Jonah Horowitz

California is having a special election May 19th. I've run into a lot of people who either 1) don't even know it's happening, or 2) don't know very much about it. This post should serve as a basic guide to people who haven't been following things closely. Please feel free to leave comments if you disagree (or agree) on my take of things.

I'm going to discuss the current mess first, and then I'm going to go into deeper background later.

Over the past few budget cycles the State of California has basically had a broken budget. Instead of fixing the budget, the legislature has papered over the problem using various accounting gimmicks. This culminated in the budget that was passed last October for the 2008-2009 budget year (that started in July of 2008).

The budget that passed was a farce, both because it was based on completely unrealistic estimates of revenue and also because it used more accounting gimmicks to hide the broken budget. Predictably, a few months later, during the mid-year budget review, it was discovered that there was a projected $40 Billion hole in the budget. This hole has since grown to $48 Billion.

To solve this problem, the legislature debated and finally passed a new revised budget that gets us through the end of of the 2009 fiscal year. This budget relies on a lot of cuts to important services, a few temporary tax hikes, and $8 Billion from the ballot initiatives on the May 19th election.

My quick answer on how to vote on these - NO on all of them. Here's my explanation:

1A: The California budget cap.

Prop 1A would cap California's budget based on a trend-line of revenues going back for the past 10 years plus inflation and adjustments for population growth. It would require that any revenue that came in above that trend-line be placed in a "rainy day fund," but it wouldn't let the rainy day fund be used to get us back up to the trend-line. In fact, even in years where we didn't make it to the trend-line, we'd still have to put more money in the rainy-day fund. This might sound like a good idea - force Sacramento to "live within it's means," but over time it would force cuts to every aspect of State government and destroy essential services. It is basically a rehash of Prop 76 that voters rejected in the 2005 special election. It has a bunch of other nastyness in it, but I'm trying to keep this short. If you want a more detailed analysis, go look at the California Budget Project Writeup.

1B: Bribe the Teachers Unions

Prop 1B is nothing but a naked bribe to the teacher's union. It was placed on the ballot because back in 2005, the teacher's union was the most effect opponent of Prop 76. In return for them supporting 1A in this election, they get 1B, which only goes into effect if 1A also passes. 1B sets aside part of the 1A "rainy day fund" to force the state to live up to it's obligations under Prop 98. There's a whole post to be written about how the teacher's union has thrown everyone else under the bus on this one. It's a pure example of how progressive politics are broken in CA and need reform. We have too many special interest groups that only look out for themselves and don't work together for all Californians.

1C: Payday loan from the Lottery

Prop 1C makes up the largest chunk of the $8 Billion the state is trying to raise with this budget - $5 Billion worth. Basically, it borrows against future revenues for the lottery and then tries to make up for it by increasing the future earnings of the lottery. The increased earnings are far from guaranteed, it doesn't solve the structural problems in the deficit, we'll be paying off the loans for years and it will be mostly marketed to poor people.

1D: Steal money from the kids

Prop 1D steals money from children's services and puts that money in the general fund.

1E: Steal money from the Mentally Disabled

Prop 1E steals money from the fund created a few years ago for mental health services.

1F: Stick it to the man!

Prop 1F would prevent pay raises for the legislature and other constitutional officers for years when the budget is in deficit. This is a stupid, vindictive ballot initiative that will do nothing to solve the structural problems, and it won't even save much money. If we don't pay the people in government, only rich people will be able to serve. Do we really want a state government that is only comprised of wealthy people?

Update: Changed "Mentally Handicapped" to "Mentally Disabled" - not sure what the current PC syntax is for this.

Dianne Feinstien's DC number is 202-224-3841.

I know Network Neutrality isn't high on most people list of priorities, but Di Fi is trying to get this language put in the Stimulus Package during the conference committee.

Obama's stimulus bill sets aside between $6bn and $9bn for expanding American broadband into rural areas, and Senator Feinstein hopes to (PDF) augment this Broadband Technology Opportunities Program so that it "allows for reasonable network management practices such as deterring unlawful activity, including child pornography and copyright infringement."

http://ping.fm/g96EG

This is pretty bad. We've been fighting against this crap for several years now. They're using Child Porn as a straw man argument to allow internet service providers to spy on their customers.

Just call and tell her staff that you don't want the language to be added. Say you don't want ISPs to spy on their customers.

I'm sorry this isn't the best thought out post, but it's critical that people call right away. The conference over this bill is going on right now.

The last few days in DC we did some sightseeing. On Thursday we got a tour of the Capitol Building by one of the staffers in Jackie Speier's office. I woke up too late to get the Library of Congress tour. Instead I headed to the Westin City Center to check-in. Sara and I decided to stay there together since the hotel prices had dropped after the inauguration. Previously, Sara had been staying at her Mom's hotel and I had been staying with my little sister, Maria.

After the tour of the Capitol Building, we ran into the Right to Life March outside. Ugh. Stupid self-righteous fundies. We took shelter in the American Indian Smithsonian Muesem and had lunch at the restaurant there. If you're looking for food on the Mall, I strongly suggest going there.

That night we had a party for Sara's 25th Birthday. Sara and I were late because we decided to grab dinner at this place called The Grill from Ipinima. Cute name, but the food wasn't very good. Afterwards, we went to the hotel and crashed.

Friday we just luxuriated in sleeping in for most of the morning then we went to the National Portrait Gallery where we were able to see the Shepard Fairey original of the Obama HOPE poster. That night we went to sushi with Maria and her friend Hallie. The sushi was quite excellent, but Sara was confused by the spoon that came with her miso soup.

Saturday Morning we wanted to get up really early so we could see the sunrise from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I asked the hotel to give us a wake-up call at 5:30 AM, and then a follow up at 6:00. They screwed up somehow (or we slept through the first call), so we didn't get up until 6:15. We panicked, got dressed quickly and ran to the nearest Metro stop. It turns out that the Metro doesn't start running until 7 something on Saturdays, and we didn't see a Taxi around so we walked over to the Mall instead. We got there just in time to see the sunrise, but it was overcast, so it was less dramatic than I would have liked. Later, we took the tour of the Washington Monument, which I highly recommend if you're in DC. Saturday night we went to stay with Janet, and she made us an amazing Lamb dinner.

Sunday, before my flight out of Dulles Airport, Janet and I went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Annex at Dulles. It's an amazing collection of planes that they don't have room to show downtown. Included in the collection is a full size prototype of the Space Shuttle, a Concorde and an SR-71 Blackbird. It was truly and amazing exhibit and I'm glad I got to see it. I also got Janet to go in a flight simulator with me which was kinda fun. I was the pilot and she was the gunner so she just had to sit there as I kept turning us upside down and sideways.

To top the whole trip off, I got an Economy Plus seat with nobody sitting next to me on my direct flight home.

I've already written a lot about Tuesday during the day, so I won't rehash that. Tuesday Night I met up again with Sara for the Youth Ball. Sara and I got all decked out for this ball - me in a tux, and her in a beautiful ball gown. We got there pretty early. The doors opened at 8 and we were there before 7. We found some friends in line and waited with them for the doors to open. It was bitter cold outside, and since Sara didn't have a full length coat, her legs (and toes) were frozen by the time we got in. Thankfully I had remembered to wear my new topcoat, so I was generally okay, although it was really cold, and I would have liked to have been wearing my warmer hat. At the ball the next day, some of our friends showed up with sweatpants on under their dresses and boots that they changed out of at coat check - this was a pretty brilliant idea and I'd recommend it to any lady going to formal events in the dead of winter when they're going to be forced to wait outside.

The Youth Ball rocked. I hear that some people had trouble getting into the main ballroom, but Sara and I got in fine. They served a decent spread of food before the ball started so we weren't hungry all night. The ballroom was very nicely set up with two stages and a place for Obama to appear. They started out the entertainment with Kid Rock followed by Kanye West, then Obama made a brief appearance and speech followed by Fallout Boy. MTV broadcast live from the ball. After the main entertainment was over, we went into the secondary ballroom and danced to DJs until almost 2 AM.

I got home late after that and I didn't set an alarm clock. I was really wiped out and I ended up waking up at 2:30 in the afternoon. Sara had sent me a couple "are you alive" text messages. I got up, got dressed and headed straight to the Staff Ball. It started earlier and was the most well organized event that put on by the Inaugural Committee that I attended the entire time. We got through the line really quickly even though it was over a block long. They had lots of metal detectors which sped up the process. They also had, surprise!, volunteers directing the line. The ball was held in a huge arena size building called the DC Armory. The event was open bar, and they had a good selection of food from all around the world on the buffet tables. The only hitch there was that the blue cupcake frosting turned your lips blue too.

The best part of the Staff Ball was the speeches given by Biden and Obama. They both gave pretty long speeches that thanked the staff for all their hard work. Pluffe also spoke as well as a campaign surrogate who made fun of all the times staffers almost killed him. This was topped off by a performance by Arcade Fire and Jay-Z. The only bummer about the Staff Ball was that it ended so early. I still think it was my favorite event of the whole trip. I'm glad Sara was able to take me and not some "deserving volunteer".

After all those posts about the Purple Tunnel of Doom, you might think that I didn't have a good time on Inauguration day, or even during my trip to Washington, DC. The Purple Tunnel experience did suck, but the trip, and even Inauguration Day were redeemed eventually.

I have to start with the fact that I got to spend a lot of time with Sara during the trip. It was the first time since she got back from Albuquerque that we've been able to spend a lot of concentrated time together. It was nice to take a vacation with her. I also got to hang out a lot with my Little Sister, Maria. We haven't really gotten to spend much time together since 2001 when we took a trip to New York City after 9/11. My friend Janet and I also got to hang out as well (Janet and Maria were stuck in the Purple Tunnel too).

Monday of the trip, while exhausting was a lot of fun. Sara convinced me to go to RFK Stadium and be a volunteer making care packages for the troops overseas. I dragged Maria along with me too. It was a totally crazy project called Operation Gratitude. They set up a tent covering most of a football field and in that tent they built a huge set of assembly lines. As the "Volunteers" we helped "Participants" fill zip-loc baggies with various goodies and then pack the bags into cardboard boxes. It's really hard to describe the controlled chaos going on in the tent, or really just the amazing amount of work that was done. Overall, they made 85,000 care packages and a large number of letters to soldiers. This works out to over 3.37 packages per second for 7 hours. During the day several elected officials and cabinet secretaries-designate stopped by and helped. Michelle Obama also stopped by at one point. It was a lot of fun to be caught up in the Mayhem.

Monday Night, after stopping by for some cocktails with Sara's Emily's List Friends, we went to the Netroots Nation Ball. We were late getting there, so I don't think we really got to see as much of it as I would have liked, but if we hadn't been so wiped out from getting to Operation Gratitude at 8:00 AM, I think we would have had a good time. As it was, the food was good, and the last little bit of Howard Dean's speech was excellent. We went out to drinks after that and met up with some of Sara's friends from New Mexico. It was a fun little packed party at a bar, and I didn't end up getting home until almost 2 AM - in hindsight, I probably should have just gone straight to the Mall and gotten in line.

Last thought on the Purple Ticket Fiasco:

Overall the line was pretty peaceful, and I'm not really sure there was a huge need for a police presence. This changed however as we got closer to the event and people became worried that they might not get let in. People started challenging other people who were just trying to leave the tunnel and accusing them of trying to cut the line. Also, the crowd started booing and shouting at people trying to leave the line. I think that some people may have been cutting, but I suspect most of the people were just trying to leave. This was the only time where having volunteers and police around would have really calmed things down and made everyone feel better. The other thing that would have helped greatly would have been barricades along the line so that there was a clear delineation as to where the line would be and where people could walk. Signs stating where the purple line was supposed to be would have been good too.

Okay, that's the last I'm going to write about the Purple Tunnel of Doom unless some new news comes up.

First, there's a really good summary of what went wrong posted up on Huffington Post. (As a side note, Jason Linkins is becoming one of my favorite bloggers)

I just wanted to expand on what I wrote in my earlier post about what it was like in the tunnel. We got there on time at 6:30 AM. The gates were supposed to open at 8:00 AM, and the tickets told everyone to arrive early and be prepared for long lines. We got there and followed the line into the Purple Tunnel of Doom until we were probably somewhere under the Reflecting Pool.

There were 7 people in our group and we were just amazed at how long the line was. Sara's quote was something along the lines of, "I don't feel so special anymore". We figured there were at least 20k - 45k people in front of us. Janet thought the line resembled the kind of line you'd find at a football stadium and therefore reasoned that the line contained 45,000 people. Sara thought the number was closer to 20,000. I think it was probably somewhere between those two.

The line did move, it wasn't totally static, but it wasn't evident why the line was moving. We didn't know if it was just bunching up and getting wider and shorter, it was actually moving because people were getting in, or if it was getting shorter just because people were giving up and leaving.

At around 10:30 AM, the listed starting time for the festivities, I called my mom and tried to get her to put her phone near her TV so we could hear what was happening. At this point we were going up the ramp leading out of the tunnel and I thought that just maybe we'd get past the security gate in time to see the swearing-in. My mom couldn't get the audio to work well enough for it to be worth listening. Much later, we'd call my dad with my sister's phone and get it to work better.

The line was generally cheerful for most of the morning. The people behind us kept trying to start a wave. It sort of worked but it would die out after about 100 feet or so. We did some Obama chants and Yes We Can/Did chants. The worst part was the police escorts that kept coming through. They would come through with their sirens blasting and just expect this huge line to get out of the way. That and they seemed to alternate which side of the tunnel they came down. One of the motorcades was particularly awful - the third or fourth car back was a police surburban with its siren going full blast. The officer driving the car had a megaphone and was leaning out the window yelling at people to get out of the way or they would be arrested. It was totally stupid because by the time you could hear what he was saying, you were already out of the way. It just created unneeded tension.

I didn't see any police or volunteers in the tunnel. This was probably the biggest problem. If there had been baracades, signage, and volunteers keeping the line working like a real line, I think this whole mess could have been avoided (or at least it wouldn't have felt so bad). It's stupid that there was so little organization because I know of many people who would have volunteered to work the inauguration.

One last point: The people who got stuck in the Purple Tunnel of Doom ended up far worse off than people who didn't get a ticket. Not only did they have to wait in a tunnel in freezing temperatures for hours, but a lot of them didn't even get to see any of the inauguration. If they hadn't had tickets at all, they probably would have gone onto the mall with the general crowds or stayed in a cafe, bar, or hotel room to watch on TV. This was an epic fail on the part of the PIC and the Police. The fact that all of the Obama staff, the ones who put in 16 hour days, didn't get to see the inauguration turned a sad day into a tragedy.

These are pictures and video from the Purple Tunnel of Doom from my earlier post.

This is the speech that Obama gave to his staff at the Obama for America Staff Ball. It's missing the first few moments, and it's a little shaky, but it was an awesome speech and I wanted to share it.

A lot of people have asked me how may Inauguration Day went. Mostly family members and friends back in San Francisco. I haven't had time to talk to anyone yet because I've been so busy with different events in DC.

I've been planning to come to the inauguration since November when Obama won. Sara heard a rumor that she might get tickets to one of the Official Inaugural Balls, which sounded exciting, and I just wanted to be here to see Obama sworn in. It seemed like it would be an experience to remember - just to be able to say to my grandchildren, "I was there". It didn't turn out so well.

When Sara got her tickets to the Inauguration, she only got two tickets to the swearing-in ceremony, and two tickets to the Youth Ball. Since her Mom also came to DC, she decided to take her Mom to the swearing-in, and me to the ball. I planned on watching the swearing in from the mall with my sister, or with my friend Janet.

After I arrived in DC, I decided to call around to the Senators and Congressperson who represent me and ask them if they had any extra tickets. Fienstien's office said that yes, she had some tickets and they were on a first-come, first-served basis. I dropped what I was doing, and I dragged Maria to the Senate office building to try and get tickets for us. It took us awhile to find the correct building, but once we did, we found a line outside the senator's office. The line was pretty short, but it wasn't moving at all. It turns out that the senator had given her last "extra" ticket to someone about 12 people in front of me. Now we had to wait until 5pm to get any unclaimed tickets. I waited there until 5:45pm (about 3 hours) or so and they finally gave out tickets. I was really excited because, not only did I get a ticket, but I got one in the same purple section that Sara was in, so we would be able to watch the event together. Sara, in the meantime had acquired a ticket for me also, so this meant that we a ticket for my sister, Maria too. Altogether we had 7 people in our party and 8 tickets.

Our plan was to meet up at 6:30am at 3rd and D st and go the security checkpoint from there as a group. There was chaos at 3rd and D, so we met at 3rd and E, but we met up and went to the security checkpoint. There was a crazy line stretching back that we followed into what would be eventually known as the Purple Tunnel of Doom.

We ended up stuck there until about 11:10 when the line suddenly surged forward and we moved all the way to First st. For whatever reason, security closed the gate and started turning people away, but the Yellow Gate was letting Purple Ticket holders in. It was generally just chaos and confusion. Nobody knew what was going on or why. There was lots of misinformation being passed around. In the end, we never did get in. We listened to the inaugural address on Maria's cell phone set to speakerphone. She had called my Dad and had him put his phone next to a TV.

Overall, it was just a horrible experience. The thing is, the situation had just enough control to it that we were lulled into thinking they knew what they were doing. I think if it had been more chaotic, we might have just left and gone back to a hotel room or something. I should note that a lot of Obama's staff was stuck in that Purple line too. It's really a tragedy that the people who put in 18 hour days to get Obama elected didn't get to watch him get sworn in.

The day was redemed however later, but I'll save that story for another post.

The more I read it, the more I like the analysis done by the History News Network blog. In this post he lays out some of the foreign policy problems facing Obama as well as some possible solutions. I'm not sure I totally agree with all of this, but it's an interesting take.

First, in Iraq, contrary to what most Americans have assumed, Obama has not called for the withdrawal of all American forces from Iraq. Rather, he has called for the more limited withdrawal of combat troops, a policy that ultimately differs little from those advocated by President Bush and Senator McCain. All would leave tens of thousands of American soldiers permanently stationed in Iraq, much as they are in Germany, Qatar or South Korea.

Such a normalization of the occupation is morally and politically unacceptable to most of the world, including most Iraqis and a large percentage of the American public, all of whom expect American forces to withdraw fully from Iraq in a timely manner.

You can read the rest of the article here.

The Great Hack from The Great Hack on Vimeo.

#GreatHack

Go, vote no on prop 8.

(While you're at it vote no on 4 and if you're in SF, yes on H)

I've been meaning for the past couple of days to put together a summary of my arguments for voting for Obama. I may still get around to it, but in the meantime the New Yorker has posted a much better article than I could ever write.

You can read that article here.

Every few years the Republicans come out screaming about voter fraud. Anyone who has really looked at this knows it's basically BS. The reality isn't that there aren't people out there that might like to vote fraudulently, it's that there isn't a good way to actually do it. You just can't really cast enough ballots to move an election. Talking Points Memo has a really good breakdown/summary of the current ACORN mess.

Vote registration fraud is a limited and relatively minor problem in the US today. But it is principally an administrative and efficiency issue. It is has little or nothing to do with people casting illegitimate votes to affect an actual election. That's the key. What you're hearing right now from Fox News, the New York Post, John Fund and the rest of the right-wing bamboozlement chorus is a just another effort to exploit, confuse and lie in an effort to put more severe restrictions on legitimate voting and lay the groundwork to steal elections.

I was talking to my girlfriend about this the other day. I don't think the people running the republican party really believe in the voter fraud. They just see it as a convenient way to whip up the base and also pass laws that restrict voting for the poor and minorities. The base I think actually buys into the whole scam, but then, the republican base isn't known for its keen intellect.