Maybe people would vote for an American Idol Tax? Who cares? Why politicians are thrilled with yesterday’s vote; Also–Kudos to Chu, Pleitez

Arnold Schwarzenegger should have had a singing contest for all the different tax and budget proposals. Maybe more people would have shown up at the polls in California.

The only measure to muster a victory was the most obvious one, the limit on pay raises.  That was like putting up a “kick me” sign on the back of public officials.  Yes, for sure. All others, no. Perhaps to the detriment of our state government.  Services were already going to be cut. Now they’ll be cut more.  When there’s little faith in government to begin with, it’s hard to sell the voters on a sense of value.

Still, if politicians know that sending something to the voters is almost always a sure loser, then something else is at work here too.

The governor and the legislators shouldn’t have taken it this far. Putting things up for a  vote is just a massive cop- out that signifies  a real  inability to govern. The politicians shouldn’t be able to use the electorate to dodge their own lack of responsibility.  But now the politicians can say,”We gave the voters a choice and this is what they wanted.”  But do we truly want underfunded public services, inefficient state government, bad schools? I don’t want that.

Tuesday’s vote just gave our elected officials a convenient alibi.

They can now say, “Not our fault; blame the voters, (or lack thereof).”

The tough decisions have been made –not by our elite elected representatives–but by a handful of voters who showed up on Tuesday.

CHU’S VICTORY, PLEITEZ IMPRESSES

Congrats to State Board of Equalization Vice Chairwoman Judy Chu, victorious in the race for the open 32nd Congressional District seat. She won the most votes to beat  fellow Democrat state Sen. Gil Cedillo, but did not gain a majority to avoid a runoff.  Chu survived almost every tactic Cedillo could throw at her.

The real surprise, however, was not the Asian defeating the Latino. The real story is the strong showing of  Emanuel Pleitez,  a Stanford grad from the Eastside of LA, who showed he learned a thing or two from his time on the Obama campaign. The former Goldman Sachs executive used the internet and his personal contacts to run a strong third against the  two veteran Democrat frontrunners.

Clearly, Pleitez is the future.  Not Villaraisgosa. Not Cedillo. Look for Pleitez to resurface again soon somehwere–victoriously.

Catholics, abortion, Notre Dame and Obama’s common ground

I’m one of those Catholics who believe in individual choice. I don’t condone abortion, but I don’t think it’s my business, or the government’s for that matter, to restrict you or anyone else from getting one. If that’s what you want.  I’ll pray for you . But I won’t deny you.

This is all about dealing with the contradictions. For example, how does Bush a get off calling himself pro-life after making a living off death row all his political career?

So is my contradiction better than his? I think it is. And somewhere around there is where I think we’ll find common ground. It won’t be on the edges where Alan Keyes and his radical  counterparts are.

It will  definitely be  someplace quieter. And then we can make a breakthrough in this old debate.

Who made Alan Keyes pope? President Obama puts abortion debate in its place at Notre Dame

President Obama is always best when on the ropes. And when the pro-life right wanted to use Obama’s  Notre Dame commencement yesterday to highlight the president’s pro-choice position, Obama responded the way he always does.

He delivers a speech that goes beyond the protest and attempts to bring us to common ground.

That’s what Obama,  our ” man of the scrupulous middle,” does best. He showed his finesse again by delivering what I think is as good a speech as there can be on abortion today. It doesn’t solve the problem, but tries to frame the issue so at least we can talk about it.

More than a “we agree to disagree,” it was a speech that boldly suggests  we need to work toward finding a solution: Common ground. How do we get there? As Obama said, with   “Open hearts.Open minds. Fair-minded words.”

That’s why he’s president.

Go beyond the soundbites you may have heard.Here’s the excerpt from Obama’s speech that impressed me: Continue reading Who made Alan Keyes pope? President Obama puts abortion debate in its place at Notre Dame

Why are we having a torturous debate on torture?

Does it really matter what Speaker Pelosi knew and when she knew what she knew on torture?

I would be surprised if the CIA told Pelosi the absolute truth on waterboarding back in 2002.  And even if it did reveal everything to Pelosi back then, it seems absurd to equate whatever that would be (hypocrisy? Imagine that?) with the true moral crime of the U.S. employing torture as standard operating procedure.

Bush and the Republicans were in control. They were the ones  in charge of Waterboard Central. They can pull in the Dems somewhat into the current blame game, but only as fringe players.  It’s true the Democrats in general didn’t speak up as loudly and clearly as they could have. But that’s politics.  As is all the finger pointing now.

The problem is the U.S. has never spoken out as forcefully as it should have against torture. Tough to do when the country is the perpetrator on two major war fronts. Hard to really say no on torture without looking  soft on terrorism. It explains all the pussy-footing around the ethics of torture.

As a Bay Area guy, I’m apt to believe Pelosi. But all her claims about CIA lying only show how mealy mouth everyone in America , from politicians to the general  public,have been.

While  suspects were tortured for real, prime-time TV shows like “24” glorified  torture as entertainment.  If you cheered Jack Bauer, did you cheer George Bush?

Or did you change the channel?

Im afraid the voices of outrage from on  high and low, were all  for the most part, shamefully muted.

The country was whipped into a xenophobic mindset where giving the bad guys an extra dose of torture– for good measure—may have at the time  seemed reasonable.

In retrospect, what were our leaders thinking?

Emil Guillermo's amok commentary on race, politics, diversity…and everything else. It's Emil Amok's Takeout!