by Daniel I. Medress [courtesy of Blog for America]

I was over at the Politico reading their recent article about DFA Wireless: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8219.html

It is a good piece and has a couple of nice quotes from our Chair, Jim Dean, and our Finance Director, Rachel Moss.

While I was there, I also came across this: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7917.html

It is a story about the tough primary reelections that, both, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rep. Ron Paul are now facing as a result of their presidential bids.

Danny, Communications Director

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

You know that extended standoff on the state budget over the summer? That colossal waste of time? Well, it turns out they didn't even get the numbers right. Shocking, I know.

"It's fair to say the revenue situation is not going to be as good as we had hoped," Finance Director Mike Genest said in a recent interview. "It's likely the $6.1 billion (projected operating deficit) will be higher."

Of course, we knew this was coming. When you play games with numbers, you end up losing in the end. While it is clear that what should be happening here is the reinstatement of the Vehicle License Fee (VLF) to overcome much of these deficits, that doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.  

Part of this is just fluctuations in income and sales tax receipts. That's going to happen sometimes. The Finance Dept. tends to wear rose colored glasses on its projections. It kinda has to lie to the Legislature/Governor to get things done in some ritualistic dance they've been doing ever since the late 90s when the Davis Administration thought it would be a great idea to cut taxes. But, of course, that's not it. We've bet on winning a bunch of lawsuits and getting a ton of money for basically selling off EdFund, California's student loan program, and the lottery.  Flip it for some of our losing bets... 

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Apparently, the Aussie CRP Finance Director, Michael Kamburowski decided to go on walkabout and has resigned his position. I am sure this has nothing to do with Sunday's expose in the Chron. Nah. Every state political party dreams of having a Finance Director who has been slated for deportation, arrested for overstaying a tourist visa, sued the Department of Fatherland Security and had vast resume gaps.
 
Isn't it ironic, don't you think, that this all happens the same day reports surfaced that California Congressman Brian Bilbray demanded that the immigration status of striking hotel workers be checked to benefit a contributor who owns the hotel? Oh and the contributor, well, he just happens to be the former chair of the San Diego Republican Party.
 
I suppose this is to be expected from a party whose Vice President deems himself exempt from Executive Orders because he is not a part of the Executive Branch. The utter audacity of all of this is maddening.  

I wonder when Chris Matthews, of CRP not MSNBC, decides to head north for a Labatts?