Author: Jennifer Kerns

Didn’t the opponents of California’s Proposition 23 promise there would be a Green jobs revolution if they got their way?

Just one day after environmental advocates achieved victory in protecting their $140-billion Energy Tax at the ballot box, one of California’s prominent solar companies announced plans to close its solar panel factory and lay off workers in California. According to Todd Woody at the New York Times, that’s not all. The Silicon Valley solar company also declared they will cancel plans for further expansion to a second, new facility in California.

Wait, weren’t we supposed to become the perfect market for Green jobs?

As Democrats swept all Statewide seats last night (with the exception of one still being counted as of publication time), Republicans were left stunned wondering what went wrong. While the experts’ final analysis will no doubt emerge in the coming days, I think it can be boiled down to one simple sentiment: Voters went with the devil they know.

How else can you explain why voters elected to Governor a career politician who has been in politics for 40 years? How else can you explain that voters heard repeatedly in the final days leading up to Election that the former Governor “lights out” Gray Davis was heading up a Jerry Brown transition team – yet they still cast a vote for Jerry Brown?

It’s the devil they know.

You cannot underestimate a human being’s fear of the unknown. It’s why people stay in jobs they hate. It’s why the abused woman stays with her abuser. Fear of the unknown.

Depending upon which poll you read, the races for statewide offices and ballot initiatives are in statistical dead heats today. Which means it’s anyone’s game.

Speaking of games, the Giants clenched the World Series last night. Sure, seems natural now that they’ve done it. But let’s rewind a few days, even weeks.

When the Giants went to the playoffs against the Atlanta Braves a few weeks ago, experts said they wouldn’t make it. They said the Braves were a well-organized, establishment team that would be hard to beat. But we did it anyway.

When the Giants proceeded to the semi-finals against the Phillies, sports pundits said the Phillies had the spunk and the talent to whoop the Giants. Even Giants fans took pause, saying we could never beat the Phillies at home. We beat them anyway.

You may not know it with all the activity in California leading up to Election Day, but a storm has been brewing across the pond.

Weeks of protests have led to overturned cars and fires burning on the outskirts of Paris. Nearly half of France’s gas stations are bone dry – stranding motorists and bringing commerce to a standstill. According to the Associated Press, protestors have blocked hundreds of ships at the crucial Mediterranean port of Marseille, cutting off access to the nation’s main oil terminal. And they have shut down train service and access to major highways – virtually holding the nation hostage. Even the fearless Lady Gaga has cancelled multiple shows there, fearing for her safety and the safe passage of trucks carrying her stage and lighting equipment. (Listen, you know it’s serious if Gaga is afraid.) Nevertheless, the incidents are a serious matter, and they are becoming increasingly violent by the day as they move into the neighborhoods of Paris. These radical protesters make the Tea Parties look like Mothers’ Day Out.

Over the weekend, I attended the annual Western CPAC gathering of California’s conservatives, and had the privilege to hear national independent pollster Scott Rasmussen speak about the upcoming 2010 Elections.

With just two weeks to go until an historic Election Day, his comments were more interesting than ever.

The San Francisco Chronicle has uncovered a scathing error at the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The newspaper has just published that the California Air Resources Board has “grossly miscalculated pollution levels” that were being used to further crack down on the state’s air standards.

The California Air Resources Board didn’t miss the mark slightly. They miscalculated California’s air pollution levels by a stunning 340 percent. That’s 340%.

The Chronicle reports that the stark errors in the Air Resources Board’s research “raise questions about the performance of the agency as it is in the midst of implementing the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 – or AB 32 as it is commonly called.”

This error comes after the Air Resources Board vastly overinflated the number of diesel-related deaths in 2009, suggesting that 18,000 Californians had died prematurely when the number was actually a fraction of that.

If we can’t trust the state’s most powerful environmental board to calculate basic statistics correctly, what can we trust them to do?

The Candidate as Your New BFF?  Don’t LOL, it could happen.

The New York Times reported this week that the text craze
has arrived on the gilded doorstep of the prestigious world of the symphony.  
Both the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic have introduced
new audience texting participation programs, through which audience members can
now text their favorite song to be played during the encore.

Which got me wondering:  if it’s good enough for the
Philharmonic, isn’t it good enough to engage more folks in the democratic
process?

As the world of baseball mourned the death and celebrated
the life of legendary New York Yankees owner and manager George Steinbrenner
last week, I couldn’t help but think of the strong connection that exists
between sports and politics.

Especially in Steinbrenner’s case.

Some baseball fans may not know that George Steinbrenner was
a lifelong Republican. He contributed generously to the campaigns of Rudy
Giuliani, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush over his
lifetime.

On Wednesday, the SEIU converged on the lawn of the State
Capitol for a massive protest in their trademark purple shirts — screaming,
shouting and chanting about a State budget mess that they, in large part, have
gotten us into.

You can bet your bottom dollar (it is your dollar, after
all) that this is only a preview of what is to come during the Fall campaign’s
crazy season.  After all, it is a terribly kept secret around town that
every Union is lying in wait to attack Gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman and
any number of the other Republicans and fiscal conservatives on the November
ballot.

Therefore, as we enter the battlefield for the General
Election I think it’s worth pausing to ask the question:  "What
is the current State of the Union(s)?"