New Leadership in Long Beach

July 9, 2010 Leave a Comment

James Johnson, Long Beach City Council

On July 20 the City of Long Beach will have a leadership change.  Two city council seats will have new representatives.  James Johnson won the election for the 7th district, the western part of Long Beach.  James was the speaker at the July meeting of the Long Beach Democratic Club.  Two other Long Beach City Councilmembers, Patrick O’Donnell and Val Lerch were in attendence at the meeting.    James talked about many of the challenges facing Long Beach including the budget.  He mentioned that the budget will require his dedicated attention the first sixty days of his term .  

I found it refreshing that James explained that the budget was going to require some tough choices.  He said that accounting tricks or selling city assets were not the answer.  He acknowledged that hard working middle class families are facing major challenges just to meet living expenses, but he also stated how important public safety and other services are to the city.  He does not wish to increase taxes or fees and he does not want to cut services from the city.  He acknowleged that a combination of increasing revenue for the city and reducing some services must be part of the solution.  He was clear that passing debt to future generations is not the answer and he has the courage to fight for the right answer.   He did not define any specific solutions prior to taking office, but he sent a clear message that he is serious about facing challenge and being honest about what it will take to protect the future of Long Beach. 

James also talked about the 7th district .  He mentioned that parts of the district have no bank, grocery store, or other services that most of us do not even think about.  He talked about the schools and gave examples of potential solutions.  Being on the City Council of Long Beach is like being on the board of directors for a major corporation.  Each City Councilmember has substantial responsibility that affects the daily lives of many people.   The budget for the City of Long Beach is over $2 billion a year when the airport, transit system, and port are included.   James Johnson has the opportunity to make a difference for the half million people who live in Long Beach and for all the people who frequent the city.  I am looking forward to attending city coucil meetings and watching James as he defines his new role as part of the leadership of the City of Long Beach.  Please send me your comments regarding James Johnson, budget issues, or any other subject that you think is important.

Jim Brandt, Facebook  

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Gulf Oil Spill – Who is in charge?

May 25, 2010 Leave a Comment

Gulf Coast Oil Spill Damage

 

 After watching Tony Haywood, CEO of British petroleum, walk along the beach with a herd of cameras and reporters following him; it gave one the image of an oil executive running our Gulf Coast.  I must admit that the image is better than the ones over the weekend taken in his lavash office.   Is Tony Haywood in charge of our beaches?  It may sound like a strange question, but when The Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu was asked about the oil spill on the Rachael Maddow show , he said, “I only know what I read in the papers”.  Steven Chu stated that he became aware that applications to drill deeper than 5,000 feet from the surface were pushed through and approved.  These applications were approved even though we have no technology to fix a leak at those depths.   

The Mineral Management Agency is responsible for oversite.  Over the weekend several stories broke about gifts, golf outings, football games, and job offers that were accepted by Mineral Management Agency inspectors who approved oil drilling applications.  Again, I ask, who is in charge?  How can we have confidence in our government when the people assigned to protect us are engaged in conflicts of interest.   After the environment is under control, these conflict of interest issues must be reviewed.  Right now politics and the blame game must wait so we can spend all our resources saving the environment and the people affected by the disaster.  

I believe the Obama administration acted quickly and deployed resources to the region in a responsible way.  However, the events of the past few days have left me with the feeling that the administration is hiding behind the fact that they do not have the knowledge or resources to fix the problem so they are relying on BP to drive the solution.  We need the politics to be put aside.  In stead of seeing Tony Haywood walking along the beach in the news broadcasts, I would like to see our leaders driving the effort.  It was not that long ago that the oil companies drove prices to mid $4 per gallon level making life difficult for many Americans while oil company profits hit record levels.  The oil company explanation was that they had to spend so much money on R&D and their risks were very high.  Well, oil spills are one of their risks.  We had to pay the high prices then, I think all the companies oil companies should take a much more direct role to apply the resources necessary to do the right thing.  I want to see our government take the leadership role and put the pressure on the entire oil industry.   

We will have plenty of time to find blame, now we need leadership.  Let me know what you think.  

Jim Brandt, Facebook

Filed under Cause, Energy, Environment, Uncategorized

Sarah Palin confused or trying to sell books?

May 25, 2010 Leave a Comment

Sarah Palin

 

After watching a news clip from Fox News from Sunday, May 23, I could not believe what Sarah Palin said.  She actually suggested that there was a connection between President Obama’s campaign contributions from gas & oil companies and his approach to the oil disaster in the gulf.  Wasn’t Sarah Palin the one who said “drill baby drill” during the 2008 campaign?  

According to USA Today dated May 24, candidate Obama’s contributions from oil and gas companies was $900,000 while candidate McCain collected $2.4 million.  

I remember candidate Obama suggesting an excess profit tax for the oil companies when the oil companies raised their prices to record levels.  Either Sarah Palin has completely lost her ability to link one fact to another or she is just trying to promote herself and her books. 

The greater point here is that too many people have something to sell and the facts fall victim to their overall goal.  I am not happy with the way the Obama administration is handling the oil disaster.  It seems like they are more concerned with not getting blamed than they are about taking care of the problem.   I believe they should take charge and reach out to the other oil companies for more help.  It is in the interest of the other oil companies to fix this problem quickly or they will all suffer.  I think it is good that the administration acknowledges that they do not have the resources to do the cleanup themselves, but the people are entitled to oversight and we are not seeing enough of it.   This is an environmental disaster which deserves a focused effort with urgency, not a political approach that is more concerned about blame than the long-term outlook.  

I will watch the administration very closely and if I do not see more urgency I will continue to write about it, but I am not going to let the BP off the hook or mis represent facts.  Please let me know your thoughts. 

Jim Brandt,  Facebook

Filed under Cause, Energy, Environment, Uncategorized

The California Democractic Party Convention

April 20, 2010 Leave a Comment

This was my 11th Democratic Party State Convention.  Each one is unique.  The last one focused on the then Senator Obama and then Senator Clinton.  This one seemed much more issue based.  As I attended the main caucus meetings I noticed the delegates were more divided on issue positions than they were about candidates for the June Primary Election.  

Small groups conducted the real work in the halls free from Robert’s rules of order and the treasurer’s report.  People were tired of all the process and just wanted to talk about their passion.  I understood that, especially when the economy affected so many of the delegates.  The cost of parking was a major topic during the entire three days.  A fair number of the delegates sat through the speeches and expressed excitement  when Speaker Pelosi and Senator Boxer spoke; but the real democracy took place in the small groups.  Healthcare and the economy dominated all the discussion I observed.  This group of people wanted to get excited and definitely felt a need to do something with the economic and healthcare woes of recent times; but I did not see a major candidate or topic that brought them together. 

We need people to accept leadership and advance causes that will lift the people’s spirit and improve their way of life.  In my book, “Polly Dicta – giving real democracy a voice” I talked about spheres within a person’s life.  The more you can get your sphere’s to intersect so you are working on more than one at the same time, the more likely you will move your life in the direction you wish to go.  Right now we need good jobs in California.  That was the main topic by large margin.  I decided to study transportation projects because they produce high paying jobs yet advances the other major issues of energy, the environment, and healthcare.  If we are going to spend taxpayer money to increase jobs, then we should create something that will improve our way of life for many decades.  I am going to work hard to find the right project that the Polly Dicta subscribers support and work as hard as I can to make it happen.  I will be addressing citizen involvement in infrastructure projects in future blog postings.  I would appreciate your comments on the subject. 

Overall I thought the convention was very good.  It was not driven by candidates, but rather by the delegates.  I felt differently at this one than I did for the previous ten.  I felt good about the discussions and even the heated debates.  I think more talk and work with less process and formal speeches will encourage more participation and lead us to a higher quality of life.  Let me know what you think.

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Grassroots access to the candidates

April 11, 2010 Leave a Comment

Yesterday I attended a well-organized candidate forum, promoted, and managed by local grassroots activists.  Candidates seeking California state-wide offices participated.  The event had enough structure to keep the program on schedule but yet the candidates did mingle with the audience.  The format was for the candidates to deliver a speech and then answer questions members of the audience wrote on index cards.  The MC presented the questions from the index cards and the candidates did their best to answer the spirit of the questions. 

As you might expect, most of the speeches told the audience what they wanted to hear.  In many cases the questions showed a personal side of the candidate.  Fifteen local Democratic Party clubs organized the event.  I was impressed that 15 clubs could share resources and work together to promote the event.   The candidate reaction to the questions gave a glimpse into the candidate’s problem solving process and the candidate’s approach to communicating with the citizens.

The audience reaction was much more interesting and revealing than the speeches of the candidates.  When the candidates were speaking the audience was focussed; yet between speeches the audience engaged in conversations and debates about their reaction to the messages presented.  There truly was interaction between the candidates and the audience as well as among the audience themselves. 

People giving up a couple of hours during their Saturday to learn more about the people campaigning to represent them was much impressive than the messages presented by the candidates.  If more people would attend events like this one, the voters would have opportunities to see more than sound bites from TV ads.  A quick look at the character of the candidate is possible.  We need more people to organize and promote the events and we need more citizens willing to spend a Saturday afternoon interacting with their future leaders.  We need to make the effort to learn about our future leaders if we are going to influence the direction of our communities and country.  Selecting candidates that will support the citizens, not the big money and special interests begins with learning as much as possible about the people seeking the leadership positions.  We must learn as much as we can about our future leaders and then work to support the candidates we belive will represent us. 

I belive we need more grassroot events.  Please click on the comment below and let me know what you think.

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The day after Healthcare Reform

March 24, 2010 2 Comments

The long-awaited healthcare reform legislation was signed yesterday with plenty of drama from both sides of the bill.  I do not think life in America will end as we know it and I do not think healthcare is going to be available to everyone this year.  I do believe the heated debate from both sides of the issue had a significant impact on the final legislation.  The people who did not want a single payer system were successful in even keeping the public option out of the legislation.  The people who wanted a law that requires everyone to have healthcare insurance prevailed on that issue although it will be several years.  I am not sure how important my views are but I will share them with you to draw comments if for no other reason.  Your view is the important issue here.  I believe the legislation that is implemented this year is critical for America.  Stopping insurance companies from dropping families because one of their children is very sick was important to me.  Removing the ceiling on coverage was something I have worked toward for several years.  stopping insurance companies from refusing policies because of pre-existing conditions will help a significant number of Americans.  I am as concerned about the cost as everyone else.  However I know the cost is very high now to take care of the uninsured people in emergency rooms. 

When I talked with my clients who are business owners, they speak about healthcare costs putting them out of business because the other 20 industrialized nations have universal healthcare so companies from those countries do not have healthcare cost.  This allows them to compete stronger against American companies.  I know many professionals who can not leave their company because a family member has a pre-existing condition and they know that healthcare insurance will not be available to them if they go to another company. 

Over the next several months I am sure many flaws in this legislation will be discovered and debated.  I am all for that.  I do not think calling people names or trying to scare people with misrepresented facts will help us improve healthcare and reduce the cost.

I do know that reducing Medicare fraud and insurance fraud can save us tens of billions of dollars per year.  I definitely think we should use more resources to stop people from stealing from the taxpayers. 

These are my thoughts on the day after healthcare reform please post your comments and I promise to respond.

Filed under Cause, Healthcare, Uncategorized

An Endorsement Caucus Surprise

March 21, 2010 2 Comments

I attended the California Democratic Party Endorsement Caucus for region 17 (South Los Angeles County).  There were many candidates campaigning for California Assembly, California Senate, and U.S. Congress.  Most of the candidates spoke about creating jobs, stopping wars, making sure everyone has healthcare, and protecting the environment.  That was what I expected to hear.  However the last speaker was Congresswoman Laura Richardson.  Instead of speaking about how she was going to make national or world changes, she spent her two minutes of alloted time telling people where her regional offices were located (in every city in her district) and how many cases her office has cleared during the past few months.  She told her supporters that she was available for them and told them how they could work with her.  She did mention the legislation that she wrote.  More importantly, she mentioned specific improvements in her district that were completed because she successfully arranged for federal funding. 

I was surprised to hear a Member of Congress talk about the work they are doing and informing their citizens of how to work with them.  It was clear to me that the citizens were most important to Congresswoman Richardson.  Then when I discovered that she flew from Washington DC to California Friday night so she would be there to talk with her constituents and then she had to fly back to Washington to be in Congress for the Healthcare vote on Sunday I knew she was working hard to support the people who put her in office.

I do not endorse candidates because my focus is on the democratic process.  I want Members of Congress to make the interests of their constituents first.  I do not want to tell people who they should select for their representative, but I do want to share examples of representatives that  put their citizens first.  It is nice to have representatives that can give wonderful speeches and are knowledgeable of all national and world events; but sometimes I want a representative who will work hard for me and be there when I need help.

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Candidate Forum – Campaign Finance Reform

March 20, 2010 Leave a Comment

I recently attend a candidate forum that included four candidates running for the 53rd Assembly District in California.  The 53rd Assembly District is an open seat because of term limits.  The event was well-organized with significant participation from the audience.  The candidates did a good job of presenting their background, experiences, and their plan for the future of California.  A member of the audience asked the question, “Do you accept contributions from corporations”.  Three of the four candidates said no.  It is not uncommon for candidates who are not incumbents to take this stand.  Sometimes they take this stand because they  and some times it is because the special interests only give to incumbents or candidates who already have significant money.  Regardless of the candidate’s reason, the campaigns for major offices who are not funded by special interests are not competitive.  The cost to hire enough staff and support a media effort to communicate a message across a major district is staggering.  Part of the challenge is that we rely on traditional media to decide if a candidate is viable.  When people are working very hard just to pay their bills, they do not have the time or energy to do research about their elected leaders.  One of the candidates suggested that it is only a matter of time until a corporation runs for office.  He suggested that we treat corporations as people based on a mid 1800s law and since the supreme court ruled this year that a corporation has freedom of speech rights and can spend as much as they like on political elections the next step is to cut out the middle man by running a corporation for office.  The comments resulted in laughter, but there was a sense of truth in the room.

In my book, “Polly Dicta – Giving real democracy a voice”, I documented many cases where members of Congress accepted major campaign contributions from a specific organization and then the same member created or supported legislation that helped the same organization.  It is clear Congress will not act to clean their own house because the members benefit the way things work now.  We must act to carry out real change.  Cosmetic changes like ethics rules or laws will not change the process because dishonest people will always find ways around ethics laws when they are the ones who write the laws.  We must have a fundamental change to the way we finance campaigns to bring true transparency to our government.  We must elect honest people but we do not know who is honest when the process to elect our leaders encourages candidates to put the interests of organizations ahead of the interests of the people who elect them. 

The states of Arizona and Maine have proven that the people can carry out change and clean up the way we elect our leaders.  We must start “Clean Money Campaigns” through a grassroots effort.  The Internet gives us the vehicle, we must use portals like Polly Dicta to give real democracy a voice.  We must let our leaders know that we are establishing the agenda for America and support change or we will find someone who will.  We must make this effort in every Congressional District.  Until the leaders understand they can lose their job, we will not experience real change and we  will not advance the economy, healthcare, the environment, or dependence on foreign oil if our interests threaten the interests of big money.  Encourage as many people as possible to go to the Polly Dicta website and register as a subscriber.  We must work together to let our leaders know we will no longer allow them to sacrifice us for the interests of powerful organizations.

Filed under Campaign Finance Reform, Government Reform, Government Spending/Budget Reform, Uncategorized

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