall into a real campaign. Unfortunately, one well-known
Republican with a poor record at campaigning is seriously considering the race,
and might draw many votes away from more savvy, experienced candidates. | Businessman
Bill Simon, who lost to Gov. Davis by a slimmer-than-expected 5 percentage points
in November, has formed an exploratory committee to consider running to replace
Gov. Davis. He didn't announce his candidacy over the weekend, as some thought
he would, but he clearly is leaning toward running. At an event in Northern California,
he said, "I would be the strongest candidate," according to published
reports. | Excuse us, but what is he thinking? [more
at OC
Register]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Sacramento Bee
It's
Time For The Elites To Quit All Their Whining
[Daniel
Weintraub] 7/29/03 | The people
have called an election, and the political elites of both
major parties hate it. So does big business and, for the
most part, the media. But it's amazing the level of ownership
real people feel over the recall. It is something they have
done in defiance of California's ruling establishment. | As
I walked through the Recall Gray Davis rally at the Capitol
Saturday, the mood was giddy. | Republicans
were out in force, of course, but they weren't alone. The
Libertarians were there, the remnants of Ross Perot's Reform
Party, and even the Peace and Freedom and American Independent
parties. A stray Democrat or two wandered by. | It
was a political fair, with volunteers handing out brochures
from booths, entertainment for the kids, talk-radio hosts
going remote and, best of all, a buzz of discussion about
California and its future. At least 1,000 people showed up
in the middle of a broiling Sacramento summer day to show
their support. | At one point
early on, a group of Davis supporters, many from organized
labor, gathered across the street from the rally site and
shouted slogans against the recall. Folks on the rally side
yelled back with chants of their own. Civil discourse it
wasn't. More like a spirit contest at a high school football
game. But a spirit contest over California politics? | There
is something different about this election, an energy level
you don't see too often in these parts.| It
definitely has the feel of a populist revolt. [more
at Sacramento
Bee]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Sacramento Bee
Davis,
Facing Recall, Swims In A Sea Of Political Uncertainty
[Dan Walters] 7/29/03 | Gray Davis, even more
than most politicians, loathes situations whose outcome he cannot predict and/or
fully control, but now finds himself swimming in uncertainty, his fate at the
mercy of forces that he can only marginally influence. | The
largest unknown, of course, is whether California voters will decide 10 weeks
hence to make Davis the first California governor ever to be dumped from office
in midterm. But that, in turn, will hinge on a number of other factors that
are still unsettled. | Two that loomed over the
Capitol on Monday were the fate of a patchwork state budget that cleared the
Senate late Sunday but faced an uncertain fate in the Assembly, and the lineup
of would-be successors who will appear on the ballot as voters are deciding
whether to recall Davis on Oct. 7. | The budget
was Davis' most immediate problem Monday. His popularity plummeted into the
low 20 percent range when he revealed last December, a month after winning
a narrow re-election, that the state faced a $30 billion-plus deficit. Critics
accused him of hiding the extent of the state's fiscal problems and launched
the recall petition drive that culminated last week in setting an Oct. 7 election.
[more at Sacramento
Bee]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
NY Times
California
Screamin'
[William Safire] 7/29/03 | The humorist S. J.
Perelman used to say his wife was "afflicted with total recall." That
affliction has now seized California. | Not a
year after re-electing Gov. Gray Davis, fickle residents of this Democratic
suzerainty are suffering from voter remorse. Polls show his popularity down
to 21 percent and that more than half are seriously thinking of throwing him
out. | A petition obtained enough signatures last
week to put his recall on the ballot. The lavishly spending state is in political
chaos, its bonds approaching junk status. Buzzards are circling, Republican
candidates are sprouting like weeds and the avid thumbsucking of pundits is
heard in the land. | The October ballot offers
voters two choices: first, whether to recall the governor, and second, if that
gains a majority, to offer a list of candidates to replace him. If the recall
vote fails, the second vote is meaningless; but if it succeeds, whoever gets
a plurality becomes governor. | Put yourself in
the shoes of Davis's campaign manager. Your man is deeply disliked. He won
re-election by a dirty trick, interfering in a Republican primary to choose
the weakest opponent. Before the election, Davis concealed the looming budget
crisis from the voters, and now, even with total Democratic control of the
state, cannot right the ship. | A political nightmare?
Just the opposite. You adopt the Marshal Foch strategy: with your front crumbling
and your flanks collapsing, attack. [more at NY
Times]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
Sacramento Bee
Horse Before Cart In
Recall Challenges
[Richard L. Hasen] 7/29/03 | The
temptation to compare the current legal controversies surrounding
the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis to the Florida 2000
presidential election mess is irresistible. Though there
are differences, the best reason for the comparison is to
remember an important lesson from the Florida debacle: Challenges
to election rules should be resolved in advance of elections
whenever possible, to benefit democracy and to preserve the
legitimacy of the courts. This lesson may require a delay
in the Davis recall election. | At
issue today in federal court in San Diego is a challenge
to a quirky provision of California recall law that allows
only voters who vote up or down on the recall of Davis to
have their vote counted on their choice of his successor.
Other lawsuits raising constitutional and statutory questions
are likely to be filed as well and should be resolved before
the election to avoid a second Florida. [more at Sacramento
Bee]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
LA Times
Fix
Broken Budget Process
[the Editors] 7/29/03 | It is better to have a
wretched budget than no budget at all. That is the depth to which California
has fallen. The state's credit hovers on the edge of junk-bond status. The
bankers who have propped up the state with loans are out of patience. The people
are sick of deadlock, which has helped fuel the effort to recall Gov. Gray
Davis in a special election set for Oct. 7. | Wretched
is certainly the word for the budget, which was passed Sunday by the Senate
and was before the Assembly for debate late Monday. [more at LA
Times]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
American Spectator
Are
You Nuts?
You sure as heck are -- certifiably -- if you consider yourself
conservative.
[Jed Babbin] 7/29/03 | I felt really good last
Tuesday. We got Qusay and Uday, and the Eiffel Tower caught fire. Now my betters
tell me that feeling good was bad because I was exercising "uncertainty
avoidance" and seeking "cognitive closure" on Q and U. Maybe
I felt good because of the "terror management" mechanism in my head.
Clearly, I have severe symptoms of conservatism, or what I should be calling
the conservative psychological pathology. Just ask the experts at U.C. Berkeley.
[more at American
Spectator]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
American Spectator
Jack in the Box
What Gray Davis needs is spoilers -- lots of them.
[Jeremy Lott] 7/28/03 | Media junkies want to know:
Just how much of a carnival is the race to unseat California governor Gray Davis
likely to become? Shock jock Michael
Savage may throw
his hat into the ring, Arianna is
mulling a run, the kindergarten
cop hasn't made up his mind yet, and, oh yes, Jack
Kemp is being "urged" by supporters to step into the breach. We're
in dancing bear territory folks. | Or perhaps it's
a quick game of Find
the Lady. When Drudge announced last Thursday night that Kemp was thinking
of running as a "consensus candidate," my immediate response was, "for
whom?", and I suspect that wasn't an unusual reply. Jack Kemp?? The guy
who got creamed by a human
robot in the 1996 debates? The man who blamed slow economic growth for Roberto
Alomar's rather Pavlovian
response to a bad call? The same Jack Kemp who's recently
taken to shilling for
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez? [more
at American
Spectator]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
LA Daily News
Don't
Fool Around With Constitution
[Chris Weinkopf] 7/28/03 | The current situation
in Sacramento can be summed up this way: Republicans want to recall Gov. Gray
Davis; Davis and fellow Democrats want to recall the California Constitution. | It's
recall mania, and the fun has only just started. | The
sordid story begins with the state budget disaster, which has brought out the
worst in the Sacramento spendthrifts who created it. Back in March, it prompted
Davis and Controller Steve Westly to concoct their fraudulent plan for tripling
the state's vehicle license fee without obtaining the two-thirds legislative
supermajority that the state constitution requires. | But
Davis and Westly would hardly be alone in their disregard for the rule of law.
Next in on the act was Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. | When
Californians responded with the recall initiative, Shelley told officials responsible
for counting recall signatures that they could ignore the legal requirement
to do so speedily -- a direction the courts promptly struck down. [more at LA
Daily News]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
SD Union Tribune
What
Agreement?
State may be long way from passing budget
[the Editors] 7/28/03 | Hopes that the state budget
crisis might soon be over could be premature. Political realities in the Assembly
could delay a budget agreement for weeks more, threatening a shutdown of more
state services and programs and further damaging California's imperiled financial
standing. | For starters, Assembly Speaker Herb
Wesson, D-Los Angeles, doesn't have much clout with his colleagues. Democratic
lawmakers are certain to bristle at the additional cuts contained in this package,
while their GOP counterparts are still fuming over the steep increase in vehicle
license fees. Factor in last week's public feuding over the Democratic caucus'
not-so-clandestine discussion about delaying a budget, and it's anyone's guess
what will happen. [more at SD
Union Tribune]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
Wall Street Journal
Workers' Comp Crisis
Connecticut and California show how, and how not, to
solve it.
[the Editors] 7/28/03 | ...But the record shows
that some states are mitigating the problem with smart reforms, while others
are just wallowing in the excesses of failed programs. | In
the latter category is California, where insurance costs have doubled over
the past three years. Meanwhile, Californian workplaces are actually getting
safer -- the state's "frequency" of claims (the number of claims
per worker per year) declined 20% between 1996 and 2001, mirroring a national
trend. | The problem is that California seems
to do everything it can to encourage workers to overuse the system. For instance,
while the state caps the amount of money it pays for each visit to a chiropractor,
it places no limits on the number of visits -- so that workers (and chiropractors)
receive a blank check. Nationwide, the average number of visits to a chiropractor
on a workers' comp claim is 14. In California, it's 34. | California
is also ground zero for litigation. Golden State lawyers pocketed $226 million
in 2002 for workers' comp cases. Litigation is now so prevalent that California
employers and insurers must hire lawyers to deal with a full 29% of claims
in which the employee lost a week of work. | California
businesses have been pleading for help for years, but Governor Gray Davis and
the state's Democratic legislature continue to see more political mileage in
rewarding unions (which always demand bigger benefits) and plaintiffs lawyers
than they do in keeping California's businesses solvent. Last year Mr. Davis
ignored appeals for reform and signed a bill that increased weekly benefits
to employees who miss work because of their injuries. [more at Wall
Street Journal - subscription required]
MISEDUCATION/From
OC Register
A
Big New Name Backs Vouchers
Why are state teachers so angry at Feinstein? Because she
may start a trend.
[Lance T. Izumi] 7/28/03 | Do you hear that cracking
noise? That's the government-school monopoly dam about to burst. | Up
until now, the teachers unions have plugged the holes in the dike using threats
and money to make sure lawmakers, especially Democrats, oppose school-choice
vouchers. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, however, has just joined a growing number
of Democratic elected officials who not only refuse to strengthen the dam but
want to tear it down. | In a recent Washington
Post op-ed, Sen. Feinstein came out in favor of federally funded vouchers for
students in Washington, D.C. Congress has the unique opportunity to implement
vouchers in the nation's capital since the federal government provides funds
for the city's schools. Thus, according to the proposal before Congress, low-income
D.C. students would be eligible for a $7,500 scholarship to pay for tuition,
fees and transportation to any D.C. private school. Although D.C.'s Democratic
mayor, Anthony Williams, caused a stir when he recently came out for vouchers,
the teachers unions have portrayed his support as a self-interested political
ploy to get more money for the city's schools. | Feinstein
is different. She doesn't have anything to gain by supporting vouchers in D.C.
Further, her reputation as a thoughtful centrist-leaning Democrat could swing
others in her party to rethink their knee-jerk positions and eventually support
school choice. | No wonder, then, that the response
of the teachers unions has been apoplectic. [more at OC
Register]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
Sacramento Bee
Still
A Bad Bill
New sacred sites bill is too broad, unneeded
[the Editors] 7/28/03 | Last year, Gov. Gray Davis
rightly vetoed a bill by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton that would have
given Indian tribes vast new powers to stop development anywhere in the state,
whether on Indian land or not. The vetoed bill would have given tribes authority
to stop outright or to force expensive mitigation for any proposed development
within 20 miles of tribal "sacred sites." | Burton
and the Indians are back this year with a more modest bill. But local governments,
builders and other business leaders justifiably fear this one, too, would be
disruptive, damaging to the economy and extremely costly. [more
at Sacramento
Bee]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
Sacramento Bee
28 Years After Gay Rights
Victory, Legislators Debate Anew
[Dan Walters] 7/28/03 | It's certain that the
Legislature, dominated by liberal Democrats and having a strong contingent
of gay lawmakers, would vote today to legalize gay marriage if it could. But
a law adopted by voters in 2000 specifically declares that "only marriage
between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Barred
from seeking full marriage rights, groups such as the California Alliance for
Pride and Equality, a gay-rights umbrella coalition, have been pushing a series
of bills that expand, one by one, the marriage-like rights of "domestic
partners." Conservative "pro-family" organizations complain
that the bills violate the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of the 2000 ballot
measure, but with the tilt of the Legislature, the measures have gained passage
easily. [more at Sacramento
Bee]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
NY Times
California's
Comeback Kid
[Jill Stewart] 7/27/03 | In California — even
where politics are concerned — appearances can be deceiving. Opponents
of Gov. Gray Davis most surely scored a historic victory last week when they
succeeded in securing a special recall vote. Already, many are predicting the
Democratic governor's demise come the Oct. 7 special election. But even if Republicans
are able to place a serious contender on the ballot, don't count the governor
out just yet. Mr. Davis may find himself on the political ropes, but that's exactly
where he does his best fighting. | The governor,
let's not forget, is above all a survivor — one with extraordinary gifts
for doing whatever it takes. Consider, for example, one of his most recent bits
of inspired strong-arming. His camp sued to try to delay certification of the
recall petitions. The grounds for the suit: accusations that two felons were
hired by Rescue California, the group that led the recall effort, to gather petition
signatures. As reported up and down California, the lawsuit was intended to slow
the recall, moving the vote from the fall to March, when Democrats would stream
to polls for their presidential primary and possibly vote to save a governor
toward whom few feel any pride. | We later learned
from a San Francisco Chronicle article that the two felons the Davis camp cited
in its effort to besmirch the group had left their jobs quickly, and then were
promptly hired by the Davis team to gather signatures for a petition supporting
the governor. The felon-recycling tale could have been deftly used to illustrate
the intellectual dishonesty and political sleight-of-hand that has helped fuel
Mr. Davis's abysmal 22 percent approval rating. But Rescue California, run by
people who have never managed a major statewide campaign, apparently lacks even
a savvy press aide and the episode somehow faded away with little attention.
[more at NY
Times]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
OC Register
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
OC Register
Gray
Davis: Bill Clinton Lite
Californians have figured out that their governor is a façade
of a façade.
[Paul M. Fick] 7/27/03 | At first blush, it appeared
that the Decade of Facadism, in which is isn't is, presidential perjury is
permissible, and dotcom stocks fulfill the American dream, ended when President
Clinton begrudgingly left the White House. The country as a whole was, temporarily
at least, shocked into Realism with falling towers and fallen heroes. But the
Golden State eschewed Realism, waxing nostalgic for the grand Decade of Facadism,
like a washed up '60s retread rocking to the Grateful Dead in a grungy tie-dye
T-shirt. | Leading California's retreat from prominence
is a most unlikely character, Gov. Gray Davis. Davis mirrors Clinton's fund-raising
ability and shadows his crafty, and, at times, nasty politicking when his back
is to the wall. Like Clinton, Davis has lengthy credentials as a "public
servant," serving as an assemblyman, state controller and lieutenant governor.
His record even includes a stint as a thirty-something chief of staff to Gov.
Jerry Brown, long before Davis oversaw the creation of a thirty- something
billion-dollar deficit. | But Davis lacks Clinton's
charisma and glad-handing ability, critical qualities for a successful impostor.
[more at OC
Register]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
OC Register
Next
Time, The Pundits Should Poll Burt Pronin
[Gordon Dillow] 7/27/03 | If you're happy that
we're going to have a recall vote on Gov. Gray Davis, you can give Burt Pronin
approximately .0005 percent of the credit. | And
if you're not happy about it, you can also give Burt .0005 percent of the blame. | Back
in June I wrote a column about Burt, 73, of Brea, a retired insurance executive
who I met when he was sitting in a lawn chair outside an Albertsons supermarket,
gathering recall petition signatures. The gist of the column was that, given
the ease with which Burt was raking in signatures, and the comments he was
hearing from voters, Davis appeared to be in deep, deep trouble. | Of
course, even while Burt was calling the recall effort a clear winner, the pundits
and the governor's mouthpieces were still calling it a long shot – just
as they had when the recall effort began in February. Never happen, they all
said. Never has, and never will. They brushed away the recall as if it were
an insignificant gnat. | But they hadn't spent
any time with Burt. | Over a total of five weeks,
and working just a few hours a day, Burt gathered some 700 signatures – about
one two-thousandth of the 1.4 million total. Although he was a paid signature
gatherer – he got less than five hundred bucks for the signatures he
collected – it wasn't like he really needed the money. Burt, a registered
Democrat, swears that he would have happily done it for free. [more at OC
Register]
RECALL
FOLLIES/From
LA Times
This
Is Direct Democracy Run Amok
[Leon E. Panetta] 7/27/03 | California is known
for setting precedents for the rest of the nation. | In
the past, we've taken great pride in setting the standard for higher education,
a strong and diverse economy, environmental protection and opportunity for
all. | But today, California is setting a very
different kind of precedent — how not to govern a state. Elected leaders
are failing to resolve the worst fiscal crisis in state history, term limits
are creating timid, weakened politicians and ballot initiatives are usurping
power from those we've elected legitimately. Last week, the state's bond rating
dropped to near junk-bond status. | At the same
time, an ill-advised recall election of the governor has been set for October
that will result in greater political disruption and could cost taxpayers an
additional $30 million to $40 million. [more at LA
Times]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
Sacramento Bee
Sound Fiscal Advice For Families
Should Apply To State Budget
[Dan
Walters] 7/27/03 | Financial
planner Scott Hanson, who writes a column for The Sacramento
Bee, received an inquiry from a reader who said he was facing
bankruptcy due to a mountain of credit card debt and was
wondering whether he should enter a "debt consolidation
program." | Hanson's reply,
in part: "Most people in your situation need a budget
and spending program before a debt consolidation plan. Why?
Because most people who are over their heads in debt got
that way because they spent more money than they made. They
confused their wants with their needs and purchased too many
things on credit cards. | "I've
seen countless situations where people have consolidated
their debt into a manageable monthly payment and used their
lower payment as an excuse to spend more. The reasons behind
their spending didn't change. Two or three years later, their
personal debt was far worse then before their debt was consolidated." | It
was the sort of back-to-basics advice that any responsible
financial counselor would give. It's what the World Bank
tells Third World nations whose finances are in disarray.
It's the medicine that corporate "turnaround" specialists
dispense to companies drifting into bankruptcy. | The
first step toward financial health is to stop doing what
got you into trouble in the first place. Just borrowing more
money to "consolidate" debts tends to lead to more
irresponsible spending from those who have already "confused
their wants with their needs and purchased too many things
on credit cards." | Is
Gov. Gray Davis listening? Are Senate President Pro Tem John
Burton, Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte, Assembly Speaker
Herb Wesson or Assembly Republican leader Dave Cox? [more
at Sacramento
Bee]
FABULOUS
BUDGET/ From
Sacramento Bee
Man
Bites Dog, Legislative Foes Civilly Discuss State Budget
[Daniel
Weintraub] 7/27/03 | It's budget
time in the Capitol, and even as a deal begins to come together,
the insults are still flying. Republican staffers capture
Democrats plotting secret strategies over a microphone they
thought was dead. Democrats accuse Republicans of lacking
compassion for the poor and infirm. The governor's finance
director confronts a legislator in a hallway, gets in his
face and implores him to "give us a budget!" | These
are the stories that make the evening news and the next day's
papers. Conflict sells. Confrontation is the coin of the
political realm and the engine that drives the news coverage.
It has always been so. | But
the clashes have become so common that I wonder if now the
paradigm has shifted. Maybe two legislators shouting inanities
at each other is dog-bites-man stuff. Here's the rarity:
legislators from different parties, with different agendas,
sitting down in civil discourse about the state's massive
fiscal problems. | I found such
an event last week, in a small hearing room on the first
floor of the Capitol. Little advertised, little known, and
lightly attended by the press corps, a special Senate committee
is plowing through the budget program by program, calmly
exchanging ideas on how the state got where it is today --
and how it might prevent the same thing from happening again.
[more at Sacramento
Bee]
WEST
BANK OF THE SEINE/ From
OC Register
Anaheim's
New Deal
A new council has worked to make the city more business-friendly
[Steven Greenhut] 7/27/03 | "The demographics
of the city are changing," Mayor Curt Pringle said. "We could either
try to stop the changes or embrace them. We've decided to embrace them." | That's
a nice way of saying that the old crowd often provided legal impediments to
the new, emerging Latino majority. It wasn't something outwardly racist. But
the way, for instance, the old leadership fought the Gigante store was emblematic.
Old-timers in any city like to keep things as they are through restrictive
ordinances and zoning. | Pringle points to the
many times the council has overturned decisions by the Planning Commission,
in order to make it easier for small businesses to get variances and permits.
Most of these businesses happen to be owned by Latinos. | This
isn't a left vs. right phenomenon. The three closest allies on the new council
are Pringle, a conservative Republican, Tait, a libertarian-oriented Republican,
and Richard Chavez, a union-activist Democrat. Councilman Bob Hernandez, a
moderate-conservative Republican, and Shirley McCracken, a moderate-liberal
Republican, have also been supportive of the City Council's refreshing new
approach. [more at OC
Register]
MISEDUCATION/From
SD Union Tribune
A
Change Of Heart On School Vouchers
[Joseph Perkins] 7/26/03 | Only one fourth-grade
student in 10 attending public schools in our nation's capital is proficient
in reading, according to the National Assessment of Education Progress. Only
one fourth-grader in 16 is proficient in math. | And
it's not that the District of Columbia is shortchanging its public school system.
The capital city lays out nearly $11,000 per student annually, the third-highest
level of per-pupil spending in the entire country. | That's
why it is heartening to see that Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has broken
ranks with her fellow Democrats, parted ways with the public teachers unions,
throwing her support behind a voucher program for the District's miseducated
school children. [more
at SD
Union Tribune]
day-by-day
~ a week's worth of web findings in the bin:
Your
Car Tax Estimate
posted at OC
Register
Say
you bought a new Toyota Camry in October 2000
for $20,360.
Here’s
how the new vehicle license fee will affect
you.
|
$
105.87
You paid this in 2002
|
$285.04
You’ll owe this in October |
And
some
Lingering Observations
Driven
to Judicial Fiat
Desperate Davis Turns to the Courts for "Leadership"
[Carol Platt Liebau] 7/24/03 [CaliforniaRepublic.org]
|
King
of the Ring
Big-time strategists, a jungle recall/election, and Democrats scheming over
a live microphone. You won't believe what's happening in California.
[Hugh Hewitt] 7/24/03 [Weekly
Standard]
|
Recall
Strategy
The California GOP Needs to Stay
Flexible – and Above All, Unified
[Carol Platt Liebau] 7/21/03 [CaliforniaRepublic.org] |
Highway
Robbery
Illegal taxes are what political
revolutions are made of.
[Tom McClintock] 7/9/03
[CaliforniaRepublic.org] |
Brother,
Can You Spare A Nickel?
Liberal illusion: tax cuts cause deficits,
not overspending
[Ray Haynes] 7/8/03 [CaliforniaRepublic.org]
|
A “Taxing” Responsibility
The Power to Change Sacramento
Rests With Us
[Carol Platt Liebau] 7/7/03 [CaliforniaRepublic.org]
|
Pull
My Trigger. . .
An
unaccountable, self-triggering tax that only a
liberal could love
[Ray Haynes] 6/28/03 [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org] |
California's
Coming 100-Year Political Storm
[Tom
McClintock] 6/18/03
[more at Claremont
Institute] |
Wannabe
the Next Governor?
[Streetsweeper] 6/13/03
[go to CRO
Recall Follies] |
Slap
the Greedy Hand [Reprint
6/16/03]
Authorizing
Local Taxes Is Just Plain Wrong
[Carol Platt Liebau] 6/9/03
[more inside CaliforniaRepublic.org] |
People
Must Demand Recall
After the Damage Davis
Has Caused In One Term, Can
State Afford to Go Through
Another?
[Shawn
Steel] 6/2/03
[more inside CaliforniaRepublic.org] |
Memo
to My Wife
A household budget - Gray Davis style
[Tom McClintock] 5/29/03 [more inside CaliforniaRepublic.org] |
Wild
and Wooly in California
The prospect of a recall vote on Governor
Gray Davis has the state's political establishment
in an uproar.
[Hugh Hewitt] 5/21/03 [more at Weekly
Standard] |
Recalling
Our Principles
Why the Davis Recall
is Worth Reconsidering
[Carol
Platt Liebau] 5/9/03 [more
inside CaliforniaRepublic.org] |
Recall
and Recollection
The
Hour Has Come
28
Missing Pages
Kooky,
Extremist, Fringe Democrats with Goofy Ideas
Disappointed
But Proud
A
Lesson For School Accountability
