Maldonado and the Murphy Memo
Two seemingly unconnected political items from last week should be considered together.
The first is the political debate over the nomination of Abel Maldonado for lieutenant governor. The second is the release of political strategist Mike Murphy’s July 2008 memo for the Poizner campaign.
What do these two unimportant events have in common? They say something important about the problematic structure of California’s executive branch of government.
The job for which Maldonado has been nominated means almost nothing to the daily lives of Californians. But his nomination sparked debate among insiders because they see it as a political plum – and a potential launching pad for higher offices. Lieutenant governors typically use the title and the few duties of the position to improve their fundraising and profiles for future runs.
Lights, Camera, Action, Leave
Big names in the movie business are stepping up to support Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial bid, Carla Marinucci noted in her San Francisco Chronicle blog yesterday. So what is Jerry Brown saying about saving the movie industry for California?
Here’s hoping the Steven Spielbergs and Rob Reiners of the world put in a good word along with their donations for keeping the movie industry in the state where it blossomed. And, here’s also hoping that the big time movie execs realize that moving movie productions out of California add to the state’s unemployment and fiscal woes.
Not many people would mistake Santa Barbara for New York. However, the movie, “It’s Complicated,” starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin debuting Christmas Day is a story set in Santa Barbara but filmed mostly in New York City. The producers swept into Santa Barbara for only three days of shooting exterior scenes. They spent months filming in New York.
The Dubai Debacle
Well, isn’t this embarrassing. Imagine if you owed $59 Billion, went to get your checkbook and found that you couldn’t even come close to making payments. What to do. . . what to do? Ask for a six-month moratorium from your creditors, of course!
Dubai is the most populous state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the one of the seven emirates (states), the others being: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al Quwain (but, you knew that). A map of the UAE looks like a raggedly slice of pie with all but Abu Dhabi, crowded into one corner. The whole of the UAE is located on the Southwest of the Arabian Peninsula, on the Persian Gulf, next-door to Oman on one side, and Saudi Arabia on the other.
Prior to 1971 the UAE was known as either Trucial Oman or the Trucial States, a reference to a truce made in the 19th Century between several Arab Sheikhs and the United Kingdom; still earlier, the area was called the Pirate Coast. Periods of British, Ottoman and Portuguese rule preceded. Dubai was called Al Wasl by British historians in the 1820’s.