Berkeley Bubble

Two key health care bills that are backed by Arnold, and the Dems respectively, have now been approved by the California legislature, without a single Republican vote, mind you. The Chronicle has great coverage on this.
Both plans are versions of the “pay or play” model–requiring businesses to either provide health care to employees, or […]

The Chronicle offers this story on the fallout and reaction of the legislature to the discovery that the Governor’s administration has secretly been building a new death chamber at San Quentin.
What’s truly troubling about the “sneaky” manner in which this project was built is the curious pricetag–399,000 dollars, given that any project of $400,000 or […]

Less than two weeks after John Edwards visit to Berkeley, Barack Obama will visit the Golden State this week, and will make a stop in Oakland’s Frank Ogawa plaza on Saturday. (You can RSVP for free tickets for the event here.) Following the rally, Obama will attend a $1000 per head fundraiser at […]

Incumbent mayor Jennifer Hosterman took a 115 vote lead today in the race for Pleasanton Mayor against Republican challenger Steve Brozosky. Brozosky had been in the lead prior to the counting of over 3,000 absentee ballots over the weekend by the Alameda County Registrar’s office.
As of late Thursday, Brozosky was in the lead […]

Richard Pombo officially conceded victory to Congressman-elect Jerry McNerney yesterday, and while he was gracious, he also suggested that he STILL wants to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act before he’s done:
Pombo emerged Wednesday afternoon at his Tracy campaign headquarters, telling reporters he wished McNerney good luck and said was proud of his accomplishments in Congress.
“I […]

Check out this picture from the Contra Costa Times of an Arnold supporter walking INTO a poll and voting with a T-Shirt with a picture of Arnold
on it that says “Govenator”:

Here’s the caption for the picture: “Kevin Veliz, sporting a Governator T-shirt, signs his ballot at a polling station in Concord.”
This is absolutely […]

How terrible is it to be the Secretary of State who has to report on his official website that he just lost?
Check out Bruce McPherson reporting that he just lost to Secretary of State-elect Debra Bowen here:
Debra Bowen (Dem) 3,180,635 48.5 %
* Bruce McPherson (Rep) 2,929,187 44.7 %
Glenn McMillon, Jr. (AI) 107,102 1.6 %
Forrest Hill (Grn) 139,520 2.2 %
Gail Lightfoot […]

As a follow-up to my earlier post about the two justices who are coming up for re-election on the California Supreme Court, I write to provide more information and recommendation for the positions of Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, 1st Appellate District, Division 1 through 5. Again, personally I don’t believe […]

Apparently, Karl Rove’s planned 72 hour grassroots operation endgame includes San Francisco. It turns out the Republicans are now sending out direct mail hitting Supervisor Chris Daly in a last-ditch effort to get Rob Black elected in the District 6 Supervisor’s race, as Paul Hogarth notes in this article:
On October 31, the local […]

Because we live in an area with a lot of trick-o-treaters, I’ve decided to go all out this year and get a cheap fog machine. Yes–you heard right–a fog machine, to add to the Halloween atmosphere in front of my door. The fake cotton spiderwebs are also a nice touch–but everyone has them, […]