In 2010 there will be an election to elect a new governor and Arnold will be Termed out. On the Democratic side there are loads of characters vying for the job. Gavin Newsome(San Francisco mayor)  and Jerry Brown (Ex-Governor from the 70’s) are raising money. The Republicans are rallying around their own cash cow, Steve Poizner, to give us that moderate Republican candidate who will appeal to moderate Republicans (if there are any left in the state) and independent voters who are repulsed by the California State GOP’s brand of conservatism.

The time has come to think outside the box. To that extent it is time to find a leader who will fit into the values of  Sacramento. Californians need to look to the land of Lincoln. That’s right, Illinois. Take a deep breath and visualize Governor Blago in Sacramento. By 2010, if he’s not in a federal penitentiary he will be looking for a job.

Say it again Governor Rod Blagojevichas, California Governor. Slips right off the tongue, doesn’t it! Even better he could run as a Republican. Who better to take up the GOP banner. Who better to cut a deals in Sacramento. A place where deals are sorely lacking.

We would have to mandate that Governor Blago tape record all budget negotiations to be broadcast over the internet so that, for once, Californians can get some entertainment value from their politicians. Anyone who watched Governor Blagojevich appoint Barrack Obama’s replacement understands his ability to create political drama and lead while the castle is burning. Compare that to the hapless action figure portrayed by Governor Arnold.

So I say give them hell while you are in Springfield Governor Blago. Then pack up the wife and come to California and run for Governor as a Republican!!

In reponse (I believe) to Speaker Karen Bass’s explanation that “legislative leaders have compromised,” Cheslog writes, “The Democrats have been compromising with themselves on the state budget crisis. The Democrats have agreed to horrible spending cuts and other measures that go against their interest groups…The myth of bipartisan intransigence may be a more interesting story for state pundits to tell, but this fiction does nothing to move the state towards a solution to this problem.”

Here is the Bloomberg report on the plan Governor “blow the box up” Schwarzenegger proposed on December 31.

Here is the transcript of Speaker Bass’s reactions to the Governor’s proposed budget plan

Will the last sane adult leaving California please remember to turn out the lights?

We’re not really sure Kelly’s campaign spam will end up in your mailbox or not, but being mentioned as having anything to do with “Internet Security” is akin to being appointed Fairy Dust Dispenser General. So this supposedly hot Internet background isn’t necessarily all that reassuring. This is especially true if your PR people yakking to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch can’t get your opponents’ names straight. Wait till Kelly gets in the ring with Hardworking Joe.

A week earlier on December 1, 2008, the City of Concord had the second and final reading of its controversial RV/Camper Shell/Motorcycle and ‘Park on the Left in your driveway’ ordinance; within was the hiring of a processing clerk of the ‘grandfathering in permit’ to allow people who have such equipment to continue parking in their own driveways (a right they had but was being taken away). The cost was $100,000 for the position and allocated was another $75,000 for temporaries. The plans called for an additional $175,000 for the subsequent 2 years of enforcement. Despite a public comment advising that this was ill timed, ill advised, and ill financed, the City Council passed the motion unanimously.

At the same meeting, the public comment opened with a renewed request that the City advise the people of the City plans and actions to meet what was apparent all through the nation, namely the current economic crisis, and what its impact would be on the City. The commentator was informed that the City had an excellent staff and was using 10 year planning, thank you. Further we would be well advised to let the exxperts handle our personal finances, and please go away. Additionally we were told that there would be another meeting in January and that, as usual, that would be the proper time to review such matters.

At that same meeting, the City Council unanimously agreed to a new contract for the Pavilion management with Live Nation, a corporation that had announced just a few weeks before that it had $100 million plus in QUARTERLY profits, yet as part of the agreement, the City not only cut their contribution to the rent of the Pavilion by $300,000, it also forgave PAST DUE amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars.

During this same December 1 meeting, the City approved $15,000 bonus and a $11,000+ raise to the City Attorney.

Two weeks later, we learned that in order to save $300,000 to $500,000, the City would mandate the closure of City offices and force employees to apply earned vacation/time off for this layoff period.

This peculiar sequence of events leaves one asking the question of “Is this a coherent City policy?” How are we to understand that the breaking of the commitment to the police and the financial grab at the City Staff was happening while at the same time as everything else?

Do we have a condition on our streets where we can reduce the number of committed Real Police and at the same time hire Aesthetic Police to process permits recording the rights lost?

This brings up the questions of our entire concept of 10 year planning and our faith in the financial steps that we are told to rely upon. Apparently, when actions were taken earlier this year to hire eight officers, the 10-year plan was all OK and Green Light for the next ten years. Then, somehow, months later, that light goes Red, and the same approach says it is OK now to take on a desk job and give a bonus to our friendly staff lawyer.

But wait…There’s more!

In the interim from the decision to fill new police positions to its very celebration of that decision on December 8th, the City Consent calendar has—shock and awe, or should I say shock and awful—a number of consulting awards for everything from telling us what pretty architecture pictures could look like on Monument Blvd., to consulting on Real Estate and Financial Advisory thereof to the Redevelopment Agency ((Free hint: it stinks)).

So we are led to believe that in order to save money we have to shut down the City offices and put hardships on our own employees, but we go along as usual with consultants? What are the odds that there is a clause in the consulting contracts that allows us to shut them down for a week or two and take a savings? I wonder what the odds on this are in Vegas?.

One of the hoped for basic rules in business is “we come first.” The reasons you have consultants is to be able to be free from them on a moment’s notice so as to protect the jobs of the people you have a social commitment to. That is what it originally meant when we used to say in business “my people.” The City needs to realign itself with its people. We need to:

1. eliminate every consultant deal except for extreme emergencies for the next year,

2. review every consultant we have for early termination,

3. review all the types of consulting that was done to see if their advice and action was of any value

4. under no circumstance should we be removing police while approving desk hires for aesthetic monitoring,

5. no position is added, or rewarded while others are losing their jobs to cost savings, a hard blow to some I understand, but we must stand together in tough times and not create further divisions within staff and the community.

6. we cannot afford to appear chaotic in our response to challenges nor should we remain silent while things are seriously changing and the public is seeing government as usual on display while behind things have already changed dramatically to make the public display appear uninformed.

The City Council and the City Manager need to get on the same page. We cannot praise an action on one hand and take it away a week later. The people have to have faith in the creditability of the financial side of the City to respond to things in a cohesive, transparent manner, and not to appear as if they suddenly woke up to a financial crisis that was at the heart of a national campaign for months before the middle of December.

The Chaos Theory is something that I like to envision in my science fiction reading, not live it in my hometown.

Edi Birsan/Easy Does It (sometimes), in Concord

Like an alcoholic who just had an intervention from his family, Republicans in Washington D.C. are trying to figure out what is next. They are sending out esteemed messengers to fan out into the hinterlands to find out how to bring back the winning formula, or that old time religion, or some new or updated Reagan message. Anything to get disillusioned Republicans to drink the fools brew again.

And so it is that on December 28, 2008 @ 7:00 PM at ”Rising Tide - Special Winter Event with Senator David Vitter” The GOP will be come to the Bay Area, hat in hand, to  discuss the future of the Republican Party.

This is the annual even that is usually held in the spring at the wonderful home of Mayor Chuck Marsala of Atherton. David Vitter is an interesting choice to travel out West to discuss the future of the GOP because he is part and parcel of what is wrong with the Republican Party. Vitter is the junior US. Senator from Louisiana. Formerly a member of the US. House of Representatives, first elected in 1999, representing Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, Vitter was first elected to the Senate in 2004.

If the Republican Party is really interersted in changing, why are they sending Vitter? No doubt he is an attractive and well spoken man. Yet he is also part of the problem with the D.C. GOP. Vitter was elected to the US House of Representatives and the US. Senate as a pro Family Values, School Prayer supporting, Pro Life, anti gay, gun-toting, anti-illegal Conservative. Sounds great. He probably loves Sarah Palin too. But lest we forget, during the 2004 Senate campaign, Vitter was accused by a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee of having had a lengthy affair with a prostitute in New Orleans. Vitter responded that the allegation was “absolutely and completely untrue” and that it was “just crass Louisiana politics.”

Really? This is the type of self righteousness that has made the Republican party great against the Godless Democrats!!

In early July 2007, Vitter’s phone number was included in a published list of phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, a company owned and run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, also known as the “D.C. Madam,” convicted by the U.S. government for running a prostitution service. Hustler Magazine identified the phone number and contacted Vitter’s office to ask about his connection to Palfrey. Vitter issued this statement:

This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible. Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there - with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.

 Ah yes…. God as the last refuge of a scoundrel!!

This event should really be called ebbing tide. Because Vitter is part and parcle of the the kind of politicians who will look at the grassroots of the GOP as boobs as they preach family values to the believers while they parade around Washington D.C. with prostitues on each arm, living the high life under the guise of representing conservative values.

I would have respected Vitter more if he had resigned at that point. I will never forget the press confrence he held with his wife at his side. The humilition was written on her face. I wonder if Vitter has any guilt over the exploitaton of the women he used. It is sickening.

So. Now he is coming to California to preach and tell us poor bedraggled Republicans who have no party representation in the Bay Area how the brilliant Republican minds in Washington D. C. are going to lead us out of this morass. Who is to visit us next? Larry Craig and Ted Stephens? I have a suggestion. We need to attend this event and send a message to Vitter. He needs to be told that he needs to go the way of Craig and Stephens as we remake the Republican Party into a party the American people can believe in again!!

If you want to send Vitter and the DC Republicans a message please go to this event you can register at:

www.eventbee.com/view/ risingtide/ event?eventid=54395 

Just copy and paste this into your browser.

According to the BBC, “Bratz designer Carter Bryant had been found guilty of developing the Bratz brand while still working for Mattel. MGA has challenged the ruling, which severely undermines its business model. A federal judge in California banned MGA from selling and making all 40 multi-ethnic dolls in the Bratz line. But it allowed the company to wait until after Christmas to begin removing dolls from the shelves.”