I don’t know why this image was the first to come to mind when I saw the headline that Barack Obama would declare himself the Democratic Nominee on May 20th. Perhaps he wants the image of the people of Kentucky as an enthusiastic pope and voters in Oregon to play the role of his mother?
Or maybe it came to mind because, well, I will be flying back from Paris that day and will be somewhere over the bluegrass state when he makes the announcement.
In related news, Howard Dean has scheduled a press conference for October 17th to declare the outcome of the Electoral College vote.
After a few years of trying out post-partisan governing, the wedge issue is making its way back into California politics, this time in the form of an anti-crime initiative.
Last week, supporters of the measure sponsored by state Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, submitted signatures to the California secretary of state’s office to get it on the fall ballot. It needs a little more than 433,000 valid signatures to qualify.
The measure would smack ex-cons who carry loaded or concealed guns in public with new, 10-year terms. It would expand the “10-20-life” law to accomplices as well as actual shooters in crimes where guns are brandished, fired or injure people when shot.
It also would enhance assorted penalties for street gang members convicted of crime, make it easier for local prosecutors to obtain civil anti-gang injunctions and evict public housing residents involved in gangs or drugs…
State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, told a Capitol press conference Wednesday the initiative is intended to scare the public.
“This initiative is not about safe neighborhoods,” Romero said. “This is about saying ‘boo’ to the people of California.”
Because, you know, untraconservatives aren’t going to go to the polls anyways to vote against gay marriage, this measure is really necessary!
Earlier this year, the thought of visiting Dubai had crossed my mind as a new destination on my short list of places to visit which I hadn’t yet. In researching a possible family Christmas in Dubai after I convinced mother it was my turn to choose the destination, I found that it required stopovers in either Frankfurt or Zurich, which would not deter me, but might be an issue for the family.
Well yesterday, United announced new service between Washington Dulles and Dubai…in addition to a new route to Moscow. Interesting choices, as I had heard Madrid was next on the short list to get service, but Dubai makes sense and Moscow has been alluded to in billboards which have included the St. Sophia Basilica for a number of years. Mileage runners can now connect through Moscow to Dubai on Singapore to rack up some extra miles, if they’re feeling ambitious!
I have to join the chorus of frequent United fliers asking where the airline plans on getting the planes to make it happen. Already all of their three-cabin planes are being used to fly international routes, so it means there will be a cut-back somewhere in the system. The most likely candidate, I would think would be some of the London Heathrow flights, which have been hurt by competition, low margins and high taxes in the last two years, and where, under open skies, a landing slot could be quite valuable to another airline. Other than that, recent additions with low loads such as Rome and Zurich or Los Angeles to Hong Kong may be on the chopping block. We’ll see.
With a less than impressive outcome in yesterday’s primaries, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is once again on death watch. Tim Russert of the Not Backing Clinton network is declaring Barack Obama to be the nominee of the Democratic Party–despite the fact that his momentum over the past two months has been of the down-hill kind.
Over the course of this campaign both Obama and Clinton have defied conventional wisdom–which if you were Barack Obama, I would watch out–she’s got mutnemom!
One of the key reforms sought by Governor Schwarzenegger in his efforts to change how Sacramento works looks like it will get a vote come November.
The plan, backed by a coalition that includes California Common Cause, AARP and the League of Women Voters as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, would create a 14-member commission to draw lines for state Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization districts.
The commission would be drawn from people who apply to the state auditor, an appointed official who would narrow the list to 60 candidates. Each of the four legislative leaders, two Democrats and two Republicans, could bounce as many as six names from the list.
Eight commissioners would then be drawn at random from the remaining pool, and those eight would select six more members to fill out the panel.
The bottom line is that just about any system would be better than what we’ve got, and if we want a system in place for the 2011 reapportionment, this may be the last, best hope to fix the system.
By drawing more competitive and representative districts, the legislative extremism we get from having safe seats will hopefully be tempered as both parties must consider who can win a general election, not just a closed primary.
Metro held its first public meeting last night on the narrowed options for a Westside subway extension. The sentiment at the meeting at the LA County Museum of Contemporary Art - West was quite different from those in West Hollywood–with more of a focus on how to get a line built–without asking people to dream about what it could be like if we built a Subway that, you know, served people.
The good news is that both a dual-line and a Wilshire line subway system would be competitive on a cost-per-passenger-hour-saved metric in seeking out federal funds. This is just based on trip estimates from population and employment density–and perhaps existing bus trip data–which ignores the potential new transit ridership which would come if the subway went places people wanted to go. Because of this, things like “the beach” don’t look too impressive in the Metro ridership projections, but I would surmise that a subway to sea terminus would be one of the most frequented stops in the system–at least on warm days.
From seventeen options, they are now down to five–a classic Wilshire route, a mall-hoppers route, a classic dual line, and a mall-hopper dual line. I would favor the latter if they could add the diversion to San Vicente, too, in order to serve Boystown and allow Metro employees to take the Subway to work! The fifth option–dedicated busways along Santa Monica Boulevard and Wilshire–won’t go far. They’re going to have to pry two lanes of the Boulevard out of this Transportation Commissioner’s cold, dead hands–and I am pretty sure I am not the only one who feels that way.
I had to do cell phone pictures of the mapsand upload via Facebook because Metro doesn’t have its collaterals online–yet–and when they do put them up, it is usually a PDF. Once it is up on their Westside Study site, you have to check out the renderings of a Monorail, and any advocate of the technology will understand what that idea is a non-starter.
Plans to send a subway rumbling below Westside streets to link the traffic-choked region to Eastside rail lines have been narrowed to four possible routes estimated to cost up to $6.5 billion.And even with no available funding source, Metro is forging ahead and preparing what it hopes will eventually be an attractive package to federal officials who have not offered any financial support for a subway beyond repealing a 1985 ban last year on federal money for construction under Wilshire Boulevard.
“There is a long way to go before the subway extension can become a reality,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a Metro board member. “But building support for, and selecting, a preferred route is the prerequisite to the next difficult step - finding a way to pay its $450 million-per-mile cost.”
So $6.5 billion is alot of money, but it is less than the $8 billion number I had heard tossed around–and as part of a larger transportation package, there is no reason not to support a dual-line that would serve both Wilshire and West Hollywood.
With another grim year expected in 2009-10, the budget woes pose a major question for the mayor: Even if he reaches his goal of 1,000 new officers, can that rapid buildup — his No. 1 priority — be sustained?
As they review the mayor’s budget, some council members aren’t sure. Villaraigosa will have few options for big increases in fees next year. And Councilman Greig Smith, a Republican who is a reserve police officer, warned that the mayor is trying to hire too many officers too quickly — a strategy that threatens to create a bigger budget mess by 2011, the year that all the new officers will be on the job.
“We’re digging ourselves a hole,” said Smith, who sits on the council’s Budget and Finance Committee. “And the question is, is the hole so deep that we can’t dig ourselves out?”
The question for the Council should be what else in the budget is worth sacrificing public safety? If they asked that, they’d be hard-pressed to find an answer.
The decision not to guarantee the nation’s best cross-section rivalry a national broadcast audience says alot about the State of the Notre Dame football program. Even when USC had gone thirteen years without a victory against the Irish, the game was still THE game of the week when it was played, and was treated as such.
Now, you may have to tune into the Duece to see Notre Dame lose an eighth strait.
Mark Sanchez, get ready for your close-up! At least 6 USC games in 2008 will be broadcast on ABC or ESPN.
USC’s September 13th home opener against Ohio State will be the nationally-televised game of the week, as will Oregon at USC on October 4, Cal at USC on November 4 and Notre Dame at USC on November 29, all broadcast at 5 PM. USC’s September 25th game at Oregon State will be the Thursday game of the week on ESPN and their season ender at UCLA will be broadcast nationally on ABC.
USC’s games against Arizona State, at Arizona, at Washington and at Stanford are all possible additions to the ABC schedule for regional broadcasts.
USC’s home opener at Virginia, curiously, is not on the ABC/ESPN schedule, and ABC will not be broadcasting any Pac Ten games the week of October 18th, when the Trojans travel to Washington State. Read the rest of this entry »
In two weeks, I will be flying to meet my brother, his wife and my three nephews in Paris. When I made reservations, I chose a circuitous route so that I would have a chance to ride on United Airlines’ newly-configured international airplanes.
So yes, I will be going Los Angeles-Washington Dulles-Frankfurt-Paris then Paris-Zuerich-Washington Dulles-Los Angeles. I even bought up to the “H-fare” so I could upgrade with miles, at a cost of a couple hundred dollars over the alternative.
First off, United’s roll-out of the newly-configured planes has been waaaay slow. The original plane was supposed to come out in October but was delayed until November. The next 767 was delayed until March and the first 747–N182UA–only entered service a week ago.
Schwarzenegger’s staff is exploring a range of options, including sales taxes on lawyer and accountant services, on high-end services such as golf lessons and personal-trainer sessions, and on takeout coffee and other prepared foods that are not taxed now.
The administration’s goal, participants in the discussions say, is to gather support for new taxes from a broad spectrum of the business lobby, giving the Legislature’s Republicans political cover to break their pledges never to vote for them.
Several lobbyists and state officials involved in the meetings agreed to talk about them on condition of anonymity, for fear of antagonizing the administration. They say talks have heated up as the governor prepares his revised budget plan for release May 14.
Personally, although I am a beneficiary of it most every day, the distinction between take out coffee and coffee consumed on premises is one of the most arbitrary on the books. In fact, I should be sending $0.36 to Sacramento in use tax this morning because I drank my coffee and ate my pain au chocolat on site at Starbucks whilst reading the morning paper. But because I got it in a to-go cup and a paper bag, I was not taxed. Were the tax code set up to benefit the environment, this would be the other way around!
While Schwarzenegger and other GOPers have pledged “no new taxes” there is one tax I bet the Republican Party could get behind–a sales tax on elective medical procedures. Of course Democrats would call it an “abortion tax” and may find it to be the first tax increase they could not support… But it would be interesting to watch that debate!
So often, Log Cabin Republicans like my self are criticized for considering other political issues other than our sexual orientation when making decisions.
Well this week, the Stonewall Democrats in Los Angeles have officially fallen into that category.
After Lloyd Levine–not Bob Blumenfeld–stacked the room with new members in order to get an endorsement, the club voted on the 40th Assembly District race, where pro-business Democrat Laurette Healey is challenging Levine’s former chief of staff and Blumenfeld, a congressional staffer.
Healey’s election is one of the featured races for the Victory Fund this year because if she does not win, the Legislature will lose its LGBT Caucus for lack of members–Sheila Kuehl is termed out and either Mark Leno or Carol Migden will lose as they are running against each other.
Naturally, Stonewall would endorse the same candidate as the Victory Fund and Equality California, right? Nope.
They made no endorsement. Apparently Laurette Healey, a lesbian, was too moderate for them.
So now, Stonewall can hold no higher authority than Log Cabin when it comes to speaking on gay issues. They’re just a bunch of Democrats who happen to like ass-f*cking, while Log Cabiners are just a bunch of gays who love their tax cuts!
The tubes that tie together the California Republican internets are getting clogged like the back turn at Pimlico with chatter about the California Log Cabin endorsements.
Yesterday, ultra-conservative activist Mike Spence almost had the coronary we all know will take him from us someday, when he saw the list of LCR endorsements, hinting that there was some kind of gay conspiracy against candidates that both Spence and Log Cabin supported.
I was not part of the endorsement process, but was prithee to some of the discussions from PAC Board members, and honestly, I don’t think Log Cabin had a litmus test. Certainly we were going to support our members, even if they did not ask for our endorsement, as happened in one case. Log Cabin was certainly going to back folks like Abel Maldonado who have been moderates on social issues and allies of the Governor. Likewise, some candidates were supported for helping out on the platform committee battle earlier this year, or Cameron Smythe for standing up for inclusiveness at the LA County GOP meeting last year, and others, like Audra Strickland simply for not voting against gay rights when given the opportunity. Yet others were supported because of their promotion of what we believe to be Republican values, based on the simple principle of Liberty for All.
There was a time when Republicans bemoaned bias against them in the media. After the whining got tired, they opted to send their ratings dollars to a news outlet considered less biased against their point-of-view, Fox News.
Like it or not, the media seems to have it out for a new target: Hillary Clinton.
Ever since my reporter friend told me that he has a bias for the truth and “Obama is the Truth,” I have referred to his employer as the “Not Backing Clinton” network.
Now, it seems that the Associated Press has joined in the outright anti-Hillary flackage. If you can read this story–which may be entirely accurate–and think that it is not biased, then you truly are wearing Obama-coloured glasses.
But Clinton supporters don’t have to wait for someone to create a “Clinton News Network”–that has been around for awhile already!
The BoiFromTroy is a 6'1", 165 lb., 32 year-old, gay male,
Republican, sports fan living in West Hollywood, California who has
been writing on Politics, The Gays and USC Football since 2003. He is
also a contributor to Spot-On.com and covers Pac
Ten Football for FanHouse
boifromtroy