Billionaires Against You

Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, sat down with Laurence O'Donnell of MSNBC to talk about how billionaires like the Koch brothers are working hard to avoid environmental responsibility and to crush working Americans who are union members:

O’DONNELL: And why would the Kochs care about a little union question in a state like Wisconsin?

SACHS: Well what they’re doing, they have business in Wisconsin. They have polluting industries all over this country. They have bought up all the Congress on the Energy Committees in the House and the Senate on the Republican side to make sure we never do anything about the coal industry, about oil, about our dependence on imported oil, on climate.

They have bought everything they can in politics. They’re making sure they never have to pay a tax, they never have to do any environmental control.
. . .

O’DONNELL: Now in a lot of the discussion that I’ve listened to over the last year about public education in this country, there seems to be a rather relentless, conscious and sometimes subconscious attack on teachers’ unions. Teachers are the problems. The scores aren’t going up because of the teachers. It seems like they’ve isolated the teachers as the reason why the schools are the way they are. It seems to me that we’ve got some kind of political spillover from that dialog into the anti-union talk that we hear now.

SACHS: Well that dialog itself is a gimmick. It’s trying to find a cheap way to take a social crisis that we have in this country and find someone to blame. You have poor kids that can’t make it right now and so blame the teachers, not blame the poverty, not blame the neighborhoods, not blame the inability of mothers to provide a decent day care for their children, that their children get decent preschool.

So this is part of the same story actually which is we’re crushing the middle class in the country and then the rich who want to pay no taxes are doing everything they can to blame the poor and it’s out of control. It’s spiraling out of control.

Check out the whole video.

Wisconsin Anonymous

Anonymous, the shadowy group of internet hackers who of late have been targeting Iranian, Tunisian and Irish Fine Gael official computer systems, have announced that they are now going after the Koch brothers, the financial power behind the Tea Party and the union-busting Republican government in Wisconsin:

Dear Citizens of the United States of America,

It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch--the billionaire owners of Koch Industries--have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back.

Koch Industries, and oligarchs like them, have most recently started to manipulate the political agenda in Wisconsin. Governor Walker's union-busting budget plan contains a clause that went nearly un-noticed. This clause would allow the sale of publicly owned utility plants in Wisconsin to private parties (specifically, Koch Industries) at any price, no matter how low, without a public bidding process. The Koch's have helped to fuel the unrest in Wisconsin and the drive behind the bill to eliminate the collective bargaining power of unions in a bid to gain a monopoly over the state's power supplies.

The Koch brothers have made a science of fabricating 'grassroots' organizations and advertising campaigns to support them in an attempt to sway voters based on their falsehoods. Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and Citizens United are just a few of these organizations. In a world where corporate money has become the lifeblood of political influence, the labor unions are one of the few ways citizens have to fight against corporate greed. Anonymous cannot ignore the plight of the citizen-workers of Wisconsin, or the opportunity to fight for the people in America's broken political system. For these reasons, we feel that the Koch brothers threaten the United States democratic system and, by extension, all freedom-loving individuals everywhere. As such, we have no choice but to spread the word of the Koch brothers' political manipulation, their single-minded intent and the insidious truth of their actions in Wisconsin, for all to witness.

Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people, whose rights and liberties are being systematically removed one by one, even when their own government refuses to listen or worse - is complicit in these attacks. We are actively seeking vulnerabilities, but in the mean time we are calling for all supporters of true Democracy, and Freedom of The People, to boycott all Koch Industries' paper products. We welcome unions across the globe to join us in this boycott to show that you will not allow big business to dictate your freedom.

(Emphasis in the original press release.) Anonymous helpfully provides a list of U.S. paper products made by Koch Industries (through Georgia Pacific) that you can boycott to help reduce their influence:

• Vanity Fair
• Quilted Northern
• Angel Soft
• Sparkle
• Brawny
• Mardi Gras
• Dixie

Feel free not to buy any of these paper products - there are plenty of competitors, and there's no reason to give the Koch brothers any more of your hard-earned money. They're just going to use it to screw you over.

It's not clear from the release whether Anonymous would be going after Koch Industries computers, or the computer systems of their front-man think tanks, but I would think the latter would be more effective. Hacking into computer systems controlling their finances would be another approach. In any event, it will be interesting--and amusing--to see how much they can disrupt the Koch's influence over U.S. politics.

Winograd To Run For CA36

Progressive Democrat Marcy Winograd has announced she's running for the open California 36th Congressional District seat left open by Jane Harman's resignation February 8, 2011.

Although the election date has not yet been set, it will presumably take place before the California Redistricting Commission completes redistricting by August 15, 2011. As such, the 36th, as it is now, is up for grabs.

Winograd, as a Democrat, would most likely be favored to win against a Republican challenger, although voter registration totals point to a safe Democratic district (voter registrations in Marina del Rey, West Carson, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach Lennox, and Lomita significantly favor Democrats, while registrations in El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, and Torrance only narrowly favor Republicans). Winograd did better in the northern part of the District, around Venice Beach, during the Democratic primary last summer, than did Harman, who did better in the southern part of the District:

Interestingly, Republican Dana Rohrbacher's 46th Congressional District abuts the more conservative southern end of the 36th District:

If the Redistricting Commission gets its way (and it almost certainly will), one possible redistricting would fold the western end of Rohrbacher's District, including Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates and Palos Verdes Estates, into the southern end of the 36th, and the more heavily-Democratic Venice Beach and Lennox areas would be removed from the 36th, creating a distinctly more conservative district. (See govtrack.us for a more detailed, and expandable, view of the 46th.) If this is how the 36th is ultimately redistricted, Winograd would not fare as well in a 2012 general election as in the 36th as currently drawn. While we favor a Winograd run, there's a reason Harman was, however annoyingly, a Blue Dog Democrat.

Fresh Organic Links

Time for another in-no-particular-order roundup of things organic for the previous week or so:

• The Organic School Project, founded in 2005:

reconnects school children to their food source through organic gardening, wellness education and healthy eating. We have encouraged healthy lifestyles for over 3,500 kids and thousands of families since our founding in 2005 and are continuing to improve the ways in which children interact with, think about and consume food.

They can help schools develop healthy food implementation strategies for cafeterias:

I wish my grade and high schools had had something like this! We had soggy canned vegetables and pizza slices. Interested in helping Organic School Project out with a donation or volunteering your time? You can contact them at info@organicschoolproject.com, or check out their "Get Involved" webpage. (Hat tip to Organic Guide for letting me know about this organization via Twitter.)

• Apparently, Forage Genetics International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Land o' Lakes (the butter people) helped Monsanto produce its Roundup-Ready genetically-modified alfalfa. If this kind of thing irritates you, and it should, simply stop buying Land o' Lakes products, and let your grocer know why. Not buying something doesn't cost you a cent!
• The State of Oregon has a reimbursement program for farmers' costs associated with becoming organically certified, which can, unfortunately, be substantial. A number of Southern California organic-method growers have told me that, while their food is organically-grown, it's not certified because the certification process is on the costly side. It would be nice if California could afford a similar program!
• Professor Don Huber of Perdue University warns of a "new organism" pathogen infecting primarily Roundup-treated crops:

Huber has written to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warning that a newly discovered and widespread “electron microscopic pathogen appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings.” He said the pathogen appears to be connected to use of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup.

In his letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Huber said the organism has been found in high concentrations of Roundup Ready soybean meal and corn, which are used in livestock feed. He said laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the organism in pigs, cattle and other livestock that have experienced spontaneous abortions and infertility.

It's not clear what's going on yet, as (apparently) no data has been published or peer-reviewed, and the nature of the "new organism" is still speculative and, at this point, hearsay. We'll keep a watch out for further developments, however.

• Organic Consumers' Association has a short opinion piece on the link between Cairo and Wisconsin:

None of the world-shaking protests of recent weeks - in Tunisia and Egypt, in Libya, Bahrain, Iran, in Wisconsin and around the U.S. - ostensibly have anything to do with the wars on this planet, except the ones that governments, including those in various state capitals, are waging against select segments of their own populations. What makes the current protests different from the protests that briefly flickered around the globe eight years ago is that they aren't really protests anymore. They're acts of self-defense. And that's the link between Cairo and Madison.

• Forbes magazine helpfully argues that any law requiring GMO foods to be labeled as GMO foods, so as to warn customers of ingredients they might not want to ingest, would violate the producers' First Amendment rights:

On the constitutional side, mandatory labeling arguably treads on food processors’ First Amendment right to not speak. Mr. Bittman’s Opinionator column makes the ironic point, “They [GE foods] are arguably different, but more importantly, people are leery of them.” This is ironic because in the constitutional context, it is more important that the enhanced product is different.

Courts have evaluated government’s authority to impose labeling on products under the jurisprudence of commercial speech. A key part of this jurisprudence is to determine what is the state’s interest in restricting or requiring certain speech. In the 1996 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruling IDFA v. Amestoy, the court held that a Vermont law requiring milk producers to affix a label if the milk came from herds given bovine growth hormone (rBST) violated the First Amendment. The court explained that Vermont’s stated interests in adopting the law – strong consumer interest and the public’s right to know – were not substantial enough to justify “the functional equivalent of a warning about a production method that has no discernible impact on a final product.” Had Vermont advanced a public health or safety purpose for the labeling law, the court would likely have held it to be substantial. But the state could make no such case, as FDA had definitively concluded that rBST “has no appreciable effect on the consumption of milk.”

The situation in Amestoy parallels the GE food labeling matter. If FDA or the Agriculture Department had determined that genetically enhanced foods were different, then such a finding would provide the substantial interest government needs to compel a “warning.” But that is not the case, and the fact that people may be “leery” of GE foods would be, under the reasoning of Amestoy, an insufficient justification for mandatory GE labels.

In keeping with the organic nature of this post: what a load of manure. The Second Circuit issued a deeply stupid decision in Amestoy, given that corporations, as legal fictions and creatures of the several states that allow their creation, have no God-given rights "endowed by our creator," and never should have been granted the same rights, such as First Amendment rights, as actual people.

Amestoy, and decisions like it, as well as Forbes, clearly favor fictitious corporations over consumers--real people. But that appears to be the trend these days--the power of corporations is on the rise, much as Communism and Nazism was in the 1930's, and the power of individuals to decide their own fate is being similarly diminished.

Your only power, as a consumer, is to be more aggressive about your choices, and to find out where your food comes from. And insisting on organic is one way to do it.

The Big Con In Wisconsin

So what's really going on in Wisconsin? It's a con job, a massive bait-and-switch designed to favor major campaign contributors at the same time it cripples Democrats. And average Wisconsans are the patsies and victims.

Amongst all of the wangling about the Republican-sponsored bill that would eliminate public employees' unions right to collective bargaining is a little-remarked section of the bill that transfers control of all of Wisconsin's power generation plants to--whoever the Governor wants to transfer it to. Like Koch Industries, one of newly-minted Governor Scott Walker's biggest campaign contributors.

The bill allows Walker, through the Wisconsin Department of Administration, to:

sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or [ ] contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state.

Read the italicized text again. Walker gets to order the Wisconsin Department of Administration to issue a no-bid contract with Koch Industries for the running of all of Wisconsin's power generating plants, at whatever price they decide is OK, with no input from the public whatsoever.

Koch, predictably, denies trying to make any money from the deal, saying:

We have no interest in purchasing any of the state owned power plants in Wisconsin and any allegations to the contrary are completely false.

This is lying by denying - of course they have no interest in buying the plants. All they have to do is get Walker to have them operate the plants, for a hefty price. And that hefty price will come right out of Wisconsin's ratepayers' pockets.

It will be a brand new, Republican-imposed tax on Wisconsans.

Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin, and a job-killer, to boot:

Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines in Wisconsin. While Koch controls much of the infrastructure in the state, they have laid off workers to boost profits. At a time when Koch Industries owners David and Charles Koch awarded themselves an extra $11 billion of income from the company, Koch slashed jobs at their Green Bay plant:

Officials at Georgia-Pacific said the company is laying off 158 workers at its Day Street plant because out-of-date equipment at the facility is being replaced with newer, more-efficient equipment. The company said much of the new, papermaking equipment will be automated. [...] Malach tells FOX 11 that the layoffs are not because of a drop in demand. In fact, Malach said demand is high for the bath tissue and napkins manufactured at the plant.

And at the same time, a Wisconsin bill is set to help kill--or at least seriously delay--development of wind-based power generation in the state, which in itself would have helped generate thousands of new jobs, not just power.

So the Republican-sponsored bill (1) hurts public employee unions, who support Democrats; (2) empower Walker to give a no-bid exclusive contract to his biggest campaign contributor with no public oversight; and (3) helps a Wisconsin industrial conglomerate that has already helped kill Wisconsin jobs. This already sounds like corruption of the highest order.

But there's more in this bill--a lot more. In particular, the busting of Medicare in the state of Wisconsin:

The bill also employs “emergency” powers that would allow the governor’s appointed health secretary to redefine the foundations of the state’s Medicaid program, Badgercare, ranging from eligibility to premiums, with only passive legislative review. The attorney in the legislature’s nonpartisan reference bureau who prepared the bill warned that a court could invalidate the statute for violating separation of powers doctrine.

The legislation, the lawyer wrote in a “drafter’s note” about the bill, would allow the state Department of Health Services to “change any Medical Assistance law, for any reason, at any time, and potentially without notice or public hearing... in addition to eliminating notice and publication requirements, [the changes] would leave the emergency rules in effect without any requirement to make permanent rules and without any time limit.”

It will be another Repulbican-imposed tax on Wisconsans. And again, like the power generation giveaway to Koch Industries, the public would have no say in the process.

All of this has been referred to as "The Big Con". And Wisconsans, particularly the ones who voted for Walker and the Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate, are the patsies.

Dave's Redistricting - A Bust?

For the last week, I've been trying to get a web-based program, Dave's Redistricting 2.1, to work for California. I was interested to try my hand at redistricting at least the southern part of our state, where many jurisdictions appear to be gerrymandered.

Well, so far it's been a bust - I can't get the program to show any new congressional districts, or even get district-level population counts right. The implementation is very clunky as compared to other web-based programs, and it is desperately slow. I'm running an iMac with 4G RAM, plenty of disk space, and OS 10.6.6. Yes, I've read the manual.

Upshot: Bust. I can't afford to spend any more time trying to get it to function properly. If anyone has suggestions, please leave them in the comments.

Busted!

Scott Walker, frontman for Charles and David Koch in the great State of Wisconsin, talks to a fake David Koch. Very revealing. Mother Jones has more.

Representatives Or Dictators?

In Wisconsin, Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly have been filibustering for hours in a last-ditch effort to halt passage of the bill that would strip Wisconsin public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights:

Democrats kept the Wisconsin Assembly up overnight with a droning filibuster in another desperate attempt to block the Republican governor's bold plan to strip public sector workers of nearly all of their bargaining rights.

. . .

The Assembly debate began around noon Tuesday, with lawmakers coming to the floor under heavy guard as protesters in the rotunda cheered and banged on buckets and bongo drums. Democrats introduced dozens of amendments and gave drawn-out, rambling speeches criticizing the bill. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said around 8 a.m. Wednesday — after 20 hours of debate — that he was working with Democratic leaders to take a vote on passing the bill by the end of the day.

. . .

"Can you hear that?" Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, screamed into her microphone. "Can you hear the cheers? Can you hear the chants? Can you hear the voices of the people who elected you? How can you not hear that?"

. . .

Dressed in orange T-shirts proclaiming they were fighting for working families, Democrats introduced 66 amendments, with more than half coming after midnight, and promised more were on the way.

Democrats offered to adjourn shortly before 3 a.m., Republicans — who easily have enough votes to pass the bill once they have disposed of the Democrats' amendments — refused and began the long grind of voting each change down one by one.

"We understand. You don't like the bill. We get it," Rep. Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, said. "(But) at the end of the day the vote has got to come, folks."

So Wisconsin Republicans are doggedly lurching forward with this zombie legislation, singlemindedly fixed on stripping public employees of their rights. It doesn't matter that crushing the unions won't solve the "budget crisis" (which is fake, in any case) nor does it matter that the public is against them.

It's highly ironic to see such defiance in the face of opposition and public outcry in our own backyard, when another strongman-led government is in emergency defiance mode:

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has insisted he will fight to the 'last drop of blood' in a defiant speech that follows days of bloodshed on the streets of his country.

. . .

He claimed his own home had been bombed by 'superpowers' and said 'rats' had been paid to disfigure the reputation of Libya.

He said: 'I am not going to leave this land' and added he would not 'give up' like other leaders, in an apparent reference to the deposed Tunisian and Egyptian presidents.

OK, Wisconsin Republicans might not exactly be Muammar Gaddafi (they haven't yet turned guns on the protesters), but it's striking to see how Wisconsin Republicans' defiance mirrors that of a cheap dictator's.

Wisconsin Republicans have to decide if they're representatives of the people, or simply cheap dictators themselves.

California State Parks You Should Know - Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

Nestled between La Jolla to the south, San Diego to the east, Del Mar to the north, and the blue Pacific Ocean to the west is Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, one of the most popular California state parks in Southern California. The Reserve encompasses a marshland and bird habitat, several miles of some of the best beaches around, and sandstone bluffs with two main stands of Torrey Pines:

Follow me below for a photographic tour of part of the Reserve, the Beach trail from the beach to the top of the south bluff, and the Guy Fleming Trail on top of the bluff.

The hike begins south along the beach from the parking area just inside the Reserve boundary along Highway 101 (in the boxed area in the map below).

It's a cool $10 to park inside the Reserve, but I figure it's a worth donation to help fund park maintenance and education, particularly since Governor Brown is contemplating an additional $22 million in State Parks cutbacks to help reduce California's $25-$28 billion dollar budget shortfall. You can, however, park outside the Park along the beach and walk in for free.

The beach at medium tide is flat and wide and bounded by 200-400 foot heavily-weathered sandstone cliffs to the east.

On a sunny day, the combination of sand, water and clouds makes for the perfect juncture of earth and sky.

The beach is covered with small sand-and-water polished stones:

The walk along the beach continues for about 3/4 of a mile.

Finally, you get to a set of metal stairs that takes you up the Beach trail:

After climbing the stairs, you reach a plateau about 40 feet above the beach that gives you an initial nice view of the surf:

The trail takes you ever upward along the bluff, past weathered cliffs and thick stands of coastal sage scrub and chaparral:

Getting to the top, you reach a small "forest" of Torrey pines:

It's one of the few stands of Torrey pines left in existence (thus the "Reserve" designation for the park). A short paved road takes you down the other side of the bluff to the Guy Fleming trailhead. Along the short loop, you can see from the bluff across the marsh to Del Mar:

The Reserve is technically a desert, though being so close to the ocean, so occasionally you find stands of prickly pear cactus:

After breaking through a thick weathered stand of pines, huddled together against the wind:

you reach one of the best viewpoints of the entire park, facing north - a very worthy goal for the entire hike:

So come down to San Diego and visit Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve to enjoy the beauty and serenity, and get a workout at the same time. And feel free to contribute that $10 parking fee to help the park out.

All photos taken with an iPhone. Natural color photos taken with TrueHDR application. All other photos taken with Hipstamatic using a Jimmy S lens and loaded with Claunch 72 film (B+W) or Kodot film (color). All photos copyright 2011.

Egyptians' Message for Wisconsin Union Workers

Kamal Abbas, General Coordinator of the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services in Egypt sends the following message for the public employee union members of Wisconsin:

I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, "Liberation Square," which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place where many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights. From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us.

I want you to know that no power can challenge the will of the people when they believe in their rights. When they raise their voices loud and clear and struggle against exploitation.

No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people. When the working class of Egypt joined the revolution on 9 and 10 February, the dictatorship was doomed and the victory of the people became inevitable.

We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don't waiver. Don't give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights. We and all the people of the world stand on your side and give you our full support.

As our just struggle for freedom, democracy and justice succeeded, your struggle will succeed. Victory belongs to you when you stand firm and remain steadfast in demanding your just rights.

We support you. we support the struggle of the peoples of Libya, Bahrain and Algeria, who are fighting for their just rights and falling martyrs in the face of the autocratic regimes. The peoples are determined to succeed no matter the sacrifices and they will be victorious.

Today is the day of the American workers. We salute you American workers! You will be victorious. Victory belongs to all the people of the world, who are fighting against exploitation, and for their just rights.

(Video posted at www.MichaelMoore.com.)

Study Exposes Link Between Pesticides and ADHD

ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is running rampant among the nation's children, with 15% or more of children in some states having been diagnosed with the condition at some point in their lives:

(Percent of Youth 4-17 ever diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: National Survey of Children's Health, 2007 -Source: Center for Disease Control.)

And the incidence of ADHD only continues to rise:

Researchers calculate about 5.4 million kids have been diagnosed with ADHD, which suggests that about 1 million more children have the disorder than a few years earlier.

So what accounts for this spike in the number of ADHD cases? A new 12-year study from the University of California at Berkeley and the Center for the Health Assessment of mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) has exposed pesticides', and particularly organophosphates', role in causing ADHD. Around 40 organophosphate pesticides are registered with the EPA for use in the United States. The study followed 300 Salinas, California families of farmworkers, and specifically the health of children of mothers exposed to pesticides while pregnant.

Researchers found that prenatal exposure to certain types of organophosphate pesticides is significantly linked to attention problems in children, visible by the time they turn 5, with the effects apparently stronger among boys. The findings, published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal last August, were the first to examine the influence of prenatal organophosphate exposure on the later development of attention problems.

Among their findings was a discovery that prenatal pesticide metabolites - compounds found in the human body that indicate an over-exposure to harmful chemicals - are linked to increased odds of 5-year old children scoring high on tests for attention disorders.

So how do pregnant women and children become exposed?

Growers are not mandated to provide protective gear to farm workers, and the lack of protective measures means that workers end up carrying pesticide residues back home in their clothes, shoes, and cars. Farm supervisors commonly report that workers are often times exposed when applicators fail to notify them before spraying pesticides in adjacent fields.

And, farm laborers in the fields aren’t the only ones affected.

Communities on the edge of fields are exposed to pesticides through drift or vapor contained in the air, dispersed by strong winds as fields are sprayed. In many cases, protective measures around schools consist of a thin wire mesh separating playgrounds from lettuce fields.

The study found at least one genetic, and age-related, predisposition to the effects of organophosphate pesticides (Scroll down to "Mechanism Studies"):

[T]he human enzyme paraoxonase (PON1) detoxifies various organophosphate pesticides with different efficiency depending on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at various position on the PON1 gene. We analyzed blood samples from mothers and children participating in the CHAMACOS cohort to determine their PON1 genotype and activity.

We found that PON1 activity is very low in newborns, suggesting that they are more susceptible to adverse effects of pesticides than adults.

PON1 activity was particularly low in newborns with vulnerable PON1 genotype.

Based on their PON1 status, some newborns may be 26 to 50 times more susceptible to exposure to certain organophosphate pesticides than other newborns. The most susceptible newborns may be 65 to 130 times more sensitive to organophosphate pesticides than the least susceptible some adults.

This is, however, not the first study to link organophosphates with ADHD. A 2010 study of 1139 children by Bouchard et al., working from the Harvard School of Public Health, the university of Montreal Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and Brigham and Women's Hospital found that children with higher level of organophosphate metabolites in their urine were more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. The study authors there sttes explicitly that the findings should be "generalizable to the US population" because the study population was nationally representative.

The upshot? Eat, and have your kids eat, organically-grown vegetables as much as you can. For now, standard, pesticide-aided vegetables should come with the standard pharmaceuticals warning: "Do not use this product if you are pregnant, or are thinking about becoming pregnant..."

The Perfect Cosmopolitan

Because it's not all work around here:

In a shaker, add the following over ice:

- 1 part Skyy vodka

- 1 part cranberry juice cocktail (I like Ocean Spray, but Kirkland works as well, as does diet)

- 1/4 part Cointreau

Cover, shake vigorously 2-3 seconds, strain into a chilled martini glass. Serve immediately.

Adieu.

Scott Walker = Diet Koch

When I set up this little blog, I did it through Google's Blogger. I'd used the platform before, and liked it. And the platform they have now is even better; it makes putting together a very functional, information-rich website very easy. So, as a way of saying "thank you" for making the platform available for free, I put several of Google's AdSense ads on the site in the right column. While I don't expect to make any money myself (I do this blog just because I like doing it), I figured if anyone is moved to click on the links to earn Google some bucks, so much the better.

BUT - The ads are context-sensitive. And I wrote a piece this morning criticizing Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin as being a union-busting thug. So the ad that pops up, of course admonishes us to "Stand With Walker"!

Please don't click on this effing ad.

It will take you to a website run by "Americans For Prosperity". Remember, any time you see an organization with a flag-waving, rosy-cheeked, apple-pie-and-baseball name like that, it's going to be run by Republicans. Specifically, Republicans who are trying to take your freedoms away. In this case, your right to collective bargaining (whether you're working for a government or for a private corporation).

So who are the thugs running Americans For Prosperity? David and Charles Koch, the Koch Brothers. The Koch Brothers, multi-billionaires who essentially own the Republican Party, basically own Scott Walker, as well.

According to Wisconsin campaign finance filings, Walker's gubernatorial campaign received $43,000 from the Koch Industries PAC during the 2010 election. That donation was his campaign's second-highest, behind $43,125 in contributions from housing and realtor groups in Wisconsin. The Koch's PAC also helped Walker via a familiar and much-used politicial maneuver designed to allow donors to skirt campaign finance limits. The PAC gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which in turn spent $65,000 on independent expenditures to support Walker. The RGA also spent a whopping $3.4 million on TV ads and mailers attacking Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker ended up beating Barrett by 5 points. The Koch money, no doubt, helped greatly.

. . .

Walker's plan to eviscerate collective bargaining rights for public employees is right out of the Koch brothers' playbook. Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. Several of these groups have urged the eradication of these unions. The Kochs also invited Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union outfit, to a June 2010 confab in Aspen, Colorado; Mix said in a recent interview that he supports Governor Walker's collective-bargaining bill. In Wisconsin, this conservative, anti-union view is being placed into action by lawmakers in sync with the deep-pocketed donors who helped them obtain power.

Think about that. It used to be that corporate managers would hire union-busting thugs to mix it up in the streets with organizers. Now, corporate empire chieftains hire Governors and members of a state legislature as union-busting thugs - they just use laws instead of lead pipes these days.

This isn't the first time the Koch Brothers have twisted and interfered in Wisconsin politics to suit themselves. Voter caging and voter suppression efforts in Wisconsin leading up to the 2010 election were organized and funded by the Koch Brothers:

Last week, we [People for the American Way] wrote about a voter suppression plan concocted by GOP and Tea Party-affiliated groups in Wisconsin meant to keep young and minority voters from the polls this November.

Think Progress dug further into the issue, and traced much of the plan—both the sinking of a proposed Wisconsin law that would have prevented voter caging efforts like this, and the coordinated caging effort itself—back to the network of the billionaire Koch brothers, who have provided the money behind much of the Tea Party movement. (The Kochs are also the main funder of Americans For Prosperity, one of the groups cited in the voter caging plan.)

And it's only just begun with the Koch Brothers - they plan on singlehandedly dumping $88 million into the 20102 campaign to get what they want. It's not hard to imagine how dirty that campaign is going to get, with Koch money funding race-baiting TeaBaggers and multi-state voter suppression campaigns.

In short, the Koch Brothers are profoundly anti-democratic, anti-democracy, and, based on their actions, profoundly anti-American.

Some idiots (*cough* Larry Kudlow *cough*) call the protesters "anti-democracy" for protesting, instead of lying down and accepting the emasculation of their unions (and, by extension, themselves) simply because Republicans happened to win the last election. By that yardstick, the tea Party was profoundly anti-democratic from its inception until the 2010 elections, because Democrats, and Barack Obama, had won so handily in 2008.

But people standing up for their rights against the powerful, and their stooges in the Wisconsin legislature and governor's office, is profoundly democratic. It is the essence of a people gathering to express its will.

So don't click on that ad on the right side of my blog. Google won't miss the two cents that click will earn them, and we'll all sleep better at night.

The Wisconsin Strongman Speaks

OK, so here's a brief recap of what's been going on in the lovely state of Wisconsin:

• Newly-minted Republican Governor/strongman Scott Walker signed a couple of tax bills that created a budget gap of at least $117 million. (I know, Californians, $117 million isn't that much,but in Wisconsin it counts as a state of emergency.)
• Walker unveils a budget that goes after Wisconsin state employees' unions:

But AFT-Wisconsin President Bryan Kennedy said Walker's move is part of a nationwide effort to kill labor unions.

"It is a power grab, a coordinated effort to kill the union here," said Kennedy, whose organization represents 17,000 state employees. "This is essentially the governor saying, 'Sit down, shut up and do what you are told.'" Walker said Friday his proposals were necessary to help the state overcome the $137 million hole in the current budget . . .

The governor wants to remove those rights for most of the 175,000 state and local employees in Wisconsin, allowing workers to negotiate only over salary. . . . By ending state employees' ability to negotiate for their pensions and insurance rates, the governor will be able to increase employee pension contributions to 5.8 percent of salary and more than double their health insurance contributions.

You'll recall from above that this was a current budget shortfall Walker himself helped create. As a retired nurse from Wisconsin writes, the budget mandates:

No collective bargaining over insurance (so employees can be given high deductible junk insurance with no say in the matter), benefits, pensions, holidays or personal days, vacation, working conditions, adequate staffing, class size, worker safety issues, mandatory overtime, shift selection, requests for days off, etc.

If that wasn't bad enough, union dues would no longer be collected through payroll deduction so the unions would have to collect the dues themselves member by member. On top of that, unions would need to recertify every year . This is the same process that is used when employees band together to form a union in the first place; a process already so onerous and difficult (therefore, profitable to the many union-busting firms across this country) that new unions and locals are rarely formed.

Think that's bad? The real hidden horror is that Scott Walker didn't stop with state employees, but extended the impact of the bill to all city, town, village, and county employee in the State of Wisconsin. That's the real reason that thousands of public employees are in Madison. It's why non-public employee unions are supporting us. It's why students, patients, and citizens in general have joined us.

• In response to Walker's obvious union-busting, tens of thousands of WI teachers and other state employees staged walkouts and other protests.
• Others soon supported the WI state employee protests with walkouts of their own, including 3,000 University of Wisconsin students, 100 Stoughton High School (Madison, WI) students, and others. The protesters are also supported by current and former members of the Green Bay Packers, and Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki.
• Wisconsin Democrats in the State Legislature, outnumbered by Republicans loyal to Walker and unable to stop the budget any other way, staged a walkout of their own, preventing quorum for a vote on the budget. (Some have criticized the Democrats for not staying and representing their constituents. This is a foolish way to look at the situation. If you can prevent a trainwreck by leaving the state, you leave the state. The Democrats are representing their constituents the best it is possible for them to do so under the circumstances.)
• Public worker protests have spread from Wisconsin to Ohio, in support of the Wisconsin protesters, and because newly-elected Republicans in that fine state are set to bust their state's state employee unions.
• And what is Walker's response? He and the WI GOP "wont be bullied" and that the protests "have made the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate stronger."

That's the language of a thug, not someone who is interested in serving his constituents (and the 175,000 affected state employees are his constituents). It's the language of a strongman tightening his grip on power, not that of an elected official.

Make no mistake about it. Republicans have always hated unions because unions give workers power against the corporations Republicans work for, and tend to keep the state government honest, at least about how it deals with public employees. Republicans also have the mindset that certain people lead (they always believe it's them), and everyone else has to shut up, fall in line, and do what they're told.

And they are certainly not above manufacturing a crisis to get you there.

South Dakota Legislators Encourage Murder

South Dakota Republican-backed House Bill 1171, just out of Committee and set for vote in GOP-led South Dakota House of Representatives soon, redefines justifiable homicide:

Section 1. That § 22-16-34 be amended to read as follows:

Section 1:

22-16-34. Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person while resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to harm the unborn child of such person in a manner and to a degree likely to result in the death of the unborn child, or to commit any felony upon him or her, or upon or in any dwelling house in which such person is.

Section 2. That § 22-16-35 be amended to read as follows:

22-16-35. Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person, if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished.

The italicized text indicates how the previous text has been amended.

While the law, as amended, encompasses homicide in the defense of a woman who wants to keep her unborn child, it also encompasses, and excuses, murder of an abortion doctor about to perform his services. It's a hunting license for abortion doctors, and the sponsors of the Bill know it:

The South Dakota legislature has twice tried to ban abortion outright, but voters rejected the ban at the polls in 2006 and 2008, by a 12-point margin both times. Conservative lawmakers have since been looking to limit access any other way possible. "They seem to be taking an end run around that," says state Sen. Angie Buhl, a Democrat. "They recognize that people don't want a ban, so they are trying to seek a de facto ban by making it essentially impossible to access abortion services."

They also know there is precedent for the murder of abortion doctors; the murders of George Tiller, Bernard Slepian, and other abortion providers were by those against a woman's right to choose her own fate.

This is Republicanism in action: if you don't like what the voters tell you--what democracy tells you--it's OK to resort to violence. Only let someone else do the dirty work for you.

California Redistricting - The Best Map

So far, the best map I've seen yet of the present California Federal Congressional Districts is the one from Govtrack.us. It's expandable and detailed enough to show where CongressionalDistrict boundaries lie, down to the street level. Go check it out, and see where the boundaries in your District lie.

The Republican War On Children Continues

Republicans voted against expanding SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, fighting against providing more children health care.

Republicans have also been vociferous in wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), even though a main benefit of the law is that children under 19 now cannot be denied coverage due to a "pre-existing condition," and

Now, Wisconsin, under Republican Governor Scott Walker, is set to withdraw Medicaid coverage from as many as 459,000 Wisconsin children.

If that wasn't enough, a Missouri State Senator, Jane Cunningham has proposed a bill that would effectively repeal child labor laws in that state. But then, she's just thinking along the same lines as Mike Lee of Utah, who stated recently that the Federal government has no Constitutional power to regulate child labor.

Look, Republicans aren't suddenly talking about child labor laws out of some principle about Federal vs. state power. In fact, they hate the Federal government's power to do almost anything, except put maintain a military and arrest drug traffickers.

No, they must actually want your child to get out there and work, just like the uneducated, underprivileged and un-upwardly-mobile British and American underclass did in the nineteenth century. They must want your kids to be part of that underclass. Secretly (or not so secretly), Republicans love the idea that there are young, easily-exploited young Americans out there who might work for a few cents an hour just like peasants and the poor in less-developed countries will. And they really don't want the State, or the Federal government, providing them any kind of health care while they scrabble for those pennies. That just helps companies hiring those child laborers more "competitive".

Next time a Republican comes around looking for votes, hide the kids.

San Diego Redistricting Commission - February 17, 2011 Meeting Agenda Posted

The San Diego Redistricting Commission's Agenda for the next meeting, February 17, 2011, 4PM to be held at COUNCIL COMMITTEE ROOM (12th Floor), CITY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, 202 C STREET, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA 92101, is as follows:

ACTION ITEMS
ITEM 1: Approval of meeting minutes from the following Redistricting Commission meetings:
--December 10, 2010, and January 6, January 13, January 27, and February 3, 2011.

ITEM 2: Outreach Subcommittee Report: --Recommendations for public hearings, Public Participation Plan and potential consultant services.

INFORMATION ITEMS
ITEM 3: Presentation regarding U.S. Census data by Kristen Rohanna, San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).

ITEM 4: Presentation regarding redistricting law by the City Attorney’s Office.

ITEM 5: Mapping Subcommittee Report: --Status of Request for Proposals for redistricting support services.

STAFF REPORTS
ITEM 6: Midori Wong, Chief of Staff --Report on presentations to interested community and stakeholder groups.

ADJOURNMENT

For further information:
City of San Diego 2010 Redistricting Commission
Email: Redistricting_2010@sandiego.gov
Phone: (619) 533-3060

California Redistricting Commission - Are Parts Of The State Underrepresented?

How well distributed, geographically, are the California Redistricting Commission Members? It's an issue that has caused some concern.

According to the Commission's January 28, 2011 meeting transcripts, The Commission had indicated a strong, though not unanimous, interest in candidate Lillian Judd to replace former Commissioner Elaine Kuo, a Democrat from Mountainside, who resigned effective January 14, 2011. However, in a third round of voting, the Commission passed over Judd and selected Professor Angelo Ancheta of Santa Clara as new Commissioner. (Txpt 47:18-21)

Why Ancheta? Commissioners voting for him mentioned his ties to the more rural parts of the state (he was on the Board of Directors of the California Rural Legal Assistants); his previous experience with redistricting; and his familiarity with the Voting Rights Act. Ancheta is also a Democrat. Chairman Dai also opined that Ancheta "would be a fun member of this group." That's not trivial; Commission members have to get along as people as well as Commissioners. All in all, it sounds as if Ancheta will be a valuable addition to the Commission.

The emphasis on Ancheta's rural ties by the Commissioners points to one potential weakness of the Commission; it's heavy focus on the Bay and LA areas. Interestingly, a commenter to a Sacramento Bee article reporting the selection of Ancheta expressed dissatisfaction that the Commission contains no one from Northern California:

The one thing they all have in common is that they all live in either the central or southern part of the state. None of them live north of Sacramento. Which means that one third of the state is left without representation on the commission. Over 365 miles of the land mass of California is not represented at all. Cities like Redding, Eureka, Ukiah, Crescent City, Redbluff, Fort Bragg have no one on the commission who will represent their interests in an honest redistricting in those cities and counties. Was the rural northern part of the state deliberately left out of the process?

So where are the Commissioners from? The map below (showing county boundaries) gives you an idea:

1. Vincent Barraba (R-Santa Cruz)
2. Cynthia Dai (D-San Francisco)
3. Jodie Filkins Webber (R-Norco)
4. Stanley Forbes (DTS-Esparto)
5. Connie Galambos Malloy (DTS-Oakland)
6. Jeanne Raya (D-San Gabriel)
7. Peter Yao (R-Claremont)
8. Gabino Aguirre (D-Santa Paula)
9. Miria Blanco (D-Los Angeles)
10. Libert "Gill" R. Ontal (R- San Diego)
11. Michael Ward (R-Anaheim)
12. Michelle R. DiGuilio (DTS-Stockton)
13. M. Andre Parvenu (DTS-Culver City)
14. Andre Ancheta (D-Santa Clara)

Two things really stand out on this map. First, the vast rural and mountain regions of the state are really underrepresented. There is no one to effectively represent Northern California, the communities around the Sierras, or the desert southeast (although one could make a stab at arguing that Webber and DiGuilio are enough).

Northern California, the Sierras, and the desert southeast are, however, far from where the real redistricting "discussions' will occur, in the Bay area, LA basin and San Diego areas, as seen by the California Congressional District map:

For example, with only three of 53 Congressional Districts, redistricting Northern California will not be unduly problematic. Similarly, only four of 80 California Assembly Districts lie north of Sacramento:

A similar argument can be made for the desert southeast. However, the Central Valley has enough districts that someone from, say, Fresno should have been selected.

The second aspect that is concerning is that each of the Commissioners that will have direct say as to how the San Diego area is redistricted (Ontal, Ward and Webber) are all Republicans. Given my previous comments regarding the possibility of mischief in redistricting Bob Filner's Congressional District 51, in my humble opinion, these three bear special scrutiny going forward.

No Math is Math, Republican Style

The Pew Research Center helpfully informed is yesterday that voters do not want to raise taxes, but they also do not want to cut government-provided services:

This is the target of the Republican philosophy for the last 30 years - a public that wants a working, functional government (both at the state and federal level), but has been taught it doesn't have to pay for it. The dirty little secret of Republican economics is that it depends heavily on borrowing, including borrowing from our economic rivals. Now, of course, Republicans are squawking about borrowing too much. But they are going to run up against some very nasty resistance from the voting public when they find out Republicans, particularly the hard-core-right Teahadists, really do want to cut the government services they like so much.

This is the Republican "no math" - economics for suckers.

A Quick Tour Of The Website

Hello! As site administrator, I'd like to take you on a quick tour of San Diego Democrats to show you some of the features you might not have noticed. I had envisioned the site not just as a place to post political opinion, but as an informational database with local-and state-relevant links.

The main aspect of the site, of course, is the blog posts starting directly under the banner. Each of the posts allows you to make comments on anything in the post (or whatever you'd like to comment about). The site shows the most recent 15 posts.

If you scroll all the way down past the last post, you'll see a set of RSS feeds from area and national newspapers, including the North County Times, San Diego Union Tribune (SignOnSanDiego), the Los Angels Times, the New York Times, McClatchy, and Britain's The Guardian. Each of the feeds provides links to five of the most recent stories from each, whether politically-oriented or otherwise.

Moving to the right column, under the Google ad is a search function that lets you search for any text within the site's posts. Under that are links to the California Redistricting Commission (CAC) and the San Diego City Redistricting Commission. Directly under that is a Twitter feed from the Rose Institute, which has been tweeting a lot about the CAC lately.

under the redistricting links are links to the home webpages for each of California's Senators and San Diego-area House of Representatives members, as well as for San Diego-area California Assembly members and state senators. These are helpful if you want to write or email your representatives.

Next, going down the right column, are links to selected political blogs that stand out from the rest of the crowd. Reading one or more of these is certain to make you more informed about at least US politics. Under that list is a list of other political websites that are more like newspapers.

Next, going down the right column, is a list of organics-related websites. This list, in particular, is still under construction.

Finally, after functionalities that let you subscribe to the site, is an archive of past posts, in reverse chronological order.

Leave a comment if you would like to see additional links or information on the site.

The New Regime Asserts Power Against Its Citizens

30-year Middle Eastern dictator and strongman Hosni Mubarak has finally officially stepped down as leader of Egypt, to the roaring approval of crowds:

What will ultimately become of Egypt, politically, is still up in the air, but it's clear that this is a resounding victory for the protesters in Tahrir Square. What is amazing is that Mubarak did not actively put down the protests using the considerable police or military power at his disposal.

MidWest dictator and strongman--sorry, governor--Scott Walker of Wisconsin, flexing his newly-acquired power, is moving to bust the state's public employee unions, and is threatening to use the National Guard if necessary:

Gov. Scott Walker said Friday he wants to end collective bargaining for nearly all public employees because the state is broke and there’s no point negotiating with the unions when there is nothing to offer.

. . .

Walker, a Republican who took office in January, argued that his proposal is an alternative to ordering furlough days and laying off 12,000 state and local public employees over the next two years to balance a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

. . .

Walker wants to remove all collective bargaining rights, except for salary, for roughly 175,000 public employees starting July 1. Any requests for a salary increase higher than the consumer price index would have to be approved by referendum.

Starting April 1, Walker wants to force state employees to contribute 5.8 percent of their salaries to cover pension costs and more than double their health insurance contributions. That would generate $30 million this fiscal year. Currently, most public workers don’t contribute anything to their pensions.

Walker said Friday that he updated emergency plans and alerted the National Guard just in case they are needed to ensure state services aren’t interrupted.

"To ensure state services aren't interrupted?" Give me a break. This is a threat of power against 175,000 public servants to take what is essentially a stiff tax hike (relating to the amounts they would be required to pay to cover pension costs) and like it without any form of public protest. Clearly the kind of display of power Mubarak eschewed.

Then again, Walker is just beginning his 30-year reign as dictator and strongman. Give him time.

California Redistricting - Where The Rubber Meets The Road

One of the main influences on how California Assembly and Congressional District lines will be redrawn is redistricting data from the 2010 Census, as well as population data from the Statewide Database. California's data is not yet complete (although the Census Bureau has already told the state it did not gain enough population during the 2000's to warrant any additional Congressional Districts), but should be available no later than April 1, 2011.

For an example of what California's Census map (by county) will look like after all of the data is in, let's look at a completed state, Iowa:

(Mouse over individual counties for county-by-county population data and trends.) Conveniently, Iowa's Congressional Districts follow county lines.

Overall, Iowa has lost population; as a result, it will lose one Congressional District, and therefore a House seat, after apportionment. Interestingly, Iowa also uses a Redistricting Commission of sorts, though significantly smaller than California's:

For the first time in two decades, Iowa is losing a seat in Congress because population growth has been heavier elsewhere. That, combined with what some experts say is a national trend toward transparency, could present the biggest challenge yet to a redistricting system enacted in 1980 that allows three nonpartisan staffers to draw the lines.

"That's going to be a more potentially controversial decision, getting rid of one seat and moving other seats around to swallow up territory that is lost," said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California-Berkeley . "It's going to be a more severe test of the system than if Iowa was adding a seat or staying the same."

At least California will maintain the same number of seats; in that respect, its job may be easier; then again, it has to redistrict 12 times the number of Districts.

Currently, each Congressional District across the country, encompasses about 700,000 people. Because the number of House of Representatives seats is capped at 435, as population grows, so does the size of each of the Congressional Districts. Amongst themselves, the Districts' populations grow unevenly, as can be seen in the Iowa map above; this illustrates why redistricting is necessary.

Closer to home, Congressman Bilbray's 50th District might shrink, geographically speaking, after redistricting; the population growth between I-5 and I-15 along the Route 56 corridor (roughly between the interstate shields on the map below) has been explosive:

However, any changes to Bilbray's District will depend, in large part, on population growth (or loss) in adjoining Districts. It will be very interesting to see how San Diego's population redistributed itself in the last 10 years when the Census data finally comes out.

San Diego Redistricting - Whither The Ninth District?

From Voice of San Diego, an interesting video providing some background for San Diego's own redistricting, and the addition of a ninth City Council District:

I'm of a mixed mind about adding a City Council District that caters to one particular segment of San Diego. I'm always concerned when a representative is elected, or a District created, primarily to represent one group because the temptation is strong on the part of the representative to work more for that one group than other groups in the same District.

The flip side, however, is that a city government should reflect its population, and Asians are an increasingly important part of San Diego. Moreover, diversity in the city, as well as in its government, makes for a more vibrant, interesting community. So creating a ninth City Council District to effectively represent them is likely a net positive.

Mapping San Diego!

Just came across a great website called Mapping San Diego! It provides an map of the San Diego area (expandable/contractable) with overlays for different aspects of the City--transportation, planning, land use, environmental, education, entertainment, hydrology--and government. Clicking on the "Map" button takes you to the map, where you can select what you want to see from dozens of different aspects of the City.

Interesting is the map (sorry, no permalink) showing the eight San Diego City Council Districts. San Diego will soon redistrict its Council seats, adding a seat for a total of nine Council seats. Like California, the City of San Diego has its own Redistricting Commission. More on the Commission in a separate post.

California Redistricting Commission - How Not To Redistrict

Critics of legislative gerrymandering in California love to point to California's 23d Congressional District as an example of redistricting gone wild:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refers to it as the "ribbon of shame," a congressional district that stretches in a reed-thin line 200 miles along the California coast from Oxnard to the Monterey County line. Voters there refer to it as "the district that disappears at high tide."

Democratic lawmakers drew it that way to make sure one of their own won every election. The party has held the seat throughout the decade -- since the last redistricting gave Democrats a big edge in voter registration there.

Critics of that 2001 remapping have cited the coastal ribbon as Exhibit A -- the reason, they say, that Californians were right to strip elected officials of the power to choose their voters and give the task of determining political boundaries to a citizens commission.

As the new Citizens Redistricting Commission begins its work next month, members say, the 23rd Congressional District will be a good reminder of what not to do.

"It's been used as an example of how absurd the process is," said Peter Yao, the commission's chairman. "It does not allow people to choose the candidate. They are forced to go with the party's choice."

Not to impugn the good Mr. Yao, or the writer of the article quoted above, but looking at a Congressional District and deciding it needs redistricting because it "looks funny" is a damned fool way to go about redrawing District lines.

Here's a map of CA23:

Looking at on a flat, featureless map, it does look pretty funny. That is, until you realize that the majority of the District is bounded on the northern and eastern sides by some fairly rugged mountains. Along the coast, you have coastal and military families that share little in common, economically, with the agricultural economy of adjacent CA24. As Wikipedia puts it:

Paradoxically, it is also an example of the preservation of the common interests of voters. If the district was distributed among the adjacent inland districts it could be argued that there would be less effective representation of coastal interests, particularly with regards to fisheries, tourism, development, and offshore oil drilling.

Thus, redistricting because the shape of a District somehow offends someone's delicate sensibilities completely ignores social and economic realities that helped generate the District boundaries in the first place. Let's hope that once Yao and Company get down to Commission business, they can look past their initial prejudices and pay attention to the people.

Conservative Stool

I always knew these guys were full of s#@t.

Honestly, these guys are writing my jokes for me.

Another "R" Bites The Dust, But For The Wrong Reason

So Representative Christopher Lee (R-NY), a married man with one child, suddenly resigned after an article on Gawker disclosed that he had posted a shirtless picture of himself on some obsure dating website--or something.

While it's nice to have one less Republican in the House of Representatives (though he will surely be replaced at some point before the 2012 elections), why do they always have to resign in disgrace after some kind of sex "scandal"? Why can't it be because they're simply bad for the country (e.g., causing a substantial portion of our national debt; helping send American jobs overseas; pushing for serious cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; pushing for inequality for women, gays, and pretty much anyone who isn't white and male, for starters)? Sex appears to be the only thing they are ashamed about.

If Democrats were smart, they'd hire armies of prostitutes armed with hidden cameras...

The Reagan Legacy - A Weakened America

Diarist RaulIV in DailyKos points to, and expands upon, a Joan Walsh piece and a Gene Lyons piece in Salon detailing how Reagan's beliefs in government have slowly been killing the country. All are worth reading.

Walsh writes:

Charles Murray's "Losing Ground" purported to put meat on the bones of Reagan's "Poverty won" argument, marshaling an arsenal of statistics to show that poverty programs, especially what was known as "Aid to Families With Dependent Children," encouraged promiscuity, rewarded the lazy and destroyed the family -- especially the black family.

Murray's work was contemporaneously, and later, shown to be misrepresentations, if not outright lies. But no matter; Murray's--and Reagan's--work was done. They got the country as a whole to start looking at the poor not with sympathy but contempt. They got the country to look at poor people, and particularly poor black people, as morally wrong. They set American against American.

And Reagan was no tax-cutter--at least not for the common man:

The main reason he's remembered as a tax-cutter is because of what he did to tax rates for the uber-rich: He slashed the top rate from 70 percent to 28 percent, and income inequality has soared ever since, so that today, the top 1 percent of Americans controls a quarter of the nation's wealth, as opposed to 8 percent when Reagan became president.

For the rest of us?

Sadly, his working-class "Reagan Democrat" admirers don’t seem to remember that one of his tax hikes raised payroll taxes, which hurt poor and middle-class Americans and shielded the wealthy.

One of those tax hikes, by the way, was ostensibly designed to fund Social Security because everyone knew the swell of boomer retirees was on its way:

In 1983, on the recommendation of his Spcial Security Commission— chaired by the man he later made Fed chairman, Alan Green-span—Reagan called for, and received, Social Security tax increases of $165 billion over seven years.

That's the Social Security that Republicans are now trying so hard to de-fund and destroy as allegedly causing a significant part of the budget deficit. They're trying to back out of a deal that Reagan himself got us into. So much for the Legacy.

No, Reagan didn't care at all about the great mass of Americans--if you were poor, he taught the rest of the country to dislike you, if not hate you; the rest, he taxed to spare the very, very rich. And Republicans have been following in his footsteps ever since.

And this is the President whose likeness some want carved into mount Rushmore? I didn't know we held those who weaken our country in such high esteem.

Republicans, Progressives Eyeing Harman's Seat

Jane Harman (D-CA-36) announced yesterday she was resigning her seat in Congress in order to become president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center on February 28, 2011. Once her seat becomes vacant, Governor Brown will have 14 days--that is, by March 14, 2011--to call a special election.

Harman's District occupies southern Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Torrance and West Carlson:

CA36 has been reliably Democratic since 1968 (with the exception of 1998).

An open seat in Congress, particularly in Southern California, is rare. As such, challengers have been popping out of the woodwork. Progressive Marcy Winograd, who mounted a nearly-succesful challenge to Harman last year, is likely to run, as is Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Secretary of State Debra Bowen and California Democratic Party Chair John Burton. Republican Craig Huey, who runs several Christian-oriented websites and newsletters, is considering a run, as are two other Republicans, Redondo Beach City Attorney Mike Webb and Nathan Mintz, the 2010 nominee in the adjoining 53 Congressional District.

It's beginning to look like 2003 all over again, at least in the number of potential contenders (scroll down to the sample ballot).

Given that voter Registration in CA36 heavily favors Democrats (Harman won with almost 69% of the vote in 2010), it's a pretty safe bet that a Democrat will fill the vacancy. Marcy Winograd, in her primary bid to unseat Harman, came relatively close--58.5% to 41.2% of the primary vote--giving her a solid base of support and name recognition, and therefore appears to be a leading contender.

Harman has been criticized in the past for being a pro-war "Blue Dog" (that is, a conservative Democrat), notably one that supported Bush's National Security Agency warrantless eavesdropping program, a clear violation of civil liberties. As such, a Winograd run, and win, would be a breath of much-needed fresh air in the district. California Democrats can rest assured that a Winograd run would also result in a Democratic win, and not a gain for Republicans.

The very worthy blog Down With Tyranny! has further, very pertinent, thoughts on Harman's resignation. Go read them.

California Redistricting Commission - Justice Signs Off

The federal Department of Justice has approved the California Redistricting Commission to redraw California's Congressional District lines.

The Voting Rights Act requires Department of Justice preclearance for certain changes to election laws or processes, including redistricting, in designated areas. Four California counties are subject to preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Now they have it.

California Redistricting Commission - Why Redistrict?

In writing about the California Redistricting Commission (CRC), it is good to keep in mind the question: why redistrict in the first place? Don't Congressional Districts work well enough as they are?

One reason for redistricting is population shifts. As certain Districts gain or lose population, they may become proportionally underrepresented or overrepresented, respectively.

Another, and perhaps more compelling, reason, is gerrymandering, the drawing of political boundaries for political advantage. The online magazine Slate has a slideshow of what it thinks are the most gerrymandered districts in the nation, including CA11 (Jerry McNerney, D), CA18 (Dennis Cardoza, D), and CA38 (Grace Napolitano, D). (Those Districts have nothing, however, on PA12 (John Murtha, D), PA18 (Tim Murphy, R) or IL4 (Luis Gutierrez, D).)

Such a process is not unknown in California. Quite the contrary:

A bipartisan compromise forged between the Democrats and Republicans during the redistricting a decade ago is one of the primary reasons why so few California congressional -- and state legislative -- seats have changed hands this decade. At the time, Republicans had threatened to put a redistricting initiative on the ballot unless Democrats created safe seats for them. The Democrats agreed to compromise in order to lock in their gains realized in the 2000 elections rather than expand their majorities.

One of the main rationales for Proposition 11 in 2008, which created the CRC, and for Proposition 20 in 2010, which extended the CRC's mandate to federal Congressional redistricting, was that, under current law, the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, controls redistricting. As a result, the great majority of incumbents are re-elected.

This in itself is not such a bad thing. If all of the 53 Congressional Districts in California were, hypothetically, safe seats, that would simply mean that the representation in Congress accurately reflected the two Parties' respective distributions within the state. "Competitiveness" in districts is only a concern if the Republicans believe they have no way of electing a candidate other than redistricting. However, the effective mandate for the CRC is to increase competitiveness within California's Assembly and Congressional districts. That can only be done by giving California Republicans, on average, a better chance of winning elections in the state than Democrats.

In the San Diego area, one Congressional District to watch is Bob Filner's District 51. Interestingly, Congressional District 51 didn't make Slate's "over-gerrymandered" cut; however, it still looks "interesting":

As can be seen in a detailed San Diego map (PDF), The western end of District 51 includes Otay Mesa, San Ysidro, Chula Vista, National City, and San Diego east of Downtown and west of Lemon Grove. This results in a District that is:

53.3% Latino, 14.5% Asian, and 10.8% African American contingent, forming a safe Democratic seat.

District 51 looks, on its face, to be ripe for redistricting. It was also a target for Republicans in the 2010 election cycle. It lies adjacent to Duncan Hunter's Congressional District 52:

Bob Filner has been a consistent winner in his Congressional races, winning in 2010 with 60% of the vote. Duncan Hunter won District 52 in 2010 with 63.2%. It may be tempting, therefore, for the CRC to redraw the lines between these two Districts, swapping more reliably Republican District 52 voters for more reliably Democratic District 51 voters to create a new District 51 that is far more "competitive,' while leaving District 52 a substantially safe Republican seat.

Keep your eyes open in San Diego.