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We finally have a new posting here on Update (January 15, 2007). Be Sure to Also Visit our WEBLOG page. New Posting made on January 9, 2007. Dr. Matsumura posts on Weblog at least once a month, before the 15th. Choose WEBLOG from Home page. Postings after February 2007 are now primarily at a new section called And Now? which is accessible from the Home Page. The last posting there was January 17, 2008.

ATTENTION EVERYONE. Starting in February 2007, most postings are made at this website's newest section called "And Now?" accessible from the home page. See you there, once you have read below. The new section is a predecessor of a new independent website that will converse with Gov. Schwarzenegger about a vision of New California that will lead America to become a kind and just place, and a land of opportunity for the rich and poor alike. You will be notified of the website's url.

January 15, 2006       On Martin Luther King Jr. Day

A few days ago, in recognition of and in appreciation of Gov. Schwarzenegger taking the courage in calling for providing health insurance to the working poor of our state, I wrote my monthly commentary early, on the Weblog section of our website. Generally, we have always reserved postings on this Update section to major significant comments. As I have cautioned readers that most of what you have been reading since the Summer have been my personal opinion (although often reflecting what I am hearing from our Recall captains with whom I am in frequent contact), I am writing here which will reflect some changes from my consistent viewpoint of skepticism vis-a-vis Arnold Schwarzenegger. These changes are, and must remain, tentative, as feelings from the past must be retired step-wise as appropriate in face of the emergence of the "remade Arnold."

In the book I wrote about the impact of the recall on California, Arnold Remade: How the Fear of His Own Recall Transformed Him & Reshaped California (Alin Foundation Press, Berkeley), I concluded that I did not know the motivation of  Gov. Schwarzenegger for advocating the raise in the minimum wage, callinging for the repair of neglected California infrastructure, and making California lead the nation in fighting global warming, all three major elements of the Recall Campaign Platform.

It could have been manipulation because certainly his new 180 degrees-turn around advocacies quelled our angry recallers. However, the other day, when I saw that he also gave us the health insurance for our working poor (that's what "universal health coverage actually means, because the poor always had Medi-Caid, and the rest of us bought health insurance), I speculated on our Weblog here that perhaps something more wonderful had happened to our governor. Something we had written in March last year about how history remembers those who help the disadvantaged and the poor, resonated in our governor, his wife Maria, Susan Kennedy, and other team members of the governor.

The reason I am hopeful that a true awakening and a recognition of his inner desires happened (note that I am now even moving away from the description "transformation" which implies that he was something else and he became something different), is that while the previous advocacies occurred when our governor was under siege by our valiant army of recall volunteers ready to storm his governor's mansion, there was no need anymore for him to take such an idealistic stand this year, after the election, about healthcare for all, when such a stand required the unpopular steps of asking for money from special interest groups like the unions, the doctors, the all-powerful insurance companies, and yes all of us regular people who often profess idealism but often can't quite come up with money. Maybe the prospect of a recall so transfixed him that now he is on auto-pilot! No, Ken, be nice.

At the risk of having an egg on my face, especially in front of our more dyed-in-the wool recallers, I am willing to say publicly here that what truly happened was that our governor was in search for a way to do good since 2003 and he, misguided by a few, took the wrong turn, and he realized the person he became to be depicted (read our home page, for the last time!) was not his true self, and our recall did him a favor by providing a mirror for him to use to look at himself.

Our cartoonist Charlie Bright, bless his soul, really showed how Arnold looked to most of us. When I put up that image of a vicious viper, I felt an ache in my heart for Maria to whom such a depiction must have been most painful because she must know a kinder and gentler man than what the public was saying he had turned into.

For now, I am going on an assumption that the governor does not have some nasty surprises for us gullibles (true, we could turn into even uglier vipers), and if he continues to move in an assuring way, I will move my commentary to a place less distracting of the governor and a website that can serve to help him, not weaken him. The new website will be entitled New California - New America. We will announce the new domain name, which will be shorter than the actual name of our new home. Folks, you can help by e-mailing me a catchy domain name. I am still at knm@savecalnow.com

Here's the rational for the new website, so that you can be thinking of it when you come up with the new domain name. We have moved California into the forefront of American progress. Charlie was right, when he wrote in the Fall of 2005 (you read it here), "as California goes, the nation goes."   We recaller can be very proud. We won the raise in the minimum wage for the hardworking California poor, and just this month Nancy Pelosi, another illustrious Californian, got us the federal version. (which was a bit more stingy than we got our folks, but that's OK.) Now, there's a rumor that Bush is going to say something in his upcoming State of the Union speech about the federal government doing something towards ending the threat of horrific global warming - have you all seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth? Even if Bush doesn't move, many of our sister states have already moved, thanks to the dramatic way in which California chose to move.

Here's the carrot for Gov. Schwarzenegger. The federal Constitution prohibits him from becoming a US President, but if he moves the state in what I coin, "Pragmatic Idealism," and the rest of the nation follows him, why bother becoming a President, which has got to be a thankless job anyway. Instead, he can be a fabled governor who will be nationally remembered for generations.

(Now, I have to say as an aside to my fellow Recallers that, No, I am not on acid, and No, I didn't flip on account of the stresses of the past year. Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger has got a long way to go, but I think he has already moved splendidly fast.)

So the purpose of our website, New California - New America, will be to guide this effort, and it will be the conscience of our Movement. It will always call to "do the right thing, not just the expedient thing." I don't think many American Presidents have done that, but John F. Kennedy came the closest to trying. I want to return America to doing the right thing. Arnold, you want to do that, too, right?

By the way, those who are new to this website, or who read infrequently, our analysis shows that this website is continuing to be read by people of influence, including those in Gov. Schwarzenegger's camp, in fact more of them than of us, almost.

Posting today will be long, and will be somewhat rambling, and so feel free to come back and read the rest tomorrow. I will be commenting on the governor's vestiges of "old self" in calling for redistricting California, and about the anticipated hurdles to be thrown by "special interest" groups (Aha, this time, the special interest groups aren't just the unions, but YOUR folks, large companies, doctors, hospitals, Arnold!)

The only comment I have to make about your interest in redistricting California, Governor, is that I understand your motivation. It emanates from the fairness you want to see.  So, after lecturing about how we must do the right thing, I will seem inconsistent and pragmatic when I say: I have a feeling, Governor, that if you want to bring about those changes in our state by which you will be proud to be remembered, the current districting is more likely to help you and to not undo all the good you will accomplish in the next four years. The new districting will put too much power into those with no vision, and those who really do not know there are good, decent people who are suffering.     ...so I rest my case.

Now let me get back to the anticipated battle the pundits say are shaping up in the legislature, over how to fund all the programs you are proposing. Know that I come from the position of liking your vision of building more.

Our current prisons, so overcrowded, are a breeding ground for more crimes and they are so because our prisons do not allow healthy hearts to grow. Crimes are anti-social acts; why would anyone treated by the society like they are in our current prisons not feel very anti-social? By building better prisons, and relieving the crowded conditions, you will eventually have less prisoners to have to house, and all the money that went into building prisons will come back and then some.

Continuing to borrow, and borrow and borrow does bother me. I warned not long ago on Weblog that your legacy may become the California debt, a staggering amount. So what can you do?

You or your folks will remember early on that I criticized you because you were pre-occupied with not raising taxes on the rich and not doing enough to perk up our economy. I heard you point out recently that our economy is doing great. Well, yes and no. Where it is not doing well is that I believe California economy has much more capacity than has been allowed to fill, and you can do even more to grow the economy. By paying attention to this point, I believe you can increase the economy by a much larger number. I think you should appoint a commission to study this matter and return you with recommendations in 5 months.

While I am a physician, I now do this a few hours weekly mainly only to tend to those I see are getting neglected. My main base is in business, and I am engaged in taking concrete steps that will lead to dramatic improvements in how healthcare is delivered worldwide. My area of expertise is in technology, with interest and experience in biomedicine, electronics, and new means for telecommunication. From my admittedly biased vantage point, I think there is a diamond mine here in California, with such strengths in all those areas I deal with on a day to day basis. When our electronic sector went down after the hype of the Internet caved in, we could have done a lot more to rescue it and to put it onto a more solid ground than it was on during the 1990s. That opportunity is still here for you to lead. I believe your dreams can run into difficulty unless we figure out a way to increase the state's revenue, hence the need to appoint a commission.

By the way, Governor. I have taken note of your now more frequent trips outside our country in which you make efforts to drum up more business for California. Since you are just one person, appointing an elevated office beyond what you have for a very visible ambassador to make more such trips will be useful. Such an ambassador must be someone who can get almost as much attention as you in foreign countries - how about Warren Beatty and Annette Benings??? I am half kidding since they were your detractors, but you get the idea.

The following is addressed to the special interest groups said to be getting ready to block the governor's idea for healthcare for the working poor. I want to tell you, my friends in the union, my colleagues in the medical and hospital professions, and common citizens with whom locked in arm to arm we did some wonderful things the past year... I want to tell you what I told the governor right after the launch of his recall.

Providing healthcare to the working poor is not charity, but an investment in the future. Letting the poor mistreat themselves, like my patients who are cutting pills in half to make it to the next payday, because they have no choice, leads to more expensive bills. First, they get really sick, ICU sick, and you know how expensive that is. They wait until they end up in the emergency room. You know how expensive that is. Then comes the frequent doctor visits, the rehab therapies, and more. Many of them don't return to the work sector to pay state tax, but instead end up on welfare. Guess who pays for that?

On Weblog, I confessed my worry that any expanded healthcare plan will eventually explode unless we make some fundamental changes (and by that I don't mean a single payor system - the world is fool of... oops full of such second rate systems). I called for yet another commission that would come up with novel recommendations, which I think will be adopted by the federal government - another California first. In the  meantime, while geniuses are set to work, I urge you all to listen to the governor, and share in ending the tragedy that strikes every hour on the working poor without health coverage. You will be rewarded.

OK, I'm done. Honest. Thanks for reading. (Hey, be sure to treat yourselves to Charlie's new cartoons, on weblog.)

Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Founder, Recall Campaign

September 28, 2006. The recall campaign has successfully gotten the governor to sign the raise in the minimum wage (which he vetoed twice and which was the trigger for the launch of the recall) and also to proudly join the battle against global warming. Please read two entries of Weblog of September for more details.

May 21, 2006  We believe our fundraising will not be sufficient. While many gave generously earlier, those who have written us with regrets have said two things uniformly. Since last September, when the Campaign began, the world situation has deteriorated considerably, and while state politics are important, many of our donors are seriously concerned about the direction that Washington is taking and they are committing more and more funds in that direction. They feel that the Campaign has actually performed miracles. The most publicized portions of Governor Schwarzenegger's platform are a mirror copy of the Recall Campaign's most important demands (the governor is even trying to do a one up on the legislature with an administrative approach to granting the working poor the raise in the minimum wage; Last Fall, we repeatedly called for fixing our infrastructure, especially the delta levees, which the governor neglected badly, and today, one can't turn on the radio without hearing about his demand to fix the levees; practically every week, we hear him mention how he is going to spend more for our public schools; he now has as his Chief of Staff a long-time advocate of abortion rights and gay rights; we regret despite our efforts we have not been able to get reforms in the injured worker's program). We have said that the Governor's platform is mostly promises. However, with such a strong need in Washington, most of our donors feel they must take a chance that perhaps we have brought about a sufficient change for this state and they hope for the best. They have thanked us for what we have done.

Aside from the difficulty in fundraising, early on we had counted on the unions, the California Teachers Association, the Professional Firefighters Association, and the California Nurses Association to join our effort. We have learned that each body has preferred to concentrate strictly on their own interests. In each case, our presence has been useful to them, in the nice guy- tough guy tactic of negotiation where they have used the Recall campaign as the tough guy who will deal with the governor if he does not negotiate nicely with the "nice guys (them)."   We do believe what the firefighters told us last November, that our Recall Campaign is what turned the tide on the November election when the unions barely squeezed through with their victory. You're welcome! We hope that you will not be alone next year should the governor get re-elected as we project. We frankly do not know how our volunteers will feel about above groups' individual causes since our volunteers had to work long hours without their support. We do urge that we continue to work to replace our current "reformed" governor with someone who does not need our guidance.

The progressives have repeatedly failed to win in Washington because they do not unite into a single force (see December 15th update here). Let us hope Schwarzenegger has not divided us and conquered.

May 12, 2006  We have been saying this all along. California is one of the three states in the union with the highest poverty rates. This governor vetoed the raise in the minimum wage not once, but twice! He deprived the poor a total of 10 billion dollars so far. How can this man enjoy his meal wih his family knowing that many others around him just a few miles away from his luxury mansion are starving and he is a cause of that?

On another matter, from October through January, Dr. Matsumura repeatedly emphasized that this governor had neglected the delta levees and that their failure can deprive Southern California of fresh water for six months or more. Dr. Matsumura was wrong, or at least he was incomplete in his statement. The failure of the levees would deprive residents of the Northern California county of Contra Costa fresh water, too. We are glad that the Recall Campaign scared him enough to make him do something about the levees, but we cannot show him every step of the way how to be a decent man, although that is what we have done.

May 8, 2006  Thank you, thank you, thank you, to those special people who have donated more than once to our campaign, and in increasing amounts! Such votes of confidence are important to our hardworking volunteers. We thank you, on behalf of our loyal volunteers who sacrifice one weekend after another toward ensuring a new future for California. At our weblog, we have made our official statement regarding the upcoming June Primaries.

April 29, 2006 We still have another two months to go, folks! The recall fever is high amongst many of our volunteers (see Weblog today). Thank you for all the signatures you have been sending in. Be sure to fill in the name of the county at the right, top before the signatures. If you want to see what impact our recall campaign has had, go to the December 15 entry below and see how many concessions the governor has given on our list of demands.

            A. We demanded on behalf of our poor for a raise in the minimum wage. He has now agreed to sign the bill he vetoed two years straight.

            B. We demanded he stop forcing nurses to take care of more patients per shift at the hospital. He dropped his lawsuit against nurses.

            C. We demanded he return the money he stole from public schools. He has agreed to restore over a billion and a half dollars. Not enough, but it’s a start.

            D. We demanded he fix the delta levees whose collapse would deprive Southern California of fresh water for over half a year. He has made this into a major campaign.

            E. We expressed concern about his attitude towards abortion rights and gays. He appointed the former head of the California Abortion Rights League as his Chief of Staff. She is a lesbian.

            F. We expressed concern about his callus attitudes towards the environment. Although we think his latest proposals lack substance, he has called for California to take steps to reverse global warming.

YOUR SUPPORT MADE ALL THIS POSSIBLE!!!!! Thank you, esp. our hardworking volunteers!

April 15, 2006  We have been quietly watching this man, analyzing his moves. What is troubling is that we conclude that his moves have been merely calculating, mainly to thwart the Recall effort. His moves to the left are not genuine. Their purpose is only for show and that they are meaningful only to the extent that he is fearful of the recall.

Our careful study shows that he has no fear of the unions afterall, nor of the teachers. He is likely to go after them if there is no other impartial force defending them, like the Recall. The fact that they have scrupulously kept a clean record in not helping with the Recall, our study also indicates, will not keep him from turning on them when he has finished nursing his wounds. Therefore, should the Recall fall short by just a handful of signatures from qualifying, there will be a tragic footnote in history books about their blunder in not joining the Recall in full force.

Let the record also show, however, that our analysis of the recall signatures indicates that it is the ordinary citizens of California, not any special interest like the nurses, the unions, or the teachers, who are disgusted with this pretender of a human kind. There is a hardcore of Californians who are not as gullible as some to be fooled by his moves who stand ready to work to oust him from public life. We form a formidable force that can swing any election, like we did in November. He and his campaign manager are right to be concerned only about us.

Keep sending us those signatures. Forget that we are buried in them or that we have hardly any time to write at this website. Remember, we have until June 20! That is still many months! Redouble your efforts! California counts on you. If you haven't sent money to us, do so RIGHT NOW, and join a growing body of Californians who can boast that they did maximally to bring down this evil.

March 28, 2006  Well, folks! We still have THREE WHOLE MONTHS! to gather signatures (and you thought we were all done, did you?). It must send shivers down the backs of the Arnold Clan, to realize that we are going to be running around loose ALL OVER CALIFORNIA! for THREE WHOLE MONTHS MORE! And now, we are experienced, seasoned, ready, infatiguable! We can even spot people who will sign, a whole block away, right? We have plenty of days when students will be done with their midterms, and finals! All those law students who sent in apologies saying they bit off too much - their class schedule was eating them up, sorry. Now they can still participate. THis is truly BAD NEWS for Gov. Schwarzenegger.

Even before we set the date of the recall election, the Campaign has accomplished a whole lot! We will soon enumerate how our campaign has affected the state. This means YOU, the volunteers, may have already saved our state, even before we oust this Rambo!

The deadline for signatures is June 22!!!!! Guess what, the bad weather which was slowing down our outdoor efforts will be gone! If you think we've done well so far? You ain't seen nothin' yet! Can you all start raising money for the campaign? We need to hire the students who will become free around May 20th to go door to door in Berkeley, San Francisco, Albany, Oakland, and specific pockets of liberals around the state, including west LA. We have not tried to hit our volunteers, our hardworking, pavement stumping volunteers for money, but our pride is gone. Send us $5, $10, anything. Every penny will go to students who can collect 25- 40 signatures in an hour at these liberal pockets.

March 25, 2006 Updates in the past two weeks have been placed on Weblog section of this website.

March 10, 2006  Be sure to read a major address from Dr. Matsumura on Weblog today.

March 8, 2006  We have been very busy here at the headquarters not only processing the gobs of petitions arriving daily, but also preparing for a major fundraiser.  Based on e-mails being received at headquarters, the following information may be useful to many.

1. Under the California election code, we have until June 20, 2006 to secure 1,038,000 valid signatures.

2. If we secure enough signatures in the next few weeks, a recall election could be scheduled at the time of the June Primaries. Unfortunately, Gov.Schwarzenegger's appointee Sec of State Bruce McPherson took the maximum (plus) amount of time to respond to our request for the approval of the printing of our petition, which delayed our getting started until this year. If this delay causes us to not have enough signatures this month, the recall election will be a special election, perhaps in July.

3. A special election will cost only $1.22 per Californian. The poor and the parents of public school children ask that you accept spending a dollar so that our poor will not be denied the raise in their minimum raise they deserve ($3400 per working family, from businesses, not the state) and so that our children will not grow up without art and music classes (California is 48th in the nation in per pupil spending - is that a disgrace, Governor?).

4. The Recall Campaign enumerated major reasons for doing a recall (see home page, and bidaily updates/weblog since October, but esp. Dec 15, and 25th entries). It is true that the Governor has capitulated to virtually all our demands, notably 1) agreement to a raise in the minimum wage, 2) withdrawal of demand on California nurses to take care of more patients each work shift, 3) return of monies stolen by the Governor from funds reserved for public schools (he has agreed to return so far 1/3), 4) urgent repair of California levees, 5) a more respectful attitudes towards public workers who guard our safety and welfare. We could not by any wild imagination predict when we started last September that we could achieve as much as we have. However, a recall campaign persists because, in the words of volunteers we polled in December, it is the "character" issue which was always the reason why we launched the recall.

We should not recall a governor just because we do not agree with him. A recall is reserved for egregious offenses, such as those committed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. He lied repeatedly just to get elected. He broke one promise after another. Our volunteers have said regardless of what he promises to do now, they cannot trust him. He has forfeited the right to be the guardian of Californian's safety and welfare.

We ask you to join our volunteers by printing the petition and its instructions at our Home page and gathering signatures from your friends, neighbors and co-workers, impressing them about the need for the recall even if it becomes a special election, so that we do not lose 2006, like we did 2005 and 2004, to bring about vital changes that our state needs right now. Changes will only become more expensive if we wait a whole year until after the November election. Besides, Governor Schwarzenegger may "reform" just enough to win a re-election just to plague on Californians once again next year.

March 2, 2006 It's OKAY. You are here, not for the prose of a thousand words, but for Charlie's cartoon. Here is a beauty. (Thanks, Charlie!)

February 28, 2006 Volunteers: please read advisory comments on Weblog today.

February 25, 2006    AMAZING! Is there anything you would like the governor to do? The best way to get him to do it is by asking the Recall Campaign to demand it right here at this website. Like a Genie in a lamp, three weeks later, Gov. Schwarzenegger will announce that he is going to do it.

Have we been talking and castigating him for not quickly fixing the delta levees, thereby threatening the water supply of the entire Southern California? For example, take a look at our December 25th posting here on Update. Dr. Matsumura had been talking about the levees since October on most radio programs and just a few weeks ago, on the powerful KGO (ABC) radio talk show with Christine Craft, he again talked about the negligence of this governor in not quickly dealing with the levees.

So, what happened yesterday at the Republican Convention in Santa Clara? Governor Schwarzenegger declared an emergency about the levees; he says he wants them fixed right away! What if we have an earthquake right before his recall election, causing a catastrophic failure to the levees?

It is good you support the Recall; California is benefitting a lot from our efforts.

The fervor of our volunteers have reached new peaks! Good people are even taking off from work to go collect signatures. Let us all thank them for their hard work!

Finally, we want to thank volunteers at CSU Long Beach for hosting the announcement of our Southern California signature drive. We've started receiving hate mail from Southern California, which can only mean that we are being noticed.

February 22, 2006 Commemorating the launch of the Southern California Signature Drive, from the glorious campus of Cal State University - Long Beach, our political cartoonist Charlie Bright has given us the following. Thank you again, Charlie!


 

February 20, 2006 How time flies when we are busily doing good things! Preparations are underway for the Southern California launch this week.  We don't know how to describe this, with out website read by so many Schwarzenegger people, but we received some very good news this week that enhances our chance of getting a new governor this Summer immensely. Sorry that this is such a teaser line, but for our well-wishers, be happy that we are happy. We are quite confident that our goal will be achieved. Thanks everyone for sending so many petitions that we could hardly keep up!

February 16, 2006 Launch of Southern California Signature Drive

Although it was our intent to do a coordinated launch of the signature collection drive in both Northern and Southern California, we found the press coverage very regional. Where there were repeat news stories about our recall campaign on every network in Northern California the weekend of the 4th, especially the San Francisco Bay Area, the news coverage was sketchy south of Monterey. Also the largeness of the state proved challenging to blanket the south with tables while we did the north. Now, more and more tables are going up in the northern region without prompting by headquarters, as had always been the design of this campaign - a decentralized effort of volunteers everywhere disgusted with the governor.

Late next week, we will help the volunteers in the South launch their signature collection drive. Our Cal State Long Beach coordinator has asked for spokesperson to address them, and big time Demos have asked us to spread the word about our recall in such areas as Riverside.

The signed petitions are now coming into headquarters from volunteers we didn't even know we had, mainly in Northern California, which is the result of our recent media campaign. Despite apparent efforts by others to disrupt our communication between headquarters and volunteers, we are soundly in touch with the northern I-5 corridor now. We are also very impressed with one volunteer high up in the Sierra Hills who is apparently finding anti-Arnie folks in hiding.

All in all, it is our assessment that California is in for a big surprise. The Recall Campaign has rooted deeply and grows almost without water.  And now another treat from Charlie Bright of South Carolina!

February 13, 2006 Progress Report

We are happy to tell you that substantially all of the signatures we are turning in are valid, contrary to warnings we had received even from our allies. We believe this is because we have an unprecedented situation here where very devoted volunteers have come together and are very careful in collecting the signatures. Although we receive from time to time large numbers of sheets collected by our volunteers from strangers, early sheets are those collected by volunteers from friends, neighbors and co-workers. We suspect that as more and more signatures are collected at public tables or on door to door solicitations, the validity rate will fall, but we are happy to report that amateurs collecting signatures have not led to a large number of bad signatures.

Dr. Matsumura was on KGO talk show with Christine Craft last night. KGO reaches even as far as the Oregon border and down to Santa Barbara. We are indeed fortunate to have such a loyal ally as Christine, who had already helped bring out many volunteers in the Sacramento area due to her daily Talkcity show 1240. As a result of last night's show, we received many hits at our website and many new volunteers who are willing to table!

Our early evaluation of tabling at "hot" spots such as in San Francisco and the East Bay indicates that we could gather hundreds of thousands of signatures from these regions just by reaching these people. They do not need to be pursuaded to sign. Because our volunteers are pretty evenly spread across the state, we do not have a sufficient number of volunteers to reach several hundred thousands of anti-Schwarzenegger voters. We have concluded that we can benefit greatly from hiring more people who can gather signatures in these regions. Most of our volunteers are first time activists who feel shy about public solicitation.

Soon, you will see immediately upon arriving at our Home Page, a large solicitation for donations. When we were not aggressively seeking donations, many New York Timers readers sent in $50 to $500 dollars. We will be asking them if they can contribute again for this very worthy purpose. Early on, we were also asked to keep a few people updated as they indicated that they may be prepared to provide some funds. We will be in touch with these sources. We would like to raise between $250 to 300,000, which will also be used outside the San Francisco Bay Area, especially in the Los Angeles Basin. We will ask our volunteers to begin identifying where signature gathering is easier. Paraphrasing John Paul Jones, "we haven't begun to fight!"

February 10, 2006  We would like to share with you what we wrote to Bill F. to acknowledge his Pay Pal donation of $50.00 yesterday. "We have not been very fund-based, being entirely volunteer-operated. However, your $50 will go to printing 1600 sheets of petitions, which will produce over 6000 signatures to recall this menace to our society. Actually, because many will take our originals and make more copies, it is possible that up to 20,000 signatures will be obtained because of the $50 donation."  We generally receive donations from those unable to otherwise volunteer. Thank you very much!!

February 7, 2006 We hope you noticed the newest cartoon by Charlie Bright, which greets you immediately upon your arrival at the Home Page. If it is not his best, it is certainly the most valuable one he has done for us. In one cartoon, it says why we are doing a recall in an election year. Thanks again, Charlie!

February 5, 2006  All volunteers: there is a message for you at WEBLOG.

January 31, 2006 Official launch of the Signature Gathering Drive

We believe our preparation is now complete, procedures tested and perfected. This coming Friday, February 3, has been set as the official launch of the signature gathering drive. Already, we are receiving a steady stream of signed petitions from all across the state.

A volunteer has suggested that we can obtain for a small fee a list of registered voters (with party designation) from the county Registrar of Voters. Then, those of us who are athletically inclined can distribute petitions with instructions to the doorsteps of Democrats and Greens, in a district that is predominantly liberal. Never place them in a mailbox.

January 28, 2006 CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS

Jaime has got the procedure right. He first went and got permission to table from a whole bunch of places most likely to be frequented by liberals or the price-conscious. It is then easier to find volunteers to person the tables at available times. We would like to ask our volunteers to find suitable locations to table, contact the property owner for permission to table, then notify us the particulars, and we will fill those permitted hours with our volunteers. Those willing to table, please see if you can find a folding card table so that we won't have to be exchanging one table amongst several volunteers. What was that old slogan, "Have Table. Will Travel."  Boy, that's pretty old.

January 26, 2006  TECHNIQUES FOR OUR VOLUNTEERS:

If you want to see a smile on people's faces, ask, " CAN YOU HELP US GET A NEW GOVERNOR THIS SUMMER?"  It's tangible, a doable target, and says, why wait until November to get rid of Schwarzenegger.(credit Ken)

One volunteer had a great time gathering signatures easily at a meeting of ecology concerns. (credit Alice.) Go where like-minded people gather. Beats walking the precincts, although that is exactly what Dr. Matsumura is going to do, because he enjoys the walk!  Bring a lot of petitions, lots of pens, clipboards. REMEMBER YOU THE CIRCULATOR MUST WITNESS EVERY SIGNATURE.

If you are trying to gather volunteers to work with you, try asking them to come for just three hours some Saturday afternoons (credit Jeff and Ken). Promise them pizza and food (credit Jeff). We may pride ourselves to be intellects, but what we work for are for pretty basic things, like food! You could tell them you might meet some great people, too! We say, three hours because you have to remember most people who are concerned enough to volunteer are already overcommitted to four other causes. Four? Try ten!

January 24, 2006 Campaign is igniting.   County registrars of voters are getting petitions.

The early problems with our bulk e-mailings gave us an opportunity to make voice contacts with a lot of our volunteers, particularly those who took on large geographical areas. We have spoken especially to long time Democratic activists across the state and it has been heart warming to hear so many voices of excitement that the petitions have arrived. We also have been receiving increasing numbers of positive comments from smaller groups we began to start up last November. Comments such as, "we could see we are really going to do it," are now frequently heard.

Almost everyone has heeded our advice to be careful in collecting signatures. We have less than 1% of petition sheets going back to senders because of errors. In fact, the one error we have found was a case where one petition sheet had signatures from residents of different counties. Please remember that a sheet can have only signatures of residents of one county.

While we are still working out quality proofing, logging, and monitoring of petitions coming in, we were able to randomly select a few sheets to be sent into county registrars of voters for their approval on how our signatures are being gathered. Enough sheets and signatures were submitted to give us an advance idea of how many collected signatures will be disqualified in the future. We could be dead wrong in our expectation, but we think that a far less number of signatures will be disqualified than usual, despite the admonition by our "expert consultants" that amateurs collecting signatures will lead to a huge percentage of disqualification.  

Most of our volunteers appear to be collecting from amongst groups they belong to or from those gathering at protest marches, as versus soliciting "cold" from total strangers whose politics are unknown and varied. The former is the most efficient way to do this. We urge you to have enough give-away petitions and instructions always for the time you meet enthusiastic "terminator of the Terminator," who want to circulate the petition themselves. Remind them they need a different sheet for each county.

Universal experience is that soliciting signatures is addicting. Most of us get a "rush" each time someone smiles back at us and grabs our pen. When you get repeatedly praised and thanked for doing this, you will find yourself driven to go out again tomorrow!

January 16, 2006  Friendship amongst Our Volunteer Group

We are reminded again by Jaime Feliciano, our valued Sacramento pointman who played an important role in our wresting the petition from the Secretary of Delay, that opportunities are plentiful to easily find volunteers who will take a handful of petitions to circulate amongst their friends, family and co-workers.

We have one volunteer in Southern California (Dr. Matsumura is working in the lab right now to figure out a way to clone 500 copies of her) who takes every opportunity to find volunteers. She wrote us that she was making an appointment with a doctor and she asked the receptionist if she likes her governor. No, the receptionist said, and before she can take a breath, our volunteer had enlisted her to circulate the petition at her office. This volunteer typically uses the time waiting in line at the supermarket to accost total strangers. Never obnoxious, she is making life-long friends. We hear THAT often from other volunteers as well.

Those volunteers who wrote us early got a letter asking them to make more contacts and promising them that some of those contacts will be life-long friends. In that regards, Dr. Matsumura received the following heartfelt letter from Charlie Bright in response to yesterday's blog comments.

Thanks for the very kind words.

                A childhood friend for life once introduced me to his
           boss, who was a very wise man. I remember him telling us,
           "Friends are sometimes even closer than family. We have no
           control over the family we are born into, but we choose our
           friends ourself".

                I am honored to be called your friend, and hope all
           those heroic volunteers out there in the front lines feel
           the same. It is indeed heart warming to feel a bond of
           friendship with so many people thousands of miles away.
           People that I've never met and most likely will never see.
           One may ask, then why are we friends? It's quite simple
           really. It is our values and humanities that bonds us
           together as one, and that makes us friends for life because
           our values never change.

                As I see it, friends are not limited to just one
           geographical location. We only need to reach out and give
           support and encouragment to each other to enrich our lives
           with more friends. Each one of us has chosen to unite with
           new found friends and give freely of our time, money, and
           efforts to work for our borderless beliefs. When we do this,
           we bond our friendships  into something much stronger. We
           have become a band of brothers and sisters united by the
           spiritual elevation we each receive, simply from having
           compassion in our hearts for our fellow human beings.  Then,
           all we have to do is follow where ever our hearts take us.

               We are, all of us, in every since of the word except
           genetics, family.

           Best Regards to my righteous friends
           Your righteous brother
           Charlie (Garden City Beach, S.C.)

January 15, 2006

Today, I reviewed petitions that came in by mail to our headquarters over the past three days. Some were from individuals who just sent in their own signatures, and others had already gathered pages and pages of signatures. They come from virtually every county across our golden state. One came in with a check for $10 from someone who said is on a tight budget. I am very touched by these letters and responses to our recall.

I am getting a large number of e-mails from our volunteers all across the state. I can feel their enthusiasm as they report how easily they gather signatures. One area coordinator in San Mateo, who is a real believer, has gotten permission to use an important e-mail list and the news will spread like wildfire about our petition that can be printed right off our website (AT PETITION, to your left). The powers of the Internet!

We have been saying that even before the recall election, our recall is doing wonderful things. By our making the raise in the minimum wage a major campaign platform item, we've got the governor extolling its virtue in his State of the State speech (he even begged the legislature to send the bill to him right away! He just vetoed it in September, three days before I launched the recall!). The reason I bring this up again is that today, I heard on the radio that he is paying at least a lip service to our campaign platform item (Dec. 15 Update) F, about healthcare improvement. He is expanding health insurance coverage to more children of our poor. Is he auditioning to become our Replacement Governor Candidate? Hey, Arnie, while you are at this, how about something for our injured workers you recently bulldozed over?

Time is short, but we will succeed. We are seeing a historic outpouring of grassroots support. Keep mailing us the signed petitions. Remember, if you cross anything out on the petition, the person who crosses out has to initial the cross-out. Thanks folks!

January 13, 2006  The Former Head of State Republicans calls to dump Schwarzenegger!

We have said since last October that Schwarzenegger has failed the conservatives as well as the liberals. He failed to look after the fiscal health of our state.  He failed to help California's golden goose - our technology companies that took such a big hit after the end of the Internet Speculation. That sector of the economy had helped bring so much tax revenue to California that the rest of us received tax rebates.  And now, because he did not do anything economically innovative, we are facing terrible tax hikes and bond indebtedness. We called for the Republicans to dump him.

Michael Schroeder, the former head of the state Republican party stated in an article published today in the Orange County Register that Schwarzenegger has been too erratic and should be dumped. Sorry, Arnie, if the fear of the Recall made you offer things to our volunteers to placate them. However, now, apparently you are looking unreliable to the Republicans. They said your belief has a lifespan as short as a pint of yogurt in the refrigerator.

Folks, we are doing great, even before the recall election. Whether turning the tide on last November election, making Arnie suddenly beg the legislature to send him the bill to raise the minimum wage, or now making Arnie act "erratic" to the Republicans, we have really shaken this "Terminator" up! The New York Times wondered if we are the Terminator of the Terminator. I think NYT was prophetic.

We are ecstatic as your signed petitions begin to shower our headquarters. We worry about the backs of our great mail carrier who will end up carrying 350,000 sheets of our petition from all across California. We have received enthusiastic reports from the field. Many are having particularly great success going where there is a gathering of like-minded people. It's like harvest time, they say, the fruits are just falling onto the ground. So keep this in mind, those who are hunting for signatures. Look at posters of upcoming events and gatherings.

Not surprisingly, especially with people like Schroeder offering opinions, we are hearing that many traditional Republicans are signing our petition with much enthusiasm. There will be more signature gatherers as soon as we rectify the problem we encountered in our bulk mailing system. Write us at volunteer@savecalnow.com if you registered as a volunteer earlier but did not get an e-mail entitled, "Recall Campaign writes Arnie's Speech. Petition is here!" which describes our new petition you can print off our website at PETITION (see left).

January 10, 2006 DOWNLOADABLE PETITION LOOKING REAL GOOOOOOOOD!

The USA Shuttle Recall Arnie is off the launching pad and it is on the way to orbit!  The feedback we have received so far is beyond our best expectation. A lot of volunteers are spreading the word about this way of printing the petition off our website and sending it signed to our headquarters. Many are e-mailing their friends. Uniformly, those who have written us are very excited and full of energy. There's one person in Southern California who is almost unbelievable. She has involved so many volunteers and now have covered three campuses. She is finding what Dr. Matsumura found on his first day collecting the proponent signatures back in September, that there are SO many people who are very angry with Schwarzenegger and it doesn't take much to get them to sign the petition. We believe it is all a matter of placing one self where you are surrounded by anti-Arnie people. If you are soliciting signatures from strangers on the street, you can grab one signature per minute at county hospitals,   and about one signature every four minutes at college campuses  (you can do better if you are tabling, vs walking around).

We received another front page article in the East Bay Daily News (of San Francisco Bay Area). We are not rushing to do this, but we will be letting the media know soon about the launch of this new phase. (Most news stories are printed because someone issues press releases and invites media attention).

We would like to cover every county hospital in this state. If you are a volunteer who can go to the county hospital to gather signatures and then to give the petitions to workers there to circulate, please write us at volunteer@savecalnow.com  We can ship you petitions with instructions. We need more volunteers to do street soliciting in the San Francisco East Bay and San Francisco proper where signatures are available by the bushel for the asking. Please write us if you can do so.

 

January 8, 2006 MORE on PETITION READY TO PRINT OFF OUR WEBSITE.

It is just me(km) again. We have received sterling comments on our downloadable petition available by clicking PETITION on the left side of this page. It is reported to print out straight, crystal clearly, and easily. Some people are taking our suggestion and using what they print out to take to a copy store to make more permanent-ink copies (xeroxes heat the ink and fuse the ink to the paper). Others are printing it out, having a few family members sign and are sending them in. Kinkos will go to the website and print laser copies for you. (No, I don't own Kinko stocks, but they are open 24 hours in most places. Your inspiration can often come at night, right?)

When I began this campaign in early October, I thought it would take a whole lot of miracles to gather a million signatures. Then the miracles began to happen, to my amazement! We didn't have an organization but I saw that all I had to do was to facilitate, not lead and control. The will is out there, wanting to be freed! So, overnight, we had a decentralized organization of 10,000 volunteers. Because only ultra-credible news sources like the New York Times and the Washington Post would do a story on us, we ended up with a whole lot of intellectuals, busy ones at that. Then the television media began to find us interesting and the word began to spread to the poor on behalf of whom I launched this campaign. We heard from places that had given up hope on this society and particularly the political system. Now we began to have a corp of volunteers that is a true cross section of our society.

Then the news media found other things of interest and left with the words that once we have wrested the petition from the Secretary of Delay (if and when, they said), they will be back. Soon again, we will be back in the news, which means more volunteers will report to our website.

Because we still don't have the 30,000 volunteers which I felt in the beginning was needed (then each volunteer has to secure only 50 signatures each, a done deal), I began to explore other ways to achieve our goal. It was kinda like I remembered looking at a completely different approach to creating an artificial liver which was felt to be impossible then. If you approach any problem in that manner, the solution is really pretty easy.

We are trying this  new approach of a downloadable petition. True, such petitions have been commonly used by Move-on and others, but had not been used where the petition has an equal weight legally to a ballot. More I think of it, this is a great idea! Like the Greens person who cautioned me on ink jets said, our campaign will spread naturally like a wild fire. I've made the campaign COMPLETELY decentralized. I will be your servant to collect the filled-out petitions   you mail and deliver them to the county recorders.

On a different subject, if someone stole a thousand dollars from you, gets caught and offers to return $333, would you praise him? Of course not! Then why are there so many praising Schwarzenegger for offering to return 1/3 of the money he stole from our children?

January 8, 2006 PETITION READY TO PRINT OFF OUR WEBSITE.  GOTO "PETITION."

Here's a delightful message from Charlie Bright, our Campaign's professional political cartoonist, from the great shores of South Carolina.

HOORAY !!!!!!!!!
Great job. I am sure it must have been very tiring and equally trying on everyone involved to get to the starting point.
Your persistance has paid off, and now the persistance of your volunteers will also pay off

Best wishes to all. I do so wish I could take the time to come out and help gather the signatures, as much for myself as for you and our country. Those that are out gathering the signatures will be able to - for the rest of their lives - look back with great pride on what they accomplished. I get goose bumps just thinking of all you patriotic warriors about to march off into history. Take some pictures of the process to document your part in the national awaking that you have just started.

" WAY TO GO CALIFORNIA ! "

Best Regards
Charlie.

January 7, 2006 INK JET PRINTING WARNING

We got a friendly advice from a Greens person about water-soluble ink jet printing. If they get wet, they will smear, and if your petition smears after you get your signatures, those signatures may be disqualified. If you are collecting outdoors, first make copies from your ink jet originals and use these laser copies. Be sure the copies are pure white and not gray from copying too dark and copy is not crooked.

We are getting so many e-mails from volunteers who are SO happy after waiting so long! We have again recomputed our calendar and although we would like not to take the extra days, we can extend our signature collection beyond March 1.

 

January 6, 2006 WHAT A COPY CAT!

What a copy cat, Arnie is. He took his speech right out of our website. But how is he going to "build" and do all those things without raising taxes on the rich? He didn't say. He is waiting for lesson number two at this website - "Chapter II. How to rebuild California."

We will be posting more here tonight under this date, but we are putting this interim message to let you know that we will put a download link to our petitions very late tonight. You should be able to print your petitions and start collecting signatures this weekend  We are also relaxing the rules regarding printers. We are no longer disallowing ink jet printers; there are some risks of disqualification, but we looked at our timeline. We must finish collecting 1.5 million signatures inside 7 weeks. If you have already read the Petitions section of our website, please re-read it again later because instructions are being changed to not get in the way of more signatures. Print the petitions and give it to as many people as you can to have them collect more signatures. We still need 30,000 volunteers to do this job. People are willing to take the petitions, if they only have to collect 4 to 12 names. PLEASE do not waste time arguing with people. In the time you try to convince someone, you will miss a dozen people who wanted to sign it.

 

January 4, 2006 Hurrah!!!!!!!!!! OPEN THE CHAMPAIGN!!!!!!!

I am very pleased to tell you that we just received the approval from the Secretary of State to print our petitions, in all seven languages! We are taking steps to allow you to print the petition off our website. Those steps may be complete within 24 hours. We have 160 days to gather over a million valid signatures.

I am gratified that I have received no e-mail suggesting that the Recall is no longer necessary. Those e-mails I received all say the same thing: this Recall Campaign is all about Schwarzenegger's character. or Lack thereof.

I am proceeding with the Recall into the signature gathering phase with vigor.  I would like to tell you why it is important that we expunge this menace to society as soon as possible.

Our Recall Campaign is the main reason why Schwarzenegger has come forth with:

1. The withdrawal of lawsuit against nurses to make them take care of more patients per shift.

2. Appointment of Susan Kennedy, an advocate for women's rights to the position of his Chief of Staff.

3. Decision to back the $1 increase in the minimum wage, which he vetoed in 2004 and 2005.

4. Infusion of $1.7 billion dollars into public schools (just announced- this amount is only 1/3 of what he stole two years ago).

These had been some of our major platform positions. What is particularly missing, though, is a revision to the Workmen's Compensation Insurance Laws.

More than these points is the fact that we gave these reasons merely as examples of how Schwarzenegger failed Californians. This is a man to whom keeping his words means nothing. He doesn't know what it is to be poor. He thinks governing California is all about having fun (his words). His governorship is all about gimmicks. The only thing faster than his sly words are his groping hands.

He takes lessons from us quickly, but why should we hold on to a governor who has to be shown every step. He has no inner compass that tells him what is the right thing to do from what is the wrong thing.

I'm beginning to wonder if this man truly has a heart, or is he the robot he portrays in his movies. I cannot trust him with the future of our children or of our poor or of our aged or of our disabled. His lying words have made him forfeit his position. I call on him to resign now so that our Lt. Governor can take over and spare us the work of taking him out.

I am launching the signature gathering phase of the Recall Campaign because it is the right thing to do. Together!

December 31, 2005   IS ARNIE SIGNALING THE RECALL CAMPAIGN? by Kenneth Matsumura, MD

Many, including the media, have assumed that Arnie was moving towards  the center after his quadruple defeat in November, in order to become a more credible candidate for his re-election. His swift move to withdraw his suit against the nurses (to make a nurse be responsible for more patients at a time at the hospital) seemed rushed if he was only worried about his re-election a whole year later, but the media saw it as an image change to be more conciliatory. Then he made an unexplainable move to appoint as his chief of staff an open lesbian and the former head of the California Abortion Rights Action League. Again, the media pundits explained that away as just another move to make himself look more liberal, for sake of his re-election a whole year later. He then said that he thought he could find some money to return to the public schools, which he had previously stolen from them.

Today's leading newspaper headline said that Arnie's big item in his forthcoming State of the State message will be his call for a dollar increase in the minimum wage, something the legislature passed twice and he vetoed. With this, things began clicking in our heads.

Rather than a general move by Schwarzenegger to move to the center, each of his moves appears ti be very specifically related to our enumerated grievances. His moves are related to our Campaign, and not to the re-election a whole year away.

Read our Home Page, which was written at the start of our Campaign, in September 2005. Couple that with what we have been saying for several months, and repeatedly here on Update this month about our call for a raise in the minimum wage.  Each of his moves are accepting each of our major demands - they are a form of a white flag by this Governator to the Recall Campaign, an act of surrender, if you will, although of course his folks could never admit to such.

We had always said that he was reacting to our Campaign and that it was only the existence of this campaign that was prompting him to act so swiftly conciliatory. The difference in our interpretation tonight will split hairs. Where we maintained before that his moves were to undermine our campaign by appeasing important contingents who make up our 10,000 volunteer force massing outside his gates, I am tonight beginning to consider that the net effect of his actions are pretty close to acceptance of our major demands.

Troubling me, with the shortage of time we are facing before our campaign misses the June Primary and we have to call for a special election (remember, the cost of a special election is only $1.33 per Californian compared to the multi-billion dollar benefits to Californians after a successful recall - remember, too, that our calculation shows we can capture 68% of the voters because they will stand to gain directly from a recall), is that some major portions of his "moves" are just words of intent, not binding in any way. He's made promises before which he has not kept, repeatedly. However, he does appear capable and is likely to keep to his stated intent to raise the minimum wage, our flagship issue.

I would be interested in hearing from our volunteers of their thoughts on this matter. Please write to knm@savecalnow.com .

 

December 29, 2005

Just me (KM) today checking in to report that our beacon is on and we are getting our R & R before the hard work begins. I want to thank some of our volunteers who have taken the time to write me encouraging comments about the postings here and I am glad you are all ready to make a difference.

It is easy for apathy to set in, particularly if we are not as directly punched daily by this reckless rampager as our working poor are, our injured workers are, and our barely-surviving, small community businesses are. 

I can only lament what a totally different California we could have had, if we didn't make that unfortunate right turn two years ago. It behooves us to make sure we don't fail this time. Our study shows we have the numbers to win. There are far more "oppressed" than "oppressors." 

Please keep spreading the word about the Recall, in person, on electronic bulletin boards, and by chain e-mail.

I hope the Secretary is having fun finding a translator open this holiday week. If he did, it shouldn't take but a few hours to go over a total of five phrases and words. A proper response to us should have been a suggestion by the State's translators as to what they desired, instead of making us guess as to what is in their minds.

Scrambling for a translator this holiday week was intended for us. Our translators were alerted by me on Tuesday 9 days ago to be ready. We learned that their firm was shutting down for an 11 days break as of Thursday evening that week. Our Japanese translator is in Tokyo, 17 hours ahead (they are beginning to wake up when our work day is coming to a close). We did not get the comments of the State's translators until Wednesday at noon. It took some precision handling by all our people to get us the translation "corrections" by Thursday morning. If we had failed, we would have had to scramble for substitute translators this week, or have our entire Recall application rejected for not meeting the response deadline of January 3. It has been like this for the last two months, them hoping that we would take a misstep. It's a good thing I'm used to this kind of thing in my day job. Just hope it wasn't too much of a strain on the Secretary to work this week! NOT!

I am looking forward to helping rebuild California. This governor in Sacramento has encouraged every Apart-hater to come out of the woodwork. We need to make them realize what aberrants they really are and return them to their caves. They are truly a tiny minority, but having a big-mouth in Sacramento makes them think they are the majority. The rest of us are going to work TOGETHER, and create a kinder and just society here.

I see a California that is prosperous, because we were not stupid or timid of the rich taxpayers, so that we did make a stitch in time to save nine. We will no longer be so stupid as to  delay raising the minimum wage for the working poor, so they bankrupt and go on welfare and exhaust the state's MediCal budget. We will no longer be so stupid as to delay repairing the Delta levee so we have a catastrophe and the whole SoCal goes on a water ration of 3 cups a day and all our crops die.

Instead, we spend prudently and wisely and invest in our future. We infuse money into people who will turn around and spend the money in their communities. The prosperty we will sow will raise our tax revenues  so that we can begin lowering our taxes for all.

We are not the party of only the poor. More and more wealthier people are beginning to realize this simpleton's gimmick of tax-phobia will eventually end up costing them more money. More and more conservatives are abandoning this man who needed to be learning economics at the community college instead of pumping iron. We are being joined by decent people who just happen to have money.

Let us create the California Oasis that Charlie Bright talks about, where people prosper without being mean and cruel. Our society has been headed in that direction for decades; it is the future; let it happen sooner than later. Our volunteers will lead the way!     Together, km

December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas to those celebrating, Happy Hannukah - be sure to lite the first candle tonight. Wishing you a week of Happy Kwanzaa. Happy Holidays to all who are taking a well-deserved rest. Perhaps multiple holidays coinciding is our sign for all people to come together.

$1.33 per Californian, the cost of a special Election to get rid of Swarzenegger.

$5 billion dollars, at least - the cost to Californians of not getting rid of Schwarzenegger in the Summer of 2006.  Need I say more?

The working poor lost as much as $5 billion dollars in 2004 and again in 2005 from Schwarzenegger veto of the minimum wage bill. If we wait until November 2006, they will lose another $5 billion in 2006. This $5 billion dollars would have been spent by the working poor to stimulate our economy, particularly to help our small community businesses.

Don Perata proposed sometime ago to begin fixing the Delta levees. Schwarzenegger doesn't want to raise taxes on his rich friends. If a levee goes down, Southern California can go without water, even his rich friends. Oh, excuse me, they drink Perrier. And equally bad, California's agrabusiness can be wiped out. You couldn't import enough Perrier for the crops. Wait until November 2006? Are you kidding? Besides, what made you think we could get rid of him then?

Political pundits may say, Californians will react negatively to another special election. That is the old-fashioned political thinking, where you have votes evenly split and a few "undecided" cast the deciding votes. Our analyses show that is not how it will be in 2006.

Remember, the cost of a special election is $1.33 per Californian. You put that against the enormous benefit economically to California in ousting Swarzenegger, and you begin to see the new picture. However, that is not the focus of what we are saying here.

Those who are reacting negatively to a special election for the recall are those who are at least one step removed from the direct hit many Californians are suffering. If you can afford to complain about a special election, you did not miss out on $1700 more that you could have made this year, from the vetoed minimum wage bill. $1700 could have paid for some health insurance. You are not living under a constant threat of financial ruin from a health crisis.  Good for you! 

Wait until November 2006 and the 2007 legislative session, you say? You are obviously not poor. Tell it to the hundreds of thousands of the working poor who went without health care this year, some of whom ended up with a stroke. Guess what? They are now on welfare and Medic-AID. Penny-wise, pound foolish.

Those who can complain about the cost of a special recall election did not lose something dear this year from a precious bill that our legislature worked so hard to pass, and got vetoed.

Those who can complain about the cost of a special recall election are not suffering from animal-like treatment being given injured workers this year.

So what is the "new "political thinking about the "stigma of a special election?"  Our analyses show that vast majority of Californians will gain something crucial from the Swarzenegger ouster, and they will not care if we have to pay $1.33 each to get this done. If you don't believe us, just start counting the number of voters who will benefit from the idiot's ouster? About ten million people voted in the 2004 election. 5.1 million voters would oust Schwarzenegger.  Begin with the 2.8 million working poor who will get  up to $1700 per year more, just from the passage of one bill that our political Platform promises. The 2.8 million voters (if they can come to work on time to keep their jobs, do you think they won't register and come to the polls so that they can buy health insurance?) are just the workers. Some of them are parents of grown voters. Some are non-working spouses. You can add easily another 1 million voters to this group. Take voters who are connected with education, and their close friends and family members, not to mention parents of students who are forced to bake cookies and raise raffle donations. A million voters? That is conservative. We are working on precise numbers. You realize we are already up to 4.8 million voters connected to a direct benefit from the special election. We haven't started to add the persecuted minorities, so cruelly treated by this grade B actor. There's easily 1.5 million voters there. We haven't added the injured workers and their family and those who provide assistance to them.  This recall election will be a landslide!

We are beginning the arduous task of finding our gubernatorial candidate we can recommend to you. We cannot consider those who are opposing the recall. Anyone who can be considered has to begin doing their hard work to improve their image before the voters. They must have a strong record of past support for our main platform positions (see our update of December 15, 2005). They will need the support of our hardworking volunteers and so helping our volunteers would seem to be a pre-requisite. Our selection process is not an easy one. We will keep you updated, of course.

PS. Watch Schwarzenegger offer to sign a bill to raise the minimum wage next year, after Maria reads today's update. What he will offer to sign won't be good enough, because the bottomline is that his heart is stone. He is such a copy cat? Doesn't he have an idea of his own? Where did the conservatives find him? Can't they do better? Even Austrians don't want him back! Are Austrians smarter than Californians?

December 22, 2005

And so, the Secretary wrote yesterday in a letter we received today, "so you will have until January 3 to submit your corrections (to the Korean and Japanese translations)."  Guess what? The "corrections" are already enroute to him, and HE (caps not signifying god) will "have until January 3rd" to approve them. We repeatedly requested that our translators be allowed to communicate with each other on the few words and two phrases in total about which they are disagreeing, so that delays won't end up costing the taxpayers money by causing a special election. So far we have heard nothing on this reasonable suggestion. So you have it, folks, we could have it ready to circulate on January 4th! That 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on an unrelated recall case, issued on November 23, requiring 7 translations, as correct as it is, was unfortunate for us, because the Secretary's counsel himself said we were ready to print in early December. The translations have given the Secretary legal means to delay the printing by easily a month, perhaps more.

As you know, everyone, including this governor, knows that we must spend a lot of money on California's infrastructure, like the roads. The governor, however, is not able to raise taxes on his rich friends and so California will again take a back seat to his elite friends. Join our campaign, and you can be sure we will repair California very soon. This is why WE CANNOT WAIT UNTIL November 2006 to change the government. Besides, what if we don't get rid of him then?

December 20, 2005

Here is the latest scoop. We called the Secretary's counsel, and he argued that his 10 days are not up until Wednesday. We checked our record, and we have no question that his 10 days were up yesterday, but are we going to go to court over it? Of course not, but it is this kind of thing that is costing delays, and may ultimately cost the taxpayers money if these delays cause us to miss the June Primaries. Schwarzenegger is counting on us missing the Primaries thinking that the voters will backlash against us if the recall ends up being a special election. By our calculation, had the Republican Secretary of State been thinking about the taxpayers of California instead of his buddy Schwarzenegger, the petition should have been made available by the end of October. We have responded to every request by the Secretary for a correction, within 24 to 48 hours. They have taken the full 10 days in response, and in two instances now, they have taken additional few days to a week or more.

Being forced into a special election is distasteful to us, but eliminating Schwarzenegger will mean an extra $1700 per year to 2.8 million working poor who should have gotten their raise in the minimum wage in 2004 when the legislature passed it and the idiot vetoed it. Eliminating Schwarzenegger will also mean $2 billion dollars back into the school budget. Eliminating Schwarzenegger will very quickly end the suffering of the injured workers who got short changed by the recent, expedient changes in the workmen's compensation insurance law. Eliminating Schwarzenegger will also quickly put an end to a series of discriminatory practices this man has been engaged in, for the millions of minorities who have been affected cruelly.

We have polled our volunteers and none of them are willing to wait a whole year until 2007, and many aren't sure Schwarzenegger won't pull a fast one and get himself re-elected in November 2006. Therefore, this Recall Campaign will proceed regardless of whether the recall becomes a special election.   The $50 million dollars cost of a special election comes to $1.33 per Californian, and as regretful as it is to be forced to spend it on account of the tactics of the clown, the money is worth it to bring about so much good. The raise in the minimum wage alone will rescue California economy by pumping as much as  5 billion dollars into it. Small, family owned community businesses and restaurants which have suffered the most after 9-11 will be particularly helped because when you give the working poor $5 billion dollars, they will go out and spend it all. Then, these small businesses will have profits with which they will buy new California-made furniture, paint their stores, and spend the money some more, giving work to other workers, who will then spend their extra monies at these small businesses.

A few people who are still thinking in a box and not realizing the uniqueness of the forces that have come together for this Campaign have said, "Oh, the voters will react very negatively to a special election and, just on account of that, Schwarzenegger will beat the recall."  A few days ago, we pointed out what kind of a coalition the Campaign represents, and that our coalition represents over 68% of the voters of this state. Only voters who will react negatively to a special election will be those 32% minority (mostly rich). By the time the election comes, we will have convinced a sizeable number of them as well that charity in their hearts will reap untold benefits to them as well. For example, crime rates will go down.

While we will have the full 160 days (5 1/3 months) from the date the Secretary of State approves the petition to gather 1.04 million signatures, we will still try to meet an earlier, self imposed signature collecting deadline of March 1, to try to hold the recall election together with the June Primaries. However, when we begin gathering signatures, we will ask that none of our volunteers guarantee a recall with the June Primaries. We should be straight as an arrow, honest and tell them that Schwarzenegger delayed our signature collection by three months and we now only hope we can get this done quickly. You should point out that the recall means that the working poor will get 5 billion dollars that the legislature intended for them in 2004, the schools will get 2 billion dollars, and that the California economy will get the badly needed boost, making the $1.33 per person cost of the special election regrettable but necessary.  We find that most people sign without asking these questions and we should spend our time mostly finding people who are trying to find you, to sign. Don't spend more than 30 seconds arguing these points.

Here's more scoop on the Secretary's procedure. When they feel their 10 days are up, they are going to say that we fulfilled our requirements and submitted perfect petitions for English, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Chinese. They want corrections on our translations in Japanese and Korean.

We could of course give them the correction in 24 hours. However, they will have another 10 days at end of which they can come back and say, "Oh, guess what, we still don't like this sentence, that sentence, " and when we submit another correction, they can take another 10 days, and then say," you have it almost perfect but we need a period here,  and a comma there."   When we submit that correction, they  will take another 10 days. You see why we are talking about a special election. We will NOT be blackmailed like this.  They are hereby on notice that with the magnitude of benefits so great, and with the vast majority of Californians getting a "Christmas present (for lack of better words)" in July from a successful recall, we will make sure the Schwarzenegger forces will pay for this delay!

We are requesting that the Secretary's translator meet with our translators (ours have worked with the DMV and the Secretary) to iron out differences in viewpoints, and within 48 hours come to an agreement on the Japanese and the Korean versions. We will see if they will agree. Don't hold your breath. We aren't there to give you a CPR!  Happy Holidays, folks!

December 19, 2005

No fax today. We probably should have told you that the Sec uses method of counting days that has the effect of maximally delaying the approval to print the petition. I guess when you are the condemned man, you use every means possible to delay the inevitable. We don't plan to pardon him either...

December 18, 2005 Sec of State's response is required by law on December 19th.  Be sure to read below. OUR CAMPAIGN IS NOT ONLY ABOUT DUMPING A GOVERNOR OF BROKEN PROMISES - IT IS ABOUT RETURNING CALIFORNIA TO THE ROAD TOWARDS JUSTICE AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL, NOT JUST THE RICH.

December 15, 2005

A Major Address from  Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Chair, Schwarzenegger Recall Campaign:

First, before I get serious, I want to share a cartoon that I asked our volunteer, professional political cartoonist in South Carolina to draw, in appreciation of the leaders who rescued California from the Evil Initiatives.

 

#15

  OUR CAMPAIGN IS NOT ONLY ABOUT DUMPING A GOVERNOR OF BROKEN PROMISES - IT IS ABOUT RETURNING US TO THE ROAD TOWARDS JUSTICE AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL, NOT JUST THE RICH

 I can only give you a glimpse of our Campaign’s political platform, but you can be sure it will include at least the following. When you successfully recall Schwarzenegger and elect our coalition governor, you will see the following as law (we already have the votes in the legislature to make it happen):

 

  1. A raise in the minimum wage of one dollar with a cost of living escalator. Since this would have been the law nearly two years ago, the Campaign is looking into how to accelerate the raise without causing hardship to smaller businesses. 
  2. Immediate restoration of the two billion dollars Schwarzenegger stole from the schools. The Campaign is also looking into how to prevent that from happening in the future. [We don’t know what kind of legislature we will have after the November 2006 election. A new Democratic governor cannot accomplish much without a cooperative legislature. Only by electing a progressive governor in the Summer of 2006 can we be sure to get our platform positions into law. Remember, Schwarzenegger is donning a new disguise, and helped by the improvement in the economy nationwide, he could influence the legislative election, aside from getting himself re-elected for FOUR MORE YEARS in November 2006.]
  3. Re-passage of anti-discrimination laws vetoed by Schwarzenegger that affect our minority populations.
  4. Protection and Nurturing of Small Businesses Vital to the Community. Details will be released, but will include provisions to make the impact of the raise in the minimum wage neutral to such businesses, without exempting them from the wage law. Other provisions will be intended to make smaller businesses thrive, not just survive.
  5. Protection of Workers and their Unions. Provisions for rectifying the problems with the recent “reform” in the worker compensation insurance law. Provision to protect workers from such initiatives like Proposition 75. Workers won, but at what cost? They should not be exposed to such attacks repeatedly.
  6. Healthcare for all, including the working poor, especially the working poor. Such a provision can be cost effective. How many working poor end up going on welfare after a health devastation?
  7. Campaign reforms. A review of the initiative process, with an eye towards presentation to California voters about a Constitutional Amendment. If you look at the amount of money being spent on initiative elections, can you see how such monies can be put to better use? Other reforms including taking steps to further decrease the impact of private monies on the electoral process.
  8. Nurturance of Innovative Technologies, to ensure that California remains the leader. Concepts under consideration include state involvement that will lead to state sharing in future profits from billion dollar ideas that go on to advance our society and enhance our standard of living. Ideas to be given priorities are those that lead to improvement in the efficiency of municipal and state services while reducing cost to taxpayers for those services. I proposed this concept nationally in 2002. The President’s Business Roundtable decided instead to devote their attention mainly to the Roundtable advisor’s own businesses and industries.
  9. More. Details being worked out. After all, the Campaign is only a little more than two months old!

It will become clear that the best way for each coalition member group representing advocates of above to achieve the goals of the group is to support the Recall and elect our coalition governor. Start thinking about what YOU would like, then work with us, and when the Summer of 2006 arrives, we will realize your wishes.

 

Together,

December 12, 2005

As we said a few days ago, we feel that we will be least disruptive to the traditional politics in California if we do our own thing, and run our own cadidate next June to serve at least for six months during which time he or she will deliver ALL our programs, and set California in the right direction whoever wins in November 2006. This doesn't mean that current candidates won't be our choice, but the candidate will have to satisfy our volunteers and their grievances. That is only fair, when our volunteers are going to work so hard.

At first we were advised that we should not take any specific political position other than that we want Schwarzenegger replaced. Otherwise, we were told, we could begin losing some of our following.

However, it became clear pretty quickly as we heard from our volunteers about their grievances that it would not be fair to let them work so hard if later we could not support their positions. This Campaign is setting a policy against political expediency. We are going to do something because it is the right thing to do. We believe that if we do the right thing, people will eventually trust us and they will follow us.

Therefore, commencing today, we will begin setting forth in public view the Campaign's positions on matters of greatest importance. They do reflect the makeup of our volunteers and their positions. Call them "special interest," if you want to, but meeting their needs will serve California's interest in the long run.

We will win the governorship because when you add up the voters who want our programs, they make up greater than 68 per cent of those who can vote. The percentage is high because we are a coalition of some Republicans and all Democrats, as well as even more liberal parties.

We have seen what our volunteers want. They are reasonable, and we can support them. Many of their groups are spending millions of dollars to get certain bills passed and signed into law. With Schwarzenegger sitting in Sacramento, bills may be passed again, but they won't become law.

When the Election Day comes, whether it be in June or as a special election in July, our groups will come in massive numbers to vote because it will be the most efficient and cost effective way to get their laws into the book.

As we begin circulating the petition, we will deliver this message clearly, that they are signing not only for sake of California but for their interest as well. Isn't this a real reversal from how we usually denigrate "special interest" voting?  This time, we don't think so because all that will be in our program will be good for California. We will return justice, stop discrimination,  save our schools, help our working poor, help our injured workers (which means helping all workers because anyone can get injured when they least expect it), change our healthcare system, and do the right thing regarding immigration.

We are revealing our strategy early so that the Schwarzenegger forces can do their own calculations and see that they can't win. He is truly a minority candidate. All the dilatory tactics they can use at the Republican Secretary of State's level won't make a bit of difference if we are going to use this strategy. Everyone can be counted on to vote to end their own suffering. Afterall, charity begins at home.

As we reveal our platform, you will watch with glee as Schwarzenegger scrambles to try to pass bills that are in our direction, but he's beholden to the arch-conservatives and to the wealthy business interests and he will be limited in what he can agree to. You can add these bills in our favor to one more benefit of the Recall Campaign.

Today we will start with our major Campaign platform, the minimum wage bill. As you all know, Dr. Matsumura stated at his press conference on September 28th that he was launching the Recall Campaign on behalf of the poor of this state. He decided to do this after hearing from a poor patient of his, a working poor, how Schwarzenegger policies had diminished this poor man's life. If anyone in this state needs help, it is the working poor. They are the first to suffer cutbacks when the economy goes south. Do you know many have to hold two jobs, to feed their family of four? Many don't have any health insurance? In fact, most don't? When anyone in their family gets sick, many have to end up filing for bankruptcy or worse? These are not those stereotypical lazy bums that idiots on the right talk about. They are the earnest, hardworking backbone of our society. We must support them.

Schwarzenegger vetoed a raise in the minimum wage from $6.75 to $7.75 over a two year period. Twice. In 2004, and 2005. The 2005 bill had also a provision for automatic raise in the minimum wage pegged to the inflation. Of course!

Our Campaign's governor will strongly support 2005 Sally Lieber Bill to raise the minimum wage, with an inflation escalator. Not only will a rise in the minimum wage help the 2.8 million workers who earn less, the extra $160 dollars a month that the worker will earn will ALL be spent to perk up our economy (compare that to giving the rich a tax credit of $160 - most will not need it and so will end up in their savings account doing the economy no good!). This bill will infuse 500 million dollars into the California economy every month, 6 billion dollars a year! Do you see why even if Schwarzenegger forces us into a special Recall election, it still makes sense to do the recall?  We only need 1 million of the 2.8 million workers to sign our recall petition. You see why it is a done deal? Since it is a done deal, it will only be offensive if Schwarzenegger forces us to call a special election by his dilatory tactics at the Secretary of State's office.

December 11, 2005

On the eve of our tremendous signature gathering drive, it is important for all volunteers to realize that everyday that we work, we deliver a punishing blow on this 'Terminator of Everything Good.'  We haven't even started to collect our million signatures yet, but we have already had major impacts on Schwarzenegger, his re-election bid, and his evil plans for California. We were asked by a dedicated volunteer to remind everyone how important and impactful the work of the volunteers have been and will continue to be.

Let's start at the beginning. September 28th. Dr. Matsumura announced that he is launching a Recall Campaign. There is a tremendous media response. The media response causes our website and our phones to be inundated with calls of encouragement and commitment to volunteer. We are able to report this fact to the media. The spontaneous response and interest on so many sites on the Internet give much credibility to the Campaign and credible news sources like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and wire services write leading stories.

Hit number one: your tremendous response causes a terrible embarrassment to the Governor. Schwarzenegger is asked everywhere he goes about the recall. We saw searching on the Internet that he was being asked by his financial backers at the California Manufacturer's Association. Your response threw cold water on his ability to raise money for the Evil Initiatives and for his re-election. His re-election campaign manager has to scramble to put a neutralizing spin to keep the right wing from preparing a back-up candidate.

Hit number two:  His credibility was already made poor by respected people like Rose Ann De Moro, Barbara Kerr, and Lou Paulson, a nurse, a teacher, a firefighter, respectively, who led demonstrations at every Schwarzenegger fundraiser. Although these professionals, according to every poll, are the most respected in the society, the public still thinks perhaps these professions are merely protecting their turfs, and Schwarzenegger initiatives targeting them  are threatening to pass. The tremendous response from ordinary women and men, from all walks of life, to the Recall Campaign allows the media to seriously question Schwarzenegger's plans and his character.  The polls begin to show a decline in popularity of his initiatives. He is able to raise even less money for the initiatives. It probably made him spend more of his and Maria's money.

Hit number three: On our website, many of you first timers in politics are urged to go work against the Evil Initiatives. You've already reduced the amount of money he could raise. Your outcry already turned the tide of the public against the initiatives. November 8th sees the most humiliating across the board rejection of the Schwarzenegger initiatives. You even positively affected Prop 73, the anti-choice proposition.

Hit number four: Because so many of you volunteers are so prominent and credible and the media could verify with respected leaders like Art Torres, the chair of the state Democratic Party, that there is much enthusiasm for the recall, that such media stories cause a fundamental change in Schwarzenegger's tactics and in an urgent manner too in an effort to take the steam out of the Recall Campaign. No more "girlie men," no more lawsuits against the nurses, he even talks about more money for our schools.

Your continuing to pour into our website as volunteers, enabling us to pass along this fact about our reaching 10,000 in number compells important progressives to take note of this campaign offering assistance to our effort.

Hit number five, six, seven....one thousand. He falls never to rise again: Next months, when you pour out onto the streets, the media have said they are going to be very interested, and your presence will keep the pressure on Schwarzenegger. He won't dare do anything too outrageous, because every week he will see a lot of television coverage of you diligently collecting signatures.

We already have a worldwide coverage, which can't be anything but a vexation on Schwarzengger's spirits. Keep his spirits down, he will be kept off balance, and the viper will be forced to hide.

AND YOU are doing all this. We are only here coordinating and reporting. We are just catalysts. You are the important actors in Schwarzenegger's new movie, "THE TERMINATED" (Thanks to Dee Fraites for the naming of the movie.)

December 10, 2005

Charlie sent another wonderful one:

#13

As you know, the professional political cartoonist Charles Bright is from South Carolina.

December 9, 2005

We received a fax from the Secretary of State dated December 8. If you don't want to hear the details, just take in that the final approval could come exactly 10 days from December 9. They have actually had our translations since Monday, 5 days ago. It took us just two days to complete the translations. We used a translating company that the State of California uses. Technically, the election codes provide for the Secretary to be given 10 days to respond to any submission by us. So why doesn't the 10 day period start from last Monday? The Secretary's staff says, because they hadn't officially demanded the translations yet. They said, they were not required to demand the translations until December 8, which was the tenth day from our previous submission. It has been going like this for the past four weeks! It is possible that if we missed a tiny blemish on a printing paper of the petitions we submitted, they will reject it asking for a correction. Then they have another ten days to respond to our submission.

They are going to be happy that we are not going to have our petition to gather signatures at holiday parties! This is what we are going to do. As you can see, we are now going to have a short period of time to collect the million signatures, if we are to be able to coincide our recall election with the June Primaries. We have to have our volunteer network fully formalized, commitments confirmed, right away. We also would like to have you start finding out who will sign the petition, so that you are not wasting time talking to people who have doubts or are not going to sign. At your holiday party, if appropriate, pass our a sign up sheet, something like the following:

                                            SCHWARZENEGGER RECALL

By putting your name here, please note that you HAVE NOT yet signed the petition to recall Schwarzenegger. The Recall Petition itself has not been printed yet. We will have a relatively short period of time to collect our million signatures. This sign up sheet is to speed up gathering signatures once the Petition becomes available. Please also note that those willing to "circulate" the petition can do so just amongst friends, neighbors, and co-workers, if you are not able to solicit the public. You can choose to gather as few as four signatures. To circulate or to sign, you must be a registered voter.

When the petition is ready, I am willing to:

Sign it      Circulate it      NAME      Address (please print clearly)         Phone No.

_____         _______         ___________________________________________________

_____         _______         ___________________________________________________

_____         _______         ___________________________________________________

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(Volunteers: you can highlite above sign up sheet, paste to a Word blank document page, and print it! For your literature, you can print a copy of our website's home page.) Happy Holidays!

 

December 8, 2005

This note is  to thank all our volunteers who enthusiastically confirmed their readiness to begin circulating our petition (once the Sec of State stops holding it hostage!). It is an impressive collection of dedicated and caring people. There's one volunteer in Southern California, who reports almost daily, and in her report she sends in more and more names and e-mail addresses of volunteers she accosts everywhere she goes. I think she comes up with a volunteer every 4 hours! To us, it looks like she eats, breathes thinking about the Recall ALL DAY! Better not call her phone number asking for a donation for a cause, because it is likely she will recruit you to her cause, RECALL ARNIE! She sends dozens of e-mails to others who respond by sending more dozens. One of these days, you are likely to get a copy of one of her e-mails. What did they say about the six degrees of separation?

We have a San Franciscan who has committed to raise 10,000 signatures by himself (with the volunteers he personally recruits). We have a precincts leader, who is linked to 100 other precinct captains in his county. Can you imagine the number of signatures his group will raise!

We also have this politically well connected leader in a north county, who has taken on the responsibility of coordinating signature collection on the whole of the North Coast. Can you imagine what a load of work this person has taken off our shoulder. Thank you!

We then want to thank all the teachers, a whole bunch of them, too many to actually count almost, who have volunteered all across the state, even from the conservative county (she says) of San Bernadino. Most of them talk about getting hundreds, some about thousands, of signatures from fellow teachers.

Thanks to volunteers outside our Golden State, like Charlie Bright, the professional political cartoonist from South Carolina, who has sent us so many wonderful cartoons about our idiotic governor. Others are webdesigners who are on call to us, ad copy editors, and those with free long distance calls.

We thank volunteers as far away as London, who will be collecting many signatures of ex-pats. We also thank volunteers in distant lands who simply sends encouraging notes.

We WILL get to work, and won't quit until the job is done and we have gotten rid of this terrible menace from our midst. You will all be so proud that you made it happen. You transformed our state, rescued our poor, helped bring justice to our injured workers, stopped discrimination, and saved our schools and firehouses.

December 7, 2005

Just a personal commentary. I am so much enjoying these past two weeks during which time, in order to confirm their availability, I have been e-mailing or talking with some of our most enthusiastic, key volunteers across the state. With a few exceptions, they have confirmed their readiness to launch their signature collecting campaign, most them saying to me, "hey, get me the petitions quick! We are itching to go!"

I think our Campaign has drawn from a new group of political activists, in addition to our old. "Old" are those veteran activists mostly from various state Democratic districts, many of whom walk precincts every two to four years. They are great because they come with a lot of contacts from past campaigns. In addition to these traditional folks are the new breed of "activists." These are members of groups who have suffered the most from Schwarzenegger's reign of terror. In the past, some of these groups have depended on other traditional activists to "defend" their positions, and for the most part they have been well-defended by the selfless dedication of the traditional activists. This time, though, these groups who have suffered so much are no longer leaving it to others to protect them. They are saying, "we will take the matter into our own hands."   Our campaign has a lot of these folks. Their fervor is incredible and unbendable; totally unaffected by recent initiative victories. They want those bills re-enacted and signed, which were vetoed by the Governor OR they want a better protection of their groups than even the current Democratic legislature has provided.

Quite a few of our folks belong to the group identified this week in a poll, who distrusts the Sacramento "in" crowd. It is interesting because it is a similar type of distrust that brought Schwarzenegger into power. Only this time, these folks are more liberal.

Feeling very much that the successful signature collection is a "done deal" with so many volunteers energized ready to go, in the recent weeks I have been thinking about the strategies of the gubernatorial campaign. As you know, if we do not manage that phase well, all the hard work we will do in the next three months will go to waste. I believe I have found solutions to most of the potential problems that we may face in that phase, and I will be sharing these thoughts with you in the next month.

One of the worries has been, "what if three candidates on the Democratic side, want to run to replace Arnie, and none of them yields to the other." If that happens, the Democrats' votes will be split into three, and the Republican candidate, probably just one, will end up with more votes, thereby enabling someone even more conservative than Arnie to take office. We now have a strategy that will prevent such a nightmare from occurring.

Until this Recall Campaign burst onto the political scene, traditional Democratic candidates probably had their campaign "all figured out." The one who expected to win had every step of their way worked out. Our appearing on the scene must, at least, be jarring to their serenity. We want them to know, that we are aware of such feelings and we are sensitive to them (we are not like this insensitive gorilla rampaging destructively across the state!). Our newly forming strategy will take care of them, and in turn reassure our volunteers who are interested in their candidates.

Then there is the issue of Schwarzenegger pretending to be nicy, nicy lately after his humiliating defeat last month. It appears that Schwarzenegger is trying out an old trick used in the corporate world, where the "nice boss" tries to deal separately with each individual, making each person think that if they played along, they can get something. The idea is to split up the employee group so that no one stands up for others hoping to stay in good terms with the boss.

Look out for this old tactic. It is used successfully in the corporate world to keep workers down, esp. where they are not unionized.

By the way, it's December 7th. I haven't heard from the Republican Secretary of State. What do we want? Petition! When do we want them? N O W! What do we want? Petition! When do we want them? N O W!   Is Arnie going to make us call a special recall election afterall, in July? SAY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! We want our Recall Election to take place with the June Primaries! Is it too late to write to Santa? KM

December 6, 2005

Charlie Bright has sent us a chilling cartoon commentary. This Arnie smiles a lot, but what is he laughing at?

 

 

December 5, 2005

Even with our point man in Sacramento, the 180 miles 'Bay Area to Sacramento' roundtrip has become a routine shuttle for Founding Proponent Matsumura. There are so many ways that the current legal step to publish the statewide petition can get delayed. In many ways, it is like a chess game. We think of all the steps that the other side can take, and we try to head them off.

All six translations are in the Secretary's office. Translations having been done by a premier company that the state regularly uses, we have no doubt their work is excellent. How long will it take for the Secretary to approve them?

Our 160 days to collect signature does not begin until the petitions are printed. However, the Secretary's office can delay things sufficiently to cause us to not have sufficient numbers of signatures by a different deadline to force us to miss being able to do the recall simultaneously with the June Primary. The kinds of back and forth the Secretary and we have been involved in for the last 6 weeks could have been done in a matter of two weeks maximum.

In our opinion, we should have been allowed to begin collecting signatures by October 23. We could have had our petitions on the many thousands of tables that were battling the Evil Initiatives. We could have had the petition in time to allow people to collect signatures at Thanksgiving. Now, holiday parties will soon begin, and we could be collecting signatures by the thousands if not more. Why aren't we?

We were able to arrange to translate our English petition over two business days. It should be possible to check the translation in one day. We post here every two days. Should you expect to read at our next posting on December 7th that the petition has been approved for printing? Don't crane your neck...

In the meantime, our organization is getting more and more formidable. Be sure you read our report of November 30th below. We are going to be raising a ton of money, for the campaign to usher in a new governor. The year end is the time we all send checks to our favorite charities. Be sure to think about the Recall Arnie Campaign. Although donations to us is not tax deductible because it is a political activity, this is a rare chance for you to assure that  $50 and $100 can bring about some wonderful changes in California, by the end of the Summer of 2006. Did you have any bills enacted by our progressive legislature that got vetoed by our clown? Do you want it to become law next August? How often can you spend just $100 to make that happen? Our battle is a very doable one. The numbers are on our side. Make it happen. You can either click on the DONATE word to the left of this column and pay via the secure Paypal method, or you can send a check to Recall Arnie Campaign, 2107 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA 94704. Give generously!

December 1, 2005 Update from this morning's bulletin (read first below) 3 pm

Talk about fast! We are very proud to report to you that we have already arranged for the translations and they will be in the Secretary of State's office by Monday afternoon. We hope we can count on the Secretary's office to review it as quickly. Like we said before, we have only received professional and courteous treatment from the Secretary's staff members.

December 1, 2005 A Late Bulletin! 10 AM

It is truly amazing, the timing of this, that is. And it has nothing to do with the other side delaying us, we think. On the 23rd of November, just last week, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit handed down a ruling that any election material that the Secretary of State approves for distribution in the state must be translated into 7 languages if for a statewide use (that's the abbreviated interpretation). We are immediately taking steps to comply by translating our petition into 7 languages, which will be submitted to the Secretary of State, who must then check each translation. This will cause a few weeks delay in our being able to make available the petition.

TIme is not wasted, however, as our distribution network is getting more and more formalized, with the number of volunteers rising. Like we always said, if we reach the number of 30,000 volunteers, we could complete the signature gathering in one weekend. No one expects this to be that easy of course, but because we are not planning to depend on paid signature gatherers (whose numbers are limited), we should not have to work on this every weekend for 5 months. What we are saying is that, if we depended on paid signature gatherers, and there are only a relatively small number of them who are experienced, we would have to wait a long time to gather the million signatures. That is NOT the case with us!

Those of you who have a network of volunteers, please begin discussions with your various facilitators, as to how to quickly distribute the petitions when we ship them to area coordinators, and precisely how each volunteer will get the petitions signed, Although we will technically have 160 days(over 5 months!) to gather signatures, from the day we make the petitions available, because we are trying to time the recall election together with the June Primaries, we need to get the signatures done by the end of February. You see why we need the large network of volunteers already in place!

Those of you who are in San Francisco and Alameda Counties, where we expect to gather a huge number of signatures (it seems there, almost everyone grabs your pen to sign), we need more volunteers. Please talk to more friends and get firm commitments, even in terms of dates and times, for say January and February. Of course, many will circulate the petitions amongst their friends, relatives, and co-workers, which won't require promising to spend certain weekend afternoons, which makes it easier. We believe the number of volunteers you can find will rise a whole lot if you just ask friends if they would gather just 12 signatures amongst their friends, neighbors and co-workers. Remember, only registered voters can circulate the petition.

One more thing: each sheet of petition (which has only 4 places for signatures) can have signatures of residents of only one county. Residents of another county have to sign on a different sheet, for their county. However, a registered voter in one county CAN gather signatures of voters in another county.

November 30, 2005  A Report from Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Chair, Recall Arnie Campaign

On the eve of the commencement of the signature gathering phase of our campaign, I am happy to report to you that we are only a week away from completing a statewide organizational structure that will get the job done.

Our headquarters is a (donated) 2500 square feet, furnished office from where we have enjoyed recently the most gorgeous sunsets over the Golden Gate. We operate completely with volunteers. We now have our Statewide Coordinator, who comes to us with considerable management experience in federal senatorial campaigns. Our headquarters has a Chief of Staff, a host of volunteers for data entry, and web engineers on call. Statewide, we have people with free long distance calling ability.

We have a Representative in Sacramento who has already played a key role while we have worked with the Secretary of State on the petition format. He will soon open our Sacramento headquarters to help manage the gubernatorial-recall campaign once the signature gathering is complete.

We are most fortunate to even have a professional political cartoonist!

We are accepting generous offers from professional signature gathering organizations to carry our petitions while they are working on other liberal issues, and in the process we are quickly acquiring valuable know-how on how this is done. We have an experienced, volunteer consultant who will assist us monitor the quality of signature gathering.

Statewide, by the end of next week, we will end up with over a hundred area "captains" who will coordinate and oversee activities in their regions. They will help us with our over 10,000 volunteers statewide. Some of these people are long time activists or those with impressive credentials in the state Democratic Party or other organized groups. Some of our volunteers are retired teachers and public workers, still smarting from the recent Evil Initiatives, who have pledged to spend near full-time on signature gathering.

We are exploring potential donations from big name individuals. We report to someone who is a gatekeeper for others with large funds. We have been approached by a reputable firm who raises money for Sierra Club and other progressive organizations. While I am proud that we are largely a grassroots organization, we are preparing to become well-funded as well.

Generally, campaigns like this are planned and structured over a 6 months period. I am gratified that because the campaign touched the hearts of so many talented individuals, our Campaign has come together in just two months!