This week, I was going to post one reason per day to not vote republican. But, there's just too much. So today I'm posting 1000 reasons (www.thousandreasons.org) to vote against Bush (actually, it's up to 1508 now on this catalog of the failures of the Bush administration).
 
posted by Chris at 8:04 AM
(4) comments

  Here's my pre-review of the Republican National Convention:

Once again, they managed to find a few black republicans, and they're on camera every 10 seconds. The whole thing is really really really scripted to make republicans look like reasonable people. Here are a few things that won't happen:

Senator Trent Lott going up on stage and getting nostalgic about segregation again.
Senator Rick Santorum equating homosexuality with beastialty again
G.W. Bush promising a more Jesus-lovin' land if he's made dictator
John Ashcroft equating dissent with terrorism
Ann Coulter explaining her new new crusade plan
Jerry Falwell calling Mohammed a terrorist

Don't be fooled by the convention. I've barely scratched the surface of the insane beliefs held by the people who are calling the shots in the republican party.
 
posted by Chris at 11:18 PM
(0) comments

  If you hate the Legislature, the concept of a Part-Time Legislature probably makes you nigh on orgasmic. The problem is, if the Legislature isn't running the show, who is? I'll give you one hint.

Frankly, even a lot of reform-minded progressives may be tempted to jump on the Part-Time Legislature bandwagon, but you have to ask yourselves, is this really good for the state, or is it just punnishment politics?

I've started a little "blogette" to track the issue. It is in its infancy, but over time I'll be tracking postive vs. negative editorials, and I'll have campaign contacts listed, should the need arise. There will also be an RSS feed, but I'm tired right now. 
posted by John at 9:51 PM
(2) comments

  Check out the Current Electoral Vote Predictor at http://www.electoral-vote.com/ ... Veeeery interestink! 
posted by Margaret at 10:34 PM
(0) comments

  An excellent editorial by The Boss himself, Mr. Bruce Springsteen. (NY Times, requires registration, or you can try a password from bugmenot.com.)
 
posted by John at 11:26 AM
(0) comments

  Chris, Margaret, and I went to a BBQ last Sunday for Gabe Castillo for Congress. Gabe, should he win, will represent the fine people of Sacramento's eastern and southern suburbs, as well as parts of Amador, Alpine, Calaveras, and Solano counties (3rd congressional district). He faces a steep uphill battle against Dan Lundgren, a known and very conservative quantity.

If you're like me, you live in a district that is a lock for progressive thinkers. I don't have to worry about my Congressman, my Assemblymember, or my State Senator. They'll be good progressives. This means that, if I want to get involved in some campaigns, I'll have to do a little activist carpetbagging and work for the likes of Castillo. I encourage everyone living in a locked-up district to go find a candidate who is trying to win a traditionally non-progressive seat and help him or her.

Two other important items of note happened in the last week. First, Governor Schwarzenegger signed his first budget, and it looked just like a Gray Davis Budget. Download a summary here.

Furthermore, Schwarzenegger has taken the first step in his quest to "blow up the boxes" of state government. His California Performance Review is complete. My first impressions are that it has all of the usual good ideas (use more eGov solutions, centralize purchasing, etc.) but it also has plenty of dubious ideas involving consolidation, contracting out, program elimination, and so on. It's 2500 pages of easy reading, but I highly recommend at least reading the summary. The Gov will be taking this plan on the road and will need to hear from people.
 
posted by John at 6:46 PM
(0) comments