Politics, anyone? - politicsanyone's Blog - Bakersfield.com

Are automaker execs sending wrong message?

For their trip to Washington to plead for taxpayer money to save an industry they themselves may have been partly responsible for crippling, you would think the chief executives of the Big Three automakers would be munching on humble pie in coach class of a United Airlines flight.

"Instead, the chief executives of the Big Three automakers opted to fly their company jets to the capital for their hearings this week before the Senate and House -- an ill-timed display of corporate excess for a trio of executives begging for an additional $25 billion from the public trough this week."

The Washington Post's Dana Millbank has the juicy details.

Fun video: Speaker reacts to Nicole Parra news

You gotta watch this video, courtesy of the Sacramento Bee, of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass reacting to news that Nicole Parra wants a job in the Obama administration.

The video you want is the third one down on the left of the page.

Bass is the one who kicked Parra, our 30th District assemblywoman out of her capitol office for failing to vote for a budget.

— Government team leader Christine Bedell

Raises denied

County supervisors said Tuesday now's not the time to give hefty raises to Sheriff Donny Youngblood (22 percent) and District Attorney Ed Jagels (11 percent).

Sure, the county pay structure has some equity problems for the two men but that structure needs some study and the county's really hurting these days, the board said.

You can read more here.

So what do you think — did the supervisors do the right thing?

Stay tuned for the Prop. 8 rerun

Apparantly we get to do Prop. 8 all over again — in two years!

Below is the story from the AP. What say you — Hooray or ugh?

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gay rights groups in California plan to ask voters to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage they approved last week if legal challenges to Proposition 8 are unsuccessful.

In an e-mail to supporters, Equality California executive director Geoffrey Kors said Wednesday that he and other gay marriage advocates are aiming for a ballot initiative to reverse the ban in two years.

Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that overruled the California Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage, passed 52 percent to 48 percent.

Couples who missed the chance to wed and others have filed petitions asking the court to throw out the measure on the grounds that voters did not have authority to enact such a sweeping constitutional change

Kern's lawmakers not among those signing anti-Prop. 8 brief

It doesn't look like any of Kern County's state lawmakers were among the 44 California legislators who signed a friend of the court brief arguing Proposition 8 can't and shouldn't ban same-sex marriage here.

We got a copy of the brief and it lists the lawmakers signing on. We're posting it here.

It argues the ballot measure that passed Nov.4 "eviscerates" the courts' ability to uphold equal-protection rights and precludes the legislature from exercising its constitutional responsibilities.

The brief also says an initiative can't approve such a "radical revision" to the state constitution.

Proposition 8 backers say the measure should stand as it represented the will of the people.

County-level maps of the presidential election

This site has some great map work on the presidential election.

There's the standard county-level map that shows how much land mass John McCain won. It's easy to spot a few places that jump out, such as the dots in the red mass of Texas that represent Harris, Dallas, Travis and Bexar counties — the cities of Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.

Then he has a cartogram, which squishes and bloats counties to make their size dependent on their population, not their land mass. Suddenly New York City's five counties stand out, as does Orange County, a red area surrounded by blue.

And then he has a map and cartogram showing the counties not as red or blue, but as shades on a scale of purple. This provides some really interesting spots, especially the really blue or really red areas (like the two blue dots in southern South Dakota, which are reservations, and the archipelago of very red dots from the Texas panhandle up into western Nebraska). Even more interesting is the blue curve from southeastern Virginia all over to Mississippi, which cuts south of Atlanta.

— James Geluso, cartophile

50 facts about Obama

Here are 50 facts you might not know about President-elect Barack Obama.

From Britain's Daily Telegraph.

Interesting: He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.

List here.

Governor suggests huge tax hikes, program cuts

The governor is proposing some $4-plus billion tax increases and about that much in program cuts to grapple with the state's massive deficit.

Here's a partial list from the L.A. Times: 1 1/2 percent sales tax increase, extending the sales tax to appliance and furniture repair, vehicle repair, golf fees, veterinarian services, amusement parks and sporting events. He proposed a 9.9% tax on the extraction of oil from California ground, the expansion of sales tax to some services, and a 5-cent-per-drink tax on alcohol. His plan also includes a $12 increase in annual vehicle registration fees.

The governor also wants cuts of $2.5 billion from schools and community colleges to require state workers to take a mandatory day off without pay each month and eliminate two of their state holidays.

City and county officials are bracing for pain and warning against tax hikes because of the troubled economy. State Sen. Roy Ashburn's saying the same.

What do you think of the proposal and what do you suppose the state should do?

Prop. 8 passes — what's next in Kern?

Proposition 8 passed, banning same-sex marriage, AP has declared.

What does that mean for existing married same-sex couples in Kern and the issuing of marriage licenses to unmarried gay partners?

County Counsel Bernie Barmann said his office anticipates many questions “surrounding the 17,000 marriages that took place between June 17 and Nov. 4.”

He doesn’t know what will happen to marriage licenses same-sex couples received.

State initiatives and constitutional amendments take effect the day after the election, said Steve Sanders, deputy county counsel.

A message left for Ann Barnett, the county’s Auditor-Controller-Clerk, hasn’t yet been returned.

No on 8 supporter Whitney Weddell said she felt on edge but hopeful Wednesday morning.

“Technically, we’re not conceding yet,” she said. “Three million ballots out there is a lot. We’re hopeful out of those 3 million that there will be 400,000 going our way.”

Gilmore-Florez projections

There are 20,000 ballots each in Tulare and Fresno Counties — of which 2,000 are probably in the 30th District — and another 40,500 in Kern, of which 5,700 are probably in the 30th District. Kings County, entirely in the district, is done counting except for 1,000 provisional ballots.

Projecting results out, it looks like Republican Danny Gilmore will win by about 1,200 votes, a 51-49 margin.

I just spoke to Gilmore's campaign manager, Julie Griffiths, who said the same. The trends just are not as strong as Florez needs them to be. "“They’d have to win about 75 percent of this vote and it’s not going to happen," Griffiths said.

— James Geluso