Inland Empire Progressive

The Baca Dynasty is now in ruins and I am glad. No more hubris or taking advantage of minority voters from the Baca Clan. I am hoping that this time in the political wilderness will teach them valuable lessons on power and the responsibility that it entails. I do think, Sen. Gloria McLeod owes a debt of gratitude for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's timely assist. Without his help I think the results of this race would have been very different. However, disconcerting money in politics is, it does produce results...sometimes. I still believe a popular, disciplined, and policy driven politician can overcome monetary challanges and win. Now we get to see what is more important for the voters of the 35th Congressional District and that is how Congresswoman Elect Gloria McLeod will govern. These are some challenging times in American politics and I wish her well.

Nate Silver a former baseball statistician turn political prognosticator at www.fivethirtyeight.com has aggrigated the polling data and is predicting a President Obama win of 315 electoral college votes. He says the president has a 92% chance of winning picking up most of what he won in 2008, with the exception of North Carolina and Indiana. I for one, hope that Mr. Silver is right.

Reminds me of Mike Tyson's Punch Out for Nintendo.

A Progressive Critical-Thinkers guide to Props and Measures: Prop. 30 - Yes Avoids cuts from K thru 16 and allows breathing room to stabilize the budget. Prop 31 - No Poison Pill. Lots of Progressive Reforms but brings state government instability at a time when state is trying to balance budget. Prop 32 - No Limits political speech of working class families. Prop 33 - No Penalizes poor and working class families who are less like to have continuous insurance coverage. Prop 34 - Yes Saves state $100M annually by eliminating death penalty. Prop 35 - No Hampers law enforcement in dealing with sex trafficking. Prop 36 - Yes Reduces costs. Reduces 2nd Strike Dementia, where minor offenders will escalate small violations because they have nothing to lose. Prop 37-  Yes We have a right to know what is being done to our food. Prop 38- No Funds only K-12. Cuts to education still happen because Prop. 30 failed. Prop 39- Yes Creates jobs inside Califo...

Round 1, Fight! This is Mortal Kombat on the Presidential Level! The special moves for Obama and Romney are funny reflecting their policies and political attacks on each other.   Hopefully, Rep. Joe Baca doesn't try to slap a video game warning label on it. LOL It's too bad you have to wait until the end of the video to choose the winner. But even their "Finish Him" moves are comedy. Very Well Done. 

This Proposition has many things that I like to see in a good Progressive governmental structure: Two-Year Budget cycle. CHECK Permits Governor to cut budget unilaterally during fiscal emergencies if Legislature can't get its shit together. CHECK Requires performance reviews of all state programs. CHECK Requires performance goals in state and local budgets. CHECK Requires publication of bills 3 days prior to legislative vote. CHECK However, Prop. 31 is a poison pill. This measure will create policy uncertainty during these already uncertain times. I do like the shift to a more local control approach provides but the costs to the state budget are just to large to justify at this time. In addition, we are not sure that all the local governmental agencies can coordinate services in a way that benefits thier residents. I can foresee funding battles across all levels of local government further eroding the sacred trust between citizens and their government. Furthermore, hams...

Source: San Bernardino Unified School District Annual Financial Report This was a very hard decision for me to make. But as I dug through the documents, it became more apprent to me that $230M dollars and the interest service payments required was just too step a price a pay for San Bernardino residents. A $140M+ bond measure was approved by in 2004 and the voters are still servicing that debt. The 2004 bond was used to build schools and remove asbestos. That is the very same thing that Measure N would do in addition to providing additional security measures and equipment upgrades. This is why it was hard for me to vote no on Measure N. SBUSD kids need help: Our Math Skill Proficiency is at 60% 37%, our API is dropping, and more cuts are coming if Prop. 30 doesn't pass. This is trifecta of trouble! However,  I point to the chart above which is pulled from SBUSD financial statements. The total debt owed is $403,803,838 dollars! If...

I listened to the whole hour of his lecture to folks at the Immanuel Church and he so mangles political documents and religious scripture that this clip from Billy Madison kept coming into my mind.

I have respected Mr. Warner since I first met him at the Inland Valley Democratic Club. He is a solid pragmatic Progressive on the issues of the day. He will represent and defend the Inland Empire well. Compared to Asm. Mike Morrell, it should be a given to throw your support Mr. Warner. Mr. Morrell has been extreme in the legislature and unproductive. Mr. Morrell takes Hard Conservative stands in this increasingly moderate district. Finally, he has no political courage to stand up to the base of his party and do what needs to do to benefit families in the Inland Empire. Here are some good reasons to support Mr. Warner: Compromise In politics compromise is the political currency that gets things done. Mr. Warner can comprise to bring much needed funding ( for education, infrastructure, etc.) and jobs to the area in exchange for tough political votes. I point the Republican Sen. Bob Dutton example, that in exchange for his vote he b...

I despise ballot box budgeting, however since I will be personally affected (Cal State Student) if this prop fails I am compelled to vote for it. I was 49% in favor of not voting for it. The primary reason is becasue they cut funding for the Ralph M. Brown Act. I am afraid local governments will use the cut as an excuse to reduce transparency even though we live in the digital age and costs for posting agendas, budgets, etc. online are minimal. However, this gives them some political cover. The bulk of the reductions will be from schools, which would make sense on its face education make up the majority of the General Fund budget. But Prop. 30 still feels like a hostage negotiation that if doesn't pass we will cut funding to children and young adults. If Prop. 30 does pass, Democrats in the legislature need to seriously gather the intestinal fortitude necessary to bring about a stablized and ...

It's hard to believe that with less than 30 days until the election Rep. Gary Miller has yet to outline ANY housing policy in community gatherings or even on the Issues Page of his website. You have to understand that the congressman lives and breathes housing: A strong supporter of the MITD (Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction) with no caps for high income earners, he sits on the Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity Subcommittee, and hell, he even started a small business in the housing industry. He loves housing so much you would think he was Paul Bunyan!!! This is in addition to the National Association of Realtors and Mr. Miller's Wall Street allies having dumped $1M+ into his "re-election" campaign. Inland Empire residents have to ask: What gives? Here are some of the current options that have been floating around the past 4 years: 1) Eminent Domain (Govt. siezing loans and selling them to private investors.) 2) Bulk Buying (...

Progressive Democrats (myself included) are not happy about the choices they have in November. The prospects of living under Republican governance for the next two years is met with a glumness. MoveOn.org publishes a ballot guide asking local voters their ballot choices. As you can see from the statements below, that glumness is palpable. The most laughable statement is that he is the more moderate of the two candidates. I would say his recent comments against a pathway to citizens for Mexican immigrants beg to differ. Both Rep. Gary Miller and Sen. Bob Dutton are Conservative extremists in moderate clothing, twisting their principles to try and comform with a nonexistant moderation. Some of the top rated reasons for supporting Mr. Dutton are to vote against Gary Miller. There is much resignation in the ranks of Democrats that a plum seat has been lost in the short term. In 2014, wh...

 Source: Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy   During the candidate forum, Mr. Morrell told a Texas tale. This tale was how Texas was an economic miracle. Gov. Rick Perry sends a crafted Walnut box with the governors seal to every California CEO. Inside the box is a cell phone with one number: a direct line to the Mr. Perry himself! The CEO calls Mr. Perry up, and Mr. Perry tries to persuade the CEO to move his business to Texas: The land of no taxes and little regulation.  It's a mantra amongst conservatives to decry the business climate in California. This incessant bedwetting points to their deminished political power in the state. High taxes, excessive regulation, and an anti-business climate are to blame, they say.  However, as many economists have pointed out: California has been creating jobs at rapid clip, keeping pace or even exceeding those states ...

This forum sponsored by the Rancho Cucamonga Chamber of Commerce shows that Russ Warner has what it takes to represent the Inland Empire in the 40th Assembly District. This debate was mostly about economic growth, climate, and ideas. Mr. Warner spoke on reducing our dependence on Los Angeles county, by hammering home the theme of local control. He said Ontario can create upwards of 9,000 jobs if Los Angeles County would release its iron grip from the Inland Empire. In addition, he said a County Chamber of Commerce should be created so that city chambers can reduce the economic poaching the most certainly occurs between cities and focus on fostering regional growth. Also, he spoke on maintaining a balance economic growth and environmental protection. I would use Rialto as an example here. How much government money has been spent to clean up the percholrate left there? We can have economic growth and environmental protection, they are not mutually exclusive. Finally, he spok...

  The simple math of 4 Dems and 2 Republicans placed the Dems in a statistical disadvantage from the beginning. Of the Dems 1 was a carpetbagger (Rita Ramirez-Dean) but being a female Latina and a strong advocate of education was sure to syphon some votes. Renea Wickman ran for the assembly in 2010 and lost, but wanted a bigger prize in the congressional race. I thought she was the clear frontrunner, but our fundraising was minimal and the candidate was not as inspiring as she was in 2010. Justin Kim was a surprise. He ran a very progressive and grassroots campaign which got the youth vote, Asians, and educated voters very excited. He also has a fundraising base in Loma Linda where he is from. I will most definitely be supporting him if he decides to run in 2014. Pete Aguilar was not ready for prime time. He has a donor base, but it is uncertain if they will return to the fold in 2014. In addition, as I inspected his background more and more I found he was a DINO that had ties...

This is what I would like to see in the upcoming budget. 1) No structural deficits. This means no deferments or gimmicks. Let’s do what needs to be done the first time so we won’t keep attracting negative press to San Bernardino governance. 2) A back to basics budget that focuses on streets, lights, and infrastructure. Curb appeal should be a high priority, even with constrained budgetary resources. 3) Radical changes are needed to our city charter to meet the demands of 21 st Governance for the city of San Bernardino. For me, this means changes in pay that reflect the median income of our city and other changes. 4) Finally, A focus on local control of all city assets in both capital and operating budget decisions. I have come to believe that a majority of current civil servants and public safety personnel do not reside in this city and therefore do not have a stake in the outcome of this city. The citizens of San Bernardino must demand local control in helping rebuild this commun...

CITY DEM VOTE REP VOTE DIFFERENCE Colton (Dem) 2199 1057 1142 Fontana (Dem) 694 730 -36 Grand Terrace (Rep) 768 920 -152 Loma Linda (Rep) 1271 1138 133 Rancho Cucamonga (Rep) 6256 11140 -4884 Redlands (Rep) 5562 6279 -717 Rialto (Dem) 2657 1513 1144 San Bernardino (Dem) 7923 5723 2200 Upland (Rep) 1565 2168 -603 Unincorporated (Mixed) 1507 1596 -89 After the Primary, the folks in Washington D.C., Sacramento, the Media, and whoever else was paying attention to this race were shocked by the results of this election. I was only mildly surprised because I didn’t think that Mr. Dutton would make it through. Early in the Primary, I let my candidate of choice at the time, Renea Wickman, know that I was worried on a purely mathematical basis that Dems would not make the top two. Dems had a 1 in 4 chance of making the ticket versus a 1 in 2 chance of Reps making the ticket. We have seen those results play out and my worst fears realized....

Please remember that you are in a Democratic District and watch your mouth. Rep. Gary Miller must think Progressives aren’t paying attention. Rep. Gary Miller must think Progressives are stupid. Rep. Gary Miller must Progressives are useful idiots or some shit. Just check out his statement on the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. You say that “that health care decisions are best left in the hands of patients and their families”. Please stop repeating this lie. This legislation say nothing about health care decisions between doctors and their families. This is about reducing costs and the means to reducing those costs include expanding coverage for the healthy so people with pre-existing conditions and the sick can get adequate care. You come to the Inland Empire thinking that you can just flash so fucking cash and then we are bought by you? Get the fuck outta here. In addition, you don’t mention how this law will help poor and minority families who usually are the ones who b...

Rep. Gary Miller fears the National Rifle Association more than he does the minorities in the 31st Congressional District. The black and brown community is adamantly against holding Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. They are also against gun violence, which has surged since Rep. Gary Miller has started running for Congress in the Inland Empire.  I think some gun running is going on right here in my city of San Bernardino. What with 26 deaths so far? Why don’t we hold you in contempt? But I think the American public hold Congress in contempt these days with polling down in the dumps. What ever happened to jobs, jobs, jobs? Wasn’t that the Conservative mantra of 2010? How about Fast and Furiously reducing unemployment? This witch hunt amounts to nothing more than election year politics.

I thought Progressives were the ones to challenge authority. I guess not by the way we have been bowing to the Establishment in the Democratic Party. Progressives have passion and we have principle, but when the rubber meets the road we cave to our ever compromising selves. We have a ground game that is almost a throwback to the early 20th Century Labor Unions in the way we engage online through New Media. Voter Engagement and finding the true sentiment of the average voter is our bread and butter. But do we listen to the average voter? NO!!! The average voter wants accountability for Wall Street. But do we have it? NO! The pussy-willows of Democratic Leadership cater to Wall Street interests and could give a damn about the working man. The average voter wants a job that pays a living wage. But do we have it? NO! The pussy-willows of Democratic Leadership a living wage will harm big business. The average voter wants safe streets with no gun violence. But do we have it? NO! The p...