The problems of poverty keep getting pushed from one place to another (literally). We have so many people out of work and losing their homes. What, exactly, are we going to do about it? Other than criminalize poverty, I mean:

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―A local attorney opened up his private property for homeless campers to have a place to stay, but authorities are already warning they will have to shut it down.

Attorney Mark Merin is leasing his property on 13th Street and C Street in Sacramento to about three dozen homeless men and women for one dollar a year, which is meant to give them the legal rights of lessees and property renters.

"It's a matter of human dignity, and it's life and death," said Greg Bunker, executive director of Francis House in Sacramento.

According to Sacramento police, it isn't legal to live in a tent anywhere in the city for longer than 24 hours. The department wouldn't say when, but did say that they would soon enforce the city ordinance and kick the homeless persons out of the property.

The lot is located in a mostly industrial area, with only one home backing up to the property, but the city has received complaints about the campers from nearby residents.

The bizarroland of teabaggers has begun and Cavuto is all over it up in Sacramento. People dressed up in costumes that can't even speak make up the drama that Cavuto is trying to bring to his republican day. As he interviews weirdos who attack President Obama, who wants to bring change, the teabaggers don't want no stinkin' change.

I'm very angry. We don't want change. They can keep the change.

Cavuto finds some kids holding signs against paying taxes. They sure are worried about paying taxes.

Kid: We pay too much taxes and I don't want to pay for someone else's debt...

I guess they enjoyed the Bush administration that brought us nothing but chaos and ruin to America and the world. They seem to forget that it was under the Karl Rove and his merry band that helped destroy the financial sector.

Martin Schram in The Sacramento Bee (h/t BSM):

Along with the handful of presidential candidates who dropped out so far, voters might be better served if a hundred or so of my political-reporter and pundit colleagues dropped out as well – and were replaced by journalists whose beats are about national security, economics, environment and health care.

Read more...

The Courage Campaign has been trying to raise awareness in California over the latest electoral power grab on the part of Republicans that I blogged about here. You can sign the petition protesting the "Dirty Tricks" initiative here. However, when confronted with whether or not he supported the initiative, Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger dodged by saying he hadn't read the initiative.

Well, that just doesn't fly here in the Golden State. So Calitics' Julia Rosen asked the blogosphere to supply Arnie with a copy of the initiative and 2,148 Courage Campaign members came through:

On August 23, Gov. Schwarzenegger said:

"I haven't looked at the language and I'm not saying I'm against it or I'm for it or anything."

Well, now he has 2,148 opportunities to read the thing and say whether he is for it or against the dirty trick initiative. Thanks to you.

We asked the blogosphere and thousands of Courage Campaign members to send him a copy and boy did you deliver. I had to get my weightlifter friend to help me cary them in to the Governor's office. Mind you it is about 100 degrees in Sacramento today. [..]

Like Rick Jacobs, the Chair of Courage Campaign says:

Thousands of Californians have made one simple request of the governor: please spend five minutes and read the initiative closely. The next time the Governor is asked publicly about this initiative, he will no longer have an excuse to play dumb about this partisan dirty trick.

The Republicans are pushing this dirty trick in an attempt to steal the election and our "post-partisan" governor is claiming ignorance. Has he failed to grasp the lessons of the 2005 election? In California, partisan power grabs are unacceptable and divisive. It is time for him to do the right thing.

Thank you to all who took action. If you have not done so already, please join the Courage Campaign and pledge to defeat this initiative. No matter where you live, you can help us beat back this dirty trick.

I'm not a big fan of the electoral college system, but this article doesn't make me feel better about amending it.

The New Yorker:

At first glance, next year's Presidential election looks like a blowout. But it might not be. Luckily for the incumbent party, neither George W. Bush nor Dick Cheney will be running; indeed, the election of 2008 will be the first since 1952 without a sitting President or Vice-President on the ballot. At the moment, survey research reflects a generic public preference for a Democratic victory next year. Still, despite everything, there are nearly as many polls showing particular Republicans beating particular Democrats as vice versa. So this election could be another close one. If it is, the winner may turn out to have been chosen not on November 4, 2008, but five months earlier, on June 3rd.

Two weeks ago, one of the most important Republican lawyers in Sacramento quietly filed a ballot initiative that would end the practice of granting all fifty-five of California's electoral votes to the statewide winner. Instead, it would award two of them to the statewide winner and the rest, one by one, to the winner in each congressional district. Nineteen of the fifty-three districts are represented by Republicans, but Bush carried twenty-two districts in 2004. The bottom line is that the initiative, if passed, would spot the Republican ticket something in the neighborhood of twenty electoral votes-votes that it wouldn't get under the rules prevailing in every other sizable state in the Union.

If you haven't seen it already, take a look at the video "Hacking Democracy". (h/t Todd for link)

Sacramento Bee (reg. req'd.): (h/t Nathan)

Seeking to address concerns over the integrity of elections, a House panel is weighing controversial legislation requiring states to bring back the paper ballot as the official record .

Many, if not most, states are expressing concerns that Congress is moving too fast with pending legislation that would take effect in time for the 2008 national presidential elections, with primary balloting beginning in January.

Only 17 states have voter systems that would be in compliance with the proposed law.

The legislation has divided advocacy groups. State elections officials are opposed to it. County officials don't like it.

Even among those who support the idea, including California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, the consensus is it will cost a lot more money than cash-strapped Congress may be prepared to spend.

First of all, Hillsman did a great job on the spot:

SACRAMENTO - A 30-second spot for the "Clean Money" Proposition 89 campaign is apparently catching fire in the so-called political echo chamber: the network of alternative, underground, and electronic messaging that drives younger voters to the polls.

And it's gone even more viral since its debut. It's being featured on one of the most popular political Web sites in the country: Crooks & Liars.

"I don't know if we'll pull this off,'' said Bill Hillsman, who created the ad and is the media consultant for Connecticut senatorial candidate Ned Lamont's insurgent campaign against Sen. Joe Lieberman, ``but if the spot goes out enough, people will say this is how I feel, and if for no other reason but this, I'll go out and vote.''

You can check out the ad here.