George W. Bush’s presidency is on the verge of collapse, and going around without a tie is probably not enough to save it. Even the candidate to succeed his brother, Jeb Bush, is snubbing him. As the AP via Yahoo News reports:

“On Monday, Bush jetted to a conservative corner of Florida‘s Panhandle, about as far as he could get from the state’s three in-play House districts. To the White House’s embarrassment and irritation, Republican Charlie Crist, whom Bush came to help in his bid to succeed the president’s brother as governor, decided at the last minute to skip the chance to be by the president’s side.”

The Democrats have not always stood up to Mr. Bush nearly as much as they should have, but they have been demonized enough for being “obstructionist” by Republicans and “indecisive” by the media to make it clear that they present some sort of alternative for the authoritarian rule of George W. Bush and his radical regime. The power grab that began with the “authorization” to torture people and spy on citizens without warrants justified by memos issued by ideological fascist lawyers at the Justice Department can come to an end with the election of a strong Democratic majority in the House and Senate.

The 2006 midterm elections offer the chance to start a change, some sort of change, from the war-mongering and war-profiteering Bush regime. And taking a majority of governorships can help lay the groundwork for a Democratic, non-Hillary Clinton candidate for president in 2008. Between now and then, the full range of possible crimes by the Bush administration, the CIA and their corporate associates should be investigated thoroughly by Congress.

[photo: AP]

[photo of pelicans in flight over Tomales Bay by Daniel J. McKeown, 11/4/2006]

I saw some very cool grey birds hanging out at Fisherman’s Wharf.

[photo: The Bay Bridge from San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, 11/3/2006, by Daniel J. McKeown]

[photos: San Francisco’s O’Farrell Street, 10/29/2006, by Daniel J. McKeown]

Letting out his frustrations in a TV interview, Gavin Newsom hinted that he might not run for mayor of San Francisco a second time. As KPIX-CBS5 reported:
“Newsom told Matier that he sometimes feels overworked and passionless about his political career.”
My response to Mr. Newsom’s ideas of not running again: Fine. Please. Don’t.
[photo: AP]

As the election approaches, the Republicans see the disaster they have created in Iraq and are looking elsewhere to change the subject. They are best off finding another issue yet again after trying and failing to make the economy one that helps their cause. Here’s why: the housing market has slowed down, and debate continues about whether the next direction is up or further down. As businessweek.com noted:

“While the most bearish scenarios may be becoming increasingly unlikely, the housing market probably isn’t out of the woods yet. Even the most upbeat forecasts call for new-home construction to keep declining nearly as much as it already has so far.”

All this doesn’t seem to matter to some Republicans, who often lie and mislead about the economy. Here’s what George Will said on Sunday (via mediamatters.org):

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. You can have your opinion about whether the economy is doing well but objectively, again, the economy — 4.6 unemployment. Growth quarter after quarter over three percent. It is just objectively good.”

Using the word “objective” is very clever, George, but it only increases the falsehood of the claim when checked. Here’s the actual data about that “growth quarter after quarter,” from courier-journal.com:

“Economic growth slowed to a snail’s pace of 1.6 percent in the just-finished quarter — the most sluggish showing in more than three years, the Commerce Department reported yesterday in Washington.

The main culprit: a housing market that has turned sour. Investment in homebuilding was cut by the largest amount in 15 years.

“A downturn in the housing market packed a wicked punch for the U.S. economy … but it was not a knockout blow,” said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.”

The government, even after all this modest growth, is still running borrowing billions every year more than it takes in. War profiteering has continually embarrassed Halliburton-KBR, a company where Dick Cheney used to be the CEO. Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed, both closely connected to the Bush administration, turned government control of the gambling racket into a private tool of enrichment. Michigan’s economy has gotten worse as the U.S. auto industry continues to decline. George W. Bush has offered America stupid ideas like increased steel tariffs and farm subsidies and trying to dismantle Social Security and war for oil in Iraq, and they haven’t worked. Bush and the Republicans have done a lousy job on economic policy–growth rates for jobs, wages, the stock market and GDP are all at lower levels than under Bill Clinton–and hiring a guy from Goldman Sachs to try to make it all sound good doesn’t work this time, with such a lousy record to sell.

[photo: Marcus Jerard and Derrick Carter DJ at the Endup, San Francisco, 10/29/2006, by Daniel J. McKeown]

Phil Angelides is probably not the kind of candidate Warren Beatty would have been, but he should be chosen as governor of California in this 2006 election. As his Wikipedia entry (currently) states, he has a solid liberal record that would align him with most of the state’s popular politicians:

“In 1972 he walked door-to-door, campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. In 1973, while still in college, Angelides unsuccessfully ran for Sacramento City Council against a popular incumbent. He again ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 1977 – these races, however, fostered relationships with political and business mentors that lead to later opportunities. He was an early supporter and fundraiser of the eventual 1988 Democratic Presidential Nominee, Michael Dukakis, and maintains a strong friendship with him to this present day. Mike Dukakis has referred to Phil as “one of the five or 10 best people in American politics today.” [4] His work with Dukakis led him to serve as the chairman of the California Democratic Party from 1991 to 1993. He helped to lead not only Bill Clinton to become the first Democrat to carry California in 28 years but also having California be the first state to elect two female senators in the same election, Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. His efforts have been beneficial for the California Democratic Party, because since 1992, California has consistently been a Democratic-leaning state in each subsequent Presidential election, and both Senate seats have remained Democratic.

After losing in the general election on his first attempt as State Treasurer in 1994, he was elected to this post in 1998 as a Democrat and re-elected in 2002. Also, before his election as Treasurer, he served as Co-Chair of the Sacramento Mayor’s Commission on Education and the City’s Future from 1995 to 1996. Angelides worked for a number of years for the state of California‘s Housing and Community Development agency (from 1975 to 1983).”

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a lousy choice–has a below average record on state policy, having spent his early term pushing far-right measures and only in the last year repositioning himself politically. As the Los Angeles Times reported (via Huffington Post), Schwarzenegger’s attempt to force through his right-wing agenda failed terribly in 2005:

“In a sharp repudiation of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Californians rejected all four of his ballot proposals Tuesday in an election that shattered his image as an agent of the popular will.

Voters turned down his plans to curb state spending, redraw California‘s political map, restrain union politics and lengthen the time it takes teachers to get tenure.

The Republican governor had cast the four initiatives as central to his larger vision for restoring fiscal discipline to California and reforming its notoriously dysfunctional politics.

The failure of Proposition 76, his spending restraints, and Proposition 77, his election district overhaul, represented a particularly sharp snub of the governor by California voters. It also threw into question his strategy of threatening lawmakers with statewide votes to get around them when they block his favored proposals.”

So instead, Schwarzenegger is running again this year the way he ran in the recall campaign of 2003 that put him in office–throwing around “centrist” gestures like signing some sort of bilateral agreement with Tony Blair and trying not to link himself with George W. Bush. Well for those who heard him say that “To link me to George Bush is like linking me to an Oscar,” consider the change that represents from his 2004 Republican convention speech:

“We are one America — We are one America and President Bush is defending it with all his heart and soul.

That’s what I admire most about the President: He is a man of perseverance. He’s a man of inner strength. He’s a leader who doesn’t flinch, who doesn’t waiver, and does not back down.

My fellow Americans — My fellow Americans, make no mistake about it: Terrorism is more insidious than communism, because it yearns to destroy not just the individual, but the entire international order. The President did not go into Iraq because th
e polls told him it was popular. As a matter of fact, the polls said just the opposite. But leadership isn’t about polls. It’s about ma — It’s about making decisions you think are right and then standing behind those decisions. That’s why America is safer with George W. Bush as President.”

So unless that above passage sounds reasonable (it doesn’t–not now, not then), Phil Angelides is the better pick for California governor this year.

[photo: Reuters]