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Diamond and Huff. As Joan Baez and Judas Priest sang, "We both know what mem'ries can bring, they bring Diamond and Huff." That's how it sounded at least. Anyway, which one of these two would you trust?
You probably already know that the Orange Juice’s own fabled hell-raising liberal/Occupy blogger, Greg Diamond, is running for state Senate up in the north-OC District 29, which includes the hotbed of Fullerton, Brea, Yorba Linda, Placentia, and most of Anaheim! (more too, see here)
Well, being the very picture of probity, the voluble and prolific blogger will not write here about his own run, loath to resemble one of those candidates who abuses his fiefdom to tirelessly toot his own horn. But, hey, I can write what I damn well please, and I say it’s Orange County news, when one of our sitting state Senators, the very Minority Leader, draws such a compelling challenger.
That would be Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff. If you have heard of him, you are probably thinking “rectal valium,” in regards to his hallmark bill of last fall, allowing school workers to administer that drug to epileptic children, as part of a larger project of making school nurses unnecessary.
But more to the point, Diamond Bar’s Huff, after years of being a typical backslapping Sacramento insider, recently ascended to the level of Senate Minority Leader, and for years has been packing local city councils – particularly that of La Habra – with his aides and acolytes, in much the same way that the regrettable Congressman Ed Royce has been foisting useless politicians onto Fullerton for a decade or two.
And, the Sacramento Republican Senate’s faith in him notwithstanding, Huff can’t really be called a good conservative. For many years the most conservative Republicans fought tooth and nail against the very corruptible and corrupted institution known as Redevelopment Agencies, until finally they were joined by our new fiscally conservative Governor Jerry Brown and the vast bulk of Sacramento Democrats following in his footsteps. But one of the final holdouts, fighting hard to keep the RDA’s, was none other than state Senator Bob Huff, who was named “Legislator of the Year” by old-school liberal League of California Cities last year for being what THEY called (and he proudly echoed) the “Quarterback for Redevelopment.” And – gosh, I almost forgot about this – this is while Huff’s WIFE was a well-paid consultant for one of the biggest redevelopers in the state! (Hat-tip to Steve Greenhut)
I’m going to make a point of regularly writing about Huff here, with the intention of convincing independents and Republicans of the district that my friend Greg Diamond will look out for your interests, and the public’s money, far better than Huff.
But, just look at those two guys up above. Roughly the same age, probably of comparable intelligence and competence. But there’s Diamond, passionately in action, helping somebody out over the phone, as per damn near always. And there’s the smirking, lazy-eyed Huff, making a face to his contributors that suggests, “You know I can line your pockets and mine. Just let me keep doing it.”
An obvious elephant in the room is that Greg’s victory (as likely or unlikely as it may be) would usher in a 2/3 majority for Democrats in the Calfornia State Senate. Is this a good or bad thing for Californians? We can have that discussion here as well… but you know what I”M gonna say.
Here, let’s let Greg introduce himself for a bit here, from his new website:
I’m Greg Diamond. Welcome to my 29th State Senate District campaign website!
I’m with both the Democratic Party and the Occupy movement, My involvement with Occupy since October 2011 is what spurred me to run this year. We have a rare chance to change our society for the better. I’ve stepped up to do so — will you join me?
I’m running on a platform of:
- Balancing the budget to pull California out of the muck of obstructionism
- Health and Social Services reforms that leave more money in our pockets
- Demanding transparency and fairness in government — not just serving the rich
I hope that you’ll enjoy poking around my website. You’ll find a lot about me, about Occupy, about current political issues, about opportunities to help foster change. I hope that I’ll give you reason to hope — and to organize, volunteer, call your neighbors, donate, and vote! This is a chance to change how people think about their relationship to politics. Help me amplify your voice in this campaign!
I continue my introduction at this link.
I trust Diamond, because Huff could care less about actual and perceived LGBT students when he tried to write legislation to undo most of the school safety laws for the LGBT community.
So there it is. I’ve been avoiding looking at it in our drafts.
I do think that you need to give Huff his own say here. Luckily, you can do that pretty easily through his Wikipedia page, where a large proportion of the edits in the past eight months are by someone named Billbird2111. I can’t imagine who that could be!
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Huff&action=history
More recently, someone named Kooperfan seems to have taken over the heavy lifting, as well as someone named OCNative. That sounds familiar….
This may be why the achievement of the “Rectal Valium” bill is described this way:
I think that it’s unfair to say the “he” got the bill signed into law; pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline seemed to have a lot to do with it — as did a particular nonprofit to which GSK donates generously. (More on this over the course of the campaign!) No mention in Wikipedia that “volunteers” are used rather than school nurses, as part of Huff’s jihad against unionized labor; no mention either that the “administration” of the drug involves stripping children naked from the waist down in their classroom, as if having an epileptic fit at school in the first place is not enough.
I spoke to one of my doctors about the rectal valium bill when it was proposed and he was puzzled as to why it was seen as being needed, given that the administration of rectal valium by a “trained” lay volunteer (or anyone else) was not a priority in first response to such a seizure. But don’t worry; I don’t think that the rectal valium bill is the worst thing around and I doubt that it will be a major theme in my campaign.
Two things that it implicates, however — Sen. Huff’s gratuitous union busting at every opportunity and the need to follow the money, generally back to donors, to explain his political activities — surely will.
I might as well announce this here: check out some of my writing today on Huff, delicately entitled “My opponent is a huge rotten homophobe.” (He is, you know!) Again I don’t plan to post my campaign writings as stories here, using my special powers as a Contributing Editor, but only to take advantage of the same resources as any other commenter.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/09/1090076/–My-opponent-is-a-huge-rotten-homophobe
Good stuff! That must be what Munson was referring to.
Ayup! Well, there may be more from him on the topic, but this is a start. By November 6, he’s going to wish he had asbestos shoes.
The first thing Greg and the Dems would do with their two thirds majority is ram through more taxes. Why, because they are Democrats. While Huff is horrible on a lot of things, my only hope in keeping him elected is that he will vote against more taxes.
Greg will answer this. Is that really the first thing you’ll do, Greg? Ram thru “taxes?” Taxes on whom? The first thing, or not?
I’ll tell you for myself, if I were in the leg and had the power, I would institute an oil extraction tax, here in the one state that doesn’t have one – and have it go to education. And there are a lot of corporate loopholes, going back to Schwarzenegger, that I would close, that would help solve a lot of our problems. Can’t answer for Greg though, or for all the Dem Senators and Assemblymen that we might have soon.
No, the first thing I’d do is unpack my office. The second thing I’d do is go out drinking with Julio, Sharon, Steve Young, Joe Dovinh, and county’s other newly electeds.
I have a four-point plan on raising revenues, which I presented to Bartlett above. It all makes sense, which is bad news for those who want a Somali-style government-free paradise in Cali.
When we’re in last place out of all the states for business climate and you wanna raise more taxes and make it even worse, why on earth would any rational person support that? Liberals of all people should know that when you kill the host, the parasites will die also.
Allan, if I could demonstrate to you that we are NOT “in last place out of all the states for business climate,” would you abandon your conclusion, or does your conclusion not actually depend at all on your premise? I am not going to bother decapitating your argument if it’s going to continue going about its business headless like a rutting praying mantis. Liberals of all people know that facts matter.
The wealthy are undertaxed. You can tell because of the amount of money they put into seeking to convince everyone that they are not undertaxed. But do you know what I’d really like to see you defend? California’s lack of an oil severance tax, putting it alone among oil producing states. Ready? Go!
allan great points dems have ruined this state . YOU CAN GIVE THEM ALL THE NUMBERS THAT WE ARE LAST IN THE BUSNINESS CLIMATE . 1 they dont care , dont listen , and they dont belive it . yet the stupid voters and their unions goons keep putting them in office .. we will keep sinking into the dirt with people like brown with his tax n regulate policys .. unions , and over the top tax n regulations , . busniness are leaving this state and the people in charge are zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz .
And what facts are you using Greg to base your opinion on? This article has been making the rounds lately. I guess CEO’s actual experience are wrong according to you.
http://news.yahoo.com/ceos-rank-texas-tops-business-california-worst-235456642.html
It’s your assertion, Allan — let’s check out your facts. Your facts are: “CEOs say so.” Specifically:
You’re not measuring business productivity, or income, or anything else that makes sense. You’re just measuring how much CEOs like to complaint. CEOs hate regulations. They hate having to buy Worker’s Comp insurance, to pay overtime, to make sure that their products aren’t killing each other and their services aren’t fraudulent. In Texas, they can get away with all sorts of things; in California, not so much.
To me, California has a great business climate in part because these regulations — when enforced, that is — keep the bad companies from driving the good companies out of business with unfair competition. But CEOs love lowering workplace and consumer standards — that’s a big part of why they move overseas to manufacturing “paradises” like China — and so they squawk when they can’t lower them in our state.
By all means, Allan — if you love Texas’s climate, you can go to Texas.
Yeah, but I’ll vote against some of the spending and subsidies that he supports.
I’m on record as supporting the compromise tax plan, the oil severance tax, a “split roll” reform on Prop 13, and legalization and taxation of cannabis and of hemp cultivation. I don’t think that any of these should scare you, but they might mess up some people’s dreams of cutting the government’s hamstrings. If you scare easily, or if you really want to drown the government in a bathtub, then by all means you can choose the mercantilist candidate.
Oooh, Mercantilist, Bartlett, them’s fighting words!
Huff had a recall attempt on him for wanting to support tax increases.
Maybe if we made the regulations easier to comply with we would not have the need to chase out businesses.
See, Matt — right there is the sort of feedback that I would absolutely be willing to listen to as a legislator. Sometimes assertions that it’s too hard to comply with a regulation may turn out to be just boilerplate whining, but sometimes they will turn out to reflect real problems that can and should be fixed. When the latter happens, that’s where people can and should work across party lines.
Here’s another one for you Greg. Instead of keeping taxes lower and thereby keeping rich and productive people around paying taxes and supporting your all important welfare state, some are just getting fed up and renouncing their citizenship altogether. Now you will get no taxes out this guy. I hope you feel better.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/tax-arbitrage-year-facebook-founder-renounces-us-citizenship#comments
Spell it out, Allan. I believe that what you’re saying is this:
“The U.S. should not enact policies that might lead the rich to renounce their citizenship.” Have I got that right or would you like to correct it.
My reaction: the rich already renounced their patriotism. If they renounce their citizenship as well, at least that’s truth in labeling.
Hot of the presses.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/05/gov-jerry-brown-state-budget-deficit-now-16-billion.html
This is the kind of failed leadership Greg aspires to. If he had his way he would try to tax us out of this deficit and chase even more businesses and wealthy people away. I guess we’ll just have to hit rock bottom and de facto bankruptcy before any real action is taken to fix this problem. Oh and don’t try to blame Republicans Greg. This deficit is all on the Dems.
Today’s magic word is “supermajority.”
“This deficit is all on the Dems.” That is either moronic or a deliberate lie. Here’s why.
(1) California’s economy is intertwined with a national and world economy.
We are still as a nation recovering from the financial collapse of 2007-2008 — and of the blocked attempts to fix it with countercyclical spending, the way previous generations learned was necessary until paid-for idiot voodoo priests of economics (at whose temples you worship) convinced too many people that up was down and too many of the rest that economics was too hard to think about.
Some of the blame belongs to Clinton and the Republican Congress that rammed financial deregulation past any objections he had. Much more blame belongs to Bush. Far too much belongs to the Congress of the past four years, where a minority prevented good legislation due to the unprecedented use of the Senate filibuster and, more recently, the House majority just decided to stop making any pretense of good governing at all.
But how does this affect California? First, we’re part of the same national economy. Second, federal aid to the states has been cut way back as a result of the federal deficit and the Republican Congress’s desire to let especially the biggest states flounder because that’s where Democrats live. (California gets especially hurt by this.) Now you’re going to say that the Democrats controlled the Senate. No, not in effect, we haven’t, because the incredible increase in the filibuster means that we’ve needed 60 votes to do anything, and we haven’t had 60 Democrats for more than a few months, let along 60 Democrats excluding DINOs like Lieberman and Ben Nelson.
(2) We’re still suffering from years of Republican-Governor budget tricks and foolish errors.
Remember the Vehicle License Fee that got Gray Davis recalled and a triumphant Schwarzenegger elected. (Davis undid it, but too late; had he not, Schwarzenegger would have.) Go back in time and prevent the elimination of the fee increase and our fiscal problems mostly (and maybe fully) go away. Schwarzenegger wanted to be Santa Claus and pretend that there would be no bad effects to giving everyone back this money without replacing it; critics noted that it would likely lead to budget problems — as it did.
Now combine that with the stupid accounting tricks that Schwarzenegger used while he was vetoing budgets if they didn’t pretty much comply with his every demand — because he didn’t much care who got hurt so long as the rich were all right — and we were bound to pay sooner or later. That day has come. Brown, to his credit, has demanded a budget that was a clear and honest as everyone can handle — and we can see that we are clearly and honestly in deep trouble and have been even since Republicans were hiding the truth.
And, again, your complaint about Democrats holding power overlooks some junior high school-level civics and math: it requires a 2/3 vote to raise taxes (and now fees), even to keep the state from collapsing, and Republicans have been hell bent on not providing any votes for it at all.
Politically, this makes sense; if they can rile people up at the government with lame slogans like “failed leadership” then maybe they can elect a few more corporate geishas to the legislature. Policy-wise, though, it’s cynical and cold-blooded malfeasance. If businesses really were hurting, then Republicans would have to act responsibly, but instead business just shave small amounts off of their profit — which they don’t like, but they can handle — while those with fewer resources get sick, lose their homes, and die.
“Supermajority,” Allan. If you don’t actually understand how supermajority requirements at both the state and federal levels allow Republicans to block Democrats from doing what needs to be done, while continuing to blame Democrats because most of the public doesn’t understand the significance of a supermajority requirement, then you should not be writing about politics and the economy at all. If you do understand it but are just trying to hide it, then you’re a lying bastard rather than an imbecile.
Maybe if we gave the Democrats full power, we could find out if their ideas truly worked or not instead of the Kabuki budgets were are forced to get. Republicans should be forced to find candidates appealing that they would get majorities in sacramento.
MATT I WISH THEY COULD BUT WE ALL KNOW THE PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS HAVE BOUGHT N PAID THEIR CANDIDATES TO RUN THEIR TAX , TAX, AGENDA RUNNING ALL THE PRIVATE SECTOR OUT OF HERE AND SUCKING THE TAX PAYERS DRY .. WHAT WILL THEY DO WHEN THE WELL RUNS DRY . OH I KNOW TAX THE RICH , OOPS THEY ALL LEFT TOWN .. I SMELL BK COMING .