The Legislature has voted to implement a carbon cap and trade system!
It's now legal to distribute salvia divinorum to anyone, including minors!
And Darrell Steinberg is really boring when he talks about the budget!
The California YMCA just finished its annual Youth and Government program, in which high school students converge from all over the state on Sacramento and divide themselves up into a state Senate, Assembly, and Court (more like a trial court than an appellate court). They drafted 30 bills, debated most of them, and passed about half. Here's a list of some of the bills they debated, all drafted by current high schoolers who had to research which existing statutes were being amended ("that's really hard and really boring"):
Environmental issues: Zero emission cars; carbon cap and trade (my son's issue!); hybrid cars for law enforcement; mandating biodegradable products for all restaurant carry-out meals
Student issues and rights: age for driver's education and length of time for provisional licenses; should teachers be permitted to search students' cel phones for data?; mandating classes on family life [aka sex], sexual harassment, domestic violence, nutrition (to be 20% of all physical education classes); abolishing censorship of high school reading material
Truly random airport searches instead of racial profiling
Animal issues: welfare of mother pigs and baby piglets; legalizing, as pets, bears (my kid voted no) and hedgehogs (he voted yes)
Permitting physician assisted suicide
Universal healthcare for children
Legalizing growing of industrial hemp and salvia divinorum
Limiting number of offenses deserving capital punishment by abolishing the felony-murder rule
Giving undocumented immigrants who've completed high school permanent California residency
This is not a bad start on a progressive agenda! The students had to consider the practicality and cost of each bill, and voted some down because they were silly and/or wouldn't work well (e.g., hybrid cars for law enforcement, pet bears).
The YMCArs debated two bills of particular concern in the post-Prop 8 world. The first bill was to change the process for amending the state constitution to require a 2/3 supermajority vote. The kids are very well aware that their bill is a slap at Prop 8, and that is why they passed their bill. Second was a bill to legalize gay marriage. A high school boy outed himself and gave his personal perspective on how important the bill was to him, which was extremely moving (according to my usually cynical son). The bill drafted by the committee on GLBT rights had a side effect of changing current laws regarding marriage by minors, which consumed most of the debate and drew some "no" votes (but not enough to defeat the bill); otherwise, the bill would have passed overwhelmingly. YMCA high schoolers are completely fine with the concept of same sex marriage.
They also considered a bill on foreclosures, which was "really boring," but had a lot more fun talking about a tax on pornography. A sample debate point: "You can look at porn on the internet for free!" Response: "How do you know?" Reaction: great hilarity.
Darrell Steinberg, the president pro tem of the real state senate, took time out from the ongoing real budget negotiations to speak with the kids about the real budget. Unfortunately, my kid reported only that he was "really boring."
Meanwhile, back at the real world ranch, the real state legislature is still being held hostage by the antitaxzombierepublicans, but I want to give Kossacks some good news instead of repeating the well-known, and true, "we're all doomed!" mantra. 46 states have budget crises (of course, California's is the worst), and the other 4 states are MT, WY, ND, and Denial. If you want to read real bad news about California's real budget crisis, check out the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal, or Calitics, or Calculated Risk on "Arnie, you're doing a heckuva job!"
This diary is for people who haven't yet learned that California politics has a third rail and who still believe that the future of our state is golden. This diary is for the next generation.