The End for Bass? Villines?
Three weeks to the special election, and defeat looks likely for Props 1A-1E. The governor and legislators who cut the budget deal that includes the measures have talked in the broadest, scariest terms about what happens if the measures fail – the state could go bankrupt! Or off a cliff! Or it goes bankrupt as it goes off the cliff! (Does the long fall erase the debt?).
But the first casualties of defeat likely would be political, not economic. It’s hard for me to see the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Assembly surviving such a defeat. Both Karen Bass and Mike Villines have put their prestige and credibility on the line in making the deal, and defending it. In doing so, they’ve taken a big political risk, and for a good reason. Without a deal, the state’s cash crunch would have hurt not only the government but also the economy.
At Convention, Democrats Target Two-Thirds Vote … They Say for the Budget, They Mean Taxes
Here’s an irony from this weekend’s state Democratic convention. Many of the delegates and public employee union members demand that democratic proceedings, including voting on budgets and taxes, require a simple majority vote to pass. However, they are celebrating that the Proposition 1A budget reform endorsement at the party’s convention was rejected because it failed to achieve sixty percent vote required by party rules.
Fifty-eight percent of the delegates voted for the endorsement but that was not enough. Now party faithful who claimed victory over the vote are prepared to campaign against the two-thirds vote for the budget and taxes.
There was no mincing words at the Democratic convention this weekend on the two-thirds vote rule. New state Democratic Party Chairman John Burton said he would lead the charge to get rid of the two-thirds vote to pass the budget. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said the two-thirds vote had to go. This crusade has been top of the list for other leading Democrats as well for some time. Their wish was well received by the party faithful in attendance. Here’s how Calbuzz put it: “Big cheer when Johnny B. (Burton) vows to get rid of 2/3 vote to pass the budget.”
Pandemic or Just Another Media Panic?
We didn’t need this right now. In a year that already feels like the Biblical Plagues, what with a couple of wars, an economic meltdown, terrorism, piracy, threats of nuclear proliferation to bad actors, and a whole host of other things to worry about, now we have news of the evolution of a wholly new flu strain in Mexico City, that has already popped up in California, Texas, New York and, likely, in other places. And this story only broke at the end of last week! What’s next? Frogs falling from the skies, perhaps?
We are treated to endless footage and photos of Mexico City’s frightened residents, walking through that city of 20 million, donned in surgical masks, which Sanjay Gupta, fresh from withdrawing his name from consideration for the next US Surgeon General, says won’t do a damn thing to prevent the very tiny microbes from getting into one’s respiratory system. The World Health Organization met Saturday in Geneva and stopped just short of raising the Pandemic Threat level, but made worrisome statements that sounded like they are holding their breath.