Why the 2010 Redistricting Matters Locally

The recent rant by Rancho Cucamonga's own Bob Dutton, our state senator, against another local Republican, Anthony Adams, serves to remind us of how much the upcoming redistricting matters. Our current district lines provide simply too many safe havens for either abundant lunacy and/or apathy, which provides manna from heaven for elected crooks and loony-tunes. Even more to the root of the problem is that the existing districting pattern encourges all sorts of artifical divisions that are self-defeating for nearly everyone in our region.

No one is happy with the budget deal that the governor signed on Friday. No one should be happy with the cuts, tax increases and further state indebtedness that it takes to close a $42 billion deficit. But what State Assembyman Adams of Claremont did, when he cast one of the six GOP vots needed in both the Assembly and the Senate, was necessary and wise. The alternative was to plunge the state into insolvancy. Which is why it is utterly repulsive to those of us who value good governance and hard-headed realism, to witness the petulant meltdown of Senator Bob Dutton. Did he expect his untenable stance of "new new taxes," to prevail? What happened is what had to happen. His house of joker cards came crashing down as reality told us it should. What should happen next is a fundamental reappraisal of Dutton's own Reaganesque approach to governing, instead of his childish threat to strip Assemblyman Adams of his position within the San Bernardino GOP apparatus.

We see many Bob Duttons proliferating in the safe enclaves provided for wing-nuttery in the various state and national office districts that ring our local mountains. I refer to the relatively affulent and largely white foothill districts that are occupied by the likes of Jerry Lewis, David Dreier, Gary Miller, Ken Calvert, Bob Dutton, Bob Huff, Bill Emmerson and other right wingers who uniformly have supported deregulatory and other reckless policies that have brought us all to the brink of another depression. To know one is to know them all. Recently, the Daily Bulletin reported on candidates for the Rancho Cucamonga city council, and what we heard from them was ditto-headedness on steriods. It was little else but one-upmanship attacks on liberals, who apparently are more of a civic threat than criminals, meth-heads, foreclosures and other features of a community in crisis and a falling economy.

When I think of the upcoming 2010 redistricting, which will be the first to be fashioned by a party other than the state legislature, my thoughts are split between what should happen and what is likely to happen. What is likely to happen is that incumbants will prevail and get district lines that preserve entrenched power balances. But a man can dream, and I hope that the panel will wield pens that move north to south rather than east to west. It has always seemed strange that a city like my own Upland, is tied politically to places like Redlands and Arcadia, with which it shares only superficial similarities, than Ontario, with which it shares a history and many other ties.

Another rationale for having new lines drawn with a north-south orientation, is to break up the "good old boy" networks that dominate politics on the valley floor. If politics in the foothills is dominated by cabals of right-wingers, politics on the flats is dominated by deeply entrenched cabals of men and women on the make and take. Whether in Pomona or in Ontario, the city council players take advantage of the inattention of a largely apathetic and uninformed local electorate to reward friends and punish enemies. Even though Ontario seems to assidously avoid racial politics, inspite of some prominent examples to the contrary, and Pomona seems to play that card with relish, both cities end up being governed with the end game of getting the more ambitious elected upwards and outwards. Congressman Joe Baca seems to be the very epitome of the other kind of dysfunction we end up with, a deal-maker that no one who is interested in common development and good governance can trust. Oh how we miss Congressman George Brown, a Democrat we could be proud of.

While Democrats in the foothills face the naturally demoralizing consequences of perpetually being out of power, it seems to me that we are in better shape than Democrats who are demoralized by having distasteful rouges and sell-outs in power. Breaking up the status quo could enable new dynamics that will give progressive Democrats real opportunties to govern. I see it as mixing in the political vigor and networking of foothill Democrats with the untapped voting power of the natural Democrats who are clustered in the flats. The marriage of the two disempowered factors could produce a Tom Bradley coaliton that flattens the towering arrogance of the local GOP cliques that now dominate the hills, and that elevates the political life and the concept of what constitutes community interests in the valley.

2010 is coming fast. It is time to get a discussion going on how we can take advantage of the opportunities that could open up like Spring after a prolonged Winter.

Instruments of Mass Dumbing-Down

Readers of the Ontario-based Inland Valley Daily Bulletin yesterday (Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009) may have noticed that the first page featured a story by Josh Dulaney bylined: "ECONOMY IN CRISIS," and headlined "Conference promises hope in hard times: Thousands expected at Chino event." It occupied a prominent place, above the fold and above the main story of the day, President Obama's signing of the $787 billion jobs and recovery bill.

When I saw first saw this, my thoughts turned to local TV news coverage of thoroughly commendable and newsworthy efforts by Southland churches to help persons driven to desperation by the downturn. One church in the L.A. basin went so far as to help pay outstanding and overdue bills for people who were not even members.

Was this an similar, local effort? I hoped so. Which explains why reading it turned out to be an exercise in all-too-common infuriation with the Daily Bulletin.

What made this story newsworthy enough to place just under the masthead of the front page? At best, the only promise of any concrete help is perhaps, a free meal. And that wasn't guaranteed. Ofterwise, this story concerns an albeit large but otherwise un-newsworthy confab of holy rollers and snake-oil peddlers. At least Rick Warren earned his front page coverage months ago by having presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama attend his event in Orange County. This event in Chino is no more newsworthy than a Benny Hinn freak show.

The Chino get-together is called: the Southern California Prophecy Conference, and the conference itself is entitled: "Finding Hope in the Global Crisis." All the guest speakers are luminaries in the far fringes of the Christian right, and at best, will likely offer attendees the same sage advice that Cal Thomas, formerly the mouthpiece of the late Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, offered in his POV of a few days earlier: "work harder and get by with less." Other than that, one can expect routine rants on favorite right-wing obsessions couched in the language of biblical prophecy. About the only newsworthy thing that can be anticipated from this event is a speaker comparing Barack Obama to the Anti-Christ. And heck!, we can get that piece of illuminating info from talkradio.

So what exactly, Josh Dulaney, made this story so newsworthy? And what possessed the editors to place it where a hundred more important, useful stories could have gone?

Perhaps, the more important question is: When, at last, is the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin going to become a serious newspaper?

We Shall Know Them by Their Priorities

The score at this late point in the game of games in Sacramento so far:

99% of Californians (meaning, you and me, but maybe not the hundredth reader)------ $14.4 billion in tax increases of various kinds.

versus....

the wealthiest 1% and the top corporations in the state........ $1 billion in tax cuts.

We can guess who is winning this game so far.

And who is responsible for this score? Those plucky fighters for the average taxpayer: our Republican state senators and assemblypersons.

When the game began, every Republican legislator stood firmly behind a "no new taxes" pledge. And then, come the demand: "give us a tax cut targeted only for the richest percentile of California taxpayers!" And to back up the demand, play blackmail.

Blackmail pays off.
Drag the state into budget stalemate months after the constitutional deadline.
Bring on IOUs and furlough days at the DMV.
Plunge the state credit rating below that of a third-world banana republic.
And you get weak-knee'd Democrats to cave in and agree to a billion dollar tax cut for top Californian corporations.

Thereafter, with the tax-cut concession in hand, enough Republicans switch sides to vote *Yes" on $14.4 billion dollars in tax increases on everyone else to get the budget deal approved in the Assembly and almost though the Senate. Only one state senator is now holding up the final passage. So much for the "No New Taxes" pledge.

Is it unreasonable to guess that our lone hold-out wants $2 billion in tax cuts for the corporations as the price for his/her vote?

Yeap, the California GOP. Looking out for the average Joe Taxpayer.

What Really Is At Stake

Sometimes dark thoughts intrude into mind when I hear the talking financial heads yak on CNN, CNBC, Fox Business News, etc. It is hard to take these pundits seriously when one remembers that in the months prior to the meltdown of the banks, Wall Street and the Dow Jones in September 2008, these same voices, almost to a person, served as cheerleaders for many of the sectors that soon lead the way in hitting the crapper. Can anyone ever forget Ben Stein gushing over the prospects of AIG, or Lehman Brothers? Where is his apology, his explanation? It's as if he never said a thing. It is if none of them ever said a thing.

Nowadays, many of these unchastened voices twitter and chattter in aghast voice and negative terms about the size, cost and details of the President's initial recovery bill. It isn't if there is not any criticism to be leveled at either the size, cost or the details. But when I hear their steady buzz of criticism, what comes to mind are thoughts that they are still shilling for the interests in the financial sector that have long buttered their bread.

Then my thoughts move on to what is the big game these interests are playing? And my mind fixes on the still-to-burst bubble that is out there, the one that will come when the wildly out-of-touch-with-reality paper value of all the world's total pile of junk paper is finally adjusted to what is real. What I am referring to is a shadow market of global securities with a paper value of many trillions of dollars, perhaps up in the 30-40 trillion dollar range. Frank Schiavone of Rancho Cucamonga puts the worldwide value of this house of cards much higher....Egads! This is a market which consists of all sorts of futures, derivatives, spliced and diced mortgages and credit cards turned into securities, and other inventions of marketeers with Gordon Gecko's imagination and absolutely no prudence.

Now my thoughts grow darker. Many of us who opposed John McCain last Fall suspected that if elected, he intended to bail out the banks holding crashing mortgages dollar for dollar. What else do corporatist Republicans do but strive endlessly to make money flow upward? Now, what if the relatively few very wealthy interests who hold much of the world's junk securities expect to be bailed out, for the full paper worth of the paper they hold or something very close to that? It would take trillions of dollars of government money the world over to do this for them. Trillions that cannot and must not be spent on other things, like giving you, me and the man down the street tax cuts or government jobs.

It may be that all the yak-yak about Obama's spending spree is part of a pre-emptive effort to keep a huge pile of our tax dollars free and available for bailing out this modern economic royalty? Those who dutifully serve others than the immediate interests of average Joes, would be very attuned to what this royalty wishes. They don't even have to be told, they know in their bones.

It bears remembering that we know that all during the Bush years, the networks hired former generals and defense spokespersons to serve as on-air media consultants. As it turned out, many were still working secretively with the Rumsfeld DOD to spin the reporting of the Iraq War and other defense matters to the liking of the War advocates. When I see these talking-heads on the financial shows, I see similar flaks, this time shilling for the business they supposedly are reporting on. It is no surprise that business reporters and pundits would claim to be the voice of the people, but actually serve vested power. The same has been long observed by Left media critics like Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com.

From Glenn Greenwald’s Salon column of February 14. 2009, speaking specifically of the NY Times' David Brooks:

The most significant fact of American political life is that political journalists (of all people) see their role primarily as defenders of, servants to, spokespeople for the Washington establishment. That's how they obtain all of their rewards and remain relevant. The concept of journalists as watchdogs over political power has been turned completely on its head by power-revering servants like David Brooks, who is anything but atypical (indeed, there's a whole new generation of Beltway journalists who have learned and are eagerly replicating this model). Brooks is about as typical and illustrative as it gets. They benefit substantially from the prevailing rules of political power and, thus, their only concern is to preserve and strengthen it and protect it from the growing dissatisfaction and anger of the peasant class. The more they do that, the more they are rewarded.

The game, as it has been played in Washington, on Wall Street and in world financial capitals since Reagan opened up the gates to unregulated speculation, the commodification of what Thom Hartmann calls the "commons" and corporate consolidation on a global scale, has pulled in much of the media. When we see a steady, unveering message that is uniformly negative towards what President Obama is trying to do, we are seeing versions of the RCA dog, hearing and heeding its master's voice.

Further proof will soon be seen when the White House unveils its legislative efforts to wring the bad paper out of the American investment marketplace. If it offers to only back up that fraction of the paper value of all the securitized junk out there that corresponds somewhat closely to the real value, we'll know whose voice these pundits hear when they react. I'm betting on a global scream of indignation and worse.

It would be grimly satisfying to just let this hidden market crash and burn, if only to see several classes of cretins get their deserved comeupance, but it is in our best, long-term interest that our government and what is left of that segment of the financial sector that is still rooted in social responsibility work to bring accountability, regulation, stabililty and reality to this hidden market. To let it crash and burn is to cut our throats. Frankly, there is a place in a vibrant, creative capitalist market system for the kind of risk taking that created these speculative instruments. But as I see it, it should always be a case of taking three steps onto the ice and no farther, that way if the ice should crack, solid ground is not too far away. What has happened in the last few crazed decades is a mass stepping onto the ice far beyond any solid ground. The ice will soon break and we cannot let trillions of real value just plunge into the dark cold water. It may well turn out that many large pension funds, like CALPERS and CALSTRS have monies invested in this shadow economy, and to let it go under would punish many good folk. We cannot let many thousands of retirees pay a brutal price for the foolish choices of their pension managers.

The following is a letter to the editor I sent to the Riverside Press Enterprise on February 6, 2009. It should provide proof that voices other than from the far Right-Wing do send in letters to local papers. Now, if only our generally right-leaning publishers would actually publish them, that would be a welcome change.
____________________________

Dear Editor:
Our local Republican legislators, both state and federal, are all playing a dangerous game with our future as Americans and Californians. To a person, they are holding fast to positions that keep realistic solutions from being reached. Local state GOP office holders are delusional in their "No New Taxes" stand. That stand cannot prevail in the face of the projected budget shortfall of $42 billion. Similarly, our federal GOP office holders are holding up our President and the Democrat's proposal to meet the challenges we face economically with offering anything remotely sufficient as an alternative. They simply regurgitate the kind of solutions that brought us to where we are today.

Local voters, mostly Republicans, have got to free their legislators to act on today's problems with new approaches. There is no alternative. We have not seen the worst of it yet. The multi-trillion dollar financial and stock bubble that burst in 2008 is still to be joined by the multi-trillion dollar derivatives bubble that has yet to burst. It will burst, and when it does, the piddling ideas of today's GOP will seem like cruel jokes. As it is, the huge Democrat bill that is being widely criticized as something of a drunken spending spree is likely to be inadequate. We will wish we had gone futher in 2009. Turn off the Reagan-era tape from the last thirty years and get real with today. We don't have time to lose.
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Other letters to the editors of local papers will be shared via this blog in upcoming weeks. Included will be blasts from the past, perhaps even back into the 80s, when this blogger was one of only a few steady voices that confronted the pall of ignorance that fell on local ears and eyes over the issue of AIDS and gay rights.

Under Construction.

Watch for falling Wing-Nuts and bolts!