From SacBee.com

From the Bee story: 

The State Worker: Schwarzenegger plans 20% pay cuts

State workers, brace yourselves for another furlough day.

The governor’s latest budget proposal assumes almost 20 percent in employee wage cuts: 15 percent from the three-day furloughs that started this month, plus another 5 percent across-the-board whack.

“Three days (furlough) plus the 5 percent,” said H.D. Palmer, Department of Finance spokesman when asked Wednesday to clarify the governor’s budget proposal.

The Legislature won’t go for the pay cut, but the governor can then add a furlough day for reasons we’ll explain.

State employee union leaders say Schwarzenegger is abusing his authority and stiffing state workers once again.

“It’s outrageous,” said Bruce Blanning, executive director of the state’s engineers’ union. “He’s trying to destroy public service by trying to destroy those who provide those services.”  Read the rest of:

The State Worker: Schwarzenegger plans 20% pay cuts

Great! Now the “actor” is pretending to be a king.

The OCEA contracts are scheduled for hearing and adoption by the Board of Supervisors on July 14th. OCEA members overwhelmingly approved the agreements last month.

I guess this sort of flies in the face of the argument that committee meetings are unnecessary while the state budget is in limbo.

Brian Joseph has more on the story here.

OC activists Erik St. Amant (far right) and Ken Schaap second from right (not including the bear) participated in protest at Governor's Sacramento office.

Disabled activist Christie Rudder, along with two other Orange County activists (see photo at right)  from the Dayle McIntosh Center, was one of 15 people arrested today at the Governor’s office Tuesday evening in Sacramento. Rudder kept me updated on their progress throughout the day while the small but dedicated group prevented access to the Governator’s office.

The action was planned after Schwarzenegger announced that he wanted to fingerprint in home health service providers AND patients to crack down on fraud in the IHSS system. Finger print patients?  Smooth move Gov.

At one point, a secret service agent (presumably assigned to the Governor) grabbed her by the arm roughly, telling her that she was interfering with his job. Capitol police intervened, lifting her and her wheelchair, turning her completely around so that the agent could pass.

The following is a sampling of Rudder’s excerpts from the day’s protest:

+ At 11 am, a line of 15 people joined arms and using their wheelchairs, blocked the Governor’s offices and then moved to shut down the hallway outside his office.

+ This will be a day we will all remember! I hope the world hears how the power of the disabled conquered the Terminator.

+ The advocates continued to hold the line as they asked to be heard. They are seeking no cuts to human services and IHSS. If these cuts take place, we face force institutionalization and loss of life. 

+ We were shouting, “hold that line. No one in or out.” The protestors asked to see the Governor and he and his staff refused to talk to us.

+ We want a budget that raises revenue and not cuts alone.

+ Officers were brought in around 6:30 to shut the building down. They told us that those who wanted to be arrested to stay. Those who stayed were cited and released peacefully.

The event was covered in the Sacrament Bee’s Capitol Alert by reporter Jim Sanders. Though he got the start time and incorrect, to the knowledge of Rudder, it seems that most of his report confirms what I followed all day via text messages. You can read Sanders’ account here, or see KCRA’s story and photo here.

California Capitol Building

Usually I find the Orange County Register’s Brian Joseph to be an objective reporter. He covers the State Capitol beat and today he posted a report on Total Buzz With budget negotiations stalled, lawmakers debate … food? that seemed to me to be straight out of the Steven Greenhut school of reporting. Yes, I know that Greenhut writes commentary rather than news. That’s my point.

Joseph wrote:

While negotiations have deadlocked on the $26.3 billion deficit, state lawmakers have moved on to other important things, like debating the definition of honey, talking about a blueberry commission and discussing pomegranate juice.

Seriously. Legislation on those three topics are being heard in committee today while banks are threatening to not accept state IOUs after Friday.

Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office said this morning that the big guy was going to reach out and call Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, who refused to attend a meeting with the governor on Monday because she was upset with him.

Sorry to break it to you Brian but the state budget crisis, which even James Dotti at Chapman University says is overstated, is not the only business that needs to be taken care of in Sacramento. Assembly and Senate committees have specific deadlines to pass legislation out of committee during the legislative year. The fact that Governor Schwarzenegger and the Republicans in both houses of the Legislature refuse to discuss real solutions should not hold the rest of the legislative business hostage.

Now I have to admit that the definition of honey, talking about a blueberry commission and discussing pomegranate juice do seem inconsequential (and humorous) in the context of the problems the Governor and Republican legislators want to ignore, but that is not the fault of Speaker Bass and the Democrats.

And to paint the refusal of Speaker Bass to meet with the Governor to discuss things other than solving the budget crisis as her being upset with him comes off a bit misogynst to me. The phrase “oh don’t worry about her she’s just upset, must be her time of the month” comes to mind.

So while our girly man Governor is content to recline in his bubble bath with a stogie while our state burns, the Democrats are at least trying to get something done. And just for the record, there are plenty of important bills that were passed out of committee today. Among those was Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico’s legislation to reverse the trend of declining state support of California’s higher education system which passed the Assembly Higher Education Committee 5 to 3 today.

The bill, AB 656, would place a tax on oil and steer the revenues to California’s three higher education systems, the California State University, University of California and California Community Colleges.  The bill now goes to the Assembly’s Revenue and Taxation Committee.

Bill Hunt has entered the race for Sheriff against current OC sheriff Sandra Hutchens.  Hunt seems to be making an issue over the politicization of the issuance of concealed weapons permits (CCWs).  The corrupt, disgraced, former sheriff, convicted felon Mike Carona (who’s going to the big house later this month) used to issue CCWs to reward political cronies. 

Hunt has a curious statement on his website about CCWs:

“I will issue concealed weapons permits (CCW) to any applicant who is a law abiding resident of the county, meets state mandated requirements and is not prohibited by law from possessing a firearm. I will depoliticize the process and establish an annual audit to review each application to ensure the process is unbiased, non-political and equitable.”

That’s funny, because in reviewing Sheriff Hutchens reports, I have the impression the process was already de-politicized.

Since Hutchens took office, here’s what she’s done with the CCW policy:

Currently there are 855 ACTIVE CCW Permits.

A year ago, there were 1069 Active Permits.

 Here’s a closer look at the numbers behind the change:

 179 expired and never renewed

4 Deceased

50 Elected to Expire per new Policy

45 Revoked per new Policy (No Response)

9 withdrew from the process

4 denied renewal due to non OC residency

7 Notified department of move out of county

5 revoked due to non OC residency

3 surrendered license prior to expiration (no longer needed)

7 revoked (no longer reserve, never reapplied as a resident)

6 revoked due to incident

50 Expired but renewing

In addition, there 48 new applications that have been submitted and are just in the early stages of the process.  The notable revocation was Mike Schroeder’s permit (since reinstated?) and Adam Probolsky’s permit.  Why either man feels the need to carry a concealed weapon is beyond me.  Inadequacy perhaps? 

The sherriff is not violating anyone’s second amendment rights.  The CCW permit policy under her was not politicized as it was under Mike Carona.  She’s following the law.  Hunt is making an issue out of something where there’s no issue.  He’s not running against Carona this time.

He makes an

2009 STATE OF THE GREAT PARK ADDRESS

Light reception at 10:00 AM, presentation at 11:00 AM. For those who can not attend, the presentation will be telecast on Channel 30 and streaming video will be available on the website.

 GROWING THE PARK ANNIVERSARY EVENT

Events Include:
Featured activities will include vintage aircraft display and military vehicles, Anaheim Ducks Street Team, LA Galaxy Street Team, petting zoo, children’s crafts, music, food and much more!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bill O’Reilly, back from vacation, calls Senator Al Franken, “a blatently dishonest individual…who trafficked in hate….” Then uses the Franken story to promote O’Reilly’s book “Culture Warrior.” 

Of course, when O’Reilly reports on blatently dishonest people who traffic in hate, he speaks from experience.

We at TheLiberalOC.com congratulate Senator Al Franken on his swearing in today in Washington DC.

Click here for humor

Click here to view the embedded video.

The definition of libel: reporting something that is demonstrable false as fact and publishing it with reckless disregard for the truth.

And every once in a while, an event happens that starkly reveals how just deep this racial divide remains.

The untimely death of Michael Jackson is such an event.

Last week, at a meeting of progressive Democrats in Southern California, I heard speaker after speaker bemoan the fact that Michael Jackson’s death had taken over the cable news, shunting to the side what they believed to be obviously more significant topics – the revolt in Iran, the fight in Congress for new health care legislation, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I see similar comments from many of my politically progressive Facebook friends.

None of them seems remotely aware that their disdain for the wall-to-wall news coverage of Michael Jackson’s death is a reflection of their own racial perspective – or that black people might view it differently.

For many, perhaps most, white people, Michael Jackson was, at best, a fading pop star and entertainer, someone whose music and persona they may have liked in their childhood but not now.

For black people, Michael Jackson was, and remains, a cultural figure of heroic, almost mythic, proportions, someone who changed not just music but the world, and who tirelessly worked for African and African-American causes and charities.

Today Michael Jackson will be honored and memorialized as a hero.

As a white American, I may not really get it.

But I get why I don’t get it.

And for that reason, I give my respects today and I say:

Michael, Rest in Peace.