Today is the 223rd anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

Many headlines have been generated recently about proposals to change the Constitution. A lot of heat has been generated over the idea of changing the 14th amendment to alter birthright citizenship and even the futile notion to take voting power away from the people by changing the 17th amendment’s right to directly elect U.S. Senators.

What caught my eye was a proposal reported in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal’s opinion page that would create a "Repeal Amendment" in the constitution in which two-thirds of the states could vote to overturn an act of congress.

What’s a nice suburban dude doing writing Chicano-chicklit?

Something right, apparently, because Mike Padilla’s second book and first novel, The Girls From the Revolutionary Cantina (after the short story collection Hard Language) is finding fans among readers of the genre.  This from ChicklitClub.com: "I did not want to put this page-turner down, there is so much happening at once yet it all ties in brilliantly."

"Initially, when people started applying the ‘chicklit’ to my novel, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it," he says.  "I didn’t want to be pegged in a specific category."

By tossing in another $15-million to her gubernatorial campaign, Meg Whitman made headlines all over the country spending the most money by an individual candidate on one election. She topped New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg by $10-million and counting. Whitman is up to $119-million; Bloomberg spent nearly $109-million in his 2009 re-election race.

Jerry Brown’s campaign, not to mention the media, continue to make an issue of Whitman’s money. There is no question these are eye-popping amounts.

The hard dollar total is a record of one kind, but with political math there is always more than one way to count a dollar. Whitman spent more than Michael Bloomberg in total dollars, that’s a fact. But, she’s got a ways to go to cover what Bloomberg spent per registered voter. There are about 4 million registered voters in New York City. Bloomberg spent over $27.00 per voter when he laid out his $109 million. With Whitman’s $119 million she has spent about $8.50 per voter give or take, only a third of what Bloomberg spent per voter.

Steel yourselves: you’re about to hear a lot of Republican praise for, of all things, the Cuban government.

Yes, it’s the next insane and deceptive talking point on the horizon, in California and around the country.

In case you missed it, the Cuban government has decided to downsize, in what is being portrayed as the beginning of a move to a more market-oriented economy. Since an estimated 85 percent of Cuba’s 5.5 million workers are employed by the state, this would seem to be a good idea. The island’s official labor issue even issued a statement saying that "our state can’t keep maintaining…bloated payrolls."

Oh we’re having an election,  
November two’s the day
There are nine state propositions
Come vote and have your say.

Prop. 19’s the first measure, it asks voters if we oughta
Regulate, tax and legalize marijuana

Each ten years congressional district lines get redrawn
Prop 20 says that job should go to a citizen commission.

Ambassador
Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative, was in Los Angeles last week to
discuss the status and importance of the U.S. – Republic of Korea Trade
Promotion Agreement. Ambassador Kirk stressed the importance of this
Free Trade Agreement to achieving President Barack Obama’s goal of
doubling U.S. exports in five years.

President Obama has directed Ambassador Kirk and his negotiating team
to engage with South Korea to resolve outstanding issues by the next
G-20 meeting in November in Korea. Two of the key industry sectors
still being discussed are autos and beef.

Ambassador Kirk stressed that 95 percent of the customers for American
products and services live outside the United States. and that the
capacity for these customers to purchase U.S. products and services is
growing faster than consumer demand in the United States.

The budget is 77 days late. No one seems to care except those state vendors who are borrowing to stay afloat, state workers, those who keep tabs on records (we’re nearing one) or have a bet in the Sacramento Bee budget prediction game.

While waiting for the budget, other news is being made on California’s political front that deserve some comment.

Jerry Brown’s new ads continue his campaign strategy of calling Meg Whitman a liar. And, Whitman’s campaign attorney called the California Teachers Association a liar because of an anti-Whitman ad and told television stations to take it down. Where’s George Washington when you need him? Come to think of it, the legendary story that declared that George Washington could not tell a lie … was a lie.

Why
would anybody want to be governor of California? With huge budget
deficits, a dysfunctional system of governance, and a grumpy
electorate, can any governor actually accomplish very much?

Five experts on California politics will gather Monday, Sept. 20 on the
Cal campus in Berkeley to talk about what the next governor should do
— no matter who ends up taking the oath of office.

The panelists include writer Mark Paul, author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It; Debra Saunders, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle; Yvonne
Walker, president of SEIU Local 1000, California’s largest state
employees union; and Bill Whalen of the Hoover Institution. Ted
Lempert, former member of the Assembly and current president of
Children Now, will moderate.

As the
campaign season heats up, candidates are crisscrossing the state
talking about the need to create jobs and fix our education system.
Results from a new statewide poll of Latino voters, a critical mass of
business support and an abundance of research all point to how we can
both strengthen our economy and take a critical first step in K-12
reform: by providing our children with high-quality preschool.

As candidates increase their efforts to woo Latinos – who account for 1
in 5 registered voters in California – they should consider the results
of a new, bipartisan poll of 895 Latino voters. The statewide poll
found that education is a top priority for Latino voters as a pathway
to opportunity, but that they give California poor marks when it comes
to providing those educational opportunities.

The poll, conducted by The Tarrance Group and Hart Research Associates,
showed that Latino voters see preschool as a critical piece of the
state’s educational mission and believe it provides important benefits
to children. Nearly 7 in 10 Latino voters said they are more likely to
support candidates who back preschool. And about three quarters said
candidates who support preschool and early learning are focused on the
right priorities, and will lead California to a better future.