Santa Ana Speeds the Spread of So Cal Fires
Five separate fires are burning in San Diego County, including several densely populated suburban areas. Dozens of homes have been burned. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar has been affected, including an FAA air traffic control installation. 16,000 people in the South Bay lost electricity when a major distribution line went down. Many San Diego firefighters went up to Camp Pendelton yesterday. (
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posted by rschram
on Oct 26, 2003 -
42 comments
Labor Unions in a free market.
Southern California is being gripped by crippling strikes by
transit workers and
grocery clerks -- both over health care -- that has stranded thousands of mostly poor commuters across Los Angeles and is expected to sap millions from the local economy.
As a person who can't drive due to a visual disability, I am personally effected by the MTA transit strike (that is rumored may last several months). State employees are not allowed to strike. Shouldn't that also be the case for essential services, such as public transit?
posted by lola
on Oct 14, 2003 -
80 comments
"I will hire an outside independent auditor, free of political influence..." Schwarzenegger breaks promise to Californians, hires Donna Arduin to head the 60-day audit of California. Arduin is "on loan" from Florida, where she is Jeb Bush's Budget director.
Arduin has been
criticized by economists and even
prominent Florida republicans for "surreal",misleading, unrealistic, and risky accounting procedures.
During her stint as Budget Director, Ms. Arduin oversaw numerous tax cuts aimed at the wealthiest Floridians, while most Floridians saw no significant decrease in taxes. Infact, today Florida has the
second most regressive taxes in the nation.The effects of these tax cuts? Unprecidented shortfalls in state tax revenues, with
massive budget cuts for public schools,
universities,
child welfare,
vision services for uninsured children, etc.
Class warfare, anyone?!
posted by insomnia_lj
on Oct 9, 2003 -
65 comments
Arnie wins in california, a victory for Mr schwarzenegger. For a man whose acting ability was described as going all the way from A to B, lets hope for the sake of californians that he is somewhat more adept at politics.
posted by johnnyboy
on Oct 8, 2003 -
190 comments
California voters recall Gov. Gray Davis
55-45 percent and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger with
45 percent of the replacement vote. That's where the money is in the
Iowa Political Markets for tomorrow's recall election. To see how well MetaFilter's pundits fare in predicting the results, I'm offering a bribe ...
posted by rcade
on Oct 6, 2003 -
117 comments
If Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected California can say HASTA LA VISTA BABY to 9 billion according to this article by investigative reporter Greg Palast. According to Palast it turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter with Ken (Enron) Lay and Michael Milken as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off. For memories sake here are a few of the the details behind the
California energy scam in this report. Arnold has previously said that he does not remember such a meeting with Ken Lay.
posted by thedailygrowl
on Oct 4, 2003 -
62 comments
The Cali candidates, Adam to Zellhoefer, are all listed at California-Recall.com ...and each gets their own page to tell you about themselves. Interesting lesser-known candidates include:
Angelyne ("I'm EXTRA large on top, I have a TINY waist, and my hips are JUST RIGHT!"),
Joel Britton, "retired meat packer,"
Art Brown - "I started for publicity, but now that I'm running, I kind of want to run" (such enthusiasm!),
William Chambers, "railroad switchman/brakeman,"
Mary Cook, an "adult film actress" who wants to tax breast implants and wire the Governor’s Mansion with live web cams ("We've had Brown, we've tried Gray, now it's time for some blonde").
Then there's
Michael Jackson (no, not that one; this guy's a Satellite Payload Project Manager),
Trek Thunder Kelly, "Business Executive/Artist,"
Paul "Chip" Mailander, "Golf Professional," and
Paul Mariano - "I am the only candidate who will appoint Davis as Chief of Staff in charge of the day-to-day governance of California, the job he was duly elected to do." And many more...
posted by Artifice_Eternity
on Oct 1, 2003 -
11 comments
Garret Hardin and his wife Jane were found dead last Thursday in their house of Santa Barbara (California), presumably a double suicide. His 1968 essay
Tragedy of the Commons (a critique of both communism and
laissez-faire capitalism in the light of natural resources constrains) was one of the most widely known works of this expert in population and ecology. Garret was 88 and Jane was 81 and both were in poor health. Last week celebrated their 62nd anniversary.
They were members of the Hemlock Society (now know as
End-of-Life Choices).
posted by samelborp
on Sep 20, 2003 -
11 comments
The Gropenator will have to spin his wheels for awhile:
California's Vote Delayed by Court Over Punch Cards. And here's the kicker--it's deja vu all over again, Bizarro stylee:
Bush v. Gore Outlives Its Limited Warranty for Use in CaliforniaThe Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore was meant to be a ticket good for one ride.
"Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances," the justices said in their unsigned opinion in 2000, "for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities."
Three judges on the federal appeals court in San Francisco, all appointed by Democratic presidents, decided yesterday to use it for another ride anyway.
posted by y2karl
on Sep 15, 2003 -
8 comments
Metro Santa Cruz's 50 Reasons to Not Vote for Arnold for Governor
And no, none of the reasons are because of awful movies like
Jingle All the Way or
Junior.
Real reasons like the fact that he's a chauvinist, his father was a Nazi, he used to run the President's Council on Fitness and now admits to using steroids to win bodybuilding competitions, he has no plan on how to fix the state's budget issues just that he's gonna clean house. Or the fact that he made up the story about gang raping a black woman for the
Oui interview back in 77' (think about that, he lied about participating in a gang rape, that's pretty demented behaviour).
Interesting reading and damned scary if this is the next governor of the 5th or 6th largest economy in the world.
posted by fenriq
on Sep 10, 2003 -
41 comments
What Made Gas Prices Spike So Sharply in California? One hint, it has something to do with greed and the ability to arbitrarily raise one's profit margin.
The oil refineries decided that they weren't making quite enough money so they decided to gouge California by nearly tripling their profit margin to $.69 a gallon.
My response is to say I'll vote for which gubernatorial candidate that's going to go after the corporate greedheads who seem to think its perfectly acceptable behaviour to bleed people because they can.
Are you listening
Arnold,
Gary or
Georgy?
posted by fenriq
on Sep 9, 2003 -
21 comments
Don't just stand there - Bustamante! Arnold Schwarzenegger would lose to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante by five precentage points if the election were held today, according to a Field Poll of likely voters released today. Margin of error: 4.5%. How useful are polls like this when there are so many undecided factors still floating about?
Poll tabs and analysis here. [PDF]
posted by GriffX
on Sep 9, 2003 -
38 comments
Schwarzenegger caught in lie about affair, statutory rape. After years of speculation and denials by both parties, Arnold Schwarzenegger's longtime "avenue of relaxation" and partner in outerwear spills the beans to British television. The affair was first alleged by
Lacy H. Rich, Jr., a source of pictures and information for the infamous
Spy Magazine article. In 1995, with his health deteriorating and the mainstream media ignoring his full allegations, Rich made numerous
posts to Usenet with claims such as drug use, a longtime affair with Gigi that started when she was 16, car theft, and even prostituting himself to
Paco Arce, a gay Spanish millionaire with an interest in bodybuilders.
More plo chops, anyone?!
posted by insomnia_lj
on Aug 17, 2003 -
39 comments
Lock 'im up. For a long time. That's what I say you do with anyone who commits multiple counts of vehicular manslaughter (
in this case, ten). But will this driver even be
charged, or will we just let him be? After all, he's 86. We, as a society, can't make this nice old man spend the rest of his days in prison, if convicted? Sure, the public discussion regarding his age in this horrible
tragedy centers around the right of older people to continue driving without testing their ability and senses, but I want to focus on this: What's the unwritten age limit on convicting and sentencing someone like Russell Weller?
posted by msacheson
on Jul 21, 2003 -
102 comments
Recalls for Dummies When, back on the 12th, scarabic posted a FPP on the Gray Davis recall, as a right coaster I couldn't work up any enthusiasm to follow the eight different links. It just wasn't my dance.
But the Sacramento Bee took the transcript of their editorial board's internal discussion of the issue, expanded and cleaned it up, then posted it on-line. One stop shopping, with the minimum of tendentiousness allowable by law. Now I've got a much better understanding of what's at stake, including why it could be a blessing in disguise for the Democrats.
posted by mojohand
on Jun 23, 2003 -
12 comments
Theme Park Accidents "Four-year-old Brandon Zucker was injured, and ultimately left with brain damage, when he flew out of the ride vehicle and was pinned beneath it. A state investigation blamed Disneyland personnel for loading the Zuckers into the vehicle incorrectly, and cites additional ride design flaws. As a result, Roger Rabbit became the first attraction ordered closed for repairs under California's new theme park regulation law."
posted by schlaager
on Jun 22, 2003 -
14 comments
Avocado Memories. It's more than a photo collection and group of essays about his parents' failures with interior decoration; it's a nostalgic website brought about by Wes Clark's impulse to let his children know what it was like
growing up during a more innocent age.
posted by debralee
on Jun 17, 2003 -
9 comments
Buddhism tames the amygdala Covered recently on Metafilter (
here), new research at the University of California San Francisco Medical Centre ( into the "Happy Buddhist" phenomenon ) shows that Buddhist meditation techniques
"can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory." [BBC] -Is this the Rx for a nation of Americans gripped by fear? Do Christianity, Islam or Judaism have effective techniques to tame the amygdala too?
posted by troutfishing
on May 22, 2003 -
48 comments
Fun Friday link it is not. unless you like Rivers on Fire! Eco-devastation! "We Californians are really not very good conservationists - we're very good preservationists," he said. "Conservation means you use resources well and responsibly. Preservation means you are rich enough to set aside things you want and buy them from someone else." Ouch. I don't think environmental issues are ever as simple as some would like to believe. We live in a complex, interconnected world and this excellent--long--piece has given me a lot to think about. Ironic, in the beginning the author talks about finding a paper suitable to
Print the article...i say, just
Post it. Who needs paper for an article about resource conservation?
posted by th3ph17
on May 9, 2003 -
6 comments
22 year old schizophrenic Farrah Russell was rebuilding her life. But when the plug was pulled on the state program that allowed her to subsist, she took her life.
Her heartbreaking story is a cautionary tale of the dark consequences of state budget cuts. While politicians
argue over tax stimulus proposals that
benefit the wealthy, while
wild numbers are applied to war budgets, the States have been forced to cut social programs in order to survive. Whether it's
California teachers,
Connecticut and
New York residents dreading tax hikes,
Pennsylvania public transportation, or
Texas prescription drug coverage for the poor, the States, supposedly United, have been left out to dry. While the States have been forced to cut their programs, groping for survival, Washington remains silent in its
mission. It does
not remember history. Why do we turn a blind eye to the hidden costs? What can be done about this? And how do we make it stop?
posted by ed
on May 5, 2003 -
53 comments
The Los Angeles Times goes multimedia. For the past few weeks, the LA Times has begun a significant push into offering video, audio, and interactive Flash on their website. One of the most interesting aspects is that the paper has moved one step beyond simply replaying AP Television clips as many sites have done; the LA Times writers are stand before the cameras and microphones themselves and report stories in a stuttering, non-hairsprayed, introverted demeanor that I find very refreshing, though so far I have gleaned very little additional information from it. When does (or can) this mode of journalism on the web rise above gimmickry or 'just because we can' and add value to a written article? Can video/tv news rise above mere spectacle?
posted by 4easypayments
on Mar 20, 2003 -
3 comments
