Push polls, obstruction, and trends

Last night I was push polled by someone obviously hired by the Jerry Brown campaign.  It took about 15 minutes as a charming young woman read the very wordy questions.  Started simple with questions about the candidates for several offices, but towards the back it was all about Brown and Whitman – with question after question along the lines of “if you were told that Meg Whitman was a vampire that exclusively sucked the blood out of infants her worshipers bring to her mansion, would you be more or less likely to vote for her?”

In any case, something’s working for Brown.  He’s up five points in the latest PPP poll.  Where did that Whitman hundred million go?  Probably into pissing voters off.

….

The big news of the day – the Republicans, with the help of a couple of Democrats, blocked debate on the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  Apparently they don’t even want to discuss it.  McCain threw a tantrum.  Lady Gaga’s effort to lobby the two “moderate” Republican Senators from Maine fell short.

Franken got some dust in his eye when delivering an anecdote on the issue.

Oh, and in case you thought DADT might not be about homophobia, here are Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss’ words of wisdom this day:

[The armed forces should] exclude persons whose presence in the armed forces would create unacceptable risk to the armed forces’ high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion. In my opinion, the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would very likely create an unacceptable risk to those high standards. [It will lead to] alcohol use, adultery, fraternization, and body art. If we change this rule of ‘Don’t Ask, Dont Tell,’ what are we going to do with these other rules?

….

This poll suggests that battleground state Democrats could do well by forcing the Republicans to a vote on Obama tax cuts.  But do they have the balls?

Senator Levin appears ready and hopes the debates will start on Thursday.

Republicans and conservative Democrats in the House are putting enormous pressure on Pelosi to place all of the tax cuts into one bill instead of placing the universal cuts in one bill and the special cuts for the wealthy in the second.  Why are they afraid to segregate the issues?

That was a rhetorical question.

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A story quietly brewing, but polls all over the country have been trending Democrat over the past couple of weeks.  There’s the Brown poll above, and in the latest polls Boxer have Boxer up.  But it’s not just in California.  Even the largely meaningless “Generic Congressional Ballot Poll” has been trending Democratic.

I wouldn’t assume that people are changing their minds necessarily.  It could be that liberal voters are getting tired of being told by the media that they won’t vote, and they may be moving into the “likely voter” categories, thus moving the polls accordingly.  It might also be that independents are paying attention to the tax cut story.  In any case, if the trend continues we could see a change in the media narrative about whether the Democrats will lose one or both chambers.

In any case, the trend is charted below.

And for further thought, these were the Presidential race polls for about this time in 2008.

USA Today/Gallup, 9/7/08: McCain 54, Obama 44
ABC/WaPost, 9/7/08: McCain 49, Obama 47
Gallup, 9/9/08: McCain 48, Obama 43
Gallup, 9/12/08: McCain 47, Obama 45
Hotline, 9/12/08: McCain 45, Obama 44
Rasmussen, 9/13/08: McCain 50, Obama 47
ARG, 9/15/08: McCain 48, Obama 45
Gallup, 9/15/08: McCain 47, Obama 46
Rasmussen, 9/16/08: McCain 48, Obama 47
GWU/Tarrance, 9/18/08: McCain 47, Obama 45

Eight California city officials arrested in salary scandal

Bell, California. The list includes some City Council members. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before.

According to a neighbor, they had to use a battering ram to knock down the Mayor’s door!

Opposition to Richardson Grove revision from…. Albany?

Not New York anyway.  But the city adjacent to Berkeley feels a stake in the controversy.

My question – did they take a stand on the widening of Interstate 80?

Albany has, to my knowledge, California’s only Korea Town with a great theater which exclusively plays Korean film.

Wikipedia says this of the city’s history:

In 1908, a group of local women protested the dumping of Berkeley garbage in their community. Armed with two shotguns and a twenty-two-caliber rifle, they confronted the drivers of the wagons near what is now the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Buchanan Street. The women told the drivers of the horse-drawn garbage wagons to go home, which they did quickly and without complaint. Shortly thereafter, the residents of the town voted to incorporate as the City of Ocean View. In 1909, voters changed the name of the city, primarily to distinguish the city from the adjacent section of Berkeley which had previously been named Ocean View. On a vote of 38 to 6 the city was renamed in honor of Albany, New York, the birthplace of the city’s first mayor, Frank Roberts.

I think this entry to Wilipedia may need updating, at least as far as what they are “trying to attract.”

The major retail and business areas in Albany are Solano Avenue, which is a pedestrian-oriented street lined with mainly small shops, restaurants, and services; San Pablo Avenue, which is more automobile-oriented; and an area near the Eastshore Freeway, which the city is trying to attract big-box stores and offices, and currently houses a two-story Target store.

The band Metalica resides in Albany.