Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Tonight! Conservative group to protest Berkeley celebrating (alleged) Wikileaks leaker

0

Alert the local TV news crews, because here's an early Christmas present, Visuals Division: A conservative group -- with links to the Tea Party -- will be in Berkeley Tuesday night to protest its City Council thinking of celebrating the Army private accused of leaking the WikiLeaks documents.

As Comrade Jones told us, Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission (yes, yes, we know, "sooo Berkeley") recommended the city pass a resolution lauding Private Bradley Manning "for his courage in bringing the truth to the American people and the people of the world."

That is the same commission that called the U.S. Marine Corps "unwanted intruders" in 2008 for opening a recruiting station in town.

Swooping into Berkeley tonight will be the faithful from Move America Forward, a conservative organization founded by Melanie Morgan, the former KSFO morning show co-host and Tea Party activist. Natch, they're unhappy about this.

"If Manning did indeed leak thousands of sensitive documents to Wikileaks, then he has directly endangered the lives of American troops, and he is a TRAITOR, NOT a HERO!" said Move America Forward's Danny Gonzalez. He'll be in Berkeley tonight, carting a bunch of petition signatures against the Manning love.

"The fact that the Berkeley City Council would call someone a HERO after turning their backs on their fellow troops and publishing information that could lead to the death of more troops, is an outrage," according to Gonzalez.

The last time Move America Forward came to Berkeley, it resulted in some intense street protest over the Marine recruiting controversy. We await the video. Nothing beats people shouting at each other while close enough to smell each other's last meal.

Medea Benjamin v Melanie Morgan...this is what democracy looks like

Medea Benjamin v Melanie Morgan...this is what democracy looks like.

Posted By: Joe Garofoli (Email, Twitter, Facebook) | Dec 14 at 05:18 PM

Permalink

Bullying, illegal immigration and fixing the ballot initiative process: your lawmakers are busy already

0

Things are supposed to be quiet in the Capitol this time of year, but with a $25 billion-plus budget deficit and a new Legislature -- and legislative session -- lawmakers apparently have not received the memo. Here's a couple of tidbits we've learned about in recent days:

First up: remember Tim Donnelly, the freshman Republican lawmaker from Twin Peaks (San Bernardino County) who came out of the gate swinging with an Arizona-style immigration law? He's not done. Last week, he also introduced a measure that would bar illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at California State Universities and California Community Colleges. Current law allows a student who attended a California high school for three years to pay the cheaper, in-state tuition, even if they are here illegally. (Donnelly's measure also would require the state to offer members of the armed forces and their kids in-state tuition rates, but we're guessing that won't be the controversial part of the measure).

On the other end of the ideological spectrum is a bill introduced by Sen. Mark Leno, which aims to curtail the bullying of gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender students by making state schools teach more about the LGBT community. SB48 would "add the LGBT community to the existing list of under-represented cultural and ethnic groups already listed in the state's inclusionary education requirements," according to his office. It would also "add sexual orientation to the state's existing anti-discrimination protections that prohibit bias in school activities, instruction and instructional materials." Leno, a Democrat who represents San Francisco, said research shows that bullying rates are twice as high "in schools where students do not learn about the contributions of LGBT Americans."

And in the less-sexy but important category we can file a package of bills introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles. The measures all aim to tackle ballot-box governing, where voters impose mandates and restrictions on lawmakers through ballot initiatives. The various measures would 1) require initiatives to identify funding sources; 2) require initiatives that implement supermajority requirements to pass by a supermajority; 3) allow the Legislature to amend most ballot measures after four years; 4) increase the number of signatures that must be collected to qualify a measure for the ballot; and 5) allow lawmakers to propose amendments before a measure appears on the ballot. If the changes were rejected by the ballot sponsors, a description of the amendments would be included in voter guides.

Posted By: Marisa Lagos (Email, Twitter, Facebook) | Dec 14 at 03:07 PM

Listed Under: California State Legislature | Permalink

Jerry Brown vows to cut 25 percent from governor's office budget

0

Guv-elect Jerry Brown was so, uh, inspired by the horror stories he heard at Tuesday's budget/education summit at UCLA that he offered a new promise: Now he's going to cut the guv's office budget 25 percent instead of 20 percent. And he may not stop there.

"It's got a lot more people than the last time I was there," Brown told folks gathered in L.A. Tuesday morning for the second stop on his Traveling Budget Misery and Let's Say Kumbayah and Fix It Tour.

Helping him restructure/slenderize the Guv's office staff: His wife, Anne Gust. When Jerry was Attorney General (OK, technically he still is), the unpaid Gust, with the help of Deputy AG Jim Humes, whacked 750 positions from the rolls there. And there's probably still more fat there, too, Jerry said Tuesday.

A lot Tuesday's pow-wow looked and sounded similar to what Comrade Buchanan and I told you about at last week's dog-and-po-po show in Sacramento. Lots of Power Point showing how bad off California was, is and will continue to be. Except that this time, Jerry made us feel not sooo stupid by admitting that even he didn't totally understand some of Controller John Chiang's slides.

The major point of this tour seem to be three-fold. First, explain in simple terms how dire California's financial problems are so we're all on the same page. How bad?

"It may be worse than the Great Depression in terms of the political pressures and the tearing of the social fabric," Brown said.

Second, let everybody know that EVERYBODY has got to take a cut. Everybody. In a little riff after California Teachers union czar David Sanchez spoke, Jerry mounted the bully pulpit to talk about the value of sacrifice. And how every Californian has got to suck it up.

"It's not just me, me, I want I want," Jerry said.

Third (largely unsaid): This mess isn't Jerry's fault. Not that we're going, ahem, finger-point, he says.

Brown knows that fundamentally changing the state's financial structure and voracious appetites won't be easy -- which is why he keeps repeating different versions of "This won't be easy."

After he was greeted with applause at the beginning of Tuesday's session, Brown said, "I don't know if you'll be cheering after my budget comes out."

Ouch. That was almost as painful as Brown calling state Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect Tom Torlakson "Tom Torkalson." Which sounds a lot funnier when you say it aloud. "Torkalson." But that's just us.

Posted By: Joe Garofoli (Email, Twitter, Facebook) | Dec 14 at 02:04 PM

Listed Under: California Budget | Permalink

Top aide to Nancy Pelosi jumps ship

0

Brendan Daly, the top communications aide for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is moving on, or cashing in, as they say here, heading to Ogilvy Washington as national director for public affairs.

Olgivy says it all:

"Daly will lead the agency's D.C.-based Public Affairs offer, where he will work with clients to help them manage their reputations inside the Beltway and beyond, legislative agendas, social media advocacy needs, as well as manage those issues that arise unexpectedly throughout the business cycle and legislative process.

"Brendan Daly has a unique understanding of the confluence of politics and policy and how to manage both," said Robert Mathias, president of Ogilvy Washington. "He has been one of the nation's top political communicators for the past eight years, having developed the communications strategies for the country's key legislative initiatives -- from health care to Wall Street reform -- and virtually every other major issue that has moved through Congress. He will be a tremendous asset to all of our clients."

From Pelosi: "Brendan has been an essential part of my team for nearly a decade, and his leadership, hard work, and dedication have been essential to the progress we have made on behalf of the American people."

Posted By: Carolyn Lochhead (Email) | Dec 14 at 01:54 PM

Listed Under: Democratic Politics | Permalink

Don't ask, don't tell repeal introduced in House

0

Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Iraq War veteran, has introduced in the House a stand-alone repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell ban on gays and lesbians in the military. The bill is a "verbatim" copy of the one introduced in the Senate last week by Maine Republican Susan Collins and Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman after the the repeal effort crashed under a GOP filibuster. Repeal had been attached to the defense bill, and Republicans insisted that the tax legislation be wrapped up before any other business moves.

The stand-alone bill has the strong backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and majority leader Steny Hoyer and could easily pass that chamber (repeal passed last spring with a 40-vote margin). Hoyer said a vote is likely this week.

But stand-alone repeal remains a very long shot even if it passes the House. A handful of Republicans might support repeal in the Senate, but a lot of other business stands in the way, from the Bush/Obama tax cuts to a temporary budget bill to keep the government running, to the ratification of the START treaty.

It's up to Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to find a way to bring a stand-alone repeal to the floor. The sooner the tax legislation is wrapped up, the sooner moderate Republicans would be likely to assent to repeal of Don't Ask.

The Service Members Legal Defense Network, said the repeal bill has a special "privileged status" that allows Reid to call it up at any time and avoid the 30-hour window required to break a filibuster. But if Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., continues to block the bill -- and he will -- supporters still need 60 votes for passage. The Senate is scheduled to adjourn Friday but that could be postponed.

Final Senate passage of the tax bill is expected tomorrow morning -- with huge bipartisan support, including by both California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein -- but House Democrats are threatening to increase the estate tax. Senate Republicans are dead-set against that idea and any House changes could upset the apple cart in a big way.

The Senate would have to vote again -- and would probably not pass -- any House changes on the tax bill. The 83 votes that the tax bill got in the Senate on a procedural vote last night sent a strong signal to the House to pass it as is.

Posted By: Carolyn Lochhead (Email) | Dec 14 at 09:43 AM

Listed Under: LGBT | Permalink