"Calling it "inhumane," Democrats defeated a Republican state budget proposal that would have made deeper cuts in health and human services and borrowed against future lottery revenue," reports Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
"The 21-13 party-line vote – 14 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for a budget in the 40-member Senate – was expected. It leaves California without a spending
plan a record 71 days into the fiscal year.
"The budget was the third in as many weeks to be voted
down in the Legislature, but the first proposed by
GOP lawmakers.
"As with previous debates, the two sides do not appear
to be making any headway: Republicans continue to oppose any new taxes while
Democrats say the state cannot cut its way out of a
$15.2 billion deficit.
"Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said that because of the state's ailing economy 'now is not the time to increase taxes on the people
of California.'
"'We're willing to talk to you about anything, but not new
taxes,' Cogdill told Democrats during the one-hour debate.
"Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata, D–Oakland, said he was "angry and frustrated" with trying to figure out what it will take for Republicans
to vote for a budget.
"'I'm no damn closer today in knowing than I was three
months ago,' Perata said."
"Schwarzenegger will make his case for his August compromise budget to Assembly Republicans behind closed doors today, after asking Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines last week to help set up a meeting with the 32-member GOP caucus. The Assembly, meanwhile, amended the governor's plan into a bill on Monday, making it eligible to be taken up as early as today," reports the Bee.
Dan Walters writes that it likely means Republicans will prevail and a get-out-of-town budget will be the result. "As the stalemate continues and both public angst and media pressure mount, the prospects of an expedient, temporary approach increase and those of a permanent solution fade."
Um, doesn't a "get-out-of-town" budget involve getting out of town? We're ready when you are...
"To put it in partisan terms, Republicans' chances of prevailing increase and those of Democrats
– and of Schwarzenegger – decrease. The anguish of medical care providers, college
students, small businesses and others who aren't receiving payments from Sacramento weighs most heavily
on Democrats and may propel them to cave in to GOP
demands for interim payments and, perhaps, a "borrowing budget," as it's termed.
"Schwarzenegger insists he won't go for it, but if Democrats flip, it would be very
difficult for him to hold out."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who rode into power on a wave of voter angst in the first recall of a California governor, now finds himself a target for removal as his own popularity is declining," reports Michael Rothfeld in the Times.
"The state's well-financed prison guards union, the California Correctional
Peace Officers Assn., is bankrolling a recall effort
against Schwarzenegger.
"'This is a governor that has done absolutely nothing,' union spokesman Lance Corcoran said in an interview
Monday. 'We have the largest budget deficit in the history of
California. We have one of the longest budget stalemates.'
"Schwarzenegger and the union known as CCPOA have been
at odds for years, unable to agree on a new contract
for the guards. Last fall, the governor invoked a rarely
used provision of state law allowing him to unilaterally
impose new working conditions on the union in the absence
of a deal.
"Corcoran said the dispute has nothing to do with the
recall effort, but the governor believes otherwise.
"'I'm not going to get intimidated by those guys,' Schwarzenegger told reporters in the Capitol on Monday
after a ceremony honoring California's Olympic medalists. 'The state should not spend more money than we take
in, and their intimidation tactics will not make me
change my mind whatsoever, because I happen to not represent the CCPOA. I represent
the people of California.'"
Columnist Thomas Elias offers a backhanded defense of keeping the governor in office .
"California has rarely seen a governor more deserving of being thrown from office in a recall than Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's broken almost every promise he ever made, he's demonstrated steadfast ineptitude in managing state budget crises, and he has yet to fix a single one of the major political problems that led to his own election via the only recall of an American governor in the last 80 years.
"And yet, the idea of a new recall to rid Sacramento of its current leading man — now being actively floated by the ultra-wealthy and powerful state prison guards union — makes little sense.
Unless, that is, your motive is either vindictive revenge or a wish to somehow skew the outcome of the next scheduled run for governor, in 2010."
Well, that rules out just about nobody...
Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan tells the story of how bombings against Santa Cruz researchers resurrected a bill in the legislature.
"
In late July, a bill to protect academic researchers looked like it might be on the ropes. AB 2296 by Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco, was stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Researcher Protection Act of 2008 had been stripped down to intent language, and looked like it might only pass in a watered down form.
"Then on August 2, two University of California at Santa Cruz scientists
were targeted in firebomb attacks. Both targets do
health-related research on animals. One bomb forced the researcher
to flee out of a second story window with his wife
and two children.
"Rather than accepting a weaker bill, Mullin said, on
August 4 he amended the bill to include criminal penalties.
After a detour through Public Safety Committees in
both houses, AB 2296 passed by off the Senate floor 29-0 on August 22.
It flew out of the Assembly 78-0 a week later. As passed, the bill
would make it a
crime to publish information about where academic researchers
and their families work and live with the intent to
incite a crime or a threat of violence."
The Bee reports: "In an interview published Sunday with the German mag Der Spiegel, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he didn't miss going to the GOP national convention because it lacked "bipartisanship." He compared the "hard core" who run the national party to California's GOP leaders: "I have almost no contact with them – none. Because they're just so out there."
That should help round up those GOP votes for his budget proposal.
Speaking of the national GOP, the Chron's John Wildermuth looks at how the gay marriage issue may play out nationally this election season.
"California, Arizona and Florida will ask voters to approve constitutional amendments limiting marriage to a man and woman, and the high-priced election clash over the issue could help decide who becomes the nation's next president.
"
The question of same-sex marriage has been especially vexing to Obama, who needs to hang on to his progressive Democratic base, which sees same-sex marriage as a human rights issue, while not offending moderate blue-collar Democrats and independents, who might not be comfortable seeing two men or two women holding hands and saying, "I do."
"Obama has tried to tread a narrow road between the two positions. He says marriage should be limited to a man and a woman but opposes California's Proposition 8, which would put that limit in the state Constitution and overturn a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that legalized same-sex marriage.
And finally, from our Fresno bureau, the Fresno Bee reports, "A burglar who broke into a home just east of Fresno rubbed food seasoning over the body of one of two men as they slept in their rooms and then used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head before running out of the house, Fresno County sheriff's deputies said Saturday.
The victims, both farmworkers, told deputies they were awakened by a stranger applying "Pappy's Seasoning" to one of them and striking the other with a sausage.
Both the spices and the sausage, Burrimond said, reportedly were obtained from the victims' kitchen.
Burrimond said the money was recovered, but that the piece of sausage used in the attack was discarded by the suspect and eaten by a dog.
"That's right, the dog ate the weapon," Burrimond said.
"I tell you, this was one weird case."