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In addition to below, there is a new posting on UPDATE, dated January 15th. Be sure to visit our new section, And Now? (accessible from the Home Page). Last postings there on June 9th and November 7, 2007.

ATTENTION EVERYONE! Starting in February, 2007, most postings are made at this website's new section called "And Now?" accessible from the home page.

January 9, 2007

Happy New Year, Everyone! I decided to post in advance of my announced monthly posting date of the 14th because there has been such a surge in visits to our website since the inauguration speech a few days ago, it is obvious people are wanting our feedback.

In the immediate days following Gov. Schwarzenegger's landslide re-election, there was a tremendous drop in visits to our website, I assumed naturally that there was less interest in what we say here. I decided to post only once monthly, mainly to keep our recall volunteers together, for that "just in case."

However, since late November, the analysis of our website visits and visitors revealed that there remains a great deal of interest, like before the election. Most noticeably, our website continues to be of considerable interest to folks who want the best for Gov. Schwarzenegger. If what we say here continues to influence Governor's actions, I say, "Great!" and we will keep up the posts.

On March 10, here on Weblog, we posted the following:

"Governor Schwarzenegger - you ARE a very powerful man. We the volunteers of Recall campaign call on you to change your ways - learn to sow happiness. History has never praised leaders who protected the wealthy. History remembers those who helped the disadvantaged, those who are poor. How history will remember you - remains YOUR choice. Do the right thing. You can still be remembered and respected for the right thing you did before leaving the office. Maria and Susan, help him."

I think these words dug deeply into Gov.Schwarzenegger's heart. These words together with the story I told over and over   on radio and television when I launched the recall, about the plight of the working poor without health insurance have left an indelible mark on the governor. Thank you for remembering my story about one working family I knew whose daughter had to drop out of UC to support the family when an illness completely bankrupted the family. And about Mr. D. who kept cutting back on his blood pressure medicine to make it to the next payday. He subsequently died from a stroke, but I see this fine hardworking man in his daughter's eyes. I take care of her now.

Thank Goodness that Gov. Schwarzenegger has made universal health his foremost goal for California. He has courageously even proposed to cover the children of the undocumented immigrants. I have many volunteers in the South who have serious concerns about the flow of undocumented immigrants into their midst. I have come to understand their feelings and I do not think bigotry drives those feelings. However, children should not bear the punishment for what actions their parents took. I applaud Gov. Schwarzenegger for his willingness to deal with the sour faces of his more conservative supporters.You can tell them that an epidemic spread from an untreated undocumented child may threaten the lives of their precioius grandchildren.

I have come to believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege that comes with money. Too many people are without an insurance and are forced to get really sick before they get medical attention. The hardest hit have been the working poor, the number one contingent of my Recall Campaign. Thank you Governor Schwarzenegger for coming to their aid.

As many of you know, I express much amazement in a book I wrote on the Recall (Arnold Remade) about how much the changes we have seen in Gov. Schwarzenegger was brought about by our launch of the Recall. With the exception of one other thing I am still waiting for, this Universal Health coverage for our working poor completes the Recall Campaign's program.

Having expressed my praise and gratitude for this and other lofty goals Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed both in his Inaugural Speech (Congratulations, by the way, Gov.!!) and his State of the State speech tonight, it is my duty now to express my concerns, that unless handled right, these lofty goals will remain just that, goals, or even if they get carried out they will soon fall apart.

It is proposed that different segments of our society will share in the "burden" of providing health coverage to the 6.5 million uninsureds in California. I can see the legislature bog down deciding who will bear the greatest burden. As more details become clear, I will undoubtedly have more comments to make. Somehow, I trust that the legislature and the governor sincerely intent on leaving a legacy will reach some agreement on this matter.

My worry about the universal health plan (this one is far more realistic and pallatable to the ordinary citizens of California than the Kuehl Bill, I believe) is the same one I have for all health plans nationwide. They are all slated to go into the stratosphere because there are some inherent design flaws that actually started with the Medicare Program, as wonderful as Medicare is.

Prior to Medicare, we had 50, 60 million households across the country who on many weekends inspected the medical bills for their properness. These "auditors" were not paid and unlike auditors currently working for government and private health insurance carriers, these "auditors" actually knew first hand what services were actually rendered by providers sending the bills. The doctors and hospitals, knowing that many of the patients will be bringing the money at their next visit and paying them face to face, did not dare "try billing" for higher services than they rendered. For an office visit that lasted 4 minutes, a doctor wouldn't think of slapping the family with a $250 bill. A hospital bill wouldn't come with a charge of $25 for a plastic bedpan. On the other hand, when a doctor conscientiously got out of bed for a dear patient suffering in an emergency room, she knew that when she tendered a bill for $45, she could count on being paid, graciously, and with much gratitude on the patient's face. She would not face what I faced as a  physician in 1974, when I got out of bed out of courtesy to expedite a care of an elderly patient at an emergency room, and I billed $45, and the state Medi-Cal program sent me a check for $2.35. Then when I took 40 minutes to dictate a letter why I should have been paid more, I received $1.33 on the supplemental check.

A system where the person paying isn't the person receiving the service leads to abuses and utter ridiculousness. I can see that the entire American medical care system is headed to an explosion, or worse -- sub-par services caused by inadequate payments, payments that are inadequate because most of the money is going to other people than those providing services.

My local hospital in Berkeley was called Herrick. In 1960, the hospital administration consisted of a 14 by 16 feet office of the hospital director and an 8 by 16 feet office of his administrative assistant in the fore-room. Yes, there was a billing office, one room, in the basement, but the rest of the hospital had patients in them, or had diagnostic equipment in them. Herrick did well for the community - a first class service, first class doctors.

About two decades later, as more and more "third party payors" became common place, my hospital who proudly took care of the poor and the minorities fell on hard times and was enticed to "merge" with another Berkeley hospital which many doctors called the "country club."  This second hospital, Alta Bates, promised our Herrick staff that they would keep Herrick running. Afterall, Herrick was located centrally, near downtown, and was the firefighters' choice for the location of the city emergency room.

Guess what, it was just a few years later, without even a sense of embarrassment, Alta Bates concluded that the city can only afford one hospital and despite the protest of most people in Berkeley, Herrick was closed. Oh, Hollywood often came to make movies there because the new hospital Herrick had built before the "merger" looked so nice. This was probably before you were making movies, Governor.

Alta Bates is now, as a result of a series of other mergers, Alta Bates-Summit Corporation, which is a division of yet bigger Sutter Health. Even before such mergers, Alta Bates' administration consisted of thousands of square feet of office space in a skyscraper far away from the hospital itself. Its chief or some head honcho got into trouble when the newspapers reported that every junior executive of this "corporation" - a non-profit one, mind you - was to be given a brand new BMW!

Do you see why we are using our credit cards to pay our health insurance premiums? But you think I am blaming business-oriented hospital administrators for all our troubles. No, not at all. This monster was created in response to the stupid way the Congress and other government officials set up Medicare, and this led to private insurers copying the flawed designed for their use.

Just as I was paid something outrageous like $4.00 for providing caring services to a sick patient at 3 AM (I got home at 7 AM just in time to shower and go to my hospital rounds), hospitals were also encountering problems with payments from third party carrier like Medicare and Blue Cross. It was a survival necessity to hire an office full of clerks, each bunch of twenty supervised by a junior exec, to write protest letters to the carriers. Then the well-meaning legislatures, both federal and state, began passing dumb laws on their last day before recess, and so then to defend against outrageous regulations, hospitals recruited from other industries expensive hired guns to strategize, lead in lobbying campaigns, and do other necessary things to keep hospitals from going under. The result is what you see today, and this process is in continuous evolution, getting worse and worse.

It is vitally important that we recruit some real geniuses to figure out a real fix. I can assure you that the solution is not a single payer system. Sorry RoseAnn. Talk to dissatisfied patients of the Kaiser HMO, like me. Kaiser is touted as the model for a nationalized system. God forbid! (And I'm not even religious.)

I am sure the governor and the legislature will figure out a way to make everyone pay something out of their pocket to make this universal health coverage happen. I hope so. However, I have far less confidence that such a universal health plan will become your legacy, Governor. It may be lucky to last through your administration - note I am not predicting our need to recall you in 2008 (Breath a sign of relief, because we are such a well-oiled machinery, I'd hate to be a target of group like ours!). Maria and Susan, you have got to plan a Phase II - review and revision of any state-sponsored health services by a blue ribbon committee of geniuses not beholden to special interests, to correct the flaws in our third party payor system that lead to spiraling of costs.

Governor Schwarzenegger. I am beginning to appreciate your great talent and magnetic personality that enable you to bring about things that men and women not like you are incapable of. I also can see the important role that your dear wife Maria plays in helping you stick to successful strategies. I also see that you have surrounded yourself with people who have good hearts and know politics, like Susan Kennedy. There are others that most people would not recognize and so they are not mentioned but know that I do appreciate their presence. You have a good team. It will be important that you avoid the pitfalls that I can see in the road. I have more comments to make, which will be posted as my time allows in the future, but I think I should get off my soapbox before someone yanks it out from under me. For those who patiently read to this point, I have a special treat. Charlie Bright of South Carolina sent a very funny cartoon to me. It does not relate to California politics, but it is funny even to Bush supporters if they have any sense of humor, and many of our volunteers are dying to have an installment of cartoons from Charlie, and so I have decided to post it below. Thanks, Charlie! Have fun.

j

Kenneth Matsumura, MD (since this past Summer, most of the postings are strictly my own opinion) from the Republic of California

December 14, 2006

Everyone's taking a break. Our volunteers are keeping busy with different tasks. Mainly we are monitoring for any indication of troubles ahead. Actually, I think most of us realize that we have such a well-oiled machinery that we don't want to let it get rusty for possible use in the future. Many of us have also formed probably life-long friendships and those of us who live close by are getting together socially cementing our relationships. The rest of us keep in touch often by e-mail.

What is clear is that if there is any significant deviation from the new direction that we have coaxed our governor to take, we will know it quickly, and this time, we won't let it go so far down the hill like the last time.

I will personally be working on the formation of a cohesive coalition that can act and vote in a unitary way. Those of you who are new to this website can review our comments about such a coalition in the postings of December 2005. Actually, our volunteer force is a microcosm of such a coalition, and the fact that we were able to act together for so long gives me encouragement that we can form such a coalition in a even bigger way.

Happy Holidays, and thanks, Volunteers, for all that you did and accomplished.

 

November 16, 2006 (Posting here will now become monthly, before the 15th)

A few days late. We all needed a break, right? First, my congratulations to the governor and Maria. And you're welcome. This year was just a taste. We have much work ahead, if we are to continue making progress. First, let me get something out of the way.

Yielding to much coaxing from many of our volunteers, I have written a book about our experience and it is hot off the press: Arnold Remade: How the Fear of His Own Recall Transformed Him & Reshaped California.  You can read more about it on the publisher's website for this book, at www.ArnoldRemade.com. It is written giving the governor as much credit as possible for taking our Recall effort seriously. Indeed, we all know, if he had not, we would have a different governor as of last July. The fact is Arnold Schwarzenegger took some bold steps, that not anyone would have taken, even facing all the facts last December. I think the book makes for an interesting reading and people who have read it find it very inspiring and many are planning to give it as gift this Holiday Season. It is available through your bookstore who can get it from the large wholeseller Baker & Taylor. It is also available at the above website.

Now, back to our business. This website stays up by the consensus decision of our volunteers. Many frankly do not trust that our "transformed" governor will stay that way. I personally think that he will, but I have gone along with the preparation for taking the necessary steps should our governor revert to his old ways. I was disappointed to hear that he still has interest in redrawing our districts. Regardless of the merit of this idea, it is very divisive and any goodwill he has generated over this past, carefully conducted year will evaporate in an instant. Why, ask yourself, Governor, when you are enjoying so much adulation not only in California, but in New York and elsewhere, would you want to end it and make us start drawing those viper cartoons again? Charles Bright, the loyal cartoonist from South Carolina, is still with us. Did you like all those unflattering renditions of yourself we had to draw here on our website? It must have hurt Maria's heart to no end to see what we had to say about the old governor, here on our website a year ago. Do not go back. Anyway, we are telling you, we are well-greased, experienced, and ready to make sure California goes only forward, not backward. I'm going to try to make this the last time I talk about our readiness, but what we will do the next time will be quite different. But that won't be necessary, I am sure.

I do see some troubles ahead. We are all counting on the economy upping our revenue, but we could face up to five billion dollars in deficit. Because the governor hates to raise taxes, we are instead borrowing, borrowing, borrowing. The legacy he will leave California may not be the wonderfully freshened infrastructure, but an albatross on the young of public debt. I too would like to avoid new taxes, and so I will have new ideas in terms of improving our state revenue from an economic upturn.

Well, governor, you and I know you still have one more thing to do, to complete the planning of the last year. Don't let me hold you up.

Kenneth Matsumura, MD

October 26, 2006

This will be brief. Much is happening at our campaign headquarters, as will become evident soon. We are preparing for the inevitable four years of Schwarzenegger administration, unless a Truman-surprise happens again.

I think that the left wing groups in this state needs to reconsider how decisions were made this past year. Every prediction and warning I made came true. It was like I had the crystal ball. Some of the volunteers who dropped off after the November 2005 elections also made some tragic mistakes in their judgment.If we continue like we did, you can bet that the causes we support will suffer.

Socially progressive causes must form a coalition of the sort I advocated in December last year with other good causes. (1) The poor, many of whom have surprisingly conservative social ideas, (2) the unions, many of whose members also have trouble with ideas of the social progressives, (3) advocates of strong public education (teachers and parents, whose political spectrum is also quite broad), (4) advocates of healthcare reforms, must all come together. Together, we control 68% of the future votes. It is an invincible coalition that can control our future, regardless of how many Arnies they send. Divide this group, like they are now, and each group will be taken apart.

For the first time in history, these members worked side by side, on the recall. On issues they could not completely agree, they were willing to compromise so that each group can get at least their minimum goals achieved. If it could happen once, it can happen again. True, it will mean watering down every group's most extreme goals. But isn't it better to water down your goals than to have the near opposite happen?

Our analysis, which will be published and widely circulated shortly, shows that it was only because of the Recall Campaign that we achieved so much this year. We moved a mountain. While we are now preparing ahead, don't count on us to keep achieving so much for California.

The coalition that came together for the recall was of the rank and file members. Most were disgusted that their groups' leadership did nothing to foster the strong wishes of the rank and file. "Disgusted" was about as strong as they felt; I heard them.

Rest assured that we are now taking many innovative steps to prevent back-sliding of all that we achieved this year. Governor should take note that all the good will that he has generated this year, thanks to us, can evaporate in a month. Stay with us, Governor. Stay with Susan and Maria and others who moderated you. I personally respect some of your ideas and concerns; I too am a fiscal conservative. As you have seen lately, I for one am not taking you to the edge. But don't go back to the other edge. I have the pulse of the Californians. Stay with us, even after your re-election.

Treasurer Angelides, we sincerely wish for your victory on November 7th; keep working until the end. I'm only sorry you didn't join us last December, but I guess hindsight is cheap.           Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Recall Founder

 

September 28, 2006    Our routine, running commentary and advisory on the conduct of the election campaign follows the entry of September 13, and out of chronological sequence. Because we are so proud of our achievements described in the entries of September 13th and 28th, they will remain at the top of the Weblog section for the near future.

Hello, Volunteers! Hurrah! Congratulations, again!!!! We got global warming! I mean to say, the recall campaign has successfully gotten our governor to proudly join the battle against global warming, making California the leader in environmental protection. He signed the legislation which he worked on with the legislature that will more aggressively seek to reduce carbon dioxide emission here in California. I know we have volunteers whose causes are still short-changed and our work is not complete by any means, but I have to say I am breathless with the transformation we are bringing to California (better breathless this way than from carbon dioxide, right?). Governor Schwarzenegger, thank you!! Now, be sure to read our regular weblog entries that begin below the entry of September 13. Kenneth Matsumura, MD

September 13, 2006 A Time for Celebration!

Our usual weblog posting commenting on the conduct of the election campaign will be delayed by a few days in order to allow our groups to celebrate. We are letting it sink in that our campaign made the raise in the minimum wage possible. Nothing else did that. There was a clear cause and effect pattern from the time of our announcement that a recall against Gov. Schwarzenegger was launched, the feeding frenzy by the media over that announcement, the avalanche of e-mails from volunteers all across the state promising to gather at least 40 recall signatures, our near-daily postings about why we were recalling him, including a frequent mention of how much the veto of the raise in the minimum wage had to do with our launch of the recall, and finally the Governor's speech on the State of the State, in January, in which he sounded like it was his idea to raise the minimum wage! Volunteers, all across the state, who worked long hours; especially our Sacramento chief Jaime Feliciano who worked incessantly to gather signatures from January to May; the many dedicated volunteers who kept sending hundreds of signatures each week. This is YOUR payday, today! You made this happen. You made it possible now for our working poor to buy health insurance, or adequate nutrition for their children. You did this!!!!  Enjoy the good feeling you deserve to have in your hearts! The working poor got somewhere between 2.5 to 5 billion dollars a year in raise!!! This governor had starved them for two years! BUT HE DID LISTEN! Thank you Governor Schwarzenegger.

When I with much anger couldn't restrain myself from launching the recall, I had no idea that it could have such a major effect. As those of you who read the blog here know, the governor has not only listened to us about the working poor, he has joined our fight against global warming, and has assured continuous water supply to the South by working to fix the delta levees. Thank you for those things, too, Governor!

Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Recall Proponent

September 28, 2006

If I weren't seeing the new Arnold Schwarzenegger, who champions the raise in the minimum wage and proudly fights global warming, I would be plenty depressed around now. The recall campaign warned early this year that the predictions of the State Democratic Party, the large unions, the teachers, and the nurses were dead wrong! Many didn't want to join the recall because they said, "Why do the hard work of a recall when Angelides or Wesley is a shoo-in." We said that our studies indicate that we needed to hold the recall election by March or April because we predicted that the governor would rehabilitate his image by the Summer. The State Democratic Party and others need new advisors! They only talk to themselves, slap each other on the back and congratulate themselves. I for one, went up and down the state and listened to our volunteers who represented a good cross section of the California voters. The governor has good advisors, who took us seriously and read our postings avidly. They transformed their platform and remade their candidate in our mirror image. The Democratic side, at least those in control in Sacramento, were a bunch of know-it alls. Look where they are now. I say, "they" and not "us" because I do not feel "they" are "us." Remember, the weblog postings lately have been my personal views, not necessarily those of our volunteers, but I do not believe I deviate much from the core postions of our volunteers. I still talk to quite a few of them regularly and they give me feedbacks.

Let me comment on the recent Democratic-Angelides campaign ads. One can tell they are completely out of touch with the reality of the California voters. Trying to associate Governor Schwarzenegger with President Bush is, for lack of a better word, dumb. Even many liberals don't buy it. An outside liberal, a visitor from Ireland, said to me, "Is this all that the Democrats have now against Schwarzenegger?" It is pathetic.

I tell you why also it is dangerous to hinge political support on anti-Bush sentiments. I was going to say this around the middle of September before the polls came out corroborating my thinking, but it would not be surprising to see an increasing support for not running out of Iraq, like we did disgracefully out of Vietnam. The remembrance of 9-11 can bring a strong reminder as to who would gain from America's retreat out of Iraq - Islamic extremists who mistreat women, who don't believe in a diversified world, who don't even believe in modern science or accepted practice of justice. There's no one who was more disgusted than I with the way Bush was "elected" in 2000, like those Presidents "confirmed" by judges in undemocratic South American countries. I was one of the few who flew to Washington to protest his swearing in. So listen to me when I say don't connect to anti-Bush sentiments. Most of us are very American and very patriotic. We believe in protecting the ideals enumerated by our country's founding Fathers.

Trying to embarrass the governor about a casual comment made in private also makes Angelides forces look desperate. Also, when there is some question about how those comments were made public, the Democrats risk looking like the Watergate burglars. Yes, I know the taped comments were not "stolen."That is besides the point.It is a matter of the public's perception.  Kenneth Matsumura, MD

 

August 31, 2006   Angelides Improving His Positions

Those who are avid readers of weblog here will recall that on July 13th, I presented some friendly advice to the Treasurer about his positions on issues and how they were likely to be viewed by the voters who will determine the outcome of the November election. I had misgivings about the large ten billion dollars 'tax the rich' plan and about his support of the universal healthcare Kuehl's Bill, based on what our volunteers think.  I suggested that he should say that the economy has taken a surprising upturn which has enabled him to roll back his tax plan.I also suggested that he should move cautiously on the universal healthcare plan. In June, his spokesperson had said he supported the Kuehl Bill.

Treasurer Angelides has adopted a tax 'rebate' plan for the middle class thereby returning some of the tax taken from the very rich. It is a strategy that worked for Clinton, although if I recall correctly, Clinton didn't roll out his plan in two steps like Angelides, and therein lies the problem. Angelides could be seen to have added his second step as a political move. His advisers will need to prepare Phil for that attack from Arnie.

If I am hearing this correctly, I understand that Angelides has now withdrawn support of the Kuehl Bill. This will have taken away an important attack position from Arnie. That is a relief!

Let me tell you what I have heard repeatedly from my volunteers who worked to recall the governor. Even after the governor remarkably adopted the Recall Campaign's main demands, many of our volunteers wanted to keep going to recall him, because of the character issue.

I believe the man who will win in November will win based on the voters' perception of the candidate's character. The governor, helped by postings here on this website, has really cleaned up unpopular positions on various issues. It still amazes me that he is now the foremost champion of the raise in the minimum wage, when afterall I decided to recall him after he vetoed for the second time the raise voted by the Democratic legislature. He has stopped ignoring the deterioration of California's infrastructure, such as the levee which I said threatened the water supply of Southern California. He is helping California become one of the first states to adopt measures to stop global warming, in contrast to his Republican buddy in Washington.He petitioned to prohibit constructing roads into some of California's last wilderness. He has closest to him the former head of the California Abortion Rights Action League. This Susan is also expected to guide him on gay rights issues. We can keep listing the ways in which he has gone down our list of demands and grievances of last December and met them.

Therefore, with these issues putting the governor now much more together with the voters, it is a challenge for Angelides to demonstrate why the voters should vote for him, not Schwarzenegger.

In the previous, recent posts, I have railed against playing politics as usual and reaching the budget pretty much on time was just what the doctor ordered. Angelides' recent move to separate himself from a position taken by a union on a proposition is the kind of things that can assure the voters that Angelides is not 'bought' by the union or any special interest group. His recent move, perhaps following our advice, to not back the Kuehl Bill placed him independent of yet another union to whom he had been seen beholden. However, suspicions will continue in the minds of voters that Phil is with "special interest groups."  Remember that Schwarzenegger rode successfully on the tide of voters' disdain of special interest groups. The voters have NOT changed. Angelides' advisor will need to carefully work on dispelling any notion that he will not act in the best interest of California because he owes too much to the various special interest groups that are so powerful in Sacramento. Remember, even in 2006, Sacramento-outsiders are in, Sacramento-insiders are out!

So back again. Three most important things in this election. Character. Character. Character. I believe Arnie has really done a splendid job the whole of this year in being consistent in support of certain issues that we outlined, while still maintaining fiscal conservatism. Voters who will decide the next governor are like me, fiscally conservative. Idealists, maybe, but fiscally conservative, for sure. Angelides will need to assure the voters that he has a plan to deliver a caring and productive California, without bankrupting it. Angelides will need to be consistent, lest he will be seen as another politician, who promises to get elected but renegs quickly. He who shows that he is strong and capable of delivering what is promised, but fiscally cautious, will win. You can bet that Arnie's people will have read my post today and when the date of the debate arrives, Arnie will attack Angelides as being a Sacramento politician. It is incumbent on Angelides' supporters who read here to prepare him for this attack. Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Recall Founder

August 14, 2006  Lessons well learned & the Latino Vote

Showing confidence in a November victory, Schwarzenegger has announced a trip in 2007 to India. It will actually be a trade mission, which is aimed at bringing more business to California. Those who read our website avidly will recall that I criticized the governor for spending 90% of his time making sure that taxes are not raised for his wealthy friends, and failing to do anything to stimulate the California economy, which by the way, would have benefitted his rich friends even more.

Apparently, this trip to India was Maria's idea. She is one smart woman and could have figured out by herself that the governor needed to do more of these trips, but I wouldn't be surprised if reading our website resonated with her.

On another topic, the governor's advertisements are mainly in SoCal. He is concerned about the Latino vote. You recall when he ran the first time, he used the undocumenteds as his focus. He did build up a lot of resentment in the Latino community. One such recall volunteer in fact translated our home page to enable us to reach out to the Spanish speaking community.

On the issue of the Latino vote, Angelides must be very careful. He appears oblivious to how the issue of illegal immigration bothers even the most liberal Democrats, who live in SoCal. It's one thing to back a funding of emergency health care of children of undocumented aliens, but another to not have some serious but practical solution to the continous flow of aliens across the southern border. If Angelides were to come up with an innovative approach that meets the heart of the liberals and the concerns of decent (not just biggoted) citizens in SoCal, he could seriously for the first time threaten the re-election of Gov. Schwarzenegger.

As for the governor, he lost a lot of Latino votes when he showed no care for the working poor. His accepting our criticism has taken a big step towards rehabilitating his image before the Latino community. We believe his demonstrating that he has had a genuine awakening on this issue can do much to gain votes in the Latino community.

I started this quest when I saw the plight of our working poor. They are the backbone of our society. We must work to reward them for their hardwork and provide them with a health net. More than a revolutionary universal health care that will re-engineer health care of everyone (which scares more people than comforts them), we need to extend Medi-Cal to our working poor with increasing deductibles for those earning more. I personally believe this takes priority over additional funding to our public schools. Such a program shows a genuine care for the working poor and will result in many votes for the governor.     Kenneth Matsumura, MD

(My next weblog may be delayed by as much as a week)

July 23, 2006 An Opportunity for Angelides - the One Thing Arnie missed

We were not scheduled for another post here until the end of the month, but we felt it was important enough to add this note at this time. By the way, weblogs since late June have been by me Ken Matsumura. While the top leaders of the Recall Campaign and I communicate still quite often, we no longer have a formal schedule of meetings and we no longer have mechanisms for timely review by all of posts at this website. Rest assured, however, that postings here reflect many views I am hearing from my volunteers and I think for that reason my reports are valuable. For those who are wondering, we point out that we are aware that our weblog is being followed carefully by people who should care what a large segment of the California voters are thinking.

Just two days after my last post here, Schwarzenegger did a line item veto of something that reflected his continued lack of concern about our injured workers. Let me give you a background on how we came to support the cause of California's injured workers.

Readers here will not find any comments from us about the plight of the injured workers in any of our early postings that explained why we were recalling Schwarzenegger. Our grievances dealt primarily with the governor's breaking of promises - many of them.

A governor should not be recalled just because he is voting conservatively or differently than some of us would vote. We have an election every four years to give our feedback on his voting record. A recall should be reserved for egregious offenses where the governor was elected on a platform but which once elected he refuses to implement. This governor promised to make it a priority to protect public education, and then once elected he robbed the schools of 3 billion dollars.

When we announced our recall campaign, we heard from many volunteers who wanted a new governor because of the passage of the "reform" of the Workmen's Compensation Act. The contingent of such volunteers was large and these volunteers were particularly driven. They were not only the injured workers and their families who were suffering horribly after the "reform" put through by both the Democratic legislature and the governor, but also their caretakers and their attorneys. Probably, they represented voters that numbered in the millions.

In fact, many of these volunteers were Republicans, so that we knew that if once we had enough signatures to qualify the recall on the ballot, we would have the votes to oust Schwarzenegger. We had the votes of the millions of the poor, for the governor's two cruel vetoes of the raise in the minimum wage, we had the millions of voters affected by the theft of the public school money, and the millions of voters angered by the veto of the gay marriage bill that our legislature so bravely passed last year. Not only could we count on their votes, but we also knew the emotions were so strong that we could count on them to go and vote. The votes of those affected by the cruelty afflicted on our injured workers cinched the "deal," as our study indicated.

Particularly sensitive to critics tired of one recall after another as if it had become a habit, I was careful to list only reasons that reflected actions that betrayed the voters. However, prompted by so many dedicated volunteers representing the injured workers, late in December we began to talk about it on Update and included the injured workers' cause.

The governor amazingly made the cause of the poor his first item in his State of the State speech, then soon thereafter began to return the money to the schools, and he appointed an open lesbian, and a Democrat!, as his important Chief of Staff. These actions, which embraced our own platform, successfully pacified our volunteers and assured that the recall campaign would not secure enough signatures. Our other main concern, the repair of the levees that he neglected while helping his wealthy friends, became his own battle cry. It was as if he became the Recall Campaign's candidate.

However, perhaps sensing some kind of hesitation of mine, he steadfastly ignored our demand that he work on yet another reform of the Workmen's Compensation Act. Our Assembly Chief Nunez, in the meantime, began to call public hearings on this issue.

Now, the Democratic candidate for governor, Phil Angelides, who had been losing support from even our volunteer Democrats, has finally done something that could cinch his victory. He has embraced the reform of the revised Workmen's Compensation Act. Our volunteers are mobilizing to support him and for the first time I see a glimmer of hope that a Democrat will recapture the governor's mansion in November. We are glad someone has listened. I have heard atrocious stories from our volunteers, who were injured at work. It is time changes are made.

The governor has a chance to make these changes in the next few months before the November election, but we believe he is too beholden to the business interest, and we believe the businesses are too one track minded to release their man on this issue, to ensure his return to office in 2007. Well done, Phil. Now, if you would modify the idea of a ten billion dollars tax on the rich and the businesses, "because the state's tax revenue picture has considerably brightened," Phil, you have a chance to win.

Our spies tell us that our website is reviewed more avidly by the Schwarzenegger forces than the state Democrats; someone should clue-in Phil that he could look into the hearts of the California voters (not just the dyed in the wool Democrats) by reading here as avidly as Maria and Susan.

Like we said before, many of our volunteers are willing to accept Schwarzenegger's re-election IF he has sincerely embraced our platform, but if this is just a political game he is playing, he can be sure that his second term is no longer than Gray Davis'.

The following Weblog is signed by Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Founding Proponent of Recall Campaign

July 13, 2006   Is Schwarzenegger trying to be the candidate for the Recall coalition

There is a lot of ‘tongue in cheek’ in my posting today, but I did take note of the fact that Schwarzenegger has petitioned the feds to extend the original Clinton ban on constructing roads into certain California wilderness. After Bush took over, he allowed roads to be constructed unless a state specifically petitioned to continue the ban within their state. Clearly, Schwarzenegger is on the right side on this issue.

Aside from the school funding issue, in October and again in January, the three issues I hammered on the most were: the passage of the raise in the minimum wage, the repair of our infrastructure, esp. the delta levee that threatens SoCal water supply, and the environment. On the KGO statewide broadcast with Christine Craft, I spent considerable amount of time talking about how Schwarzenegger had broken his promise about protecting the environment, by appointing industry lobbyists to key environmental positions. Shortly thereafter, I began to see his emphasis on the environment, esp. when he declared that California must do something about the global warming (at least he isn’t denying it is happening). True, his solution to postpone serious measures for ten years disappointed us, but I was encouraged that he seemed to be making an effort. Today’s petition to the feds on behalf of our forest is encouraging, unless I am missing something.

State Democrats listen to Recall Advice?; passes budget on time.

You will recall that our June 19 weblog expressed concern that the Democrats delaying the passage of the state budget could be looked upon by state voters as ‘more of the same’ in Sacramento. Very soon after our post, the Democrats abandoned efforts to include in the budget something dear to certain segments of their party and sent the budget to Schwarzenegger for signing. We breathed a sigh of relief.

We realize that we have inadvertently guided Schwarzenegger to become a formidable candidate because he is running on OUR key platform issues. These issues were all posted right here on our website (UPDATE, then later WEBLOG).

The way he moved to the center was not as random as some news reporters lacking in acumen have reported; he moved to center specifically in regards to those issues dear to the Recall volunteers. He clearly did it because he was scared of a recall, but we really don’t care; what is important is that after our December 15th posting of the #1 platform issue (the raise in the minimum wage), Schwarzenegger made THAT his first issue in his State of the State speech.

He had vetoed the raise on September 25th  and I announced the launch of the recall on account of it on the 28th. As of January, the raise in the minimum wage was his battle cry – it became HIS issue. He tried to outdo the legislature and tried to administrate-in the raise before the slow legislature sent a bill to him. 

Anyway, I point this out for the umpteenth time (sorry) because I feel some obligation now to send important advisories to the state Democrats advising Angelides who is really not doing well at this time in the polls. I think just as it was for Schwarzenegger, there is a tendency of leaders to gather only those who agree with him and they get very out of touch with the voters. Since I talk daily with our volunteers who are a good sampling of the voters, what I pass on may be valuable, as it has been for the governor. Such advisories will be posted here from time to time. I am going to try to post on the 15th and the 30th of each month (just so that you don’t have to keep checking back here uselessly  for messages).

A Friendly Warning to the Governor

Back in October when I announced the launch of the recall, the New York Times wondered if the recallers would be the Terminator of the Terminator. I think, now, nine months later, we have become not the Terminator, but the Tamer of the Terminator.

I know we have some hardcore volunteers who hate his guts, particularly in regards to his “character” issue (breaking promises, chasing women, etc), but I have to say personally I like the way he has changed and I appreciate how he has listened to the people. Indeed, had he not listened, we may have someone else as the governor as of August.

Some of our people will admonish and say, “Doc, you are really gullible!” Yes, and no. I can say I like how he responded to us, but I am not saying we are letting our guards down, or dismantling our organization. I’m not THAT gullible, Gov. Schwarzenegger!

Here is what we are doing.  Many of my top lieutenants e-mail me frequently even now, and with some,  I converse almost daily with them. Our organization is very much together and alive. Actually, some of us LIKE some of Schwarzenegger’s position more than Angelides’! (Remember, we had a coalition that reflected a very broad support, not just of the radical left, but even some Republicans). However, my lieutenants and I always close our e-mails saying we suspect we will have Recall 2007!

We think Schwarzenegger will start breaking promises if he ends up beating Phil which we predicted way back in February. Arnie will think he has a “clear mandate” to do what he wants. He needs to remember that if he is re-elected, the Recall coalition shaped him (inadvertently) for victory and that we are watching his moves on the issues most critical to us.

We do hope he has seen why we ended up recalling him, but if he is not sincere in his reform of himself, the following is what is in store:

We were mighty green when we started way back in October last year. Frankly, I thought I was just registering my complaint in a way a little more effective than a letter to him. When we were prime time news for several days, and reached the front pages of newspapers even in Berlin and Singapore, I found myself creating a statewide volunteer organization from scratch in a matter of weeks. With a rudimentary legal team, we successfully passed all the hurdles that the Secretary of Delay McPherson put before us. Indeed, they succeeded to delay us, which was costly to our effort, but actually we were quite successful, surprisingly. What really killed our momentum was our District Court of Appeals who in late November (just as we had received the go ahead to start printing our petition) said in a ruling on another case that recall petitions needed to come up with six foreign translations representing the minority groups in our inner cities. That cost us over a month, and made us lose the important Holiday Season for gathering signatures.

Anyway, I point this out, because we suspect in 2007, we will have a Democratic Secretary of State, who will of course need to be careful and be neutral in her action, but we won’t have her deliberately delaying us.

Also, we will not hear people saying, why are you recalling the guy when he is going to come up for re-election in 5 months? Also, gone will be the naysayers and overly optimistic state Democrats who told us, “Oh, Phil is a shoo-in; we don’t want to risk him losing by supporting the recall.” Phil is NOT a shoo-in and our extensive study in February told us it would take a combination of luck and Arnie making terrible mistakes, like pinching women in elevators, to pull down the governor.

Also, most of the large coalition members, like the unions, the teachers, the nurses, who thought they could get more by working individually instead of collectively will have learned their lesson. When the progressive groups don’t form a coalition and vote for each other’s causes, even if they are not in love with them, the conservatives, who do form coalitions, will beat us. I said THAT in the middle of December here, and we see examples of this truth in Washington and now in California.

We also learned, as we were repeatedly counseled, we cannot count on volunteers to bring in all one million signatures. We are all very gung-ho at first, but when we stand in the cold, in the rain, our enthusiasms get dampened. We needed to have raised more money from the start. Actually, I did begin early, but when Schwarzenegger started to “listen” to our website and tried to outdo us, he was mighty clever because his quick actions made me have trouble raising money.

I have been a scholar of large political movements for 40 years, but I still learned more this time. People’s attention lasts about a month; one has to get everything done in a month. The next time, we may not even announce the recall until we have the petition ready to go on our website. Then we could be done in a short time, or at least we will have gotten a respectable number of signatures via our volunteers so that then we can hire paid volunteers to go get the rest of the signatures. It was actually amazing that we got so much television coverage, at least in Northern California, the second time around, in January. It showed the interest of the media in Schwarzenegger.

We now know that Schwarzenegger and the right wing have a lock on the media in SoCAL. We will counter it the next time, but I will not disclose how we will do so. He will not control our large votes down there in 2007.

I do not want to hear from the ‘dyed in the wool’ Democrats who will complain about what you are reading here that I am writing as if Schwarzenegger won already. The Recall Coalition is exactly that, a coalition. The reason I knew that if we got the recall on the ballot, we’d win is that we had such a broad support. We have prominent Democrats whose support is dear to us, but the recall is NOT about promoting the Democrats. This is why we are powerful and this is why Schwarzenegger fears us. We are letting Schwarzenegger know what is in store for him if he was not sincere and he betrays us. Personally, I tend to believe in the goodness of humans and I hope that he has not manipulated us.

 In summary, Governor, should you be re-elected (and you’ve got a long way to go before that happens, as you know), we will watch you closely. We have a 12,000 strong volunteer organization ready to go to work very swiftly, with around 11 regions under prominent leadership. I could do all the legal stuff blindfolded this time. You will not have a Secretary of State who will play Defensive Back for you. We estimate we will have around $800,000 (based on discussions we were having for this recall) even in the beginning. We know how best to work with the media and don’t count on SoCAL media blanking us out the next time. We will have some major celebrities who will join us. We will have a popular replacement candidate. We will have our communication system fully operational (we lost three weeks stumbling this year). It will be a done deal. But of course, it won’t be necessary, right Governor? I trust so.

 An Open Letter to Phil Angelides

 I know the letters you receive are full of unsolicited advice, so if I add one more, what is the difference, right? I speak to you with only the good of California in my heart. I would like to see the man win who can do the most for Californians of all walks of life, the rich and the poor.

 I am adding my advice to the thousand others you have received because I speak with a special qualification. Last October, with very little prompting from me, over 10,000 concerned Californians came to me to change the course of California. We did. Remarkably so.

 I mention these ten thousand, caring Californians because they represented a diverse group of people, Many were wealthy, some were lawyers, more were middle class, teachers, firefighters, librarians, mail carriers, and many were poorer, aged or disabled, some even on welfare.  The coalition of people who stood behind me to demand the recall of Gov. Schwarzenegger was historic because it was so diverse.

 I worked with them for 9 months. I heard them speak with anguish about what troubled them. Many confided in me and shared negative information about their group so that I knew they were able to see both sides of any issue. After the privilege accorded me helping them express their anger at the callus governor, I have a good sense about my fellow Californians. I want to share with you what I know.

 In the beginning, I tiraded against the governor for not raising taxes on the wealthy. However, as I studied this further, I learned that our wealthy are already paying some of the highest tax rates of any state. The wealthy must not be the whipping post or the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong. The wealthy often contribute proportionately more good to the society than the less privileged, perhaps because they are blessed with money. The wealthy often are the engine of our society. Without them, we could be less productive and less well off. One has to be careful about mistreating them. You will note that in my writing here on this website, you will not find any proposal to solve all our budget problems by taxing the rich more.

 On the issue of the budget and taxes, back in March when Recall looked probable, I was preparing what the position of the Recall Coalition should be. Based on what I know about Californians, I do not believe they believe raising taxes, on any group, is the way to solve our budget deficit. Now that tax revenues from the current tax rate is rising, you have an excuse and an opportunity to rescind your idea of raising 10 billion dollars in new taxes.

 Our California taxpayers have not changed much from a few years ago when they decided to send a complete novice to Sacramento because ‘business as usual' was not working. This is perhaps the most important advice I can give you. Don’t make a mistake in thinking that they like politics as usual, such as deal making with special interest groups. Even if you owe much debt to such groups because of your years in politics, you cannot help them if you become their mouth piece. Think somewhat independently, be your own boss, or otherwise voters will not trust you.

 Don’t make the mistake I made of not appreciating the great difference between the North and the South of our state. I have always known the great difference, but the difference is even greater. The media in SoCAL will be feeding to the people mostly negative information about you and mostly positive information about Schwarzenegger. In this regard, however, you cannot stumble on questions of vital concern to the Southern Californians, which is illegal immigration. Your message in SoCAL has to be satisfying to Southern Californians. Don’t get so lost in praises by Northern Californians; they do not face the same situation the Southerners face, close to the border. Don’t dismiss the Southern California’s negative attitude on undocumented as bigotry. Your solution has to be compassionate not only to the undocumented but also to those affected by a great influx of aliens at our border.

 Be careful in embracing wholesale the concept of a single-payer health plan. I am not speaking as a physician who derives much income from healthcare and I tell you that almost none of my friends are doctors. I do speak with a vast amount of knowledge about our healthcare system, especially to the segment of the population most neglected, the uninsured, who are mostly the working poor. You know that this is the group on behalf of whom I launched the recall campaign.

 The system is broken but there are some precious elements that work that we must preserve and protect. Every universal health care plan I have seen is an untried experiment, probably too risky to try full scale. I will be happy to provide consultation to both you and to Schwarzenegger about how I see the system needs to be fixed; I will not go into details of how I think it should be fixed.  However, I can tell you that every medical breakthroughs I have come up with dealt with problems that escaped solution by thousands of brilliant workers in the field; perhaps this is another area that I can contribute.

 In any event, until we are sure that the solution we propose won’t make things even worse, we need to try out ideas in smaller populations of people and adopt what worked the best. We have too much to lose to do otherwise.

 I bring up this issue of single-payer health plan because you are under much pressure from those who helped you become a candidate to adopt this idea. However, I have talked to enough people to know that Californians are NOT ready to embrace replacing their private healthcare system with a brand new untried experiment. Your insistence on a  universal health plan will surely lead to your defeat. I share with you that many of our recall volunteers will not vote for you on this issue alone; this is amazing since many of them worked so hard to recall the governor.

 PS   Phil, it is OK if you don’t take any of my advice, but don’t be surprise if you see some of this incorporated in Arnold’s speeches in the future.

June 19, 2006 Democrats will have to be as clever as Schwarzenegger.

If they want to oust him in November, that is. The reason he was not recalled by us is that all of his people, the Campaign Manager, his wife Maria, and his Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, took in seriously what we wrote here in December. Remember, Democrat Kennedy took over in December.

Since then, everytime we spoke and advocated something, we saw it in print, often as headlines, parroted by Schwarzenegger as his own idea. We inadvertently fashioned him into a winnable candidate.

We represented and reflected most of Californians, Democrats, Republicans and Greens, and more. That's who were in our Recall coalition. Schwarzenegger's campaign strategy was to listen to what people were saying (we said a lot here at this website), and turn himself into someone people can support.

Now it behooves the Democrats, particularly the Central Committee, to ensure that their gubernatorial candidate's position is one that majority of Californians can support.

I have traveled up and down California and have talked to a lot of people. Be warned that most Californians haven't changed much in their view about their state government when they voted in Schwarzenegger who promised to "clean up the house" in Sacramento. They do not want politics as usual.

The popularity of the Recall for Schwarzenegger last October should not mislead the Sacramento Democrats who did not support our Recall into thinking the voters want to go back to the way it was a few years ago. They chose a more dyed-in-the wool Democrat, with a lot of IOUs collectable from many decades helping others, over someone who looked more independent. The risk of losing to Schwarzenegger is higher and therein lies the challenge.

I see some troubling things which are so public I don't think my mentioning them here will focus more attention on them. I talk about them here because there are important Democrats reading our website who, like Maria and Susan Kennedy listened in December, will take it seriously and bring it to the attention of those who can modify the strategy of the Democratic Central Committee as they face November.

First, while the Recall Campaign advocated annual inflationary adjustments to the raise in the minimum wage, when the legislature saw that the governor was intent on raising the minimum wage by his own action (despite his vetoes in 2004 and 2005), they should have passed a raise in the minimum wage promptly in January (like the governor asked) rather than play politics with poor people's lives and pass a bill with annual indexing that Schwarzenegger promised to veto again. Now, Schwarzenegger will raise the wage administratively, without annual indexing, and will be able to claim that he thought of it.

Second, the legislature could have made it but missed the deadline for the budget, wanting to use it as a leverage for passing some favorite legislation, regarding a universal healthcare. Our Campaign Platform of December 15 mentioned the need for a serious improvement in affordable healthcare for Californians; However, only dyed-in-the wool Democrats and people like Rosanne of the California Nurses Association are definitely in favor of replacing our current private-based healthcare system with universal healthcare or some form of socialized medicine.

Missing the budget deadline just reminds people that Sacramento needs housecleaning and pegging the miss to a controversial megahealth plan that many feel can bankrupt the state or reduce our mostly excellent healthcare into rubbles, is simply bad politics.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that the state workers' union reached an agreement with Schwarzenegger. While we narrowly defeated the anti-union proposition 95 last November, thanks to our help, the firefighters say, Californians are worried about the inflationary pressures of the union and we do not want that matter to be foremost in the minds of the voters when they cast their ballot next November.

It behooves everyone who has an expensive program or project or who want to spend a lot of money, to cool his/her heels. I sense that the voters are fiscally conservative, like me. Because of over-confidence, not based on talking to Californians up and down the state like I have, Democrats may allow Schwarenegger to be re-elected, but also cause a legislature to return next year that is a lot more somber and less progressive.    Kenneth Matsumura, MD

June 3, 2006 Please note that we have changed our lead statement (boxed) at our home page.

We have some concerns at this time. The poor are sandwiched in the middle of politics and they may once again be shortchanged. As you know, after we posted that one of our lead demands is the raise in the minimum wage (Dec 15, 2005 UPDATE), the Governor made that item his lead message in his State of the State Message in January. Despite the fact that he vetoed the raise in September, which prompted Dr. Matsumura to launch the recall,  he has been doing everything possible since January to institute a raise for the poor who have alread lost 10 billion dollars over the past two years due to his vetoes. The Democratic controlled legislature wants a raise plus   annual adjustments making future raises automatic. The Governor feels such a provision to be inflationary and refuses to sign any law with automatic adjustments. The legislature has proceeded to pass a bill (Lieber) with such adjustments. Clearly, the governor will now veto it. We would like to see the legislature then pass a bill without the automatic raise, so that the poor aren't used by the Democrats or the Republicans for political purposes. Allow the Governor to claim that during his administration he raised the minimum wage of the poor. The Democrats have other issues that will resonate with the voters.

The Recall Campaign is not partisan. We have members of most parties. In fact, we were deliberately NOT supported by the state Democratic Party. We are tired of politics as usual.  Many Californians voted for Schwarzenegger in the mistaken belief that he would end politics as usual. We want leaders who will act according to their conscience, not calculated based on votes the action will capture. Do the right thing. Raise the minimum wage NOW!!!! Our movement is growing. So is our power.

May 7, 2006 We are receiving many inquiries from our volunteers about the choice for the Democratic candidate to face Schwarzenegger. As you know, we cannot afford to lose supporters of either of two leading candidates and therefore we will not be endorsing either. This position is however not to disappoint   supporters of Wesley who have been particularly hardworking in our campaign. We must acknowledge that early in the campaign most of the influential members of the state Democratic Party were supporters of Angelides, but because the Party felt that the Recall was not in the Party's best interest, we were disappointed to learn that many such members were blocked from working officially or actively in our campaign. This campaign then became a truly grassroot one, perhaps one of the largest such efforts this state has ever seen. We do believe the organization that has formed out of the disdain for our governor will continue to  be an important political force regardless of the outcome of the recall campaign, but we must refrain in the next 30 days from taking sides. We hope you understand. 

April 29, 2006  We have some real gung-ho volunteers. Look at what we received from Jaime Feliciano, our Sacramento coordinator:

The governor was fund raising again today in Sacramento at the Hyatt were he was
gathering funds for his reelection campaign. I was able to collect signatures
from all over the state.

This is getting to be too much fun when you get a crowd that hates what Arnie is
really all about and know what he has done to this state.

There were state workers, teachers, nurses, and janitors there.  The message is
getting out there. The Media KXTV 10 in Sac covered the event too.

On May 8th 10,000 Union members are planning on descending on the west steps of
the Capitol Monday at 12:00 noon.

Arnold still has not given the Department of Personnel Administration the
authority to deal in good faith with the Union. Arnold is so disconnected with
reality and has no real concern for State workers. We are planning on going on
strike. The Strike will target every state department and agency.  The Union is
going to get real with him in June. No Kidding! The gloves are off. Fat Oil
Companies and Bush will make this a cake walk. Let’s get out there if we can
and make a solid effort all month long to gather as many signatures as we can
and rejuvenate this cause.

I can not be the only one having all the fun. I may have to start paying Dr. Ken
Matsumura a fee for the enjoyment to go after this ego manic joker we have for a
Governor.

Keep up the good work!

Jaime Feliciano
Recall Arnie Campaign

TEACHERS, NURSES, UNION MEMBERS: THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CHANCE TO GET RID OF THIS MAN. TALK TO YOUR COLLEAGUES. RE-ORGANIZE YOUR GROUPS TO REDOUBLE YOUR EFFORTS. THE RECALL IS YOUR MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO GETTING YOUR GRIEVANCES RESOLVED. TALK TO YOUR GROUPS' OFFICERS. FOUR MORE YEARS OF ARNIE?????


April 25, 2006 Just a comment on our postings here which have decreased in frequency. It has been the advice of our statewide campaign manager that as we get close to the Recall election, we should decrease the types of postings we have been making here as more and more non-volunteers come to read our website. Besides, it has been extremely busy at the headquarters and it helps that we post here less frequently. Thank you all for continuing to send in the signed petitions to us. We are seeing less and less errors as you all gain experience. The most common error is a failure to write in the county on the right top above the signatures. You have all been incredibly dedicated. We believe as we predicted earlier that everything will hinge on continued success of our fundraising drive, to bring the signatures that will take us over the top.

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.

April 7, 2006  Many of you have read or heard that Gov. Schwarzenegger has called for a conference on global warming. Aside from the delta levee, the environment was another main topic of discussion on Christine Craft's interview with Dr. Matsumura on statewide KGO program in January. Dr. Matsumura pointed out that the environment was another area where Gov. Schwarzenegger has broken his promise. Instead of protecting the environment, he had appointed lobbyists for the pollution industries to sensitive boards controlling the environment. Although the governor's interest in global warming is admirable, we just don't know how sincere he is. We do believe that both Maria Shriver and Susan Kennedy are both having major influences, but for how long? Back in December, when it appeared that the Governor was signaling his intent to accede to virtually ALL the demands of the Recall Campaign (see the December 15th demands on UPDATE, plus the December 20th entry), we asked if the Recall should continue. THose volunteers who took the time to write all said that the recall was not for any specific program we disagreed with, but because he had forfeited the right to be the guardian of Californians' health and welfare by breaking so many promises.The issue was his character and still is.

April  3, 2006  We are so busy at the headquarters that we are falling behind, but not seriously. The Mercury News published an article in which the columnist stated that in a "recent poll" it was "learned" that 76% of Californians actually "like" Schwarzenegger and 58% of  Democrats  like Schwarzenegger! On the other hand, I had heard that another poll showed very few Californians "approved" of Schwarzenegger's handling of the governorship. Well, Arnold, if the polls are correct, you  can still return to the movies and make your millions IF YOU DO IT NOW! I have to check the date of the Mercury News article. Was it April 1st?

We have heard from a few volunteers confused because they thought that the deadline for gathering signature was in March and here we have posted we have until June 21. The March deadline, had we made it, would have enabled us to hold the recall election together with the June Primaries. Schwarzenegger and his Republican Sec of Delay made it certain that we could not meet the March deadline. Schwarzenegger loves "special" elections. We have analyzed the cost of such a special recall election and, as reported to you earlier, the cost is only $1.22 per Californian. Since the working poor have been deprived of 10 billion dollars in the past two years from his veto of the raise in the minimum wage. Injured workers have lost billions under Schwarzenegger. Public school children have lost billions also. It would be an insult for us to deny them a special election that will cost us $50 million dollars.

March 25, 2006  How time flies when we are engaged in productive activities! We are pleased that probably due to the work we did at the beginning of the month to assist Southern California activities, we are seeing more and more petitions from the South. We are however very impressed with some of our regulars who send in dozens of sheets on a weekly basis. It represents hours of dedicated work hitting the pavement. On behalf of the Californians suffering under Schwarzenegger, thank you!

THis week brought more news reminding us why we are doing this recall. I think many of you caught the news reporting on the study that showed that California ranked towards the bottom of all the states in the proportion of high school seniors who go onto college. THis is not surprising since California spending on our pupils ranks 48th in the nation. Is this a disgrace?

Schwarzenegger is fully responsible for our sorry state. He got elected on a promise to put public education high on his list of priorities. We didn't know until he got (mis)elected that he placed wealthy taxpayers even higher on his list of priorities. He is a disgrace and no amount of "sorries" can ever take back the harm he has done.

Arnie, what are you going to do to remedy the sorry state of public education? We also haven't heard from you about how you plan to remedy the oppressive situation facing our injured worker!

March 20, 2006 Thanks for all the good work of our volunteers, from San Diego to Mendocino! Here's a treat from Charlie Bright!

 

March 14, 2006  We are amazed that now we are receiving more petitions from new volunteers than those who registered. This is good, because we would like to reach the strength of 20,000 volunteers. Towards this end, we would like you to write a letter to any California friends who have been concerned about what Gov. Schwarzenegger has been doing.

We have begun to focus our attention to the recall election campaign. Californians will also vote for a replacement candidate in the event that Gov. Schwarzenegger is successfully recalled. The replacement candidate selected by the electorate will take office soon after the recall election.

We have received numberous letters lately about how we regard our prospect of getting the majority of voters to vote to oust the Governor. We believe this recall election will be quite different from so many other elections. Usually, about forty five per cent of the people are for something, and forty five per cent are strongly against something.The election is decided by the 10 per cent who are regarded as undecide until a week or so before the election. If the recall election is like the usual, we would lose. Those who are on the fence until the last minutes will vote conservatively always.

We believe that the upcoming recall election will be different from the usual. Rarely in our history have we seen so many groups so badly affected by any one as much as  by Gov. Schwarzenegger. The feelings within these groups are also not mild, but very polarized. Feelings within these groups cross party lines. As you know, we have quite a few Republicans signing to recall this man.

We have added up the number of voters each such group represents and conclude that we have the votes to carry the election for recall. The groups that we are talking about include the nurses, the teachers, workers who belong to unions, the poor who were deprived of $5 billion dollars thanks to the Governor, and others. We venture a guess that the election will be landslide.

Therefore, please do not let up in your gathering of signatures! We need a new governor THIS SUMMER!

March 10, 2006   The Aftermath of Schwarzenegger: grief, destroyed families and battered bodies. A Message from Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Chair, Recall Campaign

Gov. Schwarzenegger rode into power using his movie image of an All-powerful Terminator who can solve any problem instantly. Eager to get elected, he even misled the electorate into thinking that he will transform the state with its myriad of problems. He made promises if it was expedient. A thought-actor, he may even have thought he could perform miracles as in his movies.

Running a state turned out to be more than he could have imagined; people were looking at him, expecting him to do his Terminator thing. He began to do things, anything that would not betray his confusion, certainly not his heartfelt indecisiveness. What resulted is tragic.

He ended up destroying lives, destroying happiness; he sowed grief everywhere he rampaged. He will become the governor who accumulated the most amount of grassroots signatures for recall in the history of California.

One more expedient thing he did was to push for putting corporate bottomline ahead of the welfare of workers who get injured. The state is now littered with battered bodies of workers who can't get medicine or therapy - they lie in bed in excruciating pain, their arms and legs frozen for lack of proper physical therapy. Corporate executives go home, have lavish parties, laugh and play, marveling at how they were able to declare such great dividends for their shareholders. Perhaps one of these vice presidents will be touring one of his factories when a conveyor belt mishap mangles his hand - he will get a taste of his own medicine. He will learn how little the state now values his right hand.

Governor Schwarzenegger - you ARE a very powerful man. We the volunteers of Recall call on you to change your ways - learn to sow happiness. History has never praised leaders who protected the wealthy. History remembers those who helped the disadvantaged, those who are poor. How history will remember you - remains YOUR choice. Do the right thing. You can still be remembered and respected for the right thing you did before leaving the office. Maria and Susan, help him.

February 28, 2006  Advisory to All Volunteers collecting signatures

First, thank you! No, that should be THANK YOU!!!! Every day, more petitions come in than the day before. We are delighted that we are getting several dozen sheets at a time from volunteers that did not register with us.   THis means we have far more than the 10,000 volunteers we started with in January.   Now, we would like to ask everyone to review his/her collection procedures;

1. Please be sure to always put the county name at the top right above the signers.

2. Please tell signers to write out fully the city name, and not use abbreviations.

3. Please double check to fill in every part of the circulator's declaration.

4. Please avoid confrontation with anyone who disagrees with you. Just avoid them.

5. Please use only white paper to print the petition on and keep the back blank.

Although we have been pushing to ask you to get the signatures in by sometime in March, legally, we have until June 20th to gather the 1,038,000 signatures. We just need to get a new governor while the 2006 legislature is in full steam in the Summer  so that we can begin reversing the horrible changes this dysfunctional governor made to  California VERY SOON (sic), not February a whole year away!

February 10, 2006

Just four months ago, we didn't exist. Today, our headquarters is a busy hub that deals with over 10,000 volunteers in every county of this Great State of California. We are picking up our pace of processing the many petitions that are coming in. We are having to return very few of the petitions. Some have signatures of residents of more than one county (each sheet can contain only one county residents), and a few were missing either the city name or the street address. Just one had the signature of the circulator missing. The error rate is about 0.3%. We saw one disturbing problem. Someone had copied the instructions onto the back of the petition, which will disqualify the petition. We will be promptly notifying the volunteer because we fear many such petitions are being distributed by that volunteer. Two sheets came in having been copied crooked. We are beginning to see more and more large manila envelopes containing many, many sheets of signed petitions. We are very, very far from our goal, but it is a good beginning. Our volunteers are developing their spiel that works and becoming more efficient.

We have encountered some previously gung ho volunteers who tell us that we've won and they are just going to wait for November. We have the following message.

LOOK AT THE POLL NUMBERS!

Rasmussen Poll 12/16/05

Schwarzenegger — 40%                Schwarzenegger — 39%
Angelides — 44%                           Westly — 46%

Rasmussen Poll 1/26/06

Schwarzenegger — 41%                       Schwarzenegger — 39%
Angelides — 39%                                  Westly — 40%

This… only 3 months after his “defeat!”

DO YOU WANT ARNIE FOR FOUR MORE YEARS? 

Imagine his poll numbers if he gets 10 more months to fool the public!

 

SUPPORT THE RECALL. GET RID OF HIM WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

 

February 5, 2006  Update & Advisory to our Volunteers

Well, Maria, we have good news for you! Your husband is coming home real soon. No more late nights at the Capitol! Our campaign has successfully entered the signature gathering phase. More of our volunteers can be seen across the state, and more are coming. We are successfully getting permission to table at some very fine places, with large traffic.

Many of our volunteers, involved in many causes, initially volunteered to get 40 signatures mainly from friends, neighbors and co-workers. They had responded to our call for 30,000 volunteers to do just that - we would then have enough signatures to qualify. However, when we peaked at 10,000 volunteers, we had to see if we could convert their IOU's to much harder tasks - more time consuming, more difficult - soliciting strangers which is not something most people like to do.

Our call for more people to table was answered more slowly, but now we are hearing from more and more willing to do the hard thing, because THEY CANNOT STAND THIS MAN! AND better, we are now hearing from new volunteers who say they want to go collect signatures in the streets!

This weekend was our official launch of the signature drive. We started with a press announcement. Our press conference was jammed full of media people. In fact, we had to make a quick change from meeting the press in our board room that could hold perhaps 25 people to our 2500 square feet hall on the second floor, at Dr. Matsumura's biotech foundation building.

Jeff, our statewide campaign manager flipped through the channels Saturday morning and found that EVERY network had a news item on the recall! Bay Area is our crucial terrritory where there are easily two million signatures to be had if only we can reach them. More people we can reach, fewer will fall through the cracks.

We found out that like Arnie and other movie stars, Dr. Matsumura has apparently also a "fan" website. We just became aware of it last night, as it showed up on a Yahoo search on "Kenneth Matsumura."   The url is kennethmatsumura.com . We should point out that this website has absolutely no connection with Dr.Matsumura and that Dr.Matsumura has not authorized this website, which could be a nice, helpful website, or a Trojan Horse.

We did find that it has its own search engine. The latest news about the recall covered by various news sources and TV stations are found, and other news relevant to the recall are also found there.

We learned from this and other search engines that news is traveling outside the Bay Area, which was our intent. It is essential that more Californians learn about this Recall effort. The Oakland Tribune article appeared in all its sister publications including in Oroville. The local TV station in Chico also broadcast the news. Judging by how it was last October when the recall launch was announced, news filters out for a period of about 2 weeks. The hit on our website has dramatically risen and so has the number of volunteers writing us. Most importantly, we are getting a lot of people wanting to table to get rid of this creature from Outer Space! THis weekend's was just our first phase in our media campaign and perhaps soon, people will begin getting sick of the recall news.

Actually, our strategy is not dependent so much on gathering signatures from tabling; we continue to look for more volunteers who can simply circulate the petitions amongst their friends and co-workers. However, tabling serves two purposes: it makes Recall more visible and keeps it constantly in the minds of people, as they read how the poll numbers for Arnie is rising, just three months after his "defeat." We need to alert people that if they think a Democrat is a shoo-in in November, they had better think again. The second purpose of the table is to find more people willing to take our petition and circulate it or, better, people who would copy our petition and find even more people willing to circulate. The number of signatures a table secures is far less important than the number of petitions the table propagates to new circulators.

The visibility of the tables make more people visit our website.  Therefore, we ask all volunteers to consider at least a few hours doing tabling. You just need to ask a local supermarket for permission to plunk down your old cardtable, attach a large, handprinted sign, preferably in more than one direction, and have clipboards, the petitions in all the languages required under the law for   your county, and pens. Your sign should prominently display our website: RECALL 2006.COM.  We know that tablers for other causes often just plunk down a table without asking permission and they seem to get away, but we cannot advise you to do so.  

Tabling and soliciting signature are easier for some than others. However, Dr. Matsumura can tell you, it is addictive. The "high" one gets when someone smiles and grabs your pen appreciatively is something everyone should experience. It is fun and your having fun shows and translates to exuding confidence that we ARE going to have a new governor this Summer.  That confidence translates into more people willingly signing.

Always smile broadly at walkers-by; immediately, their hearts open more to you. Then say, "Do you want to help us get a new governor this Summer?" This is the approach that works the best. It beats asking if they want to sign a recall petition. The concept of a new governor by this Summer is refreshing to many who can't stand Arnie and is amusing to those who have not heard about the recall! It boldly answers before the question is asked, why not wait until November. Because we want a new governor THIS Summer, not wait a whole year, until January of 2007!

If they say, "yes, but that's not possible is it?" You tell them that if they would sign this recall petition, and some 10,000 volunteers across the state are gathering signatures as we speak, we will put the recall question on the ballot, and we could have a new governor by July.

Here are Dr. Matsumura's own experience in gathering signature in the manner described. At Highland county hospital, of 51 people approached, 47 signed, one more would have signed but was late to work. On the downtown street of Berkeley on Friday at noon, of 15 people approached, 6 kept walking, some totally ignoring him, a couple saying they were in a hurry. 4 shook their heads. 5 stopped and signed. 1 of them took more petitions to circulate. All of this took place inside 5 minutes. At a block away from a busy intersection in San Francisco, where new volunteers were accosting strangers, Dr. Matsumura collected 10 signatures for every 40 people encountered. Two women expressed disbelief that we could get a new governor so soon. Hearing that this was a well-organized effort, they were willing to sign. We believe that at protest marches and rallies, the percentage of those willing to sign is higher.

We also wanted to share our strategy with you. We are not sure that we can attain the 30,000 volunteers. Therefore, underway is work by Dr. Matsumura to capture a huge block of signatures with a single agreement. More on that later. Because the percentage of people who would favor a recall is high in certain precincts, we will be distributing petitions with a message. The message will alert the liberals to the high danger of relying on a belief that Schwarzenegger will be ousted in November. He is already polling better than any Democrat, and this is only three months after the November debacle. He has another 9 months to fool the public even more cleverly in making them think he is what he isn't. We need volunteers willing to walk the precincts. In order to hit as many Democrats in an hour, we will not even make you walk up any steps to people's homes. For those who are shy about accosting strangers, this activity may suit you. The stroll will definitely lower your cholesterol, trim inches off your waist, and make you believe in yourself! Write us at volunteer@saveCALnow.com 

January 26, 2006 Here is a wonderful political cartoon from Charlie Bright:

January 24, 2006  Welcome to the new Weblog. Today, an essay from Kenneth Matsumura, Founding Recall Proponent, on "Why I am so passionate about recalling Governor Schwarzenegger."

I have friends who are liberal, who still ask me, "hey why are you so passionate about this recall; this dummy is up for re-election anyway this year."  Most who ask me such  questions are well-off; they are not liberal for their own gain; they are trying to change the society for sake of others. Getting rid of Schwarzenegger won't make much difference to their own lives, and perhaps therein lies their slower tempo.

As the news media noted, I launched the recall campaign on behalf of the poor and on behalf of our school children. While most of my professional time had been spent  inventing breakthrough medical devices and drugs in the fields of liver, diabetes, heart attacks and cancer, I have always devoted a few half days a week doctoring to the poor.

I have patients who are working poor. Usually, both the mom and the dad work, and they have children, some in college. Unlike those on welfare, they usually can't afford to see me and so I see them for free, or if they insist on paying, at my minimum charge. I look forward to the times they might bring me a coupon from the International House of Pancake for the "all you can eat," of things that neither they nor I should be eating, but heck what is life for.

Unfortunately, now that 'do good, ethical advocates' have "cleaned up" our physician sample shelves that used to hold plenty of the latest medications, I have not been able to give my patients months and months worth of the best blood pressure medicines. I prescribe older medicines that are less expensive because patents on them expired. Even then, I see my working poor patients cutting dosages on their own to stretch to their next paycheck.

They often miss their appointments because they are too proud to come see me for free, and they make excuses that they had to work "overtime" when I call them to inquire. Not infrequently, the next time I see them, they are in the Intensive Care, after a paralyzing stroke. The family has to declare bankruptcy and they are on welfare, their lead daughter forced to quit UC Berkeley to support the parents and siblings.

Had Schwarzenegger not vetoed the raise in the minimum wage in 2004, the family could have had $3400 more per year, enough for a minimal insurance that could have paid for a catastrophic illness; they would not have bankrupted, and we the taxpayers would not be supporting this otherwise able family with thousands of dollars in subsidies.

Back in September 2005, when I launched the recall campaign, some said to me, Schwarzenegger is up for re-election in November 2006, why put in so much work to gain 6 months? I said to myself, they think Schwarzenegger isn't going to be re-elected to continue his oppressive rule and they think the legislature will continue to be liberal to re-enact progressive legislation that the new Democratic governor can sign. And people thought - I - was an eternal optimist!

I wanted to tell my well-meaning liberal friends, ask my working poor patients to go another year without their blood pressure pills; ask them to risk a household calamity for just another year. Afterall, a year passes quickly.

I am passionate about the Recall; I want all the progressive legislation re-enacted in the Summer of 2006 so that our working poor who are barely hanging on, don't have to wait yet another year, or another four years, if the November election goes sour as I fear.

Recall is a lot of work, but getting rid of Schwarzenegger, after he has "rehabilitated" himself, in the Fall of 2006, will be even harder work. Get rid of him while we can.

If you don't recall him this coming Summer, what are you going to tell your children who won't have many of their classes, or many of their schools, when the Fall comes? The work was too hard, and so we decide they could do without some of their teachers? For how long? Just another year, another four years?

Nevermind, that Schwarzenegger says he wants now to pass the raise in the minimum wage... and, to return some of the money he stole from the children. Why do you think he is saying that now? Look at our Campaign platform we published here on Update on December 15th.  He is only going along with our major demands because he is scared of the Recall. What would he like to do otherwise? Some said, "but he isn't the devil." Ask some of my working poor patients.

The following are old postings that started when the Recall Campaign began:

October 3, 2005

We have received a considerable and front-page coverage in the East Bay newspapers. This is important as our easiest signatures can be found in the East Bay Area and San Francisco. Here, a signature gatherer will not need to spend much time convincing someone to sign. They are so angry at Schwarzenegger that they actually line up and wait to sign. By getting a good press coverage in the home base of our campaign, we will increase our volunteer pool.

We would like to begin organizing at college campuses. Please write us at volunteer@savecalnow.com with the subject line CAMPUS for ideas and suggestions. Those who may be interested in traveling to college campuses to give speeches should also contact us.

Today, we received a $10 donation all the way from Dallas. By the way, we have fixed our left side navigation problem. The donation link now goes to the volunteer page where the Paypal button is.

October 5, 2005

Thanks, all, for all those volunteer letters. While we await approval on the final wording of the petition, after which we will print it and distribute it to all those who volunteered, we have a lot of work to do. As those who wrote us have been asked to do, please continue to spread the word and find more people willing to volunteer. I WOULD LIKE TO FORMALIZE THIS PROCEDURE. Soon, I will be asking those of you who wrote us to send us a list of e-mail and/or phone numbers of friends and others who can help our effort. Most of you who wrote said not only that you know people who would sign, but that you knew others who can work with you. We are creating many, many teams of people who can work together well. Here's the idea: The top volunteer contacts friends and co-workers. Some of them are willing only to sign the petition. If some of the others are willing to volunteer some time, the top volunteer would ask such volunteers to do what the top volunteer is doing, i.e., contacting their friends, relatives, and others, some of whom would be willing to volunteer. Those willing to volunteer would then be asked to also contact their friends, relatives, and others. Everyone involved would keep e-mail addresses of those who volunteer and eventually these lists would be turned into our headquarters so that we can add them to our mailing list, for alerts and advisories. I haven't taken a careful count yet, but I believe we are already in the thousands of volunteers, and this is only day 6. These volunteers are spread widely throughout California, although the heaviest contingents are in Northern California - SF Bay Area and Sacramento area, where the press coverage has been the most extensive. Many of you are busy right now helping with the fight against the evil initiatives. Thank you for doing that, and your current work will not interfere with our campaign which will get busier from late November through January. Many of you are students who will be going home for the holidays. I would like to ask you to begin forming teams in your home town to work for the cause during your Holidays. Remember, the work you are doing WILL transform California for decades to come. Thanks again, all. KM

October 7, 2005

Well folks, we did it! Two volunteers who recently joined our ranks and Dr. Matsumura legally served the governor this morning. Go to the Press page on this website and look for the release with today's date. The governor's staff member was slick... tried to get us to take the petition document to the mailroom! <G> We know better. A large, competent law firm is advising us. We were prepared with our professional legal processor who did her thing and we have satisfied another requirement in the election code. Actually, the procedure, up to our getting approval on the final petition that we can distribute, is fraught with tricky turns. Being advised on how to go about by a Republican Secretary of State does not make us comfortable, although we must say the staffer today at the Secretary of State was very courteous and professional. We believe the staff at such a place doesn't change with a change of the top person, last one only a few months ago being a Democrat. We will be publishing the Intention to Recall in a daily soon, to satisfy yet another requirement. Any error while following the prescribed road will force us to back step some, but it is inevitable that we will be done with this soon. We are in the process of printing a sample petition for approval by the Secretary.

We want to thank Jaime Feliciano, who works for the state of California as a researcher, and Dee Fraites, who works at the College of Marin in Kentfield, in student affairs. They both played important roles today.

When the three arrived at the Governor's office, the world's media were waiting with glaring lights. The media were barred from the office itself where the document was served, but when the three came out, the cameras rolled. Dee said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, now you can take part in Arnold Schwarzenegger's new movie, "The Terminated!"

Press coverage now includes the Washington Post, the Reuter wire service, ABC, Fox, and NBC. Dr. Matsumura gave interviews to the New York TImes, the Bloomberg Business News, and the CNN. Our website is now receiving more hits than ever from volunteers from all over California. One volunteer is well connected with a Northern California university and its town. Plans are underway to mobilize their whole community.

One of the recommendations we have for our volunteers who have websites, esp. political ones,  is to link to us, to increase our visibility. This snowball is rolling down the hill, and is getting larger and larger. Look out, Arnold!

October 8, 2005 10 AM

To our new, rapidly growing volunteer force. The home page of our website has a new message to you! We have also modified one of the paragraphs on our home page covering the topic of Schwarzenegger's failure to come up with solutions to California's crisis.

October 9, 2005

The Sunday edition of the New York TImes has an article that is a booster for our morale and we wanted to pass it on to you. The url is http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/national/09recall.html

As you know our campaign has been completely grassroots and will always remain that way, but it is still nice to read that organized groups may want to help us. Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, is quoted as saying, "People are very interested in it. This is one way for people to express frustration and anger with the governor's policies...there was a lot of excitement (about the recall announcement among members of the party's executive board)." Mr. Torres predicted that Democrats would help circulate the petitions for signatures.

We believe that this dysfunctional governor who has been ineffectual in dealing with the crises facing Californians for over two years now has something to worry about.

October 11, 2005 2 AM

Oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh. I have been reading and answering e-mails from volunteers for 6 hours! I can't believe how many people are coming to us. They are all feeling so strong about this. We do not have a wishy-washy group. We have just added the following paragraph to the home page. It is the essence of the letter we send all volunteers initially.

Volunteers: Please check the Update section every few days for announcements. We are getting a lot of inquiries as to how to get petitions to sign or circulate. The Secretary of State must approve the final form and we are in the process of submitting a printable form that precisely meets their specification. Online signatures and downloadables are not acceptable for our purpose. There is much work to be done before we begin distributing petitions. Volunteers are pouring e-mails into our mailbox. The first work we are asking the volunteers to consider doing is to find more friends, co-workers, and relatives who feel as fervently as they do, who can help us. We then ask those who are recruited to go and find yet more volunteers. Some of the volunteers will be hosting a series of parties to find more volunteers and to make this task fun. For those who are new to this type of political activities, you are going to meet the finest people and make new friends, some of whom will be lifelong. There is so much fervor in those volunteering, that we predict we will create a very powerful force in California even long after our dysfunctional governor is gone. We will all be so proud of how we saved California! This is a historic, people's uprising!  KM

October 12, 2005

I have been on a number of radio shows to spread our message, including on Christine Craft's 3- 6 PM Talkcity 1240 AM Sacramento (She worked hard to fight the Davis Recall). Many volunteers sign on when they hear the message. I will be on NBC program in the late morning Thursday, out of San Jose. Right now, as we await the final printing of the recall petition, our work is to let everyone know that the recall campaign is on and that we are looking for more volunteers (not that I'm not already spending most of my time communicating with our rapidly increasing volunteer force). This is as grassroots as they come, folks. I am hearing almost exclusively from individuals. Many belong to groups that have suffered badly under Arnold, like fire fighters, teachers, and nurses. We are now suggesting that perhaps they would like to talk to their profession's headquarters, about joining us. It will be the most effective way to stop the terrible degradation in programs they care the most about.

I also wanted to pass on a clever idea. One Berkeley activist (J. Summer) just could not wait until we distributed the petitions. Knowing that we want to increase the number of volunteers, he took it upon himself to xerox the NY Times article from October 9th, I guess crediting the source, and he augmented our website address, recall2006.com, and started to leaflet people near the university and the downtown transit station. He's very smart to do so, because in Berkeley, probably every other person will be willing to volunteer. That could be 50,000!

October 13, 2005

One good news after another! Now, someone powerful, experienced and with a whole lot of contacts, has volunteered to help look after the entire north coast - our beautiful North Coast, one of my favorite places - that could be destroyed if our dysfunctional governor keeps doing anti-conservation things such as appointing a pro-polluting industry lobbyist to the chair of the state's Air Resources Board! I am most proud of the volunteers who never before been politically active who felt they have to do this at this time - a real grassroots campaign, right? I am also very impressed with the caliber of many volunteers - with history of public service for decades. They come with experience, with contacts, and most of all sincerity.

I am hearing good ideas from volunteers. As you know I have asked enrolled volunteers who received our letter to periodically check in with me, with subject line that starts with "2" so that I can scan for those messages. One volunteer is sending out a number of e-mails with the request that each recipient think of forwarding that e-mail to more friends. We don't have the petition yet, and so our job now is to keep finding more volunteers. I feel the excitement and hope in our volunteers.

Some volunteers have started printing up little cards with our website address and e-mail address to pass out, in search for more volunteers. Good idea!

Another thing I would recommend. Although the media have picked up our story pretty extensively (I was on NBC TV this morning for an interview), there are some big papers which have been totally silent. You may want to inquire with the news editors why they have not had any articles about this campaign. Since the New York Times and the Washington Post have had large articles on us, they cannot say the news is too "iffy" or "unimportant."

More importantly, though, is to see if you can send urls of press articles, such as from the New York TImes, to your local home town newspapers, you know the kind that you might find also at a laundry mat, often distributed for free. They do a lot of public service, providing information of community interest. Very important is to have newspapers at universities and colleges mention our campaign. So all you student volunteers... can you work on it?  Be sure the article includes our website Recall2006.com (saveCALnow.com also works). Do keep in mind that some news editors are pro-Arnold, and will delay publishing anything that would be damaging to him. km

October 14, 2005 12:30 AM

Amazing! Companies who gather signatures have approached us to carry our petition for free while they are gathering signatures for other liberal causes. Apparently, their workers want to work on it.

One volunteer teacher reports that even she is amazed that in their conservative Republican district, every teacher has agreed to sign our petition when it  becomes available.

We have one family who is making it their whole family project! This man has made us miserable for long enough; it is time to have fun at his expense! This is a Total Recall!

Arnie, why don't you resign now, and spare us all the troubles? Actually, I would like to see this historic uprising complete its process. We can have a powerful force who can become the guardian of our beautiful state for decades to come. The coalition involves not the typical party-line mix - our coalition is made up of people from all walks of life, Democrats and Republicans, who want the best for our students, who want fairness at the workplace, and who want a serious, mature governor, who can provide us with creative solutions that can save our state. km

PS. Our phone line is flooded and it is very difficult to return calls because phone calls, unlike e-mails take a lot of time. Please know that we are recording every call for distribution of the petition and we are grateful for your response. 

October 16, 2005

We are putting out a call for a law firm, preferably in Sacramento, who, on a pro bono basis, can  help us deal with the office of the Secretary of State. As you remember, Schwarzenegger appointed Bruce McPherson (R)  to head the office.  If this is not handled well, it can delay our printing of the petition for a few weeks. This coming week we satisfy the requirement for the publishing of the Recall Intent in a general circulation newspaper.  If you are such a law firm or can connect us with such a law firm, please send an e-mail to volunteer@saveCALnow.com using in the subject field the prefix, "99-"  We are trying to beef up our legal team.

We are looking into opening an office in Sacramento, which will eventually become our headquarters. What better place to keep an eye on this man. Who knows what he is planning for next year, until he is booted out of the office that he has shamelessly tarnished. If anyone knows such a space cheap (we don't waste people's money like you know who!), please advise by writing volunteer@saveCALnow.com using in the subject field the prefix, "88-"

Soon, we will be putting out a call from this UPDATE page to all the volunteers who wrote us in the past two weeks, for another barrage of e-mails reporting to us how successfully they have been in finding more volunteers, and how many they may be, so that we can begin our headcount  0R if they are still working on it, reporting to us what progress they intend to make in the next few weeks. We would like to hear of any activity you have been engaging in on the campaign's behalf (like sending forwardable e-mails, distributing copies of the New York Times article with request for volunteers, planning social gatherings for the purpose of finding more volunteers and donors). Remember, when the petition is finally printed, probably in November, we want to have a pretty good network of volunteers who can get this done. We still keep being asked if we can make the petition downloadable. Our understanding is, this is not like a Moveon petition just to show a large number of people feeling strong on a topic, this is a legal petition, sort of like a ballot, and it has to be printed in a certain manner, in a certain format, with certification by the signature gatherer attesting to the signatures. Therefore, we will have to distribute the petition. Remember, if you write us for the second time, ever, please use the prefix "2-" in your subject line.

Finally, we are asking if you would like us to send you leaflets you can distribute in friendly downtown or campus areas, or place on your tables soliciting support against the evil initiatives. The leafleting should be done only where most people receiving them could be considered friendly to our cause. If you desire such leaflets, please write us at volunteer@saveCALnow.com using in the subject field, the prefix, "77-."

Visualize our new governor in July 2006, serious, mature, kind, and just, with CREATIVE solutions for our crises that will be a win-win for ALL Californians.

October 17, 2005

After four decades of working on project, both scientific and business, I have learned to prepare for the worst always, but it is always pleasant when things proceed smoothly. I have finally received confirmation from the Secretary of State's office that the petition we submitted met the law, and we had a sufficient number of verified signatures to qualify. As required by law, both the Daily News which publishes papers in the East Bay (SF) and on the Peninsula and the Oakland Tribune will publish the Notice of Intent tomorrow (the law requires we publish in one general circulation newspaper - the duplication at our cost is to be sure). As of this moment, the Governor has not submitted his response, as stipulated by code within seven days. We had already been counseled by good attorneys, but we are taking steps to add additional legal power to our team. We will soon be submitting the final form for publication of the petition.

I should remark that so far I have received only very professional and courteous treatment by the staff members at the Secretary of State in the past 10 days that I have met or spoken to on the telephone.

I am happy that our sorting of names and addresses of volunteers should complete within a few more days. We will then know where we have plenty of volunteers and where we need to find more. I am also happy to tell you that our offer yesterday to any volunteer for leaflets has been accepted by a number of volunteers, and our campaign goes into a very public mode this week.  Not surprisingly, the volunteers of the Berkeley Campus have gotten an early start, to mobilize students for work in the very pro-recall East Bay. I think our campaign cannot be going any better. Let me hear of any progress our volunteers elsewhere are making at this time. Use the "2-" prefix on your subject line.  km

October 19, 2005

Today's update is so incredible that it also appears on the home page, in the boxed paragraph. Just three weeks into the campaign, we already have experienced and/or fervent people who have taken on helping coordinate entire geographic regions - the whole North Coast, now Sacramento, Placer, and El Dorado counties, the whole city of Riverside,  the entire San Francisco Bay, east, west, north and south, and whole university campuses. We have people  with sufficient human power claiming many sub-regions of Southern California, as well. This is indeed a historic uprising that will change California for a long time to come.  Using Dee Fraites' favorite words, "carry on" good people!!!

October 21, 2005

We are now preparing to submit the final form of the petition for approval by the Secretary of State, for printing. We published, oh boy did we, the recall statement as required by law in (more than) one general circulation paper (not in the two bay area newspapers who haven't mentioned our campaign - makes you wonder how slanted their news have been, huh?).  East (San Francisco) Bay campaign to find more volunteers has begun (as if we needed more! However, we believe easily 2/3 of our needed signatures will be gathered easily in the Bay Area, and so we do not want to be short on volunteers here.)  Monday, group leaders will meet at our headquarters in Berkeley. Media have been calling and calling for photo opportunities, and so we are going to make that happen at our meeting. As we reviewed who have volunteered, it is a remarkable cross section of our society. This is not a protest of just one segment of Californians - not only the poor and the students, on whose behalf   the campaign was launched, but the middle class, the upper middle-class, businesses, and even the wealthy who cannot keep watching the state economically deteriorate - ALL Californians.

Three weeks ago, it was just a dream that our volunteer force would reach 30,000. But the volunteers keep coming, and it would not be a surprise that we will reach 100,000!

Today, we mailed by priority rate (two days delivery) small samplings of our trial leaflets. Those who wrote volunteer@savecalnow.com with the subject heading, "77- " will receive them by Saturday. Please try them out and we will see if the number of volunteers increase in those regions distributing the leaflets. If successful, we will ship more to you. Let us "carry on!"

October 22, 2005

We are pleased to inform everyone that the last step has been taken, as required under  the law before petitions are approved for printing by the Secretary of State's office. We sent in the final "camera-ready" petition and the proof that the Notice of Intent to Recall the Governor was published in a general circulation newspaper. It would not be surprising that one or two "corrections" will be needed in the submitted petition (such as margin dimension, or ?, despite our efforts to make it perfect the first time), in which case, we will be so notified, and another "camera-ready" will be sent to the Secretary of State.

We are hearing from more and more volunteers that they have successfully recruited "x" number of new volunteers, or that they have organized a committee, issued notices in their associations' newsletter about our seeking volunteers, etc.  We do need to keep a tally of our best estimate as to the number of volunteers that will pour onto our streets when the petition is made available, and so please write us keeping us current on your progress. Thanks, all!

October 26, 2005

We can't believe it has been four days! since we last posted an update. You can see, as Arnie's people would put it, we have been up to "no good."  You will be seeing some of those "no good" things in due time. While we await the Secretary of State's comment to our final "camera-ready" petition before it goes to press, we thought we'd provide some entertainment. As you know, we get a lot of e-mails from people all around the world. Reuters service has been writing articles that have gone global, including the East Coast ( why is it that far away and distinguished newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York TImes write large articles about this recall, but major west coast newspapers stay muzzled....er ... mum? You wonder how else the news we read by which we vote is slanted!). Well, anyway, one person who wrote us is from Washington State and she sent the following poem, which was "provoked" by our website and is an "adjustment" to Emma Lazarus' words:

"Give me your tired your poor,

You huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

and I will keep them in their place."

Then we are receiving some wonderful cartoons by a professional political cartoonist, all the way from Garden City Beach, South Carolina, Charles C. Bright. The first one he sent is below. We are going to find a way to place it in a more prominent position on the home page, perhaps, but we did not want to delay sharing it with you any longer. He sent another that had us rolling on the floor laughing. If we could get one of our more "proper" advisors to permit it, we would like to share it with the general audience. If not, we will certainly send them to our student groups. Thanks Charles!

October 27, 2005

We would like to pass on some pointers to those distributing our leaflets soliciting volunteers. It would be most productive if you will have a clipboard with a piece of paper so that you can get someone's commitment right there and then and you can write their contact information. So you would approach your prospective volunteers with something like, "would you like to get  rid of the governor?" If they smile, and look interested, you can show them the leaflet, and say, " in just three weeks, we have already over 10,000 volunteers across the state - we are wanting to reach the strength of 30,000 volunteers, which will assure that we will get enough signatures to recall Schwarzenegger. Will you help get a few signatures for us?" If they have stood there while you spoke, a third of them will volunteer. The feelings in the streets are very strong! Those of you who are interested in handing out our leaflets at supermarkets and university campuses, please write us at volunteer@saveCALnow.com with the subject line 77- .  We see some strong interests at CSU Sonoma, and in the whole town of Chico. We have a large number of volunteers in Sacramento. Hmmm, we wonder why?

Do you have friends who would sign but aren't registered to vote? Quick, call your county registrar of voters and get the registration forms. Remember, only those who are registered can vote.

Because our advisers are warning us that uninitiated volunteers collecting signatures can make a lot of mistakes and we could have many signatures invalidated, we are going to start giving pointers early, so that you will read different things enough time and you will internalize all the things you will want to be careful about (sic <g>).

It is exciting to get people to sign, and sometimes, a whole pile of people will sign one after the other. This is the time to be most careful. First, YOU  as a petition circulator must witness every signature. You cannot pass the petition down the aisle or down a long table. At the end of every petition form is something YOU will be asked to certify, that you witnessed every signature on the form.

When a lot of people sign almost simultaneously, you will be excited, and you may easily miss people signing in the wrong place, not PRINTING their names as well as signing, not writing their addresses legibly. Please stop and check every entry, before the signers leave your side. The address they need to print is where they reside now! Not where they registered from originally.

Petition is close to being printed. Isn't it exciting? Yes, we are actually going to get rid of this yukky man!

October 29, 2005

We have received the following communication from the Campaign's official cartoonist in South Carolina, Charlie Bright. He wrote, in part,

My deepest respects and regards for you and all the other valiant volunteers. You are "the front line" and our best hope of once again making America   responsible for the welfare of all its citizens. You are not alone. We stand with you. In this battle, we are all Californians."        

Charlie, We shall do it! We thank you, Wesley Brown in Georgia, for your donation and your notes of encouragement. We have heard also on the East Coast from a widow of an attorney that worked for Robert Kennedy. They are all rooting for us!  It is time that the tide turned. And this time, we are going to COUNT our votes. No more Floridas and Ohios for us. We are fully awake. No more sleeping dogs!

We are happy to report that a Democratic Party group in a major Central Coast city has voted to help our effort. We have a nascent but a strong effort beginning at Sonoma State, and we have a good core group at Berkeley. Riverside started sometime ago. We will be assisting volunteers at Long Beach and East Los Angeles College, as well as UC San Diego. We actually have many, many months to collect the signatures, as if we needed that many! (The law allows us 160 days - and the clock hasn't started yet, because we haven't printed our petition - you see why we are not rushing to print our petitions, before our volunteer network is complete?! The poor Republican Secretary of State this week inadvertently helped us in this regards!)

This is an important period for us. We need to keep adding more volunteers. You realize that once we reach our goal of 30,000 volunteers, we could finish gathering 1.5 million signatures in one weekend (only 50 signatures per volunteer)! We do not want to make this a drawn out process of weeks of work with just 10,000 volunteers, which is our strength today.

Our message is propagating well all over the state, the country, and even the world. Reuters took several hundred pictures of our work at our headquarters, we gave a lengthy interview with the Washington Post (Mercury News, SF Chronicle, and LA TImes, we welcome you!), and a major television network will cover our story as a part of a prime time program. In our experience, more people hear about our campaign, more volunteer!

J. Summer of Berkeley has called our attention to an informative website that holds valuable information about the history of California gubernatorial recalls. The link url is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_California_Recall

(One word of caution - apparently, errors can creep into this volunteer-written resource)

October 30, 2005

Happy Trick-or-treating tomorrow! The following statement was issued today by Dr. Kenneth Matsumura, Founding Proponent of the Recall Arnie Campaign:

                   NINE DAYS MORATORIUM ON HEADQUARTERS-LED CAMPAIGN

"In less than ten days, Californians will go to the polls to vote on issues that will affect California for decades. When I announced that I was launching a campaign to recall Arnold Schwarzenegger, I received a call from a wife of a firefighter captain telling us that firefighters felt that the recall gave them just that boost they felt was needed to turn the tide on one of the initiatives of concern to them. Many calls that followed echoed this sentiment.

The launch of the recall by me on behalf of the poor and the students of California probably did call further attention to the deficiencies of Arnold Schwarzenegger, giving him less credibility to tout "his" initiatives.

However, as I pointed out to the media repeatedly (and I say this under penalty of perjury), the Recall was not launched in connection with any initiative. The Recall was not suggested or encouraged or funded by any organized labor or professional association, or the state Democratic Party. Although as a matter of courtesy, I have faxed advance information about our launch to some of the groups who have been protesting against Schwarzenegger, I have not received a word in communication from any such groups. We operate entirely independent of such groups and independent of the campaigns against the so-called "evil" initiatives.

The Recall Campaign is concerned with the character, integrity, broken-promises and performance or lack thereof  of this "Governator." The Evil Initiatives, although backed by this dysfunctional governor, deal with issues such as crippling California's education (Proposition 74, 76), emasculating the ability of unions to protect workers where protection is needed (75), giving a small body of black robed men (yes mostly men, not women), who don't reflect the rich and diverse racial and ethnic mix of California, incredible powers to decide who will represent us in Sacramento (77), and giving dictatorial powers to Schwarzenegger over budget that will make a life or death difference to important programs that have protected our schools, children, the elderly, the sick and the poor (77). Therefore, the Recall Campaign serves to remove a bad man from Sacramento, and the Campaigns against the Evil Initiatives seek to prevent bad laws from becoming laws.

In order to ensure that our Recall Campaign not subtract any energies from the fight against the Evil Initiatives, the Campaign headquarters is declaring a moratorium until November 9th on encouraging solicitation (leafleting) in public places for volunteers  (exception of ongoing work on college campuses). Because we run a decentralized campaign, the headquarters does not dictate how field campaigns run their programs. We will continue to urge our volunteers to spread the word about our campaign to their friends and their co-workers urging them to volunteer.

Although we will fulfill any obligations already made to the media, we are voluntarily restricting any new commitments that can flood the airwaves and the print media with the Recall stories. The Recall Campaign has seven months to tell its story. The important story now is not the Recall; it is the issues presented in the upcoming election. Let us all focus on getting the voters to the polls on November 8th."

November 2, 2005

A Hispanic volunteer in Los Angeles wrote us asking why the Los Angeles Times has not reported anything about our Recall Campaign and how the news about the Recall has penetrated poorly in the Latino Community there. Univision coverage was fairly extensive in Northern California, and we had assumed the same for Southern California.

The Hispanic volunteer is a certified translator for the County of Los Angeles. We have asked him to translate our Home Page of the website into Spanish, and we hope to present a bilingual face soon. We know there is much discontent with Schwarzenegger in the Hispanic community statewide.

Perhaps reciprocally, almost 90% of the few hate mails we have received have originated in Southern California and have disturbing anti-Latino overtones. When the economy gets tough, history has repeatedly seen scapegoating on racial or ethnic minorities, such as during Hitler Germany.

We believe Schwarzenegger's major failure has been in not paying attention to doing more for the state's economy. It is as if Schwarzenegger wears horse blinders and can only see one thing - the avoidance of taxation of the wealthy; he does not seem to realize that stimulating the economy could bring wealth to the entire state, and in that manner avoid increasing taxes.

Unlike the rest of the United States, California was particularly hard hit in its technology sector. As a new governor, he had opportunities to rescue the technology sector - certainly, the legislature would have cooperated. By rescuing, we don't mean tax breaks - that kind of thinking is for old fashioned economists or for people who live in an imaginary world in Washington. We must work with sophisticated tools in the sophisticated world of the 21st Century. The Update Section of our website is not the place to present a complex economic treatise, but it is enough to say that this miracle-promising terminator has been impotent in erasing the feeling of 'not having enough pie to go around,' the feeling that is driving the regretful ethnic hatred.

On other matters, we are happy to report that there is considerable behind-the-scene work underway to ensure that this Recall Movement is built on a solid and uncollapsible foundation. We are quite optimistic for its future. We will complete the legal preparation this month, to allow us to move on towards the collection of the million signatures.

During this preparative period, our network of volunteers is gelling well as we begin to work in many areas with trusted, experienced and capable individuals who will oversee activities in their districts. Volunteers scattered across the state should expect to begin being contacted by district coordinators. We are also encouraging reporting-in to the central headquarters by volunteers about how many additional volunteers they have been successful in finding - please use in the subject field of the e-mail, "2-."

November 4, 2005

One clever volunteer Lorri H. reported that when she received a call asking her to vote against the Evil Initiatives, Lorri was able to tell the caller about the Recall and in fact got her e-mail address. Lorri is an example of someone who is "thinking about the Recall" all the time! Thanks, Lorri, for the suggestion. (By the way, the website address we are mentioning is Recall2006.com, which is easier to remember.)

We have started to form cozy sub-groups within various geographic locations. Some of you have written asking to link up with other volunteers in your cities. This is our response to that request. We are making small groups of 4 to 10 people, small enough that everyone can significantly bond and work together. Eventually, of course, each sub-group will be in communication with other sub-groups in their cities. Generally, though we are not linking any volunteers who have already developed their larger networks of volunteers (e.g., their Democratic club). One trouble we realize we are having is that so many have not told us in their e-mails where they live. These e-mailers are receiving over the next week a request from us for their addresses so that we can mail the petitions to them. We are still ascertaining whether we can have a downloadable petition that can be printed on a legal sheet of paper, but advisers are telling us this can be very risky, because forms which don't meet precisely the legal requirements (printed crooked, or on a wrong kind of paper) may be disqualified. We still think this is the way to go where only one person signs, also certifying him or herself as the legal circulator. These are the kinds of legal issues we are working on this month before we release the petition for circulation. By the way, we are still looking for lawyers familiar with election codes who can volunteer their time with us.

November 6, 2006

Although my one "proper" advisor wouldn't take responsibility, I decided to go ahead with the unveiling of the political cartoon Charlie sent us a few weeks ago. It's very appropriate when you consider what this "governor" has been doing to us for two whole years. (If someone complains, I will take it down, and so enjoy it while it is here.) km

Thanks, Charlie, for the laugh!

November 7, 2005

On the Eve of the election that can cripple our cause for our children, for those who can't  and shouldn't have to fight for their survival, my heart is heavy remembering so many of these fights I have been in... for so many decades. Tomorrow, I will walk the precincts; my better half just returned from phone banking... and I am wondering... how many battles, until the war is won.

It is time for a series of decisive victories so that those who don't understand...that we cannot be happy until those less fortunate than us are also happy... are driven into hiding...feeling only shame. We have sacrificed $110 million dollars, I heard, to defeat the Evil Initiatives. Do you know how much comfort and happiness $110 million dollars could have bought for our brothers and sisters in need? Why, did we have to waste so much money? It's because we've allowed the minority opposition to think they are the majority!!!! The enlightened people outnumber the backward people two to one! But do we vote? Do we bother to register to vote? It is time for a change.

I call on all my brothers and sisters who believe in a Kind and Just America to go to the polls tomorrow, and then I call on them to call five people they know to make sure they go and vote, then for each to call five more! This is the FIVE MORE Strategy. Let us deliver a knock out punch tomorrow so that the unenlightened ones will never again bother or dare to make us have to fight like this again. Let the whole world know that California embraces the FUTURE, not the PAST!

THEN we can BUILD on this first victory; after a well-deserved rest, we come back and wrap up our signature gathering in a record time, with a roar that will be heard around the world. As Charlie Bright spoke to us, "as California goes, so goes the rest of the country" Let the unenlightened ones, the fear and hate mongers know, America has once again found the beacon; we are the country we taught our children we are. We WILL fulfill our destiny.

Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Founding Proponent

November 9, 2005

The following statement was released to the media:

To borrow the  disgraced governor's own words, "the People have spoken."  Californians have gone to the polling places in record numbers Tuesday to say, "NO!"  All of  Schwarzenegger initiatives are failing, and the voters' outrage against Proposition 74 through 77 is helping defeat the anti-abortion Proposition 73, for a complete sweep against the conservative agenda.

 

Legal due diligence is proceeding to prepare for the printing of the Recall Petition served on the governor last month. In the meantime, the Recall Campaign has now a network of over 10,000 volunteers statewide ready to circulate the petition. The volunteers include ordinary people distressed seeing the deterioration of public services in their communities as well as veteran political leaders like Democratic central committee or state Democratic executive board members.

 

In September, only five weeks ago, many of the initiatives were expected to pass, according to the polls at that time. The Recall Schwarzenegger Campaign, which launched on September 28, believes that it helped "turn the tide," to borrow the words of one wife of a firefighter captain who telephoned the Campaign headquarters. The wide-spread media coverage that included the New York Times and the Washington Post helped mar the image of Schwarzenegger as the invincible 'Terminator" and underscored the claim of Dr. Kenneth Matsumura that the recall was necessary because the poor are suffering desperately under Schwarzenegger.

 

The Recall proponent Dr. Matsumura said that he is seeing a historic grassroots uprising as a flood of volunteers log onto the Recall2006.com website. "We will end Schwarzenegger's rampage so that the 2006 legislature can re-enact all bills the governor vetoed in the past two years. Only then can we finally rescue our cities, and re- build the morale of public workers who guard our welfare and safety."

 

Dr. Matsumura also blamed Schwarzenegger for failing to restore the California economy, in particular the technology sector that was devastated after the collapse of the Internet-fueled speculation. "Our new governor, in July 2006, will give us creative win-win solutions for all that will enrich the poor without making the rich poorer."

 

And folks, HURRAH!!!!!!!!! Well done! Rest up, and report back for a record breaking signature gathering in December!

 

November 9, 2005

 

A few words from Kenneth Matsumura, MD, Founding Proponent:

 

"Congratulations to all the workers who worked for months to make this happen! What I said the other night here, about "us" outnumbering "them" by 2 to 1 if only we would work as hard as the other side to get the voters to turn out, was reflected in last night's election results. This is just the start. As long as we keep this idiot governor at the helm, he will be forcing us into battles over and over again. We must rest up and come back to finish the job that was begun last night.

 

Yesterday, I visited perhaps 187 homes of inconsistent Democratic voters in the San Francisco area, all with 44 steps up to the front door, and perhaps I helped turn out a handful of votes for our cause. Most of you have stories like that to share. We just have to keep working like that until the world is safe. Now, I'm going to go eat like a horse."

 

November 10, 2005

 

We want to share with you a nice article that appears in the Sacramento News & Review

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2005-11-03/news2.asp

You can meet Jaime Feliciano in the article. He took a great picture.You remember he accompanied Dr. Matsumura when they served the governor with the Notice of Intent to Recall him. Jaime is our point man in Sacramento. We are getting more and more publicity and perhaps that is why volunteers keep pouring into our website! Lately, we are getting a lot who already have a network of many volunteers. We are having more success starting to link some of our volunteers together. This is still in the very early stage, but the progress is expected to escalate.

Our press release yesterday brought more media attention. We were mentioned even in the prime time evening news of a major network in Germany. We were of course mentioned by CBS Evening News Sunday.

November 11, 2005

All this ploy - "Oh, it's all my fault... I'm sorry... I'm going to mend my ways..." - is getting tiresome and offensive! He caused our side to waste over $110 million. Did he add, "Oh, I'm going to mend my ways AND restore the 2 billion dollars to the schools?>"  This is a wounded viper, and is most dangerous. He is trying to get us to lower our guard so that he can strike again, this time mortally.  Watch out! He knows we are about to recall him and he is trying to diffuse the public's anger. Too late! Our armada of volunteers will hit the streets in just a few weeks, knocking on neighbors' doors, tabling at the corner market, and pulling out the petition amongst friends at a party.

At this time, we must begin creating nuclei of our most dedicated volunteers in all urban centers. West Los Angeles is beginning. Sacramento, too. We would like to hear from those volunteers who can devote some extra time, beyond collecting 50 signatures, to meet and to organize. Please write recallgroups@yahoo.com. Those who already have their own groups of ten or more volunteers should continue working on their own efforts, but those who have so far found two or three people and would like to combine effort with others to find more volunteers should write us.

November 12, 2005

What is Arnie so afraid of... so that he has now withdrawn his suit against the nurses, and even flirts with teachers about the education budget???? RECALL!!!!!!

Recall turned the tide against the Evil Initiatives. Now, Maria probably reads these UPDATES more avidly than our most dedicated volunteers! Hi, Maria! <g>  She is warning him. This Recall is no joke. Recall forces are enmassing troops of 10,000! Watch out, Arnie. Try to take the steam out of their Jaguanaut!

We must keep up the pressure folks. While we are recalling him, we will probably gain a lot of concessions. Remember, we now know he is WEAK without his steroids!

Some important points. It is likely that June Primaries will see some ugly conservative initiatives, again. If the Democratic candidates for governor do not excite the electorate OR if one candidate overtakes all the other, then Democrats will stay home and all conservative initiatives will PASS!!! What a horrible thought! However, you know that if Arnold is on the Recall ticket, Democrats will turn out in large numbers and the initiatives will fail! We must get this signature gathering done quickly. We are working to get our petition out in December.

November 16, 2005

We are happy to tell you that our dysfunctional governor was served again, this afternoon, by Dr. Matsumura and lead Sacramento volunteer Jaime Feliciano. They served Arnold with signatures of additional proponents, this time some from Southern California  (including a teacher) and key volunteers in the Bay Area who joined the Campaign after we served the first Recall petition. Since only proponents can deal with various county registrars of voters, our Campaign will now be in much better shape during the signature counting phase. We are also finalizing the list of 15 proponents who have consented to be listed on the statewide petition that will circulate. For many, they said it is a badge of honor to be listed. We describe these processes, in case some of you are wondering, "what in the heck are they all doing. Get the darn petition printed!"

We have some wonderful cartoons from Charlie Bright, but our website software has had some undiagnosed problem in allowing posting of them. We will soon get them posted.

November 16, 2005

Early in the campaign, when Dr. Matsumura was asked by the media why he had launched the campaign to recall Schwarzenegger, Dr. Matsumura said, amongst other things, that Arnold had failed the voters in not doing anything worthwhile for the California economy, particularly the technology sector which was devastated from the collapse of the Internet speculation. Had Arnold brought in some creative ideas when he took office, instead of talking about whipping the union bosses, California wouldn't be facing a tax hike to rescue it today. Yesterday we received reports that he has approached China about buying some of California's technology for cleaning the environment. About time, but not in time. Someone who can't think of these things on their own shouldn't be the governor of California's economy. We need someone smarter and caring about how to protect consumer's pocketbook while taking good care of the poor.

November 16, 2005

In response to a frequently asked question, "What's next after our important victory last week," we have posted a new message as our primary message on our home page. Please re-visit our home page. Thank you.

November 20, 2005

Well, folks. We do get wise with the passage of time. A volunteer asked why we don't make our newest posting here readable at the top, so that one doesn't have to scroll all the way down each time! Dah.... why not? So, some of you have already noticed and are not reading this. For most who probably have visited the cellar, please take the speedy elevator back up.

 

November 28, 2005

While we have a huge number of experienced political activists volunteering, we have an unusual number of first timers.  We would like to take opportunities here on UPDATE to talk about how signed petitions can be disqualified.   By mentioning things to watch out for, just a few at a time, we hope to minimize the loss of signatures due to errors during collection.  

Errors occur especially when there is a large number of signers at one time when your supervision is difficult. During the collection of proponent signatures to qualify the Recall for a statewide petition, we ended up unable to use a whole sheet of signatures because the first signer on the sheet made an error that was copied by all other signers who used the first line as an example.  The error was not caught by the individual collecting signatures until the large group of signers had left. Those gathering signature must witness and inspect each signature for completeness and legibility. Signature itself often is not "legible," but the signer must print his or her name and the residence address legibly. People will often abbreviate city names, such as SF for San Francisco, Berk for Berkeley, Oak for Oakland. Those abbreviations may be obvious to those in the neighborhood, but may lead to disqualification. 

Some signers will sign where a name is supposed to be printed, and vice versa. Some signatures look like printing, and some people print illegibly. The signature gatherer must take the time to review the spelling of the printed name for clarity.  

Each sheet of petition wil specify that all the signers on that sheet live in ONE county. One cannot have signatures of residents from DIFFERENT counties on one sheet! THis is tricky, particularly if one is collecting signatures at a mixed gathering of residents in neighboring counties.  You must have separate sheet for each county.

Unlike other petitions you may have participated in, one cannot "pass the petition down the row." The signature gatherer will be required to certify under penalty of perjury that he or she witnessed every signature. THerefore, one cannot post a petition on a bulletin board at work. 

Well, enough "lesson" for one day. The work of gathering petition can be fun and can make one feel good, but it will be indeed very sad if many signatures are disqualified. Please forgive us if we go over these matters repeatedly. 

Well, for entertainment, we have received yet another wonderful cartoon from Charlie Bright. During the last days of the battle against the Evil Initiatives, a few weeks ago, our dysfunctional governor was dogged everywhere he went in praise of "his" initiatives by Warren Beatty and his wife Annette Bening. This Hollywood couple brought "celebrity" power to match Schwarzenegger's waning attraction. More importantly, media gave the battle against the initiatives more coverage because of the pubic's interest in Hollywood figures.  

On the CBS's Evening News on Sunday before the election, their planned coverage about our Recall was mostly bumped by a coverage of Beatty and Bening out in the public denigrating the Evil Initiatives. We did not mind because at that time, as you recall (see below for statement by Dr. Matsumura on October 30), we had decided to voluntary reduce our public "profile" in order not to distract from the important battle against the initiatives. However, we were impressed how the press behaved and the important role this couple played in defeating the initiatives. Beatty, of course, have been a loyal Democrat from way back, having worked hard for Bobby Kennedy's Presidential run, not to mention so many others since. Therefore, we were pleased when Charlie came up with the following cartoon (Beatty's academic regalia is probably from the time he spoke this year before a graduating class at the University of California, Berkeley lamenting on how off-course California had gone).

#11 Beatty #3

 

November 26, 2006

Over the past few months, we have heard from so many injured workers and those who take care of them. As many of you know, with the push of Schwarzenegger, lots of modifications were made in the way those who are injured at work are treated. Certainly, it has saved employers some money, but overall evaluation reveals that terrible injustices have been done to those covered under workperson's comp insurances. The dysfunctional governor insists that he is not willing to correct these injustices (is that any surprise?). It appears that we have found yet another reason why California cannot afford to keep this man (is he a man or a cold-unfeeling machine?) at the helm any longer.

In order to reduce the number of nurses and teachers volunteering to recall him, he has recently offered concessions after the election debacle, he apparently doesn't realize the powers of injured workers and people who look after them. Is the threat of the recall the only things that will keep him in line? Why else did he so quickly concede to the nurses and make conciliatory gestures to teachers? Is the big stick the only thing he listens to? Big Stick = Power of the Recall. (P.S., Arnold, we have even more nurses and teachers ready to gather signatures than before - you just can't fool people insincerely offering candies!)

Folks, those of you who volunteered to table, please see if you have any cardtables we can use, and a folding chair or two. We will also need some clipboards and cheap ballpoint pens. Headquarters can provide them to you, but you could save us some money if we are not shipping these things to your city. Those who found additional volunteers - please re-contact them and give them heads up. Our army of volunteers is about to roll!

November 24, 2005 Thanksgiving Day

We hope you all had a wonderful turkey day, but more importantly, did you get sufficient nourishment for the work ahead ? (wink)

Thanks to hard work by Rebecca F. the Spanish translation of the Home page is ready to go up. However, we will need more volunteers who are bilingual to deal with e-mails in Spanish. Please write us at volunteer@savecalnow.com.

November 23, 2005

We've made further progress towards printing the petition. Our estimate that it will be early December holds. While at the Secretary of State's office recently, we learned that there are quite a few initiatives, some very conservative, gathering signatures to get on the June ballot. Since a recall election in June as a part of the usually scheduled June Primaries will bring a lot of liberals to the polls, the recall will have a beneficial spillover-effect to defeat any conservative initiatives on the June ballot.

Like we said first, we cannot rest on but a single victory. The other side is working even harder now. If we go with a wishful thinking that everything will be OK now, we will be in for a rude awakening next year. Maria will be happy to read our assessment that if Schwarzenegger doesn't go to a recall election in June, he will probably be a formidable target by next November. He will be helped by the increasing state tax revenue (no thanks to Arnie!) which will enable him to make less cuts in important social programs. Voters' memory is short. Just as Davis was voted out mainly because the economy took a plunge (he had little to do with it), Schwarzenegger is likely to benefit from any economic recovery. People will forget what a schmuck he has been.

Well, rest up folks, this Thanksgiving Day. For our volunteers, it may be our last "rest" for months to come. Let us thank all the hardworking volunteers who made infinite number of phone calls and walked miles and miles to gather votes against the Evil Initiatives.

We would like to share the following sent by Charlie as his commentary to Schwarzenegger's recent, "duh, I didn't meant to do it, honest, I'll be good now..."

to do list

 

 

November 21, 2005

As we mentioned before, Charles Bright of South Carolina, a professional political cartoonist, has contributed quite a few more cartoons to encourage our effort. We had some software difficulty in uploading them to you, which is now resolved. Over the next week, we will share them with you.

Charlie wrote us the day after our recent election:
   Congratulations to you and all your wonderfully hard working volunteers!  The warm glowing victory light from California's golden hills is now clearly visible across the entire country. This morning dawned an especially beautiful awakening, not only for California but as well for the rest of the country. All Americans are now basking in the warmth of your great victory against the oligarchist right.
   Your impressive battle victory there has also bolstered our morale, and renewed our commitment of continuing to keep you and your heroic volunteers supplied with the necessary tools and support. We realize, as I'm sure that you do, that it is imperative that we not only defeat the enemy in the next election, but we must publicly rebuke the oligarchists by disgracefully kicking them out of office. History and the rightful retribution of  a misled and long abused American people demand a public example be made of them, lest they 'spin control' themselves out of accountability. Those 'Elmer Gantry' false prophets have preyed for so long on our weak, our old, our poor, even our young and naively unsophisticated,  as well as our trusting but intellectually handicapped of whom it is our responsibility to defend and protect.
    We are all so very proud and grateful to you and all your brave and tireless warriors.

Charles C. Bright, South Carolina

Sunday November 20, 2005

STOP!!!! <g> Don't scroll down to read the latest! In response to a smart volunteer, we have changed the format of the UPDATE section so that the most recent postings are at the top. For those of you who have not been following updates here, we encourage you to read below as you may learn considerable information about our future plans, our reactions to the recent election, etc. You certainly don't want to miss some of the clever political cartoons given us by our Official Cartoonist Charles Bright, of South Carolina. We also quote his letters to us because his thoughts reflect the fact that the rest of the country is watching us, to see if we can turn the tide against Evil here. We mustn't forget that our recent victory is but a small one in a series of victories we will need to achieve, if we are ever to become really secure in making progress towards a kind and just world. (Please read the lead paragraph on the home page about why we must move on to recall this dysfunctional governor, despite our recent victory. We will revise it frequently.)

Our postings here have become a little less frequent because there is a lot of activity behind the scene viz-a-viz the Secretary of State's office where we have an application for permission to print the petition. We believe we are on the final stretch both in terms of the Secretary's office and in terms of our preparation to make the printed petition available to you, with sound advice on how to collect them.

We are receiving a lot of volunteer letters that indicate that we did not do enough to encourage reading the updates here. Please do stay in touch with this section as we will pass on vital information particularly in the weeks ahead. Let all your contacts also know this. Thank you. And now, below are older update information since October.