by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Arnold refuses to take a comprehensive look at the problems that have created our budget deficit and now appears to be pushing what essentially amounts to Prop. 76. It is a power grab, short and simple. The voters rejected it overwhelmingly in 2005, with 62.4% voting NO. It was a bad idea to give the governor more power over the budget then and it is still a bad idea now. SacBee:

Heading into a week in which he's expected to deliver grim news about the state's fiscal health, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is also preparing to propose changes to the budgeting process.

The Republican governor will offer a "budget reform" plan when he outlines his goals in his State of the State address Tuesday. Such a proposal, if successful, would likely give the executive office more authority in making cuts even after the Legislature has passed an annual spending plan.

When Arnold talks about budget reforms, he means being able to cut the budget whenever he feels like it. Meanwhile Nunez has some ideas of his own.

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

1)       Obama’s in the Eye of the Beholder, inthesetimes.com

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3329/obamas_in_the_eye_of_the_beholder/

2)       Cheney brings his messageto MacDill, sptimes.com

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/15/Hillsborough/Cheney_brings_his_mes.shtml

3)       This week On Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio & John Morgan, afterdowningstreet.org

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/26761

4)       DFA Recap, seanbraisted.blogspot.com

http://seanbraisted.blogspot.com/2007/09/dfa-recap.html

5) An appeal - send $$ to Ron Paul, dailykos.com

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/16/85431/8239

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Patty Berg
Assemblywoman, 1st District

Just because someone doesn’t like something doesn’t make it controversial.

Sushi is not controversial food. Some people just don’t like it.

The same is true of AB 374, our bill that would give terminally ill Californians the right to use medication to control their own dying.

Some people don’t like it.

But 70 percent of California voters do like it. So where’s the controversy? Is it controversial just because the people who don’t like it make a lot of noise about it?

Anything that has support of 70 percent of the voters is not controversial. In the public mind, the issue is settled, and now the government just needs to catch up.

In Oregon – the only state that respects the full rights of dying people – they adopted the Death With Dignity Act through the initiative process. And some people say that’s how we should do it here. Even the governor has said that might be the way to go.