July 1st has come and gone and California still does not have a budget. This is all too reminiscent of last year’s painful three-month long negotiation process, and it seems almost certain that we are in for another grueling budget resolution season.

While our legislators are grappling with issues of deficit reduction and increasing revenue, "California Budget Challenge" helps Californians understand the state’s economic woes. The California Budget Challenge is an easy-to-use nonpartisan online tool that simulates some of the tough choices our legislators face ranging from education spending to corporate taxation.

With each choice, users are given the option to learn more about the issues and to see how their decisions are closing or widening the state’s deficit with a "budget meter."

Mike Murphy’s film development company picked up a cool million from Meg Whitman before he signed on to advise her political campaign. Talk about stopping run-away production. News articles suggest that the investment stopped Murphy from running away to Whitman’s opponent in the primary.

I happen to know Murphy is serious about making a go in the movie business. He talked about it with Arnold-the-actor right before he was sworn in as Arnold-the- governor back in 2003 and soon after Murphy declared he was staying in California, taking a break from politics and setting up shop in Hollywood. Murphy is not the first person to come back to his roots while trying a new venture.

Speaking of investments, I see Roger Salazar, spokesman for the union sponsored independent expenditure in support of Jerry Brown, responded to the new Whitman ad, which pointed out Jerry Brown is the public employee unions’ candidate by saying that the IE’s messages must be resonating with voters.

Cross posted on Hoguenews.com

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has stated that she
believes the ‘bullet to the brain train’ is too costly for California’s
fiscal crisis, and that it has no evidence of adequate ‘ROI’
for California’s tax payers’ investment.

She’s right and she has respected bi-patisan backing.

University of California, Berkeley, researchers issued an analysis
contending the state High-Speed Rail Authority’s ridership projections
suffer from statistical modeling flaws, and may not reflect real
ridership numbers.

I
guess it’s too much to ask the business-as-usual dirty energy companies
to play fair. They see the writing on the wall as states like
California take meaningful steps towards clean alternatives to burning
fossil fuels. Now it’s clear their response will be to wage a cynical
and deceptive battle that maintains the profits they earn from their
dirty ways.

The latest is Proposition 23, a California ballot measure sponsored by
two Texas oil companies (Valero and Tesoro) that aims to kill popular
climate and clean air legislation known as AB32.

The proposition is a cynical effort to fool voters in the 2010 fall
elections by appealing to concerns about difficult economic times.
Proponents falsely claim that AB32 will cost the state jobs and money.

On Off The Presses last week, we caught up with Dick Castner of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce who explained how the pending "Disclose"
Act will put  business interests at competitive disadvantages when
supporting candidates.

Still
awaiting action by the U.S.
Senate, the bill would sets new rules for American corporations and
interest
groups, including a prohibition of corporations and other interest
groups in
coordinating spending with candidates or political parties. Plus, CEOs
would
have to appear in any ads paid for by their corporations (which, of
course,could help launch the political careers of more corporate
executives).

We also spoke with CSU Channel Islands political science
professors Sean Kelly
and Scott Frisch,
who have co-authored a new book about Congressional pork spending,
"Cheese Factories on the Moon: Why Earmarks are Good for American
Democracy," which will be published this summer by Paradigm Publishers.

The Field Poll released yesterday showed weaknesses for both major candidates for governor. Voters are not pleased with Meg Whitman’s voting record and Jerry Brown’s age. Being a wealthy candidate is a negative (Whitman), as is being a candidate backed by labor unions (Brown).

Mixed messages from the voters to the candidates appeared in the poll. The voters seemed to like someone who has experience dealing with the legislature (Brown), on the other hand business experience is good, too (Whitman.)

Californians also said they back the new national health care law and the Arizona immigration law … two issues that may work together for the voters but don’t line up with either major political party.

While putting together the program for a free, public international conference on initiative and referendum (it’s called the 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy and you can register here:), I’ve been hearing dozens of accounts of the strange ballot initiative qualification season that has just been concluded.

The season was puzzling. Why did it seem to cost just as much as always to gather signatures – even in the midst of a crippling recession that should have made it easy to find people to circulate initiative petitions cheaply? And why did the signatures come so slowly-causing delays that saw a half-dozen initiative sponsors turn in signatures far too close to the deadline for comfort?

The answer I’ve received from a half-a-dozen players in the signature game?

Last week marked a
meaningful step towards improved heath care access for hundreds of
thousands of medically underserved Californians. SB 726 (Ashburn),
which would allow public hospitals in rural and medically underserved
communities hire a limited number of doctors passed on the Assembly
Floor by a nearly two-to-one majority.

This is especially satisfying because the California Medical
Association (CMA), a tour de force when it comes to political
influence, has become a formidable foe to the growing number of
Californians on Medi-Cal.  

CMA quantifies the number of the States
doctors willing to treat Medi-Cal to be 30% – that’s 30% of 128,000, or
38,400, for 6.5 million, soon to be an estimated 9.0 million as a
result of Health Care Reform.  While one can respect a private practice
doctors right to choose who he or she will treat; it is hard to
understand why CMA would be against legislation that would support
doctors willing to practice in communities where Medi-Cal and uninsured
are the majority of a community’s population.

Originally appeared on Politico.com

President
Obama is neither "pro-business" nor "anti-business". He is "pro-Obama"
and he will do anything to sell and protect his brand.

In a nation of narcissists he is unchallenged for the number one spot even if the brand is losing some of its luster.

Obama’s problem is that he has absolutely no knowledge of how business
works particularly small business, which is the backbone of the
economy.