by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I will admit that I'm occasionally a bit of a policy wonk. Not always, but you know, I have a degree in the whole "policy field" and I sometimes like to talk policy (or write as the case may be). One policy that I know reeks of fear-based politics with little to show in return: Jessica's Law. Sure, it won easily, and even Phil Angelides endorsed it.  Really, only a very select few spoke out against it. Fear is a bad poliy basis, and there seemed to be little reason for this law other than FEAR. Sen. Jackie Speier's bill had already passed and provided most of the protections of Prop 83. And the provisions that it lacked were just plain bad policy.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Mary Lyon

The bridge disaster in Minneapolis should finally make us face the bridge we really have to repair. There is another bridge that needs crossing. And it's that unmentionable bridge, that fearsome Bridge-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, The Bridge WAY Too Far, especially for America's loyal, patriotic CONservatives. They fear to tread that way even more than they shrink from accountability. More than they dread bringing an end to their war of choice. More than they even fear bin Laden or Saddam or some boogeyman to be named later. In fact, to them, the worst terrorist of all isn't either of these, or any of their friends or associates. It's the obligation to pay taxes – especially to the federal government.

What much of America still doesn't want to understand or accept is the harsh but necessary reality that comes with a large, sprawling society with many shared needs and demands. Like, say, maybe a bridge about which we can feel secure when we drive onto it. The Minneapolis bridge disaster is just the latest disgrace that illustrates America's refusal to connect the dots. It motivated me to revisit an effort to do just that, written in time for last Halloween – called "The Last Scare Tactic."

The bottom line, there and here, is simply this:

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Today's meeting of the state Democratic Party Labor Caucus was billed asa great debate between "net neutrality" and "speed matters." In theend, however, both sentiments were embraced as resolutions and willlikely be merged somewhere in the murky middle.

The debate came across as abstract and esoteric even to many caucusmembers, much less the general public. But the debate involves a keypublic policy question: who will determine the future of the Internet?

At issue is whether a portion of bandwidth (essentially, the decisionabout how fast of a frequency your Internet will have) should bereserved for telecommucation companies in an effort to expand Internetaccess and improve speed. This could violate the concept of "netneutrality" because companies could contract with some contentproviders to carry their websites at a faster speed. The fear is thatthis would create a "two-lane system" on-line, whereby big contentproviders would be easily and quickly accessible while smaller websiteswould be slow and sluggish.

There's more... 

Cartoon courtesy of codinghorror.com

by hekebolos [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

Juls, Bob Brigham, Brian Leubitz and Lucas O'Connor.

FEAR THEM!

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

At a CCPOA rally, Arnold requested that crime victims demand that their legislators pass his $10+ Billion prisons package.  Unfortunately, he went for the ol' tried and true GOP theme: FEAR.

"If we don't have a prison reform plan by next month, the federal courts will take over, put a cap on our prison population and order the early release of inmates," Schwarzenegger said. "And those criminals will be roaming around on your streets and in your neighborhoods, and your neighborhoods and streets will not be safe." (SacBee 4/24/07)

All of this comes in the context of Arnold's plan to ramp up the incarceration in California.  Hey, Governor, do you think you could ramp up state mental health programs, so that we could avoid some of the crimes? Or improve dropout rates and the economy so we can prevent these crimes? Or facilitate better communication between police and the communities they serve so that we can catch criminals that are actually committing crimes?

  It's not that prisons aren't overcrowded, they are. It's just that Arnold's solution, endless prison construction, only just leads to a feedback loop of more crime. Let's work on getting solutions on the table, not just stop-gaps.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By John M. Simpson
the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR)

Meeting in a special session, UC Berkeley’s faculty senate struggled with parliamentary procedures to reject resolutions that would have asked Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to delay signing a $500 million deal with oil giant BP to create an alternate energy research institute.

With the faculty's failure to stand up, the UC Board of Regents needs to prevent Cal Berkeley from becoming Big Oil U.'s next campus, UCBP.

An article by Richard Paddock in the Los Angeles Times lays out what's at stake. He writes: